The Samyang AF 50mm f1.4 FE II is a compact and lightweight prime lens for Sony mirrorless cameras. Watch my complete photo and video review video below to see how this camera performs out in the field at a portrait photoshoot. This blog post is brief rundown of all the examples I shared in my video. If you want to hear a more detailed review and see unedited, SOOC photos at 1:1 ratio, please check out my video!
model chloe
makeup lidija j
video dan @ i make films
All portraits edited with my Aspen Lightroom Preset Pack. All photos of the lens are edited with my Earthy Lightroom Preset Pack.
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Samyang 50mm f1.4 II + Sony A7IV Portrait Photography
Focus Accuracy
On both the Sony A7IV and A7III I noticed a lack of focus accuracy with this Samyang 50mm f1.4 II. I had a large amount of photos with focus on the eyelashes, eyebrows, cheekbones and hair. You can see in my review video that the eye AF point is ALWAYS sticky on the model's eyes. However this unfortunately does not reflect in the results of my photos.
The Samyang 35mm f1.4 and Samyang 85mm f1.4 AF both use dual linear sonic motors, which helps them focus fast and more accurately. On the other hand, this Samyang AF 50mm f1.4 II uses a linear stepping motor like the AF 50mm f1.4 mark 1. My opinion is that this motor isn’t fast enough to keep up with my pace of shooting at f1.4. I have video examples with the Sony A7sIII to show the slower pace of focusing in video mode. These examples are with the fastest transition speed of 7.
Sharpness
I found when I did have a photo with focus on the iris, the images are sharp. As usual, I do love the character of Samyang lenses. They are extremely flattering for portraits as the images have enough sharpness to see details, but not too sharp that it looks clinical.
Lens build
This lens is compact and lightweight. The AF 50mm f1.4 mark 1 weighs 585g. The AF 50mm f1.4 mark 2 weighs 420g making it 165g lighter than the original. I like the new material they’ve made the lens out of, you can no longer see all your finger prints on the lens when you touch it like the 50mm f1.4 mark 1.
This lens also features a mode switch to change the lens ring function from a focus ring to an aperture control.
Bokeh
The background to foreground separation looks great on this lens with portrait photography. The bokeh is round and defined when shooting wide open at f1.4. You can see some green and blue fringing in the bokeh.
Chromatic Aberration
There is a significant amount of chromatic aberration in this Samyang AF 50mm f1.4 II. I have a collection of unedited photos in my review video where you can see this more clearly. You can also see CA in the sample images I have available to download at the end of this blog post.
Samyang 50mm f1.4 II + Sony A7III Portrait Photography
Lens flare
This Samyang AF 50mm f1.4 II has a soft, washed out lens flare that can be creatively integrated into your photos. At certain angles the orange part of the lens flare becomes more defined. Again, you can see more lens flare samples in my review or download the sample gallery to take a closer look.
Video
Watch my review video above to see all the video samples I captured. I share the eye AF performance, focus speed, focus breathing and 4K 50p slow mo portrait of our model Chloe.
All portraits edited with my Aspen Lightroom Preset Pack. All photos of the lens are edited with my Earthy Lightroom Preset Pack.
If you enjoyed this blog post, you might want to check out my photoshoot and review of the Samyang 24-70mm f1.8 which is their first ever zoom lens!
Download a high resolution sample gallery of photos taken on the Samyang AF 50mm f1.4 FE II + Sony A7IV here. I’ve included examples of the bokeh, chromatic aberration and lens flare. Please leave me a comment if you end up downloading the sample gallery letting me know what you think and what other photos you’d like to see included in future download galleries!
