Samyang 35mm f/1.4

[Dr Croubie]

Anyone else had any experience with this lens? It's only been out a
short while, by all accounts it's amazing, almost as good IQ in the
centre as the Canon 35L, and beating it by far in the corners for any
aperture. For 3x the price new, the canon L just adds AF and repositions the red ring from what I can tell.


.


I just grabbed one on ebay, 2nd hand after a few months
of 'filming use', $350 shipped (cf €409 new in the Netherlands, i've
never seen a price in Australian Dollars). Once I get it in a week or
two, presuming it's in as good nick as they claim, i'll be taking a lot
of shots with it. I'm sure my friend has the Canon 35L (heck, he's got
almost every other black lens with a red ring), i'll see if i can set up
some direct comparisons if i can (with my 7D and/or his 5D2).


.


In the meantime, it'd
be good to hear of any other people's experiences with this lens, and
given its reputation, i'd love to see it reviewed on this site (not sure
if Bryan takes requests?)


.


sample pictures shall come, any requests? (i've got a nice looking brick wall around here...)

[HDNitehawk]

Dr, I think it would make the most sense to test it on the 5D2 since the claims are that it beats the 35L in the corners.


It might be good info to have later if someone asked me about buying a reasonable priced 35mm.


But persnallyI would be more inclined to lean this way:


www.bhphotovideo.com/.../Zeiss_1871764_35mm_F_1_4_Distagon_T.html

[Dr Croubie]

Well I got it last week, and there's a few things I can say about it so far:


It's sharp.


It's fast.


The bokeh is not so good.


The aperture goes 1.4->2, then half-stops to 16, then 22. (I might
take a screwdriver to it later to get rid of the click-stops).


The focus is dodgy, but i blame it being 2nd-hand, not the design.
Basically, there's a tiny extra resistance going past 0.7m, and when
ultra-precise focussing, there's a few degrees of ring rotation before
the focus shifts. Focus doesn't go 'past' infinity like my 15-85 and
70-300L, to focus exactly at infinity means I have to give it an extra
wrench to get past its few degrees of 'stalling'. I can live with it,
for the price I paid ($350).


Unfortunately my mate with the 35 f/1.4L got engaged recently, so
he's probably too busy shagging to help me out with a direct comparison.


In the meantime, i've taken some sample against my EF-S 15-85, which is not a soft lens by any means.


First, the scene (scaled from the samyang f/5.6 shot):


[img]/photography_gear1/resized-image.ashx/__size/900x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/3034.f05.6-_2D00_-Samyang35s900x600.JPG[/img]


.


And the rules:


No tripod, only a Gorillapod wrenched around a fence pole, TC80N3 shuttered.


The EF-S 15-85 is a zoom lens, and I may have bumped the camera a tiny bit changing lenses.


Combine that, and the framing is not *exactly* the same between
shots, but I cropped as similarly as I could, left and bottom edge of
the crops should line up the same.


Shot in RAW on 7D, processed by DPP defaults, WB Daylight (still the
15-85 shots a minute later are a bit yellower from the shifting sun),
sharpness 3, ALO off, NR 1:1.


ISO 100, speeds from 1/4000 (f/1.4) to 1/50 (f/16). Live view MFed on
the bridge, metered on Av (all the speeds lined up with calculated).


Hyperfocal of 35mm f/1.4 is 46m (dofmaster), the bridge was at least
200m away, the house not much closer, so there shouldn't be much problem
with DOF (at least past f/4.5 when the 15-85 comes in)


Crops are 300x600 pixels of the house on the right. I've only done these edge-crops so far, the centres of all shots were damn good and I can't tell much difference between them


.


So, the crops (I hope these line up nicely side-by-side):


[img]/photography_gear1/resized-image.ashx/__size/300x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/7658.crop-f01.4-_2D00_-Samyang35.JPG[/img]


[img]/photography_gear1/resized-image.ashx/__size/300x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/8623.crop-f02.0-_2D00_-Samyang35.JPG[/img]


[img]/photography_gear1/resized-image.ashx/__size/300x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/0028.crop-f02.8-_2D00_-Samyang35.JPG[/img]


[img]/photography_gear1/resized-image.ashx/__size/300x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/2047.crop-f04.0-_2D00_-Samyang35.JPG[/img][img]/photography_gear1/resized-image.ashx/__size/300x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/5187.crop-f04.5-_2D00_-15_2D00_85.JPG[/img]


[img]/photography_gear1/resized-image.ashx/__size/300x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/1643.crop-f05.6-_2D00_-Samyang35.JPG[/img][img]/photography_gear1/resized-image.ashx/__size/300x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/7271.crop-f05.6-_2D00_-15_2D00_85.JPG[/img]


[img]/photography_gear1/resized-image.ashx/__size/300x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/0245.crop-f08-_2D00_-Samyang35.JPG[/img][img]/photography_gear1/resized-image.ashx/__size/300x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/7870.crop-f08-_2D00_-15_2D00_85.JPG[/img]


.


OK, so I made crops of f/11 and f/16 too, but you get the idea.


There was a bit of wind about, but even f/8 was 1/200s, so the
softness in the trees is more likely to be softness and not motion-blur.
(or just look at the rooftop, and the lightpole).


I never thought my 15-85 was that soft. Or maybe it's not, and the
Samyang is just sharper. I shall endevour to harass my newly-betrothed
friend to lend his 35/1.4L and 5D2, then I can get a better FF
comparison.


.


.


ps, Octagonal Bokeh:


[img]/photography_gear1/resized-image.ashx/__size/900x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/8206.IMG_5F00_8965s900x600.JPG[/img]


.


pps,
I've also got a shot showing a bit of purpling on my white/black quilt
on the washing line, but I didn't get another lens to compare it to.
Apparntly the Samyang has low CA in Imatesting, so i'll reserve
judgement until i've taken a few proper comparisons...


<edit: the pics didn't show up in the thread, but they're here when i clicked on edit. weird>

[HDNitehawk]

Dr


Ask and you shall recieve I guess


www.the-digital-picture.com/.../ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx


It looks like the center of the Samyang is not as good as the Canon, and the edges and mid frame are better. It appears to be how you thought it would be, although "almost as good IQ in the center" or "amazing" are a bit subjective, for the price it looks like it might be a good alternative.

[freelanceshots]

Nice writeup/review of the lens. Was looking at the 14mm Rokinon but my architectural work came to a halt so I put the purchase on hold.

[Dr Croubie]

Yeah, it

[Dr Croubie]

Hmm, and I just found this one i'd taken a few days ago. Live-view MFed on the fence in the bottom right, wide-open f/1.4, iso100 1/4000s. No CPL, i'm still waiting for a step ring from ebay (i presume a 72mm cpl will be ok on the 77mm samyang, on my 7D at least). 1/1 Noise Reduction, DPP 'Monochrome' style (as opposed to colour converted then desaturated in gimp, which i reckon makes for more grain), red (DPP) filter, sharpness 4.


And a crop from the far bottom-right, the plane of focus should be going through there somewhere. It's not razor-sharp, but it's good enough for me, i'm not printing this above 10x15".


And from the middle-left, an OOF area, even at f/1.4, 35mm on an APS-C doesn't make for a very blurry background (probably a good thing, considering i'm planning this lens for some pics of friends' bands). But at least the bokeh wide open is better than i'd posted above...


[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/700x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/7120.IMG_5F00_9094bwrcs700x450.JPG[/img]


[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/700x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/4807.IMG_5F00_9094bwr100cbr700x700.JPG[/img]


[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/700x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/8/7612.IMG_5F00_9094bwr100cml700x700.JPG[/img]