Samyang 35 mm f/1.4 AS UMC Pro Reviews

Overall it is very difficult to characterise this lens. It is certainly a specialist optic on account of being manual-only, but it also looks and feels great. It's a bit heavy but you are getting an ultra-bright f/1.4 maximum aperture and well-corrected optical performance. The price makes it such a bargain that the low performance figures at maximum aperture can easily be forgiven. On the basis of this lens it will be very interesting to discover the performance of other lenses from the Samyang stable.

Samyang continues to surprise us regarding the quality of their recently released products. The full format Samyang 35mm f/1.4 AS UMC is capable of delivering a very high quality straight from f/1.4 - at least within the tested APS-C scope. The contrast level is a bit reduced at max. aperture though. Stopping down boosts the contrast whereas the resolution improves to excellent results at medium aperture settings. It may be a surprising news but this is somewhat superior to the mighty Canon EF 35mm f/1.4 USM L. The Canon lens has still a certain advantage in terms of contrast at f/1.4 though. There's a some vignetting at max. aperture but it's not an issue anymore at smaller apertures. Distortions are generally nothing to worry about. The quality of the bokeh is a bit on the nervous side but that's a fate that it shares with the Canon L lens actually. The amount of bokeh fringing is typical for a lens in this class.