p.2 #1 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
Jonathan F wrote:
By any chance were you shooting at f/1.4? At this Korean review site, they showed distant light points at 1.4 are somewhat "lemon" shaped, by f/2.0 they become more rounded:
It's not a deal breaker for me, but it seems it doesn't affect light points as much at closer ranges (like portrait distances), only when the light points are further away and shooting wide open do they become oval.
You can check the exif in Flickr, I think pretty much everything is 1.4. But I don’t care, I like the pictures, the photos are more than sharp enough at 1.4 and I like the global look.
p.2 #2 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
Well , I loved the rendering of the first one I had. But was annoyed with AF inconsistency. Thought I would try another one. Just took it out of the box and updated to ver. 4. Still can't focus at infinity in AFC, very disappointing they have not fixed this yet. Works fine at AFS but that was the same issue as before. Will test out eye AF next, if that isn't fixed then unfortunately it's going back no matter how much I like the rendering. It's to bad they can't figure this out. AF has been so good on the 45mm 1.8
p.2 #3 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
I just purchased another Samyang 85/1.4 AF and it came with firmware 3. I don't have the dock and was wondering if it's worth it to purchase the dock and update it to firmware 4 since according to Samyang it only improved AF for the Sony A9.
p.2 #4 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
I still use this lens with much more success than initially. I do have to use back button eye-AF for best results. I still do get misses that I wouldn’t get on other lenses but the keeper rate is high enough that I don’t feel frustrated more than I love the images that it produces.
p.2 #5 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
Fred Miranda wrote:
I just purchased another Samyang 85/1.4 AF and it came with firmware 3. I don't have the dock and was wondering if it's worth it to purchase the dock and update it to firmware 4 since according to Samyang it only improved AF for the Sony A9.
Personally had a lot more misses before I updated from 3 to 4. But it could have been lack of familiarity with the lens and AF quirks.
p.2 #7 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
I didn’t write it in this post so I will do it now for those that didn’t follow.
I sent my copy of the lens for “repair” in the customer service, and as I told them I was having an important trip now, they let me borrow one of the copies they had in their store, to use it until mine is “repaired”. This copy is even sharper and focuses accurately pretty much 100% of the time, so the af errors I think are due to subpar copies, interfering in the af when using pdaf.
It’s interesting how in the shop they had a copy with a “red dot” sticker, that was their gold copy to lend to press and stuff (and I couldn’t keep that), and then they had at least two of copies with a silver dot, (I have one of those now).
In one of the YouTube reviews, the reviewer showed how in his box it was even written the “gold” in a stick...
The point is, we need to take care to what reviews we trust. Nowadays most youtubers are paid by the brands and they are also sent cherry picked copies of the lenses that later could be very different to the copies that is mere mortals get. And that explains the differences that some people claims. For example, with my previous 4 copies, 4!!! My samyang 85 missed more than 50% of the pictures, specially when shooting in portrait orientation and the head/eye was outside the centre, around the rot area. Now, this silver copy is focusing accurately pretty much always, as some other users claimed in the forum. Still there are people with focus issues and others saying it’s perfect. We might not be that crazy or paranoid, or with different expectations, we might just have subpar copies.
p.2 #8 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
Has anyone had experience using this on an a6400 (or a6100/a6600), for an equivalent-ish of 135/f2? I'm curious how the focus has worked given the inconsistent experience some of had...this is hight on my list!
p.2 #9 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
I've neglected this thread for awhile! I purchased the Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE a month or so ago to give me an 18mm, 45mm and 85mm Samyang lens trio! I love the Samyang 85mm lens! Sharp wide open, minimal CA, rich colors and size-wise it's quite manageable for it's aperture (unlike the heavy Sigma lenses). My copy works great as both a portrait lens and as a short telephoto at both far and near distances. Samyang's lens design has really improved beyond just knock-offs of first party brands.
I found with Samyang lenses, it's best to get the USB dock mainly because I think Samyang just backwards engineer's the E-mount, but it does allow other things like focus tuning. I was able to focus tune my 18mm 2.8 FE lens, and it's far sharper now with minimal adjustment. Also Samyang seems quite prolific with their firmware updates, their Sam 50mm 1.4 FE already has 32 firmware updates! You can either view that as some shoddy compatibility or Samyang embracing Fuji's "kaizen" style constant improvement!
p.2 #10 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
jchapell wrote:
Has anyone had experience using this on an a6400 (or a6100/a6600), for an equivalent-ish of 135/f2? I'm curious how the focus has worked given the inconsistent experience some of had...this is hight on my list!
