The Korean brand Samyang has announced the imminent arrival of their 85mm lens for the A-mount. It plans to join its siblings, the 14mm, 24mm, 35mm, and 8mm fisheye, in the video lens family. The 85mm T/1.5 is a manual focusing lens that comes in at 72mm in diameter and features a silent aperture ring while adding 513g of weight to your overall shooting gear.
Samyang has hinted towards a late this year release and looks to make its mark in the videography scene. Their brother, Rokinon, has also been doing the same thing. We’ve reviewed the 8mm and 35mm lenses already. It will be interesting to see how this does on the Sony A99.
Via Sony Alpha Rumors
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Over a very long period of time, the staff of The Phoblographer have reviewed countless lenses. Most notably though, we’ve reviewed a version of nearly ever Rokinon lens produced to date. Because we’ve been generally very happy with the production quality, we’ve compiled a guide to their lenses consisting of the reviews we’ve done.
Looking for some affordable prime lenses with some very good image quality? This guide has you covered whether you’re looking for a Rokinon Lens or Samyang lens.
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What's In My Bag
Just over 4 years ago, I fell in love with photography. I, much like many new photographers, fell into the gear-pit. More gear equals better images right? Not quite. One thing that exacerbated this situation is that I had a good job with good pay. For many new photographers, money is what prevents them from going out and stocking up on gear that they want. Instead, they are forced to intimately learn their existing equipment and make it work.
Now I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’m upset that I had the ability to purchase a lot of gear in the beginning, however, I feel it stunted my growth as a photographer. Instead of really learning how to use my gear, I would quickly move onto the next thing, the next lens. Now four years later, I have learned how to control gear-lust and how to appreciated my equipment. I’ve learned how to massage my current equipment to do what I want instead of going out and buying something that could do it better. So now that I’m older and wiser (photography-wise), what is the equipment that made the cut and constantly resides in my bag?
The Secret Identity
It’s a debate that has been going on for ages: which is the best lens focal length for street photography? While one can easily say, “To each their own,” there are significant pros and cons to each focal length that should be considered. Also, one must keep in mind that the most important thing is still the photographer who takes the photos. But with that said, without the right tools, you may not be able to get the job done. You wouldn’t use a screwdriver to flip a pancake, now would you?
So let’s explore the 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm focal lengths for street photography.
Disclaimer: this posting is based on my experience with the various focal lengths and with different gear brands.
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Shot with the Samsung 85mm f1.4 on the Samsung NX200. ISO 250 1/320 sec f1.4
The other night, we attended a Samsung event where we got to see the new NX200 camera with the 85mm f1.4 lens. Yesterday, the PR Reps from Samsung sent this image sample to me via email. I shot this with the 85mm attached to the NX200. The subject (an event photographer) was asked to step into the illumination of the Photogenic lights around the area. The result is this photo.
For the record, I have done no editing to this photo except for sizing it down to around 500kb for the web. The reason why is because I’d like to show off the purest abilities of the camera. The original file was a 6MB beast.
I was focusing on his eyes and this was shot at ISO 250 1/320 sec and wide open at f1.4. So what do you think? We’d love to hear your comments below.
