Is the Samyang 85mm f/1.4 Lens Better than the Sony?

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Lee compares the Sony's 85mm 1.4 to the much less expensive Samyang version.

[michaelcliffordphotos]

These lenses are primarily aimed at portrait photography, but you didn't take any portraits. It's important to understand how the lenses resolve facial features, how they render bokeh, how well they establish separation between a foreground subject and the background at different apertures, etc. The color cast is a significant issue if you do portrait photography, because you don't want someone's skin to have a yellow cast to it (as with the Samyang lens), nor do you want to have to color correct every photo you take. Based on this review, I can not tell how these portrait lenses compare for portrait photography.

[blubravery]

Samyang came out with an autofocus lens??? New World we living in

[MadHatter]

coming back into photography and recovering after covid bankrupting my business im switching from canon to sony and getting a a7 ii and the rokinon 85 1.4 excited to start watching your content again

[Champo]

oh wow, I never thought the color different lenses could produce would be that much different in camera.

an interesting followup experiment would be to use a color-checker (the ones you take a photo of to do the whitebalance) and compare them after calibrating the color corrected shots.

[NeonPixels]

Very minor detail but I love the red ring on Samyang lenses, it really matches with the red ring of Sony full frame lenses, very elegant little touch. I have the Samyang 24mm 1.8 and it's been one of the best lenses I've ever owned, especially for video.

[AsianWithHat]

If you're gonna do an autofocus test, why not record through the Atamos Ninja to show what you're seeing for focus?

[shang-hsien_yang]

The garden you're filming in is incredibly beautiful.

[DiegoTerzano]

Thanks for the review. I own the Samyang 85mm (since release day) and used the GM several times. I am extremely happy with the Samyang. It is very sharp for normal portrait conditions (studio and outdoors). I don't care much about the lens flare resistant, on that focal length I am never shooting sunrises or sunsets (I care more on my 16-35 for landscapes). AF works very well on firmware version 4 and has improved significantly since its release on low light conditions. Samyang updates their firmware frequently so investing in their Lens Station is a good idea. I really like the way the lens renders, especially wide open. If you step it down to f/2.0 it is very sharp across the entire frame. I have no doubt I made the right choice with this lens. My other favorite 85mm is the Batis (it has Optical Image Stabilization) which is also quite expensive but a better value than the GM, imho.

[SteveDeWaelephotography]

Did you shut of de lenscorrections in de camera ???? for the native lens sony camera corrects these

[marcpettersson]

The aperture ring can be declicked on the Sony primes, however the aperture actuation is electronic and rasterized/quantized (just look at the movement of the blades while adjusting the declicked ring). So if you declick it to rack expose you will still get a noticeable stutter. You can't set the aperture to for example 4.7, you can only set it to 1/3 increments, just like you would from the camera.

[GeorgeOu]

That seems like too much of a difference in focal length on the color test. Is the software cropping out the edges for lens correction?

[edersonsalvianogomes]

Here goes a tip for next test of noise AF. Change for AFC and the beep will be gone

[VicenteSchmitt]

14:35 that kind of shot is key on a wedding, but I could see the use on other situations as well.. The Sony seems to have the edge on that tracking and also a better look on close focus but it hard to justify the price tag over all. Also, if looking at the lenses individually, without the side by side comparison, the Sammy performs pretty well

[vanjamodrinjak]

Good video!!!
You help me to choose a better lens for much smaller money.

[calebwalker]

I have only one question... Why do you have two lavs on?!

[joshuadtaft]

I've watched videos from astrophotographers who have used a number of camera lenses for wide field AP, and there's a bit of a consensus that the Samyang and Rokinon lenses tend to have a bit of a green color cast

[adamabele]

I do architecture fotography and you can´t allways go multiple the times of the day to do it with the best lighting. So it happens a lot that I need to shoot a building against the sunlight in wide angle shots. Flaring is a big problem in cases like this. The same with landscape or wildlife photography. You might take the shot or take a flared shot or no shot, coming back at another time or under different lighting is not an option.

[jsavak]

Ive never rented the 85mm Gmaster but ive rented Sony 24-70 Gmaster and was very impressed

[grapefruitdream]

"I have all these incredible brick wall photos stacked on top of one another" HAHA

[skesinis]

Nice video! The inconsistency you mentioned in the sharpness in the corners is probably because your camera was tilted slightly down and it wasn’t parallel to the wall. It shows on the video against the lines of the side wall when you had the camera on the tripod but it’s not really a lens issue since you did the same for both lenses. Where the focus stopped is down to the tolerances and by the output differences are negligible.