SAMYANG AF 35mm F1.4 FE Prime Lens Review#
(This is a usage review for video shooting; the camera body is a Sony A7C.)
What Am I Shooting?#
I needed to film close-up shots of assembling and soldering small electronic components. The camera is fixed on a tripod while I work with my hands in front of it. In other words, the distance between camera and subject stays almost constant.
Why Did I Choose the SAMYANG AF 35mm F1.4 FE?#
I wanted something on the affordable side, and I wanted nice-looking footage with effects like bokeh. And since this is indoor shooting, having a wide aperture was important too. Even when there isn’t enough light, I wanted as little noise as possible.
When I think of value-for-money lens brands, SAMYANG comes to mind. Since the distance between camera and subject wasn’t going to change much, I figured I didn’t really need a zoom. So I narrowed my search to relatively affordable prime lenses, and since primes tend to have wider apertures, they had the advantage in terms of light gathering. That’s how I ended up buying the SAMYANG AF 35mm F1.4 FE used.
Am I Satisfied?#
To get to the point — for video shooting, the SAMYANG AF 35mm F1.4 FE was not a good choice. (For still photography, I think it would be plenty good.)
Reason 1. The AF motor is quite loud. When AF is operating, the motor noise is loud enough to be clearly picked up in video audio. And even with the lens cap on, the motor keeps running constantly as long as AF is enabled. Even though it can’t possibly focus on a black image, the motor keeps trying to focus. It almost feels like the lens is going to break.
Reason 2. Without zoom, it’s quite inconvenient. Since the camera-to-subject distance was fixed, I thought a tripod-mounted shoot would be enough. But for my style of working, this turned out to be a big miscalculation. Not having zoom was very inconvenient, and there were times I couldn’t get the framing I wanted. Owning multiple primes at different focal lengths might solve this, but then it’s no longer the value-for-money setup I wanted. I came to think it’d be better for me to give up some aperture and use a single zoom lens, even if it costs more.
For these reasons, I ended up selling the SAMYANG AF 35mm F1.4 FE.
Good bye.. SAMYANG AF 35mm F1.4 FE
