Samyang 35mm F1.8 v.s. Sony 35mm f/1.8 Which is the Best Lens?

[@GT1211-j3j]

you can get a new one below $300 for samyang now, just insanely good price

[@Watcheyes]

The Samyang seems to fill all of my needs so will buy it and use it for my KZbin channel, thanks for the review, it was very detailed but not to slow, all of the most important topics was mentioned, liked also the close up testing!

[@IddoGenuth]

Glad it could help you. We follow the same topics/testing methodology on all of our lens reviews so it is also easy to compare to other lenses. There will be a few more lens reviews in the next few weeks (we are working on several in parallel).

[@Watcheyes]

@@IddoGenuth great, ordered the Samyang :)

[@LensVid]

@@Watcheyes Enjoy :)

[@PatrickJaszewski]

Very helpful review - thanks for doing this comparison!

[@LensVid]

Thanks, Patrick - we have another lens comparison coming very shortly.

[@nickivlachou3117]

Hello, I did not quite understand: Does the samyang lens have a button for manual and auto focus?

[@IddoGenuth]

No. Sadly you only have a two-setting option (unless Samyang allowed some firmware update I am not aware of) where the second mode is not MF but aperture control - I am also not a big fan and I think they should change this but this is what you have...

[@nickivlachou3117]

@@IddoGenuth Hello, thank you very much for your quick reply. I just read that you can manual focus with the focus ring. Is this true? Did you ever tried this out?

[@LensVid]

@@nickivlachou3117 I don't have one with me but like any lens, if you switch in the camera you can MF with the ring.

[@jamesvanderpool6079]

Nice vid! You going to do a head to head with the Sigma 35 f2?

[@IddoGenuth]

M.. not sure yet - we will be getting the new Sigma lenses soon but we have not yet decided on a format - we shall see.

[@MoElf]

Thank you for this video I have sony A7C with kit lens 28 60 I am looking lens for video low light I see this lens 35mm 1.8 with nice price in uk 289£ Do you think this good for video AF low light or can you offred to me other one Thank you for help me

[@LensVid]

We already returned it plus I never tried it on the A7C so it's not fair for us to comment. AF in low light depends on the camera and the lens, with 3'rd party lenses you can certainly get into issues - I am thinking of adding a low light test to our reviews but it would make sense only when we get the A1 - anything else and you might say (correctly) that it is the AF of the camera that is to blame (with the A1 you just know that you can't get a better AF from a camera - at least not for a while)...

[@fauzan442]

i have a7c with samyang 35 f1.8. all i can say they are great in lowlight !

[@happybear5415]

I just bought a Sony FE 35mm f1.8 lens at US$ 535. And I am really happy with it. I mounted it with my A7III and always bring it with me. I got a lot of impressive family photo with it. No matter how good Samyang is, I always feel more confident with Sony lens.

[@IddoGenuth]

We also choose Sony, especially for video. I typically agree that when it comes to AF there is still nothing like native glass although here and there you can see lenses that are almost as good as the native glass (our Sigma 85mm f/1.4 has fantastic AF and so is the Sigma 56mm f/1.4 for APS-C - just two examples).

[@antonisdavis2288]

what about manual focus rig of samy?is good enough like the sony's one?

[@IddoGenuth]

The Sony build is better (you can work with the Samyang but it is not the same quality).

[@olddavidwho7313]

Is the breathing done other way around? What you are saying and screen dont match

[@IddoGenuth]

Why do you say that?

[@olddavidwho7313]

@@IddoGenuth you say that samyang is nowhere near Sony and in video where its written samyang seems so much smoother and no breathing

[@IddoGenuth]

@@olddavidwho7313 Are we watching different videos? around 4:50 you see that the Sony has no breathing at all while the Samyang has clear breathing - am I missing something?

[@olddavidwho7313]

​@@IddoGenuth i guess we are😂 Sony literally goes back and forth a bit before hitting that focus while samyang is one smooth transition (at least thats stated).

[@LensVid]

@@olddavidwho7313 No. A focus breathing test is not a focus test (we have a separate focus test in this video (02:57)). A breathing test only tests how much change there is in the frame when you change the focus not how smooth the focus transition is (we mostly do this test in MF but in this case, it might have been in AF - it doesn't matter this is not what this test is about). In newer videos (this one is from 2 years ago) we test breathing by shooting a large rectangle and you can see if the corners of the box get closer or further away from the edges of the frame as we change focus. This is what you should also be looking at in this test with the aluminum profile, not the focus hunting which is not relevant. I hope this is more clear now.

