It has a handsome appearance and I think it looks great when paired with the Sony cameras that is designed for. While this is a full frame lens, it can also be used on Sony’s APS-C cameras where it will provide a 52.5mm equivalent focal length – a near perfect “normal” focal length for APS-C. It’s compact size and light weight make it a natural lens to use on either system. I really like Samyang’s tiny series, and I’m glad to see them continuing to improve the sophistication of these sweet little lenses. Samyang AF 35mm F1.8 Autofocus Performance The Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE ships with a soft drawstring bag and a large plastic petal-shaped lens hood. It accepts 67mm filters. Focal Range For such a fast wideangle prime, the Samyang 35mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC is predictably big and bulky, measuring 11cms in length and wighing in at 660g. While you can use it on a smaller APS-C body or even Samsung NX body, it won't balance very well - as demonstrated by the images above, it's a much better match for a professional-grade, full-frame camera like the 5D Mark III.

Chromatic aberrations are kept well under control, only exceeding 0.5 pixel widths in size towards the edges at f/11 and beyond. This low level of fringing should pose few issues, even in very large prints, or harsh crops from the edges of the frame.We didn't experience too much "hunting", either in good or bad light, with the lens accurately focusing almost all of the time. It has quite a noisy focusing mechanism, though, which makes this lens less well-suited to video recording. With its straight 8-bladed diaphragm, this 35mm f/1.4 should make 8-pointed sunstars on bright points of light. We tested the Canon-mount version and, compared with its rivals, the Samyang 35mm f/1.4 lens is the biggest and heaviest, measuring 111x83mm and a reassuringly weighty 660g. Its 77mm filter diameter is also big for its type. Made from a tough plastic with solid metal mounts, the quality of craftsmanship is evident. The 35mm f/1.4 FE at its brightest aperture can be a little soft around the far corners and it does tend to produce a bit of vignetting as well. Internally, the optical construction is made up of 12 elements in 10 groups. Two of these are described as High Refraction (HR), while one is an aspherical element to minimise chromatic aberration.

Flare control is also very satisfactory, with few signs of internal reflections or loss of contrast, even with the sun in frame. This lens can be quite prone to flare, and especially loss of contrast when shooting into the light. The petal shaped hood provided does a decent job of shielding the front element from extraneous light that may causes issues, and should be left on all the time, if possible. The Sony 35mm F1.4 GM will be the sharpest (so better for street or landscape), lightest, most compact, best in resistance to flare CA , distortion Tip. If the moving distance is long, the camera may shake, so please shoot at a focal length between 35 and 100mm.Imatest detected 1.53% barrel distortion, which is a very mild amount, even for a lens of this type. The distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, so should be relatively straightforward to correct in image editing software afterwards. As this is a relatively wide lens, out-of-focus areas are not as extreme as on a more telephoto optic, so having a widest setting of f/1.4 is very useful. However, the character of out-of-focus areas (bokeh) is still an important consideration for those using this lens for its wider apertures, and here the quality is very good. Resolution chart Optical construction is 11 elements in 9 groups, two of which are glass moulded aspherical and two of high refractive index glass. The lens range as a whole has a three year guarantee.