Voigtlander Is Coming to the Fujfilm X Mount? / July 12, 2021 by Jan

I am absolutely thrilled by today’s speculation on Fujirumors that Cosina, Voigtländer’s parent company, will be announcing a 35mm f1.2, full manual lens for the Fujifilm X system!

If you have been reading my reviews on the Samyang lenses, especially the Samyang 21mm f1.4 and the Samyang 35mm f1.2, you’ll know that this is exactly what I was waiting for.

A Quick Recap

A quick recap for those who haven’t read my Samyang reviews (available here - 12mm, 21mm, 35mm); even though I love the image quality and the look of the images from the two lenses mentioned above, I always wished the lenses had a better build quality to match their amazing glass and optical design.

Especially the Samyang 35mm f1.2 suffers from too much stiffness to its focus ring. The Samyang 21mm is much better in that regard, much smoother, but still not something I would consider butter smooth. I long for my old Olympus OM 50mm f1.4 that had an amazingly smooth focus ring, with just the right amount of resistance. Or some Zeiss or Leica lenses I was able to use before were amazing, where as the Samyang 21mm is just very good and the 35mm is what I would describe as good. But I’d love to have the same lenses, with the same kind of quality in a more premium lens housing.

I take very good care of my lenses, in between shoots or while transporting my gear but during an event or photoshoot, I will always prioritize getting the shot instead of being cautious with my gear. Which is why there is one set of scratches on the housing of the 21mm. If they were a cm higher, they would have gone over the markings and focus distances on the focus ring. Since these numbers are just printed on and not engraved and then filled with ink, I have the suspicion that these markings will disappear at some stage in the future. Will I still own the lens when that happens? Will I still be using Fujifilm gear then? Who knows, but it would be nice to just have these engravings.

What I expect from the Voigtländer 35mm f1.2

I expect this lens to have a fantastic build quality, a very smooth focus ring with a metal housing. The rendering of the images will probably have a bit of an old school look with funky bokeh, probably not the sharpest wide open but very characterful. I wonder if it will be a full frame lens with a Fujifilm X mount, but I assume it will probably be a dedicated APS-C lens as they would have to re-design the lens to be suitable for the thicker stack Fujifilm sensors that would otherwise cause a lot of white hazing. Probably expect a price of around €800-900.

I love the lenses that Voigtländer have been releasing in the last few years. The ones that stand out to me most are the 50mm f3.5 non-collapsible lens with the beautiful engraving of the lens formula on the body. What a lens. While it doesn’t have a super fast aperture, it does have a fantastic colour reproduction and super creamy bokeh! I’m a big fan of the 40mm f1.4 as well, such an underrated focal length. As well as all of their APO lenses that focus on perfect colours! In a world of high megapixels and sharpness, I am delighted that there’s a company that still focusses on the important aspects like the rendering of colours, depth, bokeh and just producing beautiful images.

What I want from the Voigtländer 35mm f1.2

I’d love for Voigtländer to take the Samyang 35mm f1.2, put it in a gorgeous, metal Voigtländer housing and add a bit of character to the images. The Samyang 21mm has plenty of character, the Samyang 35mm isn’t lacking in character but it could benefit of having a little more. But keep the sharpness, light transmission and colours!

Although I expect the price to be high, I do hope it will only be around €500-600. If it is higher, as predicted, then for me it would have to be perfect in every regard. The competition at the 35mm focal length is pretty stiff in the Fujifilm world, especially with Fujifilm releasing their own updated, auto focus lens soon, the 33mm f1.4. But I do hope that Voigtländer succeeds with this lens and releases more focal lengths in the future.

Let’s see what happens!

Why I Sold My Fujifilm 56mm f1.2 R Lens - Review / July 9, 2021 by Jan

Fujifilm XF 56mm f1.2 R Review

I am going through a bit of a transition period when it comes to the lenses I currently own, and I haven’t really found my perfect set yet. But this post outlines how I came to the conclusion that the 56mm doesn’t fit into my collection. After my findings, I’ve added the feedback on this very lens, of the photographer who bought it off me. Our findings couldn’t be more different!

As a disclaimer, I want to say that this lens is a fantastic lens, and throughout my selling process and even while writing this post, I felt some form of regret for selling it. At the end of the day though, this lens is just not for me, but not due to a lack of quality. Purely due to a matter of taste and preference.

Look and Bokeh

I will start of with this point first as I feel like it isn’t talked about enough with this lens; the look that this lens produces. I think there is a misconception that a lot of bokeh automatically makes a lens good. In my eyes, there’s so much more to it than that though.

