Hey everyone!
I'm John Sison and today we're taking a look at the Samyang 135mm F2 lens.
Now the Samyang 135mm F2 has been out for quite some time now and since then, there
haven't really been many fast telephoto prime lenses available for E-mount shooters, especially
in the 135mm focal length.
Now I know you can adapt lenses from other manufacturers like the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8
and while a lens like that does have autofocusing, you are adding a bit more weight and bulk
to your kit because of that adapter.
Now a lens like this is manual focus only but it is available for native E-mount shooters.
Now I did see a few sample images of this online and the only reason I'm reviewing this
is because those images look really good from what I've seen.
Now I have used this for quite a few weeks now and I'm ready to tell you what I think
about it but first, I'm going to walk you through its design and build and at the end
of the video, I'll let you know what I personally think about it, so stay tuned.
The Samyang 135mm is not a small lens.
It has a high quality plastic and metal construction and has a rubber focus ring and a metal mount.
There is focus distance information printed on the body of the lens and an aperture ring.
It also comes supplied with a plastic barrel type lens hood and it accepts 77mm filters.
Just a quick note, this lens does not have any sort of weather resistance.
Now the lens itself weighs 815 grams and having it paired with the Sony A7R Mark 2 can become
quite heavy, especially if you hold it for long periods of time.
Now since this is a manual focus lens, you may really need to take your time to make
sure you nail your focus but what definitely helps is using peaking and the focus magnifier
which is built into the camera itself.
The lens does not extend while focusing in and out.
While turning it though, there was a bit of resistance which would actually be a good
thing to help fine tune focus.
The lens has an aperture ring which aids the photographer to change settings quickly and
easily.
However, with no electronic contacts on the mount of the lens, it can also be difficult
to remember what settings you were using since not all the metadata is transferred to your
photo.
With this lens it does not have any sort of stabilisation built in but if you have an
A72 series camera or the a6500 you have the benefit of in body stabilisation.
Just be sure to set it up in the menu.
For close up shots, the minimum focusing distance is 80cm.
Now these photos are shot with the Sony A7R Mark 2 and I've been shooting with this lens
with Auto ISO capping it at ISO 12800, so I didn't have to fiddle around with settings
too much.
Now its extremely sharp throughout the frame, even wide open and out of focus blur is smooth
and not too distracting but since the depth of field is so shallow, I usually had to stop
down the lens.
I would say in terms of quality its similar to the Zeiss 135mm F1.8 for A-mount but the
Zeiss has better contrast and colours in my opinion.
There was a bit of vignetting and I didn't notice any distortions while shooting with
it.
When it came down to chromatic aberrations, I did notice it a few in my shots but stopping
it down or post processing the image can help remedy this.
Now the Samyang 135mm F2 is an excellent choice for photographers who are looking for a fast
telephoto prime lens.
Now of course you are losing out on things like autofocusing capabilities but when you
factor in the price, its actually good value for money.
It has an excellent build, a smooth focusing ring, an aperture ring and it actually delivers
some really sharp images in the centres.
It has smooth out of focus blur and in some cases I actually had to stop the lens down
to about F3.5 to F4 just so I get more in focus because it has a very shallow depth
of field.
Now if there's one thing that I wanted like other Samyang manual focus lenses, its electronic
contacts so I could transfer my metadata from the lens to my photos.
Now an alternative to this lens is the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 which you could use with
autofocusing with an added adapter but when you factor in the price of that lens its much
more expensive than this one.
So if you're on a budget, I'd recommend getting the Samyang 135mm F2 to add to your kit.
Now I'd also recommend this for street photographers and portrait photographers who don't mind
using manual focus, although this lens can also be used for different applications.
Now that's it from me but if you have anymore questions, please feel free to leave a comment
below and if you already own one, let me know what you think of it and remember to like
this video if you found it helpful and subscribe to my channel for more Samyang lens reviews
and tutorials.
You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram for more sample photos and photo updates and
don't forget to take a look in the description below for more information about this lens
and purchasing links.
Until then, happy shooting and thanks for watching!
Hello.
Uh.
Hello hello.
???
Prime lenses available for Sony E-mount users.
Nooo nooo!
????
I feel stuck.
Maybe I'll just talk with more enthusiasm.
???
Focusing
????
Magnifier so
What was I gonna say?
After taking a look.
*sigh of exasperation*
Smooth out of focus blur.
Need to take time to take your shot so I do.
What the hell am I talking about?
The Sony
*tongue out*
*open mouth wide*
*grind teeth*
Features, so stay tooned.
Sweet!