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Explore the world of vintage lenses through repair notes, real test shots, and detailed archive threads packed with images.

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Samyang 85mm f/1.4 Aspherical (full format) - Review / Test
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:34 am
Post subject: Samyang 85mm f/1.4 Aspherical (full format) - Review / Test
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:34 am
Post subject: Samyang 85mm f/1.4 Aspherical (full format) - Review / Test
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take a look...

www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff/483-samyang_85_14_5d

tomas


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:40 am
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:40 am
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There's many fans of this lens on this forum, because it's cheap and performs very well wide open. I've heard stories about the aperture mechanism failing, but also many of people only even wanting to use it wide open anyway. Sounds like a bargain to me!


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:53 am
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:53 am
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I'm wondering how this lens would perform on m4/3. The EFL would be 170mm and might simply be too long for indoor use (other than concert and church shots.)


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:08 am
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:08 am
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I use my 85 from 1.4 to 2.8, for smaller apertures I use my 135/2.8...


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:29 am
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:29 am
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Just one question regarding the brands, saw some Opteka and other brands of 85mm f/1.4, are they all the same manufactured as samyang?

Some seller saying "opteka, samyang, bower, and rokina" are all the same. But seems like the price is different on ebay.


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:37 am
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:37 am
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lwsy711 wrote:
Just one question regarding the brands, saw some Opteka and other brands of 85mm f/1.4, are they all the same manufactured as samyang?

Some seller saying "opteka, samyang, bower, and rokina" are all the same. But seems like the price is different on ebay.


They're all the same, just slightly different cosmetics on the Vivitar version. Same lens though.


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:42 am
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:42 am
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I have this lens and it`s my sharpest lens wide open in the corners too. This review is quite strange....i saw more review and this is different. Take look:
http://canon-board.info/showthread.php?t=46140

http://optyczne.pl/157.1-Test_obiektywu-Samyang_85_mm_f_1.4_Aspherical_IF_.html

My pictures form fuji s5 looks a lot sharper than from dpreview samples from 5d II .....


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 11:58 am
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 11:58 am
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karabud wrote:
I have this lens and it`s my sharpest lens wide open in the corners too

the test is on 5DII, crop dslr hide borders
but you shouldn't worry, borders are not important in the beautiful portraits you make


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 1:13 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 1:13 pm
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poilu wrote:
karabud wrote:
I have this lens and it`s my sharpest lens wide open in the corners too

the test is on 5DII, crop dslr hide borders
but you shouldn't worry, borders are not important in the beautiful portraits you make


yes i now, but look how it looks on 5d mk II in other test
http://canon-board.info/showthread.php?t=46140


Samyang vs Canon 85 1.2 L II


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:00 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:00 pm
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It seems, that photozone tested a bad copy...


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:57 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:57 pm
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this is the English version form this great Polish site that reviews lenses fast and in a comprehensive way

www.lenstip.com/166.1-Lens_review-Samyang_85_mm_f_1.4_Aspherical_IF_.html

tomas


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:03 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:03 pm
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no-X wrote:
It seems, that photozone tested a bad copy...


Well, if the MTF test they made was done correctly, there is not much to argue - data is data and the data shows that the edge performance becomes acceptable only at f/2.8 and good at f/4.

On the other hand, edge performance is not critical in a portrait lens. I doubt that people will shoot anything that requires clear edges with an aperture inferior to f/4 anyway.

The test shows also a good performance on lateral CA. This is not a secondary aspect and certainly more important, for wide open portraits, than edge resolvance.

So overall I don't see a real problem.

Another thing, the test dissolves the myth that the lens is sharp only at wide open and does not improve stopping down. This is not true as the MTF shows.

The lens has specs that other lenses ask 1000 Euros for. Looks like a great bargain to me. Of course, there are things to a lens other than resolvance and CA - I mean like flare performance, bokeh, microcontrast - these are not represented. But for what is represented in the test, I see no real problems with the lens.

-


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 5:36 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 5:36 pm
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Orio: The results are very inconsistent with results at lenstip review.

lenstip:


photozone:


Last edited by no-X on Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:12 pm; edited 1 time in total


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 5:40 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 5:40 pm
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I don't care about these graphs, as long as my copy is sharp... Wink


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 5:54 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 5:54 pm
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no-X wrote:
Orio: The results are very inconsistent with results at lenstip review. According to lenstip, resolution in corners is more than half of central resolution, but according to photozone it's less than 1/3(!). Also according to lenstip corner resolution is similar at f/1.4 - f/2 - f/2.8 - f/4, while according to photozone the corner resolution at f/4 is 4-times better than at f/1.4.


Well, I don't have the lens, but if I look at the curve of the Photozone test, it seems more realistic than the curve of Lenstips, which shows nearly no improvement from 1.4 to 2.8 in the edge performance, with the relative performance to centre of lens actually getting worse when stopping down! This would be I think the first time ever in the history of optics that a lens would worsen it's edge-to-centre relative performance by stopping down. This is downright impossible as when stopping down the edges of the lens are excluded. This fact prevents me to give much credibility to the lenstip test.

Quote:
I can't imagine any othr way to explain 3-times higher center/edge difference...


Simple: spherical aberration.
Which by the way is also the cause of the nice bokeh. So it's not necessarily a bad thing. Actually, in a portrait lens, where edges are not crucial, it might be a positive thing.


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 6:40 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 6:40 pm
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I think all personal opinions and samples correspond to lenstip results - i.e. one of the best corner performer at f/1.4. There is also a consensus, that the lens is very sharp wide-opened, but stopped-down performance doesn't improve as significantly, as on other lenses. That's also very untypical. I wouldn't be surprised, if this optical design embodies more abnormal symptoms like more significant difference in center/corner performance at f/4 than at f/1.4. The aspherical element can be source of this behavior.

Approach of Samyang engineers can be really different to majority of current manufacturers, which design new lenses by polishing their old designs - which are in fact copies of Zeiss. Samyang is different - it has it's own approach, it isn't based on previous design and the goal is also a bit different. This can easily result in untypical performing lens.


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:16 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:16 pm
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Slightly off-topic, but isn't it nice to see a beautiful model with NATURAL coloured teeth?

In the USA they would be bleached to match her hat! Smile

Doug


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:23 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:23 pm
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nemesis101 wrote:
Slightly off-topic, but isn't it nice to see a beautiful model with NATURAL coloured teeth?
In the USA they would be bleached to match her hat! Smile
Doug


What are you talking about Doug?


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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 11:25 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 11:25 pm
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I suspect Doug refers to this sample photo on the Polish review site
http://ns22277.ovh.net/plikioptyczne/samy85/sam85_d3x_f4.0_1.jpg


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Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 8:04 am
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Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 8:04 am
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I don't know if teeth are natural but skin look like plastic, awful flash light


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Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 12:30 pm
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Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 12:30 pm
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Yes, not an impressive sample at all.


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Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 2:18 pm
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Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 2:18 pm
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One thing that strikes me from these tests and samples is the amount of axial CA - emerald and purple haloes around the oof areas. Certainly not the only fast lens to exhibit it of course, the well regarded Nikon (AIS or EF) 85mm f/1.4 also suffers from this. I'd like to see samples comparing those lenses (plus the Zeiss 85/1.4) side by side, despite the price differences.
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