They say that the five most used focal Lengths are 35 50 85 135 and 150. and if You were to go out today and buy each One of those independently Well then you'd probably take a few Steps towards bankruptcy that's why this Whole Trend started which is to Basically cover that whole focal range With a fast walk around Zoom now this Started with the Tamron 35 to 150 and That was a very popular very well Received lens I never reviewed it but Maybe I will in the future But this one is kind of like that one Except that it's six hundred dollars Less so let's check it out this is the Relatively new samyang 35 to 150 F2 to 2.8 but you can also get this as a Rokinon as both are the exact same Company inside there is some foam a user Manual a pleated carrying pouch and the Lens itself plastic front and rear lens Caps and it even comes with a plastic Lens Hood this samyang is a big lens That is a compromise of putting Effectively two focal lengths together Into one I'm talking about the 24 to 70 And the 70 to 200. it's also quite heavy At 1274 grams which is almost three pounds And this is despite it being constructed Of mostly plastic and glass although I Guess the barrel is metal starting at The rear there is a metal mount with
Electronic connections this lens is made In Korea and it comes with a rubber Gasket around the mount for weather Sealing in fact in this diagram I count Seven gaskets so this lens is weather Sealed according to samyang lens specs Are listed here minimum Focus distance Is 0.32 meters 82 millimeter filter Thread again made in Korea and a samyang Logo the zoom ring is large grippy with A short throw you can quickly move Through the range with a slight rotation It is smooth very light to rotate and While it does stay put at 150 Millimeters at about 100 millimeters This lens falls on itself as there is Very little resistance to the zoom Likewise there is some lens creep as you Flip it down from 35 to 100 millimeters Fortunately there is a lock button on The side but that only helps if you are Packing this lens for travel next up are Two switches and two custom buttons Which you can use for Focus hold the Custom switch has three options that Alter what the focus ring controls in Mode 2 for example the focus ring Controls aperture now this Focus ring is Electronic it's smooth nicely damped Grippy no complaints there right in Front of it is the signature half hidden Red ring that we see on a lot of samyang And Rokinon lenses and finally around The front we get a nice sized front lens
Element no writing here it's nice and Clean inside there are 21 elements in 18 Groups and a 9 bladed diaphragm and a Linear STM which is the older style Stepper autofocus motor mounted on my A7c you can see just how large this lens Is and with it extended to 150 Millimeters and with the lens Hood it Looks menacing it also makes for a heavy Setup this all together is nearly four Pounds but it does beat carrying around A 70-200 while using a 24 to 70. the Important thing is how this large lens Performs so I took it out with my a7c And I snapped a couple of photos here They are straight out of the camera no Editing untouched Ready Set Go [Music] So [Music] [Music] My We used to feel like a glove [Music] All right so optically this is an Impressive lens the results are similar To what you'd see from a prime lens in Many situations you get impressive Sharpness in the center of the frame Wide open even the corners look Surprisingly good now this lens is an F2 To F 2.8 but it's only F2 from 35 Millimeters to about 45 and then F 2.2 Until 60 then 2.5 to about 80 and then F
2.8 after that some people may be Annoyed at that but the way I look at it Is that this lens is brighter than F 2.8 At everything under 80 millimeters which Is nice for low light work now I did a Quick sharpness test between this lens And the Tamron 28 to 75 G2 and you can See just how much smaller this thing is I mean it's ridiculous I thought that This was a big lens but this is another Level anyway let's take a look at the Results well there's not much to say Here it is as sharp at f2 in the center And may be slightly worse in the corners But just slightly when you shoot this Samyang at F 2.8 it's even sharper than The little Tamron the same applies at 70 Millimeters there is a slight vignette Wide open at 35 millimeters with this Lens that does go away mostly at F 2.8 And certainly as you zoom in in terms of Distortion this lens does very well at Various focal lengths the lines look Very close to perfectly straight so if There is any Barrel Distortion or pin Cushion it is minute even chromatic Aberration I would describe as well Controlled however it does show up at Times but I tested it at a variety of Focal lengths and I found the overall Suppression to be excellent really there Are three cons with this samyang lens The first is the lens flare even with The lens Hood attached the flare is
Pronounced and it does affect the Contrast levels in the image it's not Horrendously bad but it is significant Enough to affect your results shooting Into bright light sources the second Thing is the autofocus performance now The STM motor end inside of here is Silent and it is quick and certainly the Performance is better than a lot of Other third-party lenses out on the Market and in fact if you are just Shooting photos with it you will likely Not experience any issues or feel like There is a performance shortcoming Sometimes it just won't grab the eye as Quickly as I would like it to for eye Autofocus but after a second or two it Gets it but when you start shooting Video the older technology of that Stepper motor starts to show that's not To say that the video is unusable it's Definitely usable and for slower moving Subjects it does just fine at tracking a Person but when action intensifies this Samyang will start to Rack focus in and Out slightly it will hunt a little bit And it just won't transition between one Subject to another s seamlessly as a Sony zoom lens for example but I am Holding on to hope that samyang will Continue to improve the autofocus Performance of this lens through Firmware updates which you can load onto This thing with the separate dock that
You can buy for about fifty dollars US This lens is running firmware version 2.0 which is the latest release but I'm Sure they'll have updates into the Future on the plus side Focus breathing For video is very well controlled it's Not much of an issue even at the Telephoto focal lengths lastly I have to Mention the build which is about average It's not that the materials are poor or The finishes are bad or that it feels Cheap to the contrary it looks and feels Great but when you compare it to a Sony Zoom or certainly a sigma Zoom it Doesn't give you that same level of Premium feel even compared to my tiny Tamron which may feel similar and build At least the Tamron is backed up by a Six-year U.S warranty while this samyang Has a one year warranty but you do have To weigh that with the fact that this Lens is again six hundred dollars less Than the equivalent Tamron Lens that Covers the same focal length depending On whether you get the samyang or the Rokinon version you can pay pick up one Of these lenses for as low as thirteen Hundred dollars brand new now that's Still a significant chunk of money but It's quite a bit less than a Nineteen Hundred Dollar Tamron or four or five Thousand dollars for two lenses from Sony I'm thinking 24 to 70 and 70 to 200. in a sense I feel like this samyang
Lens didn't get quite the fair Shakedown That it should have when it was released I feel like they didn't get it into Enough people's hands to really create That interest and that drama because When the Tamron came out everyone and Their mother was talking about that lens And it made a large impact but then when This one came out it was almost like it Was a limited buy invite only release or Something no one is talking about this Lens which is kind of unfair because in Many situations and in some comparisons That I've seen this thing performs even Better than that Tamron so the Conclusion is that this samyang lens is A very capable excellent versatile Zoom It's big it's heavy and it does have a Few quirks when Auto focusing in video But for photography for slower paced Video and for General usability this is A hard one to beat for the money if you Would like to read more about this lens Or pick up your own I'll leave a link Down in the description so definitely Check that out let me know what your Thoughts are down in the comment section And stay tuned for more have a nice day Bye
