has anyone tried Samyang 85mm f1.4 IF manual focus lens?


chenwei2610

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Jun 8, 2010
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anyone heard of Samyang 85mm f1.4 IF lens? Read a few website reviews, nice pictures and good build quality. Singapore online camera stores sell 580SGD, but on ebay one seller from Poland sells 330 SGD inclusive shipping charges. There is one thread reviewing this lens on pentaxforums.com. http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/...9-review-samyang-85mm-f1-4-aspherical-if.html
I am quit attempted to buy, any suggestion?
 

For that price, there's nothg much to fault for this lens.
 

Top up a bit and get a DA70 or FA77. It's better to have AF when it's needed :)
 

If 330 ... hmmm ok lah .... take it try manual focus lor . If 580 then maybe not really worth it leh .

As what FW say , get a Fa77 more worth it ..... but if give me chose , I will go for DFA 100mm which is only 899 :)
 

If 330 ... hmmm ok lah .... take it try manual focus lor . If 580 then maybe not really worth it leh .

As what FW say , get a Fa77 more worth it ..... but if give me chose , I will go for DFA 100mm which is only 899 :)

wa manual focus? the only time i ever succeeded manual focus is with a focusing screen. u may wanan take note of that
 

If 330 ... hmmm ok lah .... take it try manual focus lor . If 580 then maybe not really worth it leh .

As what FW say , get a Fa77 more worth it ..... but if give me chose , I will go for DFA 100mm which is only 899 :)

:thumbsup: Like your analysis.
Totally agree.

$330, nothing to loose to try it.
$580, I'd rather look out for M85/2; Takumar 85/1.8 or 1.9; Any of the 100/2.8 or the well known K135/2.5. Most of which cost less, offers very good build quality, SMC, and are 'legacy' lenses for what its worth.

If can afford a bit more, the DA70 or FA77 are always great choices.
 

I think it's value for money for the price of a new lens.
Though it's a fast lens, it's very difficult to get a sharp image by manual focusing (without using a focusing screen) at f/1.4 (or below f/2.0) due to the shallow dof. I think you will learn a lot by using a manual focusing lens.
 

... I think you will learn a lot by using a manual focusing lens.

I think what you will learn is that you're gonna miss a lot when trying to focus manually.
Focal length is good for portraits but to shoot good portraits, you need to work quickly to capture the expression and pose.
Trying to fiddle with focus is a sure fire recipe for a low percentage of keepers. That's why AF is well worth the price difference.
 

I think what you will learn is that you're gonna miss a lot when trying to focus manually.
Focal length is good for portraits but to shoot good portraits, you need to work quickly to capture the expression and pose.
Trying to fiddle with focus is a sure fire recipe for a low percentage of keepers. That's why AF is well worth the price difference.

My friend bought Rokinon 85mm f1.4 for me and brought it from USA. I tried testing it with manual focusing and quite liked it. But I agreed with creampuff's view. Must work faster to catch good focus for portraits but worse for me :cry: is hard to focus on fast moving children whose I wanted to shoot photos.

Better go for AF lenses if your budget can stretch.
 

Rokinon 85mm f1.4 is made in Korea as same as Samyang.
 

anyone heard of Samyang 85mm f1.4 IF lens? Read a few website reviews, nice pictures and good build quality. Singapore online camera stores sell 580SGD, but on ebay one seller from Poland sells 330 SGD inclusive shipping charges. There is one thread reviewing this lens on pentaxforums.com. http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/...9-review-samyang-85mm-f1-4-aspherical-if.html
I am quit attempted to buy, any suggestion?

Please buy it and be the first to review it here :)
It is an A lens, couple that with pentax's Focus confirmation and catch in focus... I believe the hit rate would be ok.
And if you dun like it... sell it to me cheap :devil:
 

My friend bought Rokinon 85mm f1.4 for me and brought it from USA. I tried testing it with manual focusing and quite liked it. But I agreed with creampuff's view. Must work faster to catch good focus for portraits but worse for me :cry: is hard to focus on fast moving children whose I wanted to shoot photos.

Better go for AF lenses if your budget can stretch.

Hey! Since you have it. Can you do a review or at least show off sample shots? :sweatsm:
 

i think i dun want to say much about this lens... ppl want to budget but want f1.4 and think they can live with manual focus.... go ahead...

i would think a AF50 f1.4 is better option... or a tele 135mm f2.5 is much easier at f2.5

this lens give me i also dun want...:bsmilie:
 

Nowadays a sharp photo is too easy to capture by using AF lens and also there is no additional cost to "develop" the final photo. People will not learn from the hard way to think or predict or to observe how to capture a good photo. Just try to capture as many photo as possible and then go home to choose which one are the best. They may forget how that good photo was captured since there were so many photos. They will therefore doing the same thing until some days they finally understand.
 

Hey! Since you have it. Can you do a review or at least show off sample shots? :sweatsm:

Sorry, never notice your post since I was quite busy with my photo events recently. ok, I will upload only one sample photo of my lovely niece soon after i had my brother's permission.
 

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Finally my sample photo shot by my Rokinon 85mm f1.4.

IMGP0216_S_.jpg
 

Finally my sample photo shot by my Rokinon 85mm f1.4.

IMGP0216_S_.jpg

Thanks for sharing. Certainly hope to see more if possible. That should help ppl make up their minds. :cool:


The shot certainly shows that a mid tele focal length and wide aperture is doing its job of good subject isolation. Does look sharp enough at this scale and I'd guess its certainly good enough at normal viewing sizes.

Maybe we should have a 85mm shoot out as well for the outing ;)
 

Finally my sample photo shot by my Rokinon 85mm f1.4.

Nice. F1.4 ? Bokeh is nice. Do you have a crop of her eyes
at 100% ? Thanks.