Samyang AF 85mm f/1.4 EF Review

Samyang AF 85mm f/1.4 EF Performance

Central sharpness is very good all through the aperture range, rising to excellent at f/4. Any of the apertures will give totally satisfactory results, delivering crisp images.

The edges start off at a slightly lower level but are still good at f/1.4. This may well offer a pleasant effect with open aperture portraits, with a sharp central image slowly becoming softer towards the edges. Performance is very good at all other apertures, again rising to excellent at f/4. The results are also very even from centre to edge.

CA (Chromatic Aberration) is virtually absent at the centre but we do pay the price at the edges. Here fringing can be quite obvious and it may be a good idea to look at software solutions or in-camera JPEG corrections. Of course, not all subjects will make the fringing obvious.

Distortion measures at +0.94% pincushion, which is a good result for such as fast, bright 85mm lens.

Flare does not seem to be much of an issue, the worst seems to be a slight reduction in contrast when shooting directly into the light.

The bokeh of the lens, the quality and smoothness of the out of focus background areas, is actually very pleasant indeed. It looks good and is ideal for portraiture with suppressed background details.

Value For Money

The Samyang AF 85mm f/1.4 EF lens is priced at a very reasonable £599. Samyang also makes a manual focus alternative, the 85mm f/1.4 AS IF UMC, priced at £279. The convenience of AF and its speed of operation may well make the extra cost worth it.

There are quite a few 85mm f/1.4 lenses available, including:

Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 G Master, £1649
Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM, £1729
Canon EF 85mm f/1.4L IS USM, £1379
Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art, £999
Nikon AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 G, £1609
Zeiss Milvus 85mm f/1.4, £1399

If we can manage with a slightly smaller maximum aperture, then there are also these lenses:

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 G, £489
Tamron 85mm f/1.8 SP Di VC USD, £749
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, £414
Lensbaby 85mm f/1.8, £499

Clearly, the Samyang is a good price, and for those on a very tight budges the manual focus alternative is an excellent price.

For more options have a look at the Top 27 Best Samyang Lenses, and Top 34 Best Portrait Lenses.

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