The images of this lens are too sharp, lower in contrast, with little micro-contrast and low in vibrancy and saturation. Both colours and contrast do improve when stopping down to f2 or f2.8, but were never good enough to satisfy my wants. To me, the colours that a lens produces are incredibly important to me and I’m stunned every time I use my Fujifilm 23mm f2 lens on how much contrast that lens has and how punchy and lovely the colours are. Some of the new Voigtlander lenses also have amazing colour that I am just lusting over. They regularly make me consider adopting the Sony system as well, just so I can use that lovely Voigtlander 40mm f1.2 for instance or the unusual 50mm f3.5 or the 65mm f2! They’re such creamy and unique lenses!
If I upped the contrast and/or clarity, vibrancy and saturation, it would improve things, but the images from this lens would always stand out as being different, compared to the other photos I took on the same day with other lenses. It’s not necessarily that this lens is bad, it just isn’t cohesive with my other lenses.

More of the Lord Mayor photos here (taken with the 56mm and the Samyang 21mm).

The Fujifilm 56mm lens is considered to be a portrait lens. I could imagine that Fujifilm purposefully made this lens to have lower contrast and saturation to make it more suitable for portrait photography. Low contrast would be forgiving towards the model. They might have focused on skin tones with this lens instead of an overall punchy look. But this seems to be only half thought out because they made the lens too sharp. I remember the first photos I took with it, they looked good, I wasn’t blown away but I wasn’t blown away either. But the overriding thought always was, “Why are they so sharp? Couldn’t they tone it down a bit?” To me, it always stands out in comparison to my other Samyang and Fujifilm lenses.
The 16-55mm and 50-140mm are also capable of some very high resolution, but they don’t get that unpleasant, over-sharpened look that the 56mm is capable of. I believe that it is this obsession with sharpness that has ruined another vital component of this lens; the bokeh. The bokeh doesn’t have enough character to be considered beautiful but isn’t clinical enough (ie. Sony GM) to be considered perfect. It just awkwardly floats around somewhere in the middle. Sometimes the 56mm does absolutely hit the spot with it’s bokeh and look. But it doesn’t happen often enough for me to continue using it. I would have preferred for them to tone down the sharpness, improve the bokeh, add a bit of vignetting, make the lens a little smaller, keep it lower contrast but therefore turn it into a portrait lens. Or ramp up the contrast and colour, improve the AF and just turn it into an all-rounder landscape/action/portrait lens. Just like the bokeh, it’s awkwardly just floating in the middle of being nothing specific, but not an all-rounder either.

More photos here of the performance art project ‘Ma Deirim’. The above image was taken with the 56mm but all other photos of this project were taken with the 50-140mm at f8-f11.

So why did I buy it?

Back in 2018 I needed a slight telephoto lens. This was when I started photographing MMA fights from ringside for Cage Warriors and BAMMA. It was just mere months before the Fujifilm 50mm f2 was available and the Fujifilm 50-140mm f2.8 or the 16-55mm f2.8 didn’t come into question at the time because of the f-stop.
With hindsight, Fujifilm is unfortunately not the format you want to be shooting MMA with. The reason behind this is that the arenas that MMA fights take place in are very dark and the fights are only dimly lit. Don’t ask me why. With the quick bursts that the fighters move with, capturing their kicks and punches require shutter speeds of at least 1/500 but preferrably 1/1000. Even then, you will stay have motion blur from various body parts. And unlike with motorsport, where photographers can use this motion blur for artistic creativity, in fighting it just looks dreadful. So combine fast shutter speeds, with a dim shooting environment and APS-C sensors that are sadly not that good in low light. That calls for only one thing; you need a fast aperture.

Would I have used the 56mm lens and the Fujifilm system again for photographing MMA fights? Nope. Nowadays, I would probably just grab a Canon 5d mkIII or a Nikon D750 with a 24-70mm or an 85mm lens. That would then live in my photography cupboard, purely as my MMA photography kit. But at the time the simplest solution was using the 56mm to photograph MMA. Insanity, now that I look back on it.

More photos of Fabian Edwards (left) here.

Autofocus

So my initial reason for buying the 56mm was to have something a bit more telephoto for action shots. I’m sure this wasn’t Fujifilm’s targeted scenario for this lens. I get that. But I’m sure they were thinking photographers would use this lens for weddings too and other such family events or even an outdoor portrait photoshoot. And that’s exactly what I ended up using it for as well.

