Samyang 24mm

An autofocus lens for the Sony E mount

The Korean manufacturer Samyang (also badged Rokinon in the USA) has been making lenses since 1972. They’re best known for their manual-focus primes, which have included offbeat optics like mirror telephotos and tilt-and-shift lenses. Competing against more mainstream fare, Samyang recently started making autofocus lenses, most notably for Sony full-frame E-mount bodies, namely the A7 series and the A9. Choices currently include 14mm, 24mm and 35mm f/2.8 lenses, as well as 35mm and 50mm f/1.4 options, the last of which is featured in this month’s group test.

While the hefty 50mm f/1.4 dwarfs Sony’s mirrorless bodies, the 24mm f/2.8 is much more compact and manageable, weighing in at just 93g – less than a sixth of the weight of Samyang’s 50mm lens. It packs a lot in, though. The optical path is based on just seven elements, but these include three complex aspherical elements and two HR (High Refractive index) elements.

The autofocus system is based on a stepping motor and is quick and quiet in operation. It’s clearly audible, however, and not as virtually silent as some stepping motors. The usual ‘fly by wire’ manual focus ring is electronically coupled and works well with manual-override and fully manual focus options in Sony’s cameras, enabling very precise adjustments.

Performance

Autofocus is consistently reliable, even near the 28cm shortest focus distance, where accuracy is critical. Contrast is very good, even wide-open at f/2.8, and sharpness is perfectly respectable at this aperture. Stopping down to f/4 enables excellent sharpness in the central region of the frame but it starts to drop off again at f/11 and narrower apertures.

Sharpness

Centre-sharpness is excellent between f/4 and f/8, while corner-sharpness is impressive at f/5.6 to f/8.

Fringing 0.17

There’s very little colour fringing at wide to medium apertures, although it creeps in at narrow apertures.

Distortion 1.06

There’s not much in the way of barrel distortion, which is controlled well for such a wide-angle lens.

1 Very compact, the lens is just 37mm long. It weighs 93g and has a 49mm filter thread. 2 The internal focusing system ensures the front element neither rotates nor extends. 3 High-precision manual focusing is enabled by the ‘fly by wire’ focus ring design.