New Samyang 35mm f/1.4 FE lens reviews by Hanna Saba, Daniel Gangur and Nic Taylor

For half the price of the Sony-Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 FE lens. you get this new Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 FE lens at BHphoto (Click here). But is this lens as good (or almost as good) as the Sony version?

Hanna Saba writes:

The overall performance of this lens has performed really well, producing great images that are sharp, Stunning bokeh and colours straight out of camera. This lens is ideal for basically any situation and the 1.4 aperture is a bonus especially for low light work. If you’re in the market for an affordable Native 35mm f1.4 lens for Sony E Mount and is able to use all of Sony features. Have a look at the Samyang you won’t be disappointed.

Daniel Gangur writes:

One of the most common comments that come up when it comes to Sony’s own lenses is cost, both the Sony F1.4 G and Sony Zeiss F1.4 full frame lenses cost over $2000 here in Australia, the Samyang AF 35mm f1.4 FE will be between $899-$950 so it is considerably less, this and it’s great performance makes it a very attractive option.
I’d definitely recommend the Samyang AF 35mm f1.4 FE lens as an alternative to Sony’s lenses on the Sony mirrorless system.

Nic Taylor writes:

From my time beta-testing the pre-production model I found that the lens resolves really well even at wide open apertures. It delivers crisp, sharp images throughout the aperture range as you can see from my selection of images below. There was some slight vignetting in the corners when shot wide open. Chromatic aberration (CA) is kept to a minimum due to the number of elements in the lens’ construction and as such I didn’t notice any during my time with it. However, as mentioned in my previous reviews CA is quite an easy fix in Lightroom with a click of a mouse.