It won’t come to a surprise to you then when I mention the dreadful AF this lens has. I know Fujifilm are coming out with an updated version at some stage, that will hopefully fix this, but I think it has come way too late.
When I’m focusing it on a subject, outside in the sun, it is fine. A bit loud but speedy enough, although sometimes it does confirm focus, when it’s slightly out of focus though. But generally it is alright.

More photos of the comedy duo ‘Lords of Strut’ here.

As soon as you’re indoors, however, maybe late in the evening of a wedding shoot. I’ll be in a dim room with candle lights or just intimate lighting, where that f1.2 aperture would be perfect. In those situations, it really struggles to focus on anything. And don’t you dare have your subject move a little, in which case, you’re back to square one. This is why I resorted to using my 50-140mm instead. I’d have an immediate focus confirm and would be able to shoot great, intimate photos of guests without their knowledge, since I didn’t have to point a camera at them for a solid minute or two to get a photo. The f2.8 aperture is a little annoying and makes me bump up the ISO more than I want in those situations, but it allows me to get more shots without getting frustrated.

I think that is the keyword to this lens; frustration. I am frustrated that this lens isn’t as good as I know Fujifilm could make it. Fujifilm makes some great lenses! But have a quick look at the Sigma 56mm f1.4. In my opinion, that lens is much better in the optical department, in terms of balancing sharpness, image quality and character. The Sigma has way better AF and is only a third of the price. How can that be? The Samyang 50mm f1.2 also has great colours, typically Samyang colours, which are great. Great contrast and micro contrast. Great bokeh and a nice compact size.

Sigma did announce they would be making their APS-C mirrorless lens trio (16/30/56) for the Fujifilm X-mount at some stage in the future. I don’t know what politics are at play but it seems bizarre to me that they haven’t done so already, or don’t feel like they should be doing so with more haste. Especially after I read the other day that they have released those exact lenses for the L-mount. Which is a complete dead end for APS-C lenses. Absolutely bizarre.

So, will I buy the Sigma 56mm f1.4 when, or if, it comes out? That’s a good question. I think that if I end up buying a prime lens in that focal length, it will probably come down to either the Fujifilm 50mm f2 or the Sigma. Maybe the Sigma a little more than the Fujifilm, because it will probably be cheaper and f1.4 just sounds a bit sexier than f2. I know it’s a silly statement to make but I think we all fall victim to this fact. But the Fujifilm 50mm is a bit wider. And that brings me onto my next point.

Focal Length

So why am I not pushed to immediately replace the 56mm? Well, it comes down to the focal length. This is obviously a very subjective and personal opinion, but I never felt completely comfortable with this focal length.
In a perfect world, Voigtlander would adjust the optical formula of the 40mm 1.2 to be perfect for Fujifilm camera sensors (I have been told that the Fujifilm sensors are thicker than the Sony A7’s and this produces white hazing when adapting certain Voigtlander lenses on Fujifilm bodies). I would then like for Voigtlander to add an amazing auto focus system to this lens and sell it with a Fujifilm X-mount. In a perfect world, that is what I would then buy and I’d be really happy with it and never need to buy another lens again. Pair it with my Samyang 21mm f1.4 on the other camera and I’d have an amazing wedding/event photography set up!

More photos of the pregnancy announcement here.

The Samyang 21mm f1.4 is my go to lens (my review here). I always have it with me, I couldn’t do without it. When I shoot with it, I need another lens with a tighter FOV to compliment it. This has always either been the Fujifilm 56mm, or the Samyang 35mm f1.2 (my review here). The only problem is, the 56mm always felt too tight and too close, especially when taking portraits of more than one person and I didn’t want to use the wide angle Samyang. I always had to run so far away from the subjects to get them all in shot. The images also looked too different to my 21mm. The 21mm has distortion, vignetting, punchy colours, heeps of contrast and very 3d like, engaging photos. The 56mm has too much of that flat, compressed, telephoto look. The two lenses couldn’t be more different. This difference in looks is especially noticeable in the photos I took of the Lord Mayor of Cork (also seen above, but click here to see the photos of both the 21mm and the 56mm together).

