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Archive 2019 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

MFoucs
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p.27 #1 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

ryanli wrote:
Great, exactly my use case.

Though generally I have greater success tracking toddlers across the frame than moving (running) towards the camera..
would be interested to hear your experiences, notwithstanding the fact that A7III is generally the better camera AF wise.

Here are links to 3 series of test shots I did this evening while bringing my two kids (1.5 and 3.5 years old) from daycare. They are disheveled and shoving pretzels in their mouth after a long, hot day, and I was running back and forth between feeding them and trying to take pictures, but I think these capture a fairly challenging AF scenario with non-linear movement toward the camera from medium to close distances. I was shooting wide open with electronic shutter on (not silent shooting) in continuous shooting-mid, AF-C. Sequence 1, with 8 photos, is at a closer distance (daughter) and begins here: https://flic.kr/p/2gk31aE

Sequence 2 at more of a medium distance (before getting close) (son) begins here: https://flic.kr/p/2gk2HCn
I wouldn't call these clinically sharp. The 3rd or 4th image in each sequence clearly misses focus. I should note that eye-AF wasn't locking (not the lens's fault), in part because my daughter had a lot going on (hand moving into mouth, pink shoes a shufflin'!

In this 3rd sequence (I shot about 20 of these tests and these are just 3 random ones I pulled; others are of them running and moving across the camera more), you can see that the camera jumps to her sandals in shot 3 and then jumps to her hand in shot 4 (although Flickr has arranged things non-sequentially for some reason), so the lens is forced to shift focus quite quickly at 5 fps. I shot other sequences at continuous-hi but since I never really shoot like that I haven't looked at them yet.
Sequence 3 begins here: https://flic.kr/p/2gk46LY

I can't say I notice much of a difference with firmware v.3, but, again, this was a very quick test.

Jun 25, 2019 at 08:52 PM

MFoucs
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p.27 #2 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

And just to convince you that I don't only take bizarre walking photos, here are more the type of shots I have enjoyed taking of kids with this lens (also on the move, of course):
https://flic.kr/p/2gk4jsW
https://flic.kr/p/2gk4jsW

With a couple animal shots (of the winged variety this time) thrown in, also from tonight:
https://flic.kr/p/2gk4jWw
https://flic.kr/p/2gk4bV9

Jun 25, 2019 at 09:18 PM

numbertwo
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p.27 #3 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

I just had my lens updated in the customer service. I don't want to speak too loud but out from the few test I took to the employee, all of them were in perfect focus (actually one just a bit off) whereas with the previous firmware, shooting in af-c eye-af, my lens consistently front focused in around half of the pictures. I'll be testing further later today but I think there's a improvement, at least in my copy, in my a73 😃😃

Pd: I need to repeat that my af inconsistencies were NOT in difficult situations, just static subjects not moving at all and eye af in af-c.

Jun 25, 2019 at 09:44 PM

ryanli
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p.27 #4 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

MFoucs wrote:
Here are links to 3 series of test shots I did this evening while bringing my two kids (1.5 and 3.5 years old) from daycare. They are disheveled and shoving pretzels in their mouth after a long, hot day, and I was running back and forth between feeding them and trying to take pictures, but I think these capture a fairly challenging AF scenario with non-linear movement toward the camera from medium to close distances. I was shooting wide open with electronic shutter on (not silent shooting) in continuous shooting-mid, AF-C. Sequence 1, with 8 photos, is at a closer...Show more →

Many thanks. These photos look a lot better to me than what I took from your description. Not clinically sharp perhaps but somewhat better on the whole than what I have been getting with my v.3.

Jun 26, 2019 at 12:50 AM

abadger
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p.27 #5 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

Looking to buy this lens in the next week or so, but want to make sure the AF-C and Eye-AF issues are at least reasonably addressed for use with my A7III. Posting here so I can follow along with everyone's experiences as firmware updates are applied. Thanks to everyone for posting their experiences and sample photos!

Many reviews say this lens is very sharp, but to be honest from what I have seen it is not as sharp as the Sony 85 f1.8. Perhaps because everyone defaults to shooting 1.4? What really draws me in is the rendering! But it would probably annoy me forever if it simply can't produce sharp photos with some reliability.

If anyone has 100% crop examples of what they think is a 'tack sharp' image from this lens, I'd be very appreciative of you sharing. Very much looking forward to future updates in this thread.

Jun 26, 2019 at 01:28 AM

numbertwo
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p.27 #6 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

abadger wrote:
Looking to buy this lens in the next week or so, but want to make sure the AF-C and Eye-AF issues are at least reasonably addressed for use with my A7III. Posting here so I can follow along with everyone's experiences as firmware updates are applied. Thanks to everyone for posting their experiences and sample photos!

