Hi, Carl here for ProAV TV, and today we’re taking a look at the first two lenses from
Samyang’s new XP premium range: The 85mm 1.2, and the ultrawide 14mm 2.4.
Those who have used Samyang before will associate them with good value, entry-level glass, providing
a slightly less robust build quality in return for affordable prices.
But these two lenses are the start of a new direction for Samyang; with a sleek, smooth
design and a sturdy Aluminium Alloy construction, these are definitely premium lenses.
So, let’s take a closer look at each of them.
This is the 14mm f2.4.
The style of both lenses really reminds me of the Zeiss batis lenses, with a minimal,
curved design and a simple smooth focus ring.
Which is no bad thing at all, I think they are very well designed lenses.
The optical quality is good as well.
Samyang already have a 14mm that’s f2.8.
So just looking at the specs it might seem like this one wasn’t really worth twice
the price for a slightly wider aperture.
But optically it is far better.
Its very sharp and distortion is very well controlled.
It’s a completely new optical design, with 18 elements of glass in 4 groups.
This is what gives you that extra sharpness, low distortion and minimal vingetting which
is something the f2.8 version is quite prone to.
This is a very sharp lens for a 14mm.
Its very impressive.
So that’s the 14mm, and this one is the 85mm f1.2.
This is a bigger and heavier lens, weighing 1 kilogram compared to 800 grams on the 14mm.
And its surprising how much difference that extra 200 grams makes.
It does feel substantial on your camera.
But is very normal for an f1.2 lens.
Canons 85mm f1.2 which a lot of people will compare this too weighs almost exactly the
same.
This 85mm also performs very well optically, it’s very sharp even wide open and the bokeh
is very appealing.
We have all really enjoyed shooting with it, its a lovely lens for doing portraits with,
I’ve always liked 85mm as a focal length.
So lets talk about the main drawback of these lenses.
They are manual focus only, theres no autofocus motors at all here.
They do however have electronic contacts on the back.
So they will communicate with the camera, so you’ll get metadata for what the aperture
& focal length is, plus you get AF confirmation.
This means you can use the autofocus controls on the camera to tell you when your subject
is in focus.
You put the focus point on your subject and then half press the shutter like you would
to focus on a normal AF lens.
Then when you turn the focus ring and hit correct focus the camera will beep and flash
red, like normal when the autofocus has worked.
For video the lack of autofocus isn’t a huge issue, unless your using one of canons
cameras like the C200 which have good autofocus control.
For stills though, I really did miss having autofocus.
Especially with a DSLR.
I used it with the 5D mkIV with the focus confirmation method I just described and after
a bit I found I was getting the hang of it and being able to focus quite quickly.
I also tried it on a Sony a7r II though and because of the EVF found it much easier.
I was able to turn on focus peaking and magnify to focus without taking the camera away from
my eye which is much nicer.
At the moment these are only in Canon EF mount but Samyang seem to be open to making them
in different mounts which is great.
A sony E mount version would be very nice.
But the lenses do work perfectly fine, so there’s certainly nothing wrong with buying
the EF version and using a metabones adapter if your on a sony camera.
So what do you think of the lenses?
Would they be a good addition to your kit, and would you like to see more lenses from
samyangs new XP range?
Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next video.