The 21mm did pair very nicely with the Samyang 35mm in terms of the look, however, there just wasn’t enough of a difference in terms of FOV. I always found myself wanting to be a bit closer. In comparison to the Fujifilm 35mm 1.4, the Samyang 35mm 1.2 is noticeably wider. Similar to the Touit 32mm. I am trying to pair the 21mm and Fujifilm 35mm together now and will see how that works. The Fujifilm 35mm 1.4 is a good lens, I wouldn’t rave about it as much as the rest of the internet but it is good enough for me at the moment. The autofocus isn’t as bad as the 56mm, although a bit loud, but the one thing I do not like at all with that lens is the foreground blur. It gets this horrible white haze that I don’t like at all. But ideally I would love a 40/45mm lens.

With social distancing and all that, the 21mm is currently on a bit of a holiday. So it’s all a bit up in the air anyway. I recently photographed an event though, where I ended up using the Fujifilm 35mm 1.4 and the 16-55mm only. And that worked surprisingly well. For the first time ever, I didn’t feel naked without my 21mm! Interestingly, I had a look on Lightroom afterwards and when I was using the 16-55mm at longer focal lengths, I always naturally gravitated towards the 38-45mm range without knowing that I did.

We’ll see what the future holds, but the 56mm is definitely not apart of it. I’ll keep an eye on what Sigma is doing, how the new Fujifilm 35mm Mk II lens will be and how I get on with my own selection of lenses. The Fujifilm 50mm f1 doesn’t really interest me. The Viltrox lenses don’t interest me at all.

More photos of this family photoshoot here.

My Conclusion

I didn’t mean to be too negative about this lens. I just thought I’d write out why it didn’t work for me, as there is so much positive things written about this lens on the internet. It’s not a cheap lens either, so it might help someone identify if this is a lens for them or not. At the end of the day it still got me all the lovely photos that I posted in this article. That’s not bad at all. I think I will instead just use my 16-55mm or the 50-140mm to fill my 50mm-ish focal length needs.

My 56mm found a better home with a local photographer, Jaco, who like me, also happens to be a South African living in Ireland. I thought it would be interesting to add his opinion to this article and see how he is getting on with the very same lens.

Jaco’s Opinion and Photos

Jaco writes, “I don't really care about the "look" to be honest, it's the field of view that I love. I also care about the excellent construction, lens hood availability, internal autofocus, FOV and compression, low light and strong optics, I don't look too deep into bokeh quality, or "micro contrast" etc, maybe I'm just spoiled though.

The short version is this: if Fuji release a fast prime in the 70mm vicinity, I’d rather have that. But compared to any other long lens available for fuji bodies, this is hands down my favourite option.”

Straight off the bat, there is a clear difference in our ideology and expectations of a lens. Where as I am looking for basically the same version of my Samyang 21mm but as a slight telephoto, Jaco is mainly interested in the compression and FOV. Compression is only slightly important to me, and it’s avoiding the wide angle distortion that has me reaching for the other camera and lens or zooming in more. But compression is not something I think of very often.

Let’s see what else he has to say; “I use 3 primes: the 16mm f/1.4, the 35mm f/2 and the 56mm f/1.2. I carry two bodies, one of which always has the 35mm, the other having either the 16mm or the 56mm. It really depends on the nature of the shoot, the spacing, the subjects, the backgrounds, the story. The 56mm simply serves to give me a tighter FOV, greater compression, better shallow DOF and better low-light performance than the other primes. In most situations I find myself in, the 56mm is very comfortable to use.”

Interesting. As I mentioned above, I always found this 56mm focal length a little bit awkward to use. Always a bit too tight or not tight enough. Interesting to read that he is very comfortable with this focal length. Also interesting that, like me, he always has one lens he takes with him everywhere.

“The image quality of the Fujifilm 60mm f2.4 truly blew me away, but sadly, for me, the slow and external autofocus, slow aperture and long lens hood outweighed the lens’s beautiful IQ. The Fujifilm 50mm f2 was great, but after Viltrox released their faster f1.4 56mm at a price lower than the 50 I decided to try it out. Optically it was brilliant, but with no internal corrections there was moderate purple fringing wide open. There are profiles available for Photoshop, but as I use Lightroom CC I was out of luck. Build-wise, it had an unpleasant clickless aperture ring, and the lens hood was quite long and needed to be reversed when stored, thus I needed to use a lens cap as well. Eventually I got Fuji’s 56mm f/1.2.

I don’t own any of these other lenses anymore, I just have Fuji’s 56mm. It gets out of my way and lets me focus on my shoots.”

That last line is the most important revelation; “It gets out of my way…”
I think all of us photographers just yearn for and seek a set up that allows us to purely concentrate on our work. For me, there are other lenses that do that for me. But that is the unique aspect of photography. There so many photographing styles and so much variety in gear.