Many reviews say this lens is very sharp, but to be honest from what I have seen it is not as sharp as the Sony 85 f1.8. Perhaps because everyone defaults to shooting 1.4? What really draws me in is the rendering! But it would...Show more →

In my experience the lens has more resolution corner to corner at 1.4 than the fe85 at 1.8, and much less ca, but has less contrast so the pictures from the sony 85 sometimes appear to be sharper but harsher, and the samyang just renders much more beautiful images in my opinion.

Jun 26, 2019 at 02:22 AM

abadger
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p.27 #7 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

Completely agree on the rendering, which is why this lens is so exciting to me. While the FE85 1.8 seems to function reliably, I simply don't get as excited by many of the shots people take with it. Even if the photo is executed flawlessly. Whereas with the Samyang or even the GM, there is more 'life' to the photos if that makes sense (subjectively).

In any case, I look forward to hearing everyone's experience with the updated firmware. There is a YouTube video

detailing some remaining AF-C issues (my concern mainly is with photography vs. video) with the v3 firmware. Still a sub-par hit rate with moving targets. So if this has improved any with the v4 firmware I would jump on the chance to purchase.

Then there is another review here saying the sharpness is exceptional.

. So it must be very nice, but I'm still waiting for more feedback from real users.

(Sorry I am still learning how to use links in the forum)

Jun 26, 2019 at 04:27 AM

MFoucs
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p.27 #8 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

I agree with this after re reading my post. In an attempt to be neutral about a lens that I love, I probably overstated its limitations. I was getting good results with fw 3 already but found no serious faults with fw 4 and so assume it�s doing it�s thing. I should have said the absence in some of the pics of clinical sharpness was likely down to user error or the camera�s own AF system not finding the eye - making eye sharpness a poor judge of AF accuracy in the first place. I would have no hesitation recommending the lens to anyone for any use other than fast sports really.

ryanli wrote:
Many thanks. These photos look a lot better to me than what I took from your description. Not clinically sharp perhaps but somewhat better on the whole than what I have been getting with my v.3.

Jun 26, 2019 at 04:34 AM

numbertwo
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p.27 #9 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

Ok, my friend just helped me to pose for some test shots today.
Here you can see out of the camera pictures (standard style, saturation -1 most of the time, 0 in others, wb auto most of the time, daylight others, sharpness set at 0)

Sin t�tulo by Juanma Herrera, en Flickr

by Juanma Herrera, en Flickr

Sin t�tulo by Juanma Herrera, en Flickr

Sin t�tulo by Juanma Herrera, en Flickr

And now my impressions:
- First, I haven�t seen the pictures properly in the computer/raw developer yet. I just zoomed in in some while shooting, and randomly sent a few to my iPad/iPhone, and from there i selected the ones I just posted here.
- I�ve been shooting all the time in eye-af af-c that�s where mi issue were/are. Now I can see the hit rate has improved, but it�s still far from sony 85 1.8 levels. Now I have more shots that really nails the focus, and the slightly missed ones are missed even by a smaller amount than they were before, but there are still a lot not perfectly focused pictures, so the lens, a big part of the time, is not showing its full

- If you�re looking for extreme sharpness in portraits at wide apertures, maybe it�s better to go for the sony 85, because even if in my tests it�s not as resolutive as the Samyang, my tests were run at infinity in one hand, and the Samyang AF accuracy is still far from perfect, so between a slightly out of focus picture from the Samyang and a nailed one from the Sony, the sony will look sharper. But the extreme swirly bokeh of the sony, and the harsh look, etc, makes me love the Samyang even if some pictures are slightly off, I just like them better and at normal viewing sizes it�s not noticeable...

- The hit ratio highly depends on the light. In backlit situations there are more misses, but I also realised that i have more misses at very high shutter speeds (like near 1/8000) than at more moderate speeds like 1/400, maybe the IBIS is to be blamed here? The bad thing is that the transition of the lens look like a blurred picture, it�s not that smooth, so sometimes it looks like the picture is blurred, but actually it�s perfectly sharp in other area (usually in front, hand, watch, where the real focus plane is. So is it just the rendering of the lens having a transition zone like that, or might be the ibis blurring the edge of the frame (more where i place the face...)?

Please tell me your comments.

Pd: I really hate Sony colors. This lens and IBIS are the only things that make me stay shooting Sony. I wish Samyang releases this design in Canon RF soon.