My copy works great. Just use back button eye-AF and update to the latest firmware with Samyang lenses.
p.2 #12 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
Almost no lenses are sharpest wide open. I don't place a lot of faith in brick wall tests. I've had no problems with AF, AF noise, chromatic aberrations (maybe a bit wide open). Here is a central crop from a portrait of an unwilling subject (my grandson) taken at F1.4 using the Sony A9.
p.2 #13 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
I'm getting 50/50 AF accuracy on the A7R4 with firmware 3 with this new copy. When it hits focus it's tack sharp wide open.
I remember getting about 80% accuracy with my previous copy on the A7R3. This one is also well centered but I'm not very happy with focus accuracy. Debating updating the firmware or returning it...Samyang states that firmware 4 only improved AF for the Sony A9 so I'm not sure it will help much...
p.2 #14 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
Fred Miranda wrote:
I'm getting 50/50 AF accuracy on the A7R4 with firmware 3 with this new copy. When it hits focus it's tack sharp wide open.
I remember getting about 80% accuracy with my previous copy on the A7R3. This one is also well centered but I'm not very happy with focus accuracy. Debating updating the firmware or returning it...Samyang states that firmware 4 only improved AF for the Sony A9 so I'm not sure it will help much...
p.2 #15 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
Fred Miranda wrote:
I'm getting 50/50 AF accuracy on the A7R4 with firmware 3 with this new copy. When it hits focus it's tack sharp wide open.
I remember getting about 80% accuracy with my previous copy on the A7R3. This one is also well centered but I'm not very happy with focus accuracy. Debating updating the firmware or returning it...Samyang states that firmware 4 only improved AF for the Sony A9 so I'm not sure it will help much...
I just did a quick test on focus accuracy. A7iv, Samyang 85mm w/ V4 firmware in a dimly lit office, alternating between a focus test chart (high contrast) and a low contrast door hinge. I got about 80% accuracy. All the test chart images were in focus, two of the low contrast images were acceptable, but not critically sharp. It might be worth a try to upgrade your firmware.
I've noticed in using "Tracking: Flexible Spot S" that the focus point bounces around a bit in a cluttered image. Not sure if that's a camera problem or the lens. It hasn't been a consistent enough problem for me to worry about. I simply move a bit and recompose.
p.2 #16 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
I had a very bad experience with the lens, it was sharp and had nice colors rendition but the focusing was very inconsistent. I end up buying used Zeiss 85mm f 1.8 for $600.
I kept some of the images I got with the Korean:
p.2 #17 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
dhachey wrote:
I just did a quick test on focus accuracy. A7iv, Samyang 85mm w/ V4 firmware in a dimly lit office, alternating between a focus test chart (high contrast) and a low contrast door hinge. I got about 80% accuracy. All the test chart images were in focus, two of the low contrast images were acceptable, but not critically sharp. It might be worth a try to upgrade your firmware.
I've noticed in using "Tracking: Flexible Spot S" that the focus point bounces around a bit in a cluttered image. Not sure if that's a camera problem or the lens. It hasn't been a consistent enough problem for me to worry about. I simply move a bit and recompose. ...Show more →
The main issue I'm having is with EyeAF, especially at close distance and low light. I will try firmware 4.
Great shots. When it nails focus, it's very sharp even wide open (sharper than the 85/1.4 GM) and rendering is also gorgeous, except for the optical vignetting (cat-eyes).
p.2 #20 · Samyang 85mm 1.4 FE - Current owners still happy with the lens?
I have a question for you guys that also have this lens. A friend of mine ordered a copy to test it against his Sony 85 1.8. He will return the Samyang 85 1.4 AF because he is disappointed with regard to its sharpness (in comparison to his 85 1.8 Sony). He did some testing and found out that between 0-2 meters the sharpness isn't that good. After 2 meter it's no issue anymore. He says (and I absolutely share his opinion) that distances between 0-2 meter are crucial for a portrait lens. So if this is a problem for the lens it may not be first choice for portraits.
I'm just curious about your experiences regarding sharpness. I'm not talking about AF-failures, just what the lens is capable of achieving if it comes to sharpness. Any thoughts/pictures/experiences you can share?
I'm a bit surprised since I had the Sony 85 1.8 as well (yes, it was sharp) and the Batis 85 1.8 (yes, it was sharp). But now I have the Samyang and I couldn't make out "sharpness" as a drawback of this lens so far. But I will have to do some testing in this range (0-2m).
Thanks.