So Jaco, would you keep this 56mm forever or are you missing any of the previous lenses you have owned?

“I love the 56mm, but if Fuji comes out with a fast 70mm-ish focal length, I'll strongly consider swapping it for that. But if they never drop a lens like that I'll stick with the 56mm. Regarding the old lenses, no I don't miss them at all really!”

Check out more of Jaco’s work here on his website (his portrait work is fantastic!):
jacobronkhorst.com

Or follow him on Instagram here:
@mrjacobie

If there are any photographer’s out there who have used this lens and would like to share their opinion, post it in the comments below or email me at: hello@savethejourney.com
I would find it very interesting to keep this conversation going and maybe make a follow up post on this.

The Ultimate Underdog - A Samyang 35mm f1.2 review / June 5, 2021 by Jan

Samyang/Rokinon 35mm f1.2 ED AS UMC CS Review

In today’s post we are not mucking around. Let’s get straight to the point!

Here are loads of sample photos of the Samyang/Rokinon 35mm f1.2 (ED AS UMC CS). People have been asking me to make this post for a while now, and I’m still surprised how little information there is on this lens. Even fewer sample photos. But one things for sure, it might be incredibly underappreciated but it’s one mighty underdog!

Bizarrely, I mistakenly got this lens with a Sony E-mount. I hadn’t initially planned to buy this lens because I couldn’t find any decent reviews on it. The manual focus made me keep clear of this lens too, even though I love the manual focus Samyang 21mm f1.4! But I must say that was down to me photographing a lot of MMA at the time. That’s not an environment where you want to be manual focusing with an f1.2 lens! So I bought the Fujifilm 35mm f2 instead. And regretted it.
I found this Samyang 35mm f1.2 for sale. It was really cheap. A used lens, but like new. I wrote the seller a couple of times. I must admit he didn’t only seem clueless about the lens and photography in general, but also a bit dim. The price was really good though so I just bought it, and when it arrived, surprise, surprise, the mount looked a little funny. To my dismay the lens didn’t fit! I was so gutted that I actually kept trying to mount it on the camera over and over again, as if the Sony E-mount would slowly transform into a Fujifilm X-mount. With each try a little more, until it eventually; it married itself to the camera body. No such luck. Witchcraft is still not present in this world.
Since I hadn’t bought it over an official website like eBay, and with the seller refusing a refund, I was stuck with the lens. I was fairly annoyed over it for a while, and it did sit in the back of my cupboard for a couple of weeks till I decided what to do with it. I eventually got onto Intro2020 in the UK (this was pre-Brexit). They are a licensed service centre for Samyang lenses and were able to send me a Fujifilm X-mount for this specific lens. So the lens might say E but it’s now a FX!

I got this lens just before the lockdowns in 2020, so I haven’t been able to use it on many professional shoots yet. So these photos are mainly of my own personal life. But it shouldn’t really make much of a difference for anyone interested in it.

At this stage I’d recommend to click here for my Samyang 21mm f1.4 review, as a lot of the physical aspects of this lens are exactly the same (the half step aperture, lens hood etc). There you’ll also find my opinion on manual focusing and why I think it is better. I truly still think it has a valid place in modern photography and shouldn’t just be seen as a financial decision.

Focusing

Now, onto details of this specific lens. We’ll start with focusing.

I find it pretty easy to focus with these modern Samyang lenses. At open aperture the lens has an incredible amount of contrast and sharpness which will help your focus peaking pop on the screen or in the viewfinder. This is incredibly dependent on the lighting conditions, so do take that in account. Outside during the day, it’s easy. Even at f1.2. But if you’re in a cramped, dingy environment with a lot of movements, don’t bother. But then again, how well would an auto-focus lens do? If the situation is tricky and I’m having issues nailing the focus, I do find that focusing starts easing up at f1.4. At f2 it’s so easy.

If you’re comparing this lens to a Fujifilm 35mm f1.4 then you will decide depending on the look of the images. You’ll like one or the other more. But with the Fujifilm 35mm f2 you’ll also be losing a stop and a half of light gathering. So if you’re getting worried about your focusing skills, and are deliberating the Fujifilm 35mm f2 lens, just know that it is so easy to get shots in focus with the Samyang at f2. You’ll definitely be able to manage that. And every now and then you can take it slow, open that aperture up to f1.4 or f1.2, which you can’t with the Fujifilm.