Edited on Jun 26, 2019 at 04:56 AM · View previous versions

Jun 26, 2019 at 04:53 AM

MFoucs
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p.27 #10 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

The lens is very sharp. Sharpness was never in doubt. The concerns with Eye-AF were about finding focus, not resolution upon gaining focus. Eye-AF for me is accurate. My series of shots with fw 4 was to test AF speed and accuracy, not sharpness. Here's a 100% crop of an older cat pic I posted last month.
https://flic.kr/p/2gkccFG
Note: this was in a dark barn at 1/125 and ISO 640.
Here's the full image: https://flic.kr/p/2g5h5sK.
That busy straw background melts away.
I have other images stopped down that show impressive sharpness across the frame, too, but my guess is you want this lens for its rendering wide open, not for landscapes. Nice to know it excels there, too, though.

abadger wrote:
Looking to buy this lens in the next week or so, but want to make sure the AF-C and Eye-AF issues are at least reasonably addressed for use with my A7III. Posting here so I can follow along with everyone's experiences as firmware updates are applied. Thanks to everyone for posting their experiences and sample photos!

Many reviews say this lens is very sharp, but to be honest from what I have seen it is not as sharp as the Sony 85 f1.8. Perhaps because everyone defaults to shooting 1.4? What really draws me in is the rendering! But it would...Show more →

---------------------------------------------

I agree with you, numbertwo, although I haven't done direct comparisons with the FE85/1.8. Guy and Luis Gabriel's tests earlier in this thread, if I recall (both of which helped me decide to buy the lens), also confirmed this.

numbertwo wrote:
In my experience the lens has more resolution corner to corner at 1.4 than the fe85 at 1.8, and much less ca, but has less contrast so the pictures from the sony 85 sometimes appear to be sharper but harsher, and the samyang just renders much more beautiful images in my opinion.

Jun 26, 2019 at 04:54 AM

abadger
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p.27 #11 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

Apologies for not yet knowing how to respond directly to a particular post (I just hit reply...), but I want to let you know how much I appreciate the effort you put into showing more of what the lens is capable of.

After seeing these pictures (of the model/friend - thanks to her as well for the assist!) I can certainly see what is possible with the lens in terms of separation/sharpness, as well as (with the 100% crop of the cat in the other post), what excellent sharpness can look like. I also dislike how Sony renders colors generally, a bit lifeless in many cases. And this is what I saw from the FE85 1.8. Beautifully shot and crisp, but ultimately lacking some intangible quality. Whereas this lens seems to produce the intangibles as well as depth that make a shot look professional, albeit with some caveats when it comes to AF.

There are more than a few shots with the model where I think, that looks great. And a few where focus is off enough to be annoying. A few in front of the tree and the first one in the grass, for example, look very well defined with nice contrast. And the one, for example, where the model is taking on/off her sunglasses, seems to have missed focus on the face. Lastly, it could also be a function of image compression from the hosting site, as most of the ones I am most impressed with are close-up shots with more facial detail available. But all in all, I think the lens (and photographer) does quite a nice job here.

So in the end, I think you have convinced me to give this lens a try. Crisp images are very much attainable and the good ones will be great ones. Versus always wondering what would be possible with the Samyang if I had gone with the 'safer' FE 1.8. I think I will be willing to live with some missed focus here and there and hope they continue to improve the algorithm with firmware updates.

Thanks again to everyone contributing images and feedback! I will be happy to share my experience once I have the lens in hand.

Jun 26, 2019 at 08:55 AM

numbertwo
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p.27 #12 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

abadger wrote:
Apologies for not yet knowing how to respond directly to a particular post (I just hit reply...), but I want to let you know how much I appreciate the effort you put into showing more of what the lens is capable of.

After seeing these pictures (of the model/friend - thanks to her as well for the assist!) I can certainly see what is possible with the lens in terms of separation/sharpness, as well as (with the 100% crop of the cat in the other post), what excellent sharpness can look like. I also dislike how Sony renders colors generally, a...Show more →

Thank you very much.
I still need to say that most of those pictures were uploaded because they looked sharp in my ipad pro 10.5. I randomly (without checking focus) sent like 80 from the camera to the ipad, and then in the ipad from those 80 I picked the ones I uploaded, most of them because they were sharp, but that is not a representative sample of my focus hitting with the lens, that is actually much worse still in this version that what those pictures show. I'm trying to be honest.

But it's also true that those are jpg ooc and in Lightroom/Co whatever you can always enhance details. But yes, super annoying when you can tell the focus is a bit in front...

I need to still test a couple of things:
- Turn ibis off for high shutting speeds
- try again af-s and disabling face detection because doing that at least before the hit rate was almost perfect.

If there is any lens engineer in the room, could you explain what differs in Sony cameras between the eye af algorithms and the regular af and why this lens for some users is good in regular af but not as good for eye af?

Pd again: Sony colors are horrible period. Cold days like usually here in Hong Kong, the pictures are too magenta. Then when the light is warmer, the Sony is too warm. There's never a good balance in the colors of the pictures with Sony. Canon colors are so much better, my boyfriend still asks me why I sold the eos r and kept the Canon everyday I take a pic of him and he (quite dark skin) see himself in those dreadful Sony colors instead of how good he looked in the Canon... And I try to fix that but it's a nightmare xD. Canon please release a body with ibis soon!

