Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE Review

Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE Handling and Features

The lens feels quite heavy at 645g, but reassuringly solid. It gives the appearance and feel of being extremely well made. There is actually very little by way of features to see, the lens presenting as a basically smooth metal barrel. Peering into the front element, the colours of the UMC multi coating and the rounded 9 bladed diaphragm are about the only things to observe. There is a generous bayonet petal lens hood that clips firmly into place. The filter thread is a reasonable 67mm, not too expensive to buy filters as it is a commonly used size.

There is a very wide and extremely smooth manual focusing ring that operates electronically. Focusing is down to 0.30m or 0.98 feet, a maximum magnification of 0.17x. The AF system is driven by a near silent ultrasonic motor. There is no distance scale and therefore no depth of field scale. Likewise, there is no aperture ring, as settings are all controlled by the camera.

The lens is also compatible with Sony's DMF – direct manual focus. Depending on the specific camera model, the lens supports AF-S (single shot), AF-A (auto selection), AF-C (continuous), DMF (Direct manual Focus) and MF focusing modes. Focusing using the Sony A7 supplied for this review is very fast and also very reliable. There is no tendency to hunt.

Optical construction is 11 elements in 9 groups, two of which are glass moulded aspherical and two of high refractive index glass. The lens range as a whole has a three year guarantee.

The lens mount has the usual electronic contacts. There is a slight amount of rotational play when the lens is mounted on the Sony A7, but this does not seem to cause any particular problems. This has been noticed before on a few FE fit lenses, even Sony ones, but not on later camera bodies.

In terms of full frame cameras the 35mm lens is favoured by many photographers as a “wide standard”, particularly useful for street photography/reportage shooting. There are relatively few 35mm f/1.4 lenses, most being f/2.8 designs, so the Samyang just might hit the spot for quite a few photographers. Handling is absolutely fine, although as there are really no controls on the lens apart from the MF ring, its contribution is as minimalistic as its appearance. Suffice it to say that it does the job in a very unobtrusive and efficient way.  

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