Today’s Post by Joe Farace
The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. —Henry David Thoreau
Once upon a time, I was having breakfast with a photographer/friend and we were talking about lenses and I mentioned that my favorite for photographing people was the EF 85mm f/1.8 ($499.) He really liked that lens but really wanted to own the (now discontinued) EF 85mm f/1.2 ($1899) that I tested for Shutterbug a few years ago. Which maybe why Canon replaced this lens with the almost-as-expensive EF 85mm f/1.4 IS USM ($1599) a combination that Nikon offers as well as Sigma and Zeiss. But none of them is what you might call inexpensive.
While browsing the Internet, I saw what I was looking for: The Samyang 85mm f/1.4 that’s priced at $229. Since that’s even less than a EF 85mm f/1.8 costs I knew there had to be a catch and there was: The lens is manual focus.
The Samyang lens’s minimum aperture is f/16 and its internal focusing design uses ten elements in seven groups. The lens produces a 28.3 degree angle-of-view and focuses as close as 3.3 ft. Filter size is 72mm and a lens hood is included and you know how I feel about that. It’s available for Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony Alpha and E-mount along with Micro Four-thirds, although I think that its one pound weight might be a handful when used with a lightweight mirrorless camera like my Olympus E-M10 that itself only weighs 13.76 oz. The price varies depending on the mount selected.
To, you know, see what happens, I shot a side-by-side comparison between my own Canon EF 85mm f/18 and the Samyang 85mm f/1.4.
How I Made these Photos: Pam Simpson modeled for this headshot shot that was made in my in-home studio. Camera used was an EOS Digital Rebel T4i. The main light was from a 300 W/s monolight at camera right with a white 86-inch parabolic umbrella mounted. An inexpensive ($29.90) Westcott 30-inch 5-in-1 Reflector was placed at camera left for fill, although I’m not sure how much it added. Exposure was 1/100 sec at f/8 and ISO 400. I first attached the Canon EF lens, then made a few shots with the Samyang. Can you tell which one is which? To help you decide, I enlarged a section of Pam’s eye. Now can you tell now?
The Samyang lens shot is at right.
If that works for you and you don’t mind manually focusing a lens, it looks like a good deal for budget-minded portrait photographers.
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If you’re interested in learning how I shoot portraits and use cameras, lenses and lighting in my in-home studio and on location, please pick up a copy of Studio Lighting Anywhere that’s available new from Amazon.com for $32.33 or starting at $16.99 used, as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99, if you prefer a digital format format.