Samyang85mm F1.4 High Speed Auto Focus Lens for Canon EF Mount, Black (SYIO85AF-C)

90% of the Canon version for thousands less. It might focus a tad slower and have tiny bit less IQ than the Canon version, but it's more than capable of capturing beautiful photos.

Picked this up as “semi disposable” 85mm prime for my Sony A7iii. I was blown away with how the pictures come out! Zero chromatic abbreviation. Focus’s super quick and has a decent weight to it but not too heavy. Doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles on the outside but the insides are high quality as I had no issues capturing portraits or sports when using the Samyang. Shot a flag football game and all the photos came out great, nothing out of focus due to the lens. Worth every penny & I will be buying more samyang lenses in the future!!

Like many Canon shooters I have a tendency to convince myself that I "have" to have that shiny new L-series glass. "My clients will see the difference!" I say as I push the "Buy Now" button and watch $2300 disappear from my dwindling bank account yet again.No more - this lens has broken my curse. I have been shooting L-series glass for the past ten years for both personal and professional work and I have never seen a third-party lens this good, let alone on the RF mount. I have never owned a Samyang lens but this 85mm is tack sharp, so much so that I actually saw a reduction in sharpness with even my highest quality filters attached - this thing deserves to be left to shoot in the raw. The included lens hood is large and does great at keeping the front element safe without a UV filter in place.The colors run warm and with a green tint, but in a pleasing way. The vignette is strong, but easily corrected and I find myself leaving it in more and more rather than adding a vignette from Lightroom. Build quality is excellent. The lens box was shipped in the flimsiest paper bag which was ripped open during shipping and horribly re-taped by USPS. The lens inside was perfectly fine, in line with comments by others that this thing is hardy. The focus ring has a long throw, but that is absolutely necessary if you decide to focus manually at f/1.4 where you want finer focus adjustments. The autofocus on my EOS R is excellent and the lens keeps up just fine with eye-detect focus in AI Servo mode on portrait subjects walking directly towards the camera, probably one of the hardest focus situations when DOF is so shallow. Maybe 1 in 5 shots under that scenario has focus slightly off and I get the same results with my L-series glass.Honestly, this lens has made me question how much money I could have saved beforehand by not just defaulting to only buying L-series glass. This is an excellent piece of kit with a personality all its own that renders the world tack sharp where it needs to and buttery smooth elsewhere. Embrace that personality and it will give you some excellent images.

I will list the cons first, because everyone wants to know the trade-off they will make getting this lens vs the expensive Sony one.1) Flare. This is something every 85mm on the market struggles with, but this one's is unique and green, not pleasing. Just use the hood and avoid shooting into the sun and problem solved. If you notice the center of your photo has a green hue, you pointed too close to the sun.2 Minor CA in extreme contrast situations. Two clicks in post and it's gone, but it's worth noting.3 Slight front focus, but not annoyingly so. Could be corrected with the dock, but I don't have one yet. Not really a problem unless you are used to lenses that back focus a little.4 No fancy features of the super expensive one, but it's a quarter of the price.Pros are numerous, even shooting it on an a6000.Beautiful photos with little effort, can even photograph friendly wildlife. Focus is as fast as any Sony lens I have, but again it's on an a6000. It is a little heavy and bigger than the camera body, but that's the trade off for very fast glass on a cheap camera. No image stabilization, but with glass this fast and modern high ISO performance, not an issue at all.So far, I'm very pleased with the lens and would have gladly paid at least a hundred more bucks for this quality! I've recommended this lens to a couple of others already and they too have been pleased with the results. If my opinion on this beautiful piece of kit changes, I'll update this review then.

I had the Viltrox 85mm f1.8 but wanted to upgrade to f1.4. I sold that & got the this lens. It hasn't disappointed me, except for 2 areas. The AF performance is great, picture quality is stellar & the bokeh rendering is lovely...it has a swirly quality to it that I like. The only thing I don't like about it is the build quality. Compared to the all metal Viltrox lens that was a tank, this lens is very plasticky. The up-side is that despite being bigger, it's actually less heavy than the Viltrox. My second issue is with the focus ring. It's not as big as the Viltrox & it moves way too fast for my liking. Sometimes when using flash the lens occasionally seems to overexpose the scene even when I have not changed any of the settings. If I flip the aperture to a new setting & back it corrects itself though. I'm not sure what that's about & I don't know if it may be an issue with my flash trigger. Overall great purchase.