Samyang 35mm F1.4 AS UMC Nikon measurements and review
Thursday, September 22, 2011 Lens Review
The Samyang 35mm F1.4 AS UMC wide-angle, with its f1.4 aperture, is made up of 12 elements in 10 groups. Its manual auto focus uses a floating focus mechanism for a better image quality on the whole range of focus distance.
And this design seems to be very efficient in term of image quality.
Let’s compare it with its Nikon competitor, the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.4G, to know how good this lens is.
Samyang 35mm F1.4 AS UMC Nikon VS Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.4G
As we can see in this DxOMark lens comparison on a Nikon D3x:
- They also have very similar transmission and distortion measurements.
- The Samyang 35mm F1.4 AS UMC is slightly more vignetting
- But it offers less Chromatic Aberration and is much more homogenous on the entire frame.
- The Samyang lens also has a much better resolution metric, with 65 lp/mm where the Nikon lens can only reach 51 lp/mm
- Looking at the homogeneity in the field, the resolution map indicates that the Nikon lens is a bit less sharp in the corners.
- These pros and cons on both sides give the same overall 4 stars use case scores for Reportage and Landscape.
So, the Samyang 35mm F1.4 AS UMC is an excellent lens, that comes out of this tests with similar scores as its premium Nikon competitor. But, at a price point 3 times lower than the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.4G, $1797 vs $599, the Samyang 35mm F1.4 AS UMCis definitely a very good choice if you can live without an auto-focus.
Further readings for the Samyang 35mm F1.4 AS UMC Nikon measurements and review
To provide photographers with a broader perspective about mobiles, lenses and cameras, here are links to articles, reviews, and analyses of photographic equipment produced by DxOMark, renown websites, magazines or blogs.
