SAMYANG MF 85mm f/1.4 RF

A yesteryear design for the cameras of tomorrow? Surely that’s nonsense, or is it?

£319/$379

To make the most of mirrorless cameras, you’d naturally look for lenses that’re laden with electronics, high-performance AF and probably effective image stabilization. This manual lens from Samyang is the complete opposite.

There are no internal electronics, so the lens can’t communicate with the camera body. You can therefore only shoot effectively in Manual or Aperture Priority modes. And you can’t adjust the aperture from the camera, instead needing to turn the aperture control ring on the lens. The aperture isn’t shown in the camera’s information display, nor recorded in EXIF info. There’s also no autofocus or image stabilization.

While the feature-set might sound a dead loss, the reality is different. The viewfinders of DSLRS are poor for manual focusing, but the electronic viewfinders and rear screens of mirrorlesses make it easier, especially with aids like ‘focus peaking’. The typically long travel of the focus ring in this manual-focus lens enables precise and accurate tweaks.

Performance

A hybrid aspherical element, and Samyang’s Ultra Multi Coating, help to deliver very good image quality with little lateral or longitudinal chromatic aberration, distortion, ghosting or flare. Sharpness is great at f/2 and excellent at apertures of f/2.8 and narrower. It drops off substantially at, f/1.4 but there’s still enough sharpness on tap to deliver richly detailed portraits.