My excitement over reviewing a new Samyang lens has grown by leaps and bounds over the past three years. In my DSLR days I had treated Samyang much like some of the budget manual focus lens players on the market today [7Artisans, TTArtisan, Brightin Star, etc…]. They produced lenses that were sometimes optically interesting but not really at the same level as the big players in terms of build, features, and autofocus. They even sold their lenses under multiple brand names, of which only Samyang and Rokinon remain [yes, Rokinon lenses are the exact same save slightly different badging]. But then Samyang started to experiment with autofocus, and, while early results were a little primitive, I saw rapid progress. About 3 ½ years ago I reviewed the first Samyang lens that I thought was truly competitive with the main brands, and it was the Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 FE. I subsequently reviewed the Canon RF mount version of the lens and found it even better [they added an AF/MF switch to the design]. I added that lens to my own personal Canon kit and still regularly use it today. Today, however, I’m looking at the second generation of Samyang’s “big” prime lenses. I first looked at the Series II version of the AF 50mm F1.4, and found it a major improvement over the first generation lens. Today I’ll be examining the new Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 Series II, hereby referred to as the AF 85II. I will subsequently be looking at the new 35mm F1.4 Series II along with the impressive Samyang AF 135mm F1.8.

There’s only a negligible amount of pincushion distortion [a -1 to correct] along with a moderate amount of vignette that required a +53 to correct for, so around 2 stops in the corners. The vignette is fairly linear, which means that it will often be flattering to your images and you may want to leave it uncorrected.

This is also one area of serious advantage over the Sigma DN lens, which has both a LOT of pincushion distortion and much heavier vignette.

So how about chromatic aberrations? I found some lateral chromatic aberrations along the edge of the frame, and some very mild longitudinal chromatic aberrations [LoCA] which can be seen as purple and green fringing before and after the plane of focus at wide apertures.

If you take the comparisons off the table, however, the reality is that the AF 85II is an extremely sharp lens. It was perfectly easy to get compelling landscape images even at F1.4.

Here’s some portrait detail at F2.5:

At F2.8 and beyond the performance is flawless. You’ll be able to get amazingly detailed images even on Sony’s high resolution sensors.

The quality of the bokeh is very nice as well. You can get amazing subject isolation and blurred out backgrounds, like this simple images of dried grasses:

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Keywords: Samyang 85 II, Samyang 85 1.4, Samyang 85mm, II, Series II, MK II, AF, Samyang, Rokinon, Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 II, F1.4II, Samyang AF, Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 II Review, Review, Dustin Abbott, FE, Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN, FE, Sony 85mm F1.4 GM, Sony 85mm F1.8, Portrait, Sony a7IV, Sony a7III, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7C, Bokeh, Sharpness, Resolution, Video Test, Sample Images, Real World, let the light in,

letthelightin, DA

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