[@keepcoding1]

"...with no CA visible" (on the Sony lens). Are you serious? I see plenty of CA in those test shots, maybe even more on the Sony than on the Samyang lens.

[@IddoGenuth]

I honestly have no idea what you are referring to. The Samyang has very visible CA the Sony hardly any - what are you seeing that we do not?

[@keepcoding1]

@@IddoGenuth At 5:20: the Sony at F1.8 has very noticable red glow / magenta shift on the horizontal stripes, even more than the Samyang. That is pretty strong axial chromatic aberration.

[@IddoGenuth]

@@keepcoding1 Don't look on KZbin. Please look at the test results on our website: lensvid.com/lensvid-exclusive-reviews-and-previews/samyang-af-35mm-or-sony-fe-35mm-f-1-8/ I see far more CA on the Samyang and hardly any on the Sony.

[@keepcoding1]

@@IddoGenuth Just checked the website. I wouldn't say the Sony looks better. The cyan fringing on the Samyang lens is amplified due to the spherical aberration present at close focus distance. In addition, the camera might even do some processing on the files from the Sony lens to reduce CA.Have you checked the RAW files? From a technical point of view, the Samyang should have less CA since it features special high-refractive lens elements to reduce this aberration, whereas the Sony does not.

[@LensVid]

@@keepcoding1 Yes we did, and I have double checked again now side by side at 400-500%. The Samyang has a much more prominent green tint and a little bit more red/purple tint. The fact that other reviewers got other results only means that there might be variation between samples so it's always possible that we got a good Sony sample and a less optimal Samyang. However, these are the results that we got and they seem very clear - both in JPEG and RAW.

[@KelvinKamsg]

Very nice systemic presentation of information. Much appreciated, Thank you! Very torn on which to get as locally the Samyang is $565 vs Sony $699. I shoot a lot at close distances and at a closer $145 difference, the shorter MFD, zero focus breathing and performance is tempting and more justifiable for the extra cash.

[@SoumyadiptoGhose]

nobody is comparing the samyang 35 1.8 with the samyany 35 1.4, when they have very little price diff now.

[@TheMrBarkas]

Выбирал между ними и остановился на 1.8: легче, быстрее автофокус, дешевле

[@edwardnoble9897]

Great review! The cleaner bokeh is due to dust btw.

[@IddoGenuth]

Yeah, it makes sense - the only question is - is it dust inside the lens or on the front or back elements outside.

[@BONLEV]

thank you for this amazing video! Really liked it. Because I also shoot video and I hate focus breathing I have to go with the sony and not the samyang.

[@LensVid]

Hi Tom and thank you :) Yes, the Sony is significantly better in terms of breathing. It is even better (much better) than the new, and much more expensive, Sony 35mm f/1.4 GM that was just announced in this respect. I would rank the three lenses like this: 1. Samyang - the affordable option - good overall but not the best out of the 3 for video. 2. Sony 35mm f/1.4 - Mid-range option with very good video capabilities but not that sharp in the corners. Really outstanding breathing, AF in video, and very good CA. 3. Sony 35mm f/1.4 GM - the high-end option - the best sharpness all around, very good optical performance all across, very good AF (similar to the Sony 35mm f/1.8) but breathing isn't on the level of the f/1.8. Mind you this is based on our experience with the first two - we haven't tested the new Sony f/1.4 GM but we have seen enough reviews and comparisons to get a decent understanding of where this lens stands.

[@BoxxyFan]

All samyang lenses do come with a case... Which ones dont??

[@IddoGenuth]

With this type of semi-hard case?

[@gyurxi551]

I bought Sony 85mm f1.8 and it was only in a bubble bag, and the box and manual. But I don't care, even further, I never use these so less environmental waste

[@Mytabernacleisinher]

Very good video

[@loveforyou1725]

Hey Lensvid, I just sent you an email by your website and wanted to be sure you received it. It came from Rey. If you didn’t get it please let me know. My company is interested in hiring you to produce videos and would even consider buying your channel with the option of hiring you to produce videos for the channel. Let’s talk!

[@noone-yn6in]

the up and down of speech is hard to listen to. up and down and up and down with your voice level. trying too hard to sound american.