Has anyone shot/owned the Viv Series 1 85mm 1.4 lens? I used to have a couple of Series 1 lenses years ago and was intrigued by this lens. Would love to hear your impressions if you have used it.
Thanks
Tom
Aberdeen Photo wrote:
cogitech; what did you think of the lens overalll. Do you have some samples you could email me? Thanks for the response...
I've based my response on all the samples/reviews I have seen out there, not the least of which are posted by Makten. A few quick google searches using the different names (Vivitar, Samyang, Polar, Rikenon, there may be others) with "85mm f1.4" should get you all the samples/discussion you need.
Makten; that was a good link, many nice images and a sometimes poor discussion...
There are a few more images available at the "Admirable..." thread. (I'll have to look at the supposed comparably bad IQ when stopped down comparing to the images from my memory from my Pentax A*85/1.4 and Summilux 80/1.4, I wish I had the money to keep all my lenses forever...).
It's not "bad" stopped down. Just not as good as other 85 mm lenses. And since you can get a Canon or Nikon 85/1.8 and a Vivitar/Samyang/Whatever 85/1.4 for less money than the usual f/1.4 lenses alone...
Aberdeen Photo wrote:
Thanks Makten for the link; very good performance esp wide open.
Tom
Yup, wide open is what you'd use it for, since you can get better results with smaller and lighter AF (or MF) lenses @ f/2.8 and beyond. But just as with the Sigma 50/1.4, you don't have to worry about stopping down. It peaks at around f/5.6.
I plan to take it out tomorrow. Any special things you'd like to see from it (performance-wise)?
cogitech wrote:
Overall, a hell of a decent lens for the money.
That about sums it up. I am really happy that I bought it, at this price you really can't regret it.
If you need autofocus, D (distance) for flash work, or will be shooting stopped down a lot and don't care about bokeh, the Nikkor 85/1.8 is still the call. But the bokeh and sharpness from this lens wide open is excellent! I couldn't ask for more, except maybe closer focussing, but oh well.
Yup, wide open is what you'd use it for, since you can get better results with smaller and lighter AF (or MF) lenses @ f/2.8 and beyond. But just as with the Sigma 50/1.4, you don't have to worry about stopping down. It peaks at around f/5.6.
Whatever you got; but how it performs at diff apps would be nice & thanks
I got curious about this talk about the Samyang being less good stopped down. I hadn't taken an images stopped down to smaller than f/4 or so earlier but now I shot a series of images. The scene looked like this:
I shot the same scene with the Samyang 85/1.4 and the Canon EF 85/1.8 (and also the Olympus OM100/2.8 just for the "fun" while I were at it). Then I put 100% crops together. They look like this:
You're welcome.
The result is a bit puzzling. I didn't expect the Samyang to hold up that well against the EF85/1.8 (comparing the lenses stopped down to around f/8 and f/11). I don't see much of a difference in the center of the image. At the border the Samyang shows more CA, but not less detail.
Why doesn't my Samyang lens show the bad result we have seen from the, this far, single review (Lens tip)? Some possible reasons may be
* My EF85/1.8 is a bad copy (unlikely, it has performed as expected and in a sinple USAF test chart test it "outperformed the sensor" in the expected f-stop range)
* Lens tip surely had their test target at a shorter distance
* Sample differences
I'm planning to do a second try with a closer target some rainy day. Until then this "not bad at all" result feels good.
The image above shows the difference in the center of the image, 100% crop, EF95/1.8 at f/8 versus Samyang 85/1.4 at f/8. I don't think anyone is fainting over the difference. The border is another story. Here the Canon is better.
The final conclusion is up to anyone. These test images tell me that there is nothing wrong with the Samyang lens stopped down except for weak borders.
A few quick google searches using the different names (Vivitar, Samyang, Polar, Rikenon, there may be others) with "85mm f1.4" should get you all the samples/discussion you need.
It peaks at around f/5.6.