Samyang AF 24mm f/2.8 FE
Samyang has delivered an impressive compact wideangle prime for full-frame mirrorless users, says Andy Westlake
Andy Westlake tests this compact wideangle prime for full-frame mirrorless
Samyang first made its name by producing inexpensive manual focus lenses that rapidly gained a reputation for punching well above their weight in terms of optical quality. But over the past few years it has expanded its ambitions, and has begun to produce a range of autofocus lenses for both DSLRs and full-frame mirrorless cameras. The AF 24mm f/2.8 FE is its latest offering in the latter category, and follows on from last year’s AF 35mm f/2.8 FE in being a compact, lightweight prime that’s also very affordable, costing just £279.
The ‘FE’ in the lens’s name designates that it’s made for Sony’s full-frame mirrorless cameras, and the Alpha 7 series in particular. But of course Sony is no longer the only kid on the block in this area, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Samyang has teams of engineers frantically reverse- engineering Canon and Nikon’s new full-frame mirrorless RF and Z mounts as fast as is humanly possible. This could potentially be a very interesting lens for the new Canon EOS R and Nikon Z 6.
Features
You’d be forgiven for thinking that such a small lens might be a simple design, but that’s not in fact the case. Instead, the seven- element, seven- group optical formula includes three aspheric elements, along with two crafted from high refractive index glass, in a bid to minimise aberrations including distortion and chromatic aberration. Glass surfaces are treated with Samyang’s ultra multi- coating to reduce flare and ghosting.
The aperture diaphragm is formed of seven curved blades, with the aim being to render out- of-focus highlights close to circular when the lens is stopped down. However this being a 24mm f/2.8, it’s never going to be your first choice for isolating subjects against a
blurred background, except perhaps for extreme close-ups around the minimum focus distance of 24cm. Focusing is internal, which means that filters attached to the 49mm thread won’t rotate on focusing.
A bayonet-fit hood is supplied in the box, with a shallow bowl-shaped design that adds about 1cm to the overall length. When it’s not in use, it can be mounted in reverse over the barrel, but there’s little point in bothering as it only protrudes a couple of millimetres past the front cap. In some ways it’s a good fit to the lens, providing physical protection to the front element as well as against mitigating against flare from oblique light, while keeping the overall size small. However, I can’t help but feel that a petal-type design would have been more effective.
Build and handling
At just 37mm in length and 93g in weight, this Samyang is one of the smallest and lightest full-frame lenses available. This is down to several factors: the barrel construction makes extensive use of plastics, while the short back-focus of the mirrorless E-mount enables a radically different optical design – compared to conventional SLR 24mm f/2.8 optics – that uses considerably less glass. As a result, the lens is extremely portable and unobtrusive; I carried it around all day and barely noticed.
As with its 35mm f/2.8 sibling, Samyang has constructed the mount from a silver- coloured material that’s clearly designed to fool the unwary into believing it’s metal, but which is in fact plastic. The barrel itself is a squat black cylinder that’s mostly taken up by the smoothly rotating manual focus ring, which sports a finely ridged grip. In the firm’s current fashion, slim metallic silver and red rings on either side provide the only cosmetic embellishment.
Autofocus
Despite its relative inexperience with autofocus, Samyang has done a good job with the 24mm f/2.8. Focusing is quick and decisive, and almost entirely inaudible: indeed only the photographer is likely to notice the highpitched whirring of the AF motor, and even then, only in a quiet room. Likewise, it’ll probably only impact on video soundtracks when filming in very quiet environments. I found nothing to complain about in terms of focus accuracy, either.
When it comes to manual focus, the lens behaves much as we’d expect. Rotating the manual focus ring drives the AF motor, with extremely fine steps that enable precise adjustment. You can use all the camera’s usual focusing aids, including magnification and peaking displays. Set the focus mode to Direct Manual Focus (DMF) and you can use autofocus as normal, then fine-tune manually when necessary.
‘ The lens is extremely portable and unobtrusive’
Image quality
Examining photographs taken with the Samyang AF 24mm f/2.8 FE show that, on the whole, it’s a very decent optic. In the centre of the frame, images already show crisp detail at f/2.8, with the best results achieved from f/4 onwards. Naturally the corners aren’t quite so sharp, especially at large apertures, but stop down to f/8 and you’re unlikely to be disappointed with the level of detail the lens records from corner to corner. At smaller apertures diffraction inevitably takes its toll, and I’d generally avoid the f/22 setting unless extended depth of field is paramount.
Distortion is relatively low. Examined closely, straight lines along the edges of the frame show a complex moustache-type shape, however the effect is very small, and is most unlikely to spoil your images. Likewise some colour fringing can be visible in the corners due to lateral chromatic aberration, but it’s not exactly objectionable.
Perhaps the lens’s defining characteristic is its vignetting. That small- diameter optical unit results in considerable corner darkening, especially when shooting wide open at f/2.8. This shading effect never fully goes away, either, and remains quite noticeable even at small apertures, especially with images that have large evenly toned areas extending into the corners. Whether you can live with this depends entirely on personal taste. I rather like the framing effect it can add to an image, and of course it’s easy enough to correct if necessary, either using in- camera lens compensation or during postprocessing. But if you’re really not a fan of the look, you should give this lens a miss.
One a more positive note, out- of-focus backgrounds are generally rendered with an attractive blur, which isn’t always something you can say for wideangle primes. I had few problems with flare, either, and when it did appear the effect tended to be interesting rather than ugly.