But it obviously depends on what you’re photographing. I did photograph a wedding last year where I used the Samyang 21mm and 35mm for the majority of the time. And I must admit, I happily reached for my Fujifilm 50-140mm f2.8 (review here) by the end of the evening, as I was getting fairly tired from all the manual focusing. Since then I have bought the Fujifilm 16-55mm f2.8 and will use that in the future to supplement my manual lenses. Just to make it a bit easier for a long day. Whenever we will be leaving our lockdown that is.

What I did notice as well, is that the focus ring is noticeably stiffer than the 21mm. The 21mm has such a buttery smooth focus ring, this one is smooth too, but stiffer. It’s not a hindrance, and I guess it does make those small adjustments more accurate (not too sure about that statement to be honest), but it would be nice to have a little less resistance.

Image Quality

Let’s get to the important topic; image quality. When it comes down purely to the quality, I reckon this is the best 35mm lens for the Fujifilm X-mount. When it comes down to the look of the images, which is so subjective, I think that again, it’s the best 35mm lens for the Fujifilm X-mount.

Although I did watch a very well made YouTube video of someone who proclaimed that the Zeiss Touit 32mm f1.8 was the best lens. I understood what he meant, but I don’t agree. The same with the Fujifilm 35mm f1.4. Both lenses have so much character, and I do agree that it has its place sometimes. But to be stuck with that look all the time, is a tough pill to swallow for a professional photographer. If I was purely photographing for fun, it would be fine, but I have to cater for so many different situations, environments, lighting conditions etc. and have to guarantee the client that I will always get great shots every time.

That’s where the Samyang 35mm lens strikes the perfect balance between having character, yet not being overbearing, but also not being clinical, like I found the Fujifilm 35mm f2 to be. The colours this lens produces are typically Samyang. Which is excellent! As is the contrast and micro-contrast. This lens is sharper, with less vignetting and distortion than the Samyang 21mm f1.4 and has the same amount of contrast.

I am not totally against the Fujifilm 35mm f1.4 and might actually buy it in the future for those long wedding days if I don’t get on well with the Fujifilm 16-55mm. I just prefer the Samyang.

What would I change physically?

This paragraph is taken straight from my Samyang 21mm lens review, all points are exactly the same.

I would change a few things here. I would adore it if Samyang decided to release a Mk II version with a higher quality body. The lens body is currently fine, made of high quality plastic that is lightweight. But for a working professional like me who uses this lens a lot, I would love to have a full metal body to a similar quality level as Zeiss. I wouldn’t even need or want anything too crazy like Leica’s lenses.

The focus ring on these lenses are also not perfectly accurate, I had to open up the mount on mine and adjust some internal bits to have infinity correlate with the infinity symbol on the focus ring. This could have been due to the lens mount swap but I have had the same issue with the Samyang 21mm f1.4 and 12mm f2 (review here). I can still focus to infinity, it just doesn’t line up perfectly with the sign on the focus ring, but I wouldn’t mind paying, say €100 more, to have this perfectly accurate and in a better quality body.

And lastly, again, not crucial, but it would be nice if the lenses had an electronic chip to communicate to the camera which lens it is. A nice little extra when I’m in Lightroom and looking through older photos. It would also give me a good indication to keep track which lenses I am using over a certain time period. I know I can set this in camera, but I have several Samyang lenses and can’t or forget to set this every time I do a lens swap.

Conclusion

I hope these photos help you make a decision. I tried my best to get a good mix of photos, from portraits to landscapes to close ups, some background and foreground blur.

Bottom line, I really recommend everyone to try this lens. I see it for sale on the used market regularly for around €200-250. I am flabbergasted that one can get such a high quality lens that’s better than a Zeiss for so little money.

If you are too worried about the manual focusing however, you might be better off with one of the Fujifilm lenses. Or buy a cheap 50mm lens (Olympus OM, Canon FD, Minolta MD etc) and try it out before committing to the Samyang. The focal length will obviously be different and those legacy lenses don’t have such high levels of contrast, so focusing will be a bit more difficult than the Samyang. But it could give you a taste of what it’s like.

And as I’ve said before, I hope this helps someone who might be contemplating this lens. On the other hand I am glad to say that there aren’t any Amazon links here, so if you buy this lens or not thankfully doesn’t affect me at all! But I have been on the internet often enough looking for more information on a more obscure lens like this one. So I thought it’s my time to give back a little.

If you enjoyed this post, have a look at some of my other gear reviews here, or if you want to improve your product photography, click here to see how I photographed these inanimate objects.

Thanks for reading! And if you’re interested, I am selling this lens after using it for about half a year as I just have too many lenses at the moment.