Jun 26, 2019 at 09:20 AM

starkrace
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p.27 #13 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

Thanks to everyone for testing this lens and posting photos, really great stuff. I've placed an order and will report my findings with the A7iii.

I was hesitant given the reported focusing issues but the price point and image quality are too tempting, and the 85 GM is not without fault either in terms of focus speed. Need to save some $ where I can for all these upcoming lenses and bodies!

@numbertwo: On the topic of color, I fully agree, Sony color science still needs work and hopefully they improve upon it. I've never owned a Canon system but your EOS lightroom profiles made a world of a difference in portraiture and brought me back to Sony. With these profiles I put the results above my Nikon and Fuji gear, so thanks for sharing those!

Jun 26, 2019 at 11:01 AM

zeitlos
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p.27 #14 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

I received my copy today. I was curious about the handling since it's bigger/heavier than my Batis 85 1.8. I have to say after having shot my first pictures with it, handling isn't a concern anymore. I consider an 85 1.4 a kind of special lens for special occasions so it doesn't have to be the lightest one in town. But as I said, it's still well in between my personal limit of tolerance. Can shoot longer without getting tired I expect.

AF: I just took some pictures of my dog and out of about 25 pictures 24 were absolutely sharp where they should be - at my Rottweiler's eyes. I have to admit that accidentally aperture was set to 1.6. Don't know if results would have been dramatically different when using 1.4. Will test it tomorrow.

Basically, I like its smoothness. Definitely smoother than the Batis (well, contrast is higher for the Batis which might explain a lot. It reminds me a bit of older glass (Pentax legacy glass), so not that "digital" which I like a lot!

But it's still too early to come up with a final verdict.

One question: How can I check on my A7III (without having the dock) which firmware version the lens is operating with?

Jun 26, 2019 at 12:18 PM

nhsonyshooter
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p.27 #15 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

zeitlos wrote:
I received my copy today. I was curious about the handling since it's bigger/heavier than my Batis 85 1.8. I have to say after having shot my first pictures with it, handling isn't a concern anymore. I consider an 85 1.4 a kind of special lens for special occasions so it doesn't have to be the lightest one in town. But as I said, it's still well in between my personal limit of tolerance. Can shoot longer without getting tired I expect.

AF: I just took some pictures of my dog and out of about 25 pictures 24 were absolutely sharp...Show more →

With the lens mounted just go to page 7 of the tool box tab. When you click on the version tab it shows you the Version of the body on top and lens on the bottom

Jun 26, 2019 at 12:29 PM

zeitlos
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p.27 #16 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

Thanks a lot! I found it!
It's version 0.3

So it actually nailed every shot so how much can be improved with version 0.4? Probably mainly for moving objects, right?

I will give the 45 1.8 another try and then buy the dock as well.

Edited on Jun 26, 2019 at 02:14 PM · View previous versions

Jun 26, 2019 at 01:52 PM

numbertwo
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p.27 #17 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

I�ve been testing further in low light. At close distances, now it�s nailing the af in the eye (as I saw this morning in the customer service), but as soon as you go further, a lot of misses, and disabling eye af is much better.
And what just surprised me now, is that for other things , now the lens is more erratic focusing, and it�s front focusing constantly now, whereas before it was always fine. I�ll go back to the shop tomorrow to ask for solutions.

I�ve tried disabilng lens corrections, different focusing options like AF priority, balance, release. I�ve cleaned the sensor and the lenses just in case, removed the lens filter, everything.

Jun 26, 2019 at 02:03 PM

ryanli
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p.27 #18 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

numbertwo wrote:
I�ve been testing further in low light. At close distances, now it�s nailing the af in the eye (as I saw this morning in the customer service), but as soon as you go further, a lot of misses, and disabling eye af is much better.
And what just surprised me now, is that for other things , now the lens is more erratic focusing, and it�s front focusing constantly now, whereas before it was always fine. I�ll go back to the shop tomorrow to ask for solutions.

Hmm. Your second paragraph is worrying. I presume the more erratic focusing is affecting more the mid-/far distance shots? And presumably AF-C mode with Eye AF?

Jun 26, 2019 at 03:01 PM

zeitlos
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p.27 #19 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

Which firmware version do you use? And what do you mean by saying "before" => before = the older firmware version?

Jun 26, 2019 at 03:45 PM

qinl
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p.27 #20 · Official: Samyang AF 85mm 1.4 FE ($699)

Posting a cat portrait picture using animal eye-AF on A7R3. I usually have to dial down the color temp. by ~300K, otherwise it's just too warm to my eyes.

DSC04471 by Eggplant Bay, on Flickr

DSC04471-2 by Eggplant Bay, on Flickr

Jun 26, 2019 at 04:52 PM

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