Samyang AF 50mm f/1.4 FE Review

Samyang AF 50mm f/1.4 FE Performance

Sharpness can simply be described as excellent. In more detail, centrally every aperture reaches this standard, the lens peaking at between f/2 and f/11 where the figures are very even throughout. The actual pinnacle of sharpness centrally is f/2.8 but in reality it is little different from the other mid apertures. It's pretty impressive.

The edges show lower figures, but it's only really at open aperture that performance falls to fair, the results being quite soft. This improves by f/2 which is very good and after that we are back to an excellent standard throughout. Actual peak performance is at f/4, but again the margin between this and the other excellent apertures is very small.

MTF
 

How to read our charts

The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges.

The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution as LW/PH and is described in detail above. The taller the column, the better the lens performance.

For this review, the lens was tested on a Sony Alpha A7R II using Imatest.

CA (chromatic aberration) is very well controlled in the centre of the frame, almost eliminated. The edges show around one pixel width of fringing, but this does not show in the images until we have more demanding lighting. The usual suspects in this are branches against bright sky and the rim of rooftops. In any event any residual CA can be addressed in software.

CA
 

How to read our charts

Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software.

Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more.

For this review, the lens was tested on a Sony Alpha A7R II using Imatest.

There is -0.948% barrel distortion, which is typical for a fast 50mm lens. This too can be corrected in software if desired, but in general photography is not too obvious.

Overall, the lens produces very pleasant, sharp images, with a smooth bokeh that shows well throughout the aperture range. Flare can be induced when the sun is virtually in the frame, but rather than creating reflections it tends to manifest as a loss of contrast. In normal use, flare is not a problem.  

In summary, the lens performs to a very high standard and as the first AF optic in the Samyang range, holds its head high and delivers the quality.

Value For Money

The Samyang AF 50mm f/1.4 FE lens is priced at £449. There is a dazzling array of 50mm lenses for the Sony FE full frame mount, but most of them are not f/1.4 designs. There are the Zeiss FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA Planar T* (£1499), the Samyang 50mm T1.5 XEEN Cine Lens (£1599) and the Samyang 50mm T1.5 AS UMC Video lens (£399).

Other 50mm options are the Zeiss FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA Sonnar T* (£618), the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 (£239) and the Zeiss 50mm f/2 Loxia (£719).

There are a wide variety of designs available at various price points, but the Samyang does look very good value, especially considering its excellent standard of performance.

For more options have a look at the Top 10 Best Samyang Lenses.

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