Samyang AF 45mm f/1.8 FE

firsts

The firsts series represents the first lenses I owned and have kept for each (interchangeable lens) camera body I’ve had. This is the third in the series.

In 2019 my Canon 5D Mark II was a little bit long in the tooth, and a bit of a heavy beast. While still a wonderful camera, I’d been spoilt a bit by the focusing on the Sony A6000. Having Canon lenses, I was still tempted by a new Canon full-frame camera, but everything Canon had looked a bit uninspiring. Every review of the Sony A7R III touted the amazing focusing. I was a bit torn. And then Wex hit me at a moment of weakness; they knocked the price down of the A7R III and threw in a mount converter from Canon EF to E Mount. Sold.

The trouble is that “knocked the price down” did not make the camera cheap, it just made it less painfully expensive. I had exactly zero full frame Sony lenses at this point; sure I could adapt some Canon lenses but I thought having something fast and fun would be great. It did need to be (comparatively) cheap though. Enter the Samyang 45mm.

Mount	Sony E (full frame compatible)
Weight	162g
Purchased	23 August 2019
From	Wex
Price	£349

The Samyang is fast, light and small (56mm long). It’s also really lovely. Some of my first photos taken with it were great. There was a bit of me that thought that the not-always-highly-regarded Samyang / Rokinon / [some other brand name] might create something cheap and a bit naff. Far from it. I think the only thing you can really criticise is the occasional bit of flare (there’s the hint of it above) and I rather like when it does occur.

What it absolutely excels at is, in concert with the Sony eye autofocus, taking portraits where the eye is bang on sharp:

I’m of the view that 40-45mm is one of the best focal lengths (I’m sure you’ll enjoy it later when I claim in other posts that 85mm and 135mm are also my favourites). It’s tight enough to take a portrait, but wide enough to allow it to be used just walking around.

Because the lens is fast, and still has cracking centre (if not corner) sharpness when wide open, it’s great for taking photos at night handheld:

There was a weird issue when using this and other Samyang autofocus lenses on the A6700. To give credit to Samyang they issued new firmware pretty quickly and they work perfectly now. This is great as the focusing almost always just works on this lens; it’s quick and easy to use. Sometimes in very low light I find you can get it missing the mark just a little bit.

Because it’s not a big lens by any measure it’s unobtrusive and encourages less performance than the brilliant (but certainly more substantial) Sony 85mm.

There’s a tonne of detail in pictures; this below is stopped down to only f/2.5 (so still pretty open) and the contrast boosted a bit; there’s detail everywhere.

It’s a fairly plasticy; not as bad as the Canon 50mm f/1.8, but it’s not “premium” feeling. There’s a metal mount and the focus ring is fine (I think just a touch too loose). The lens cap is a patented fly-off-at-the-slightest-touch design and I think if the lens were dropped it would explode. But to a large extent this is the absolutely worthwhile price of having something light and cheap.

In a way there’s not much more to say about this lens. The images are sharp, the colour is lovely, the weight low and the focus quick and reliable. It’s great. Buy it.

See the album of this lens’ photos on Flickr with the above ten.