SAMYANG 85 mm T1 – decent optics and really nice bokeh. Well worth investing in for indie film

January 02, 2020

SAMYANG 85 mm T1 – decent optics and really nice bokeh. Well worth investing in for indie film

This lens is superb – smooth action, decent optics and really nice bokeh. Well worth investing in for indie film makers and those shooting on a budget.

Great kit for a good price, want them all. Real nice results with a 5dmkiii.

Overall a great lens but got some downside: i purchased the lens because the fast aperture for videos with an nd filter. The lens have a great performance in the middle of the image from around f2~f2. 8 but to have great results you need to stop down around f3-f4. 4 (the reason i got it) the lens had a crazy amount of chromatic aberration where the clip was unusable. My copy had a small flow where the lens hood have been hit before, wasn’t broken only deformed, but for sure the package was open before.

Can’t tell the difference between this and canon l series lenses – apart from the fact that it doesn’t do the autofocus thing that they do. But not so crucial for video anyway.

I thought long and hard before purchasing this lens for my canon c100 mk 2 cine camera. It has no electronics in it and the focusing barrel is very smooth. No click stops so you can change the aperture smoothly by using the aperture ring if the light level changes. I filmed some pieces to camera yesterday on f2 and the footage is crispy. 5 wide aperture, great for achieving shallow depth of field. However, if you use this lens on canon 5d mk 3 or a similar body you will not get a focus confirmation, hence i’ve given this lens only 4 stars. Also, the lens hood doesn’t click into position and can easily get detached. Will i recommend it, yes, go for it and you won’t be disappointed.

Love this lens, good colour rendition and super sharp. This still is from my ursa 4.

I bought it for the panasonic gh4 6 months ago so didn’t want to write a review until i had a good chance to place with it. For the price it’s fantastic. I already had the 12mm version so knew what to expect with samyang lenses – they’re completely manual. If you’re going to shoot video with it, you’re going to need a tripod or at least carry a gorillapod for stabilisation. For this reason i only take it out when i know i’m going to use it. If you’re tossing up whether to get this or the photography version (which is a bit cheeper) the big differences i noticed were the focus ring pull range is a lot longer and the aperture ring is smooth rather than indented. Also the markings are on the side of the lens rather than on top which i actually found to be handy.

Here are the specifications for the SAMYANG 85 mm T1:

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Fast T1.5 aperture makes this lens great for low light and shallow depth of field
De-clicked aperture movement and toothed focus and aperture rings provide smooth operation while shooting video.
Features the latest generation multi-layer anti-reflection ultra multi-coating (UMC) to minimise flare and ghosting
Designed for DSLR Video Shooting ; Format : Full Frame ; Diagonal Angle of View :Super35/APS-C: 19.1degree Full Frame: 28.3 degree
Built-In Petal Type Lens Hood ; Minimum Focus Distance from Image Plane : 42 Inches / 106.7 cm