Samyang 35mm F 1 4 AS UMC Review | 54 Data compared

The Samyang 35mm F1.4 ED AS UMC (tested on a Canon mount) is an exceptionally sharp, manual-focus lens that offers professional-grade optical performance at a fraction of the cost of its mainstream competitors. Priced at just £350, it stands out as an extraordinary bargain, delivering image resolution and wide-open sharpness that rivals or surpasses premium alternatives like the £1,200 Canon 35mm F1.4L and the £1,100 Nikon 35mm F1.4G. Built primarily from high-quality plastic, it features internal focusing—meaning the physical barrel and front filter thread do not move during adjustment. It provides full-frame coverage, making it highly adaptable across different camera systems, including APS-C and Micro Four Thirds bodies. Furthermore, its modern coatings effectively control flare while preserving an attractive, cinematic aesthetic when provoked. Despite its high value, the lens has several distinct drawbacks. Its most unusual optical flaw is a textured, "wooly" bokeh that displays spiral-like patterns in out-of-focus light sources. It also suffers from noticeable longitudinal chromatic aberration, which creates green or purple fringing on reflective, high-contrast objects when shot wide open. On the handling side, the lens is...

The Photography Life review of the Samyang 35mm f/1.4 AS UMC identifies it as a budget-friendly, manual-focus lens that offers a strong price-to-performance ratio. Key strengths include impressive center sharpness that exceeds $500, peaking at f/5.6-f/8, alongside a practical 77mm filter thread and minimal field curvature. However, the lens is noted for its plastic, non-weather-sealed construction and several optical compromises, including visible barrel distortion and weak flare resistance. Users may experience strange bokeh and potential focus calibration issues, making it a capable but budget-oriented tool.

The Samyang 35 mm f/1.4 AS UMC review by LensTip.com highlights this full-frame lens as a highly versatile and incredibly cost-effective tool that challenges much more expensive rivals. Built with a complex optical design featuring 12 elements in 10 groups—including one aspherical and two high-refractive index elements—the lens is praised for delivering very good, and occasionally splendid, image resolution at the center of the frame, alongside solid sharpness across the edges even on full-frame sensors. Additional optical pros identified by reviewers include exceptionally low lateral chromatic aberration, moderate distortion, and flawlessly corrected astigmatism. Furthermore, its physical construction allows it to achieve the lowest level of vignetting among competing lenses in the 35mm f/1.4 class, making it an outstanding option for budget-conscious photographers looking for high price-to-quality ratios. Conversely, the evaluation identifies several distinct mechanical and optical cons that users must navigate. Because this is a strictly manual-focus lens, achieving accurate focus can be challenging due to a shallow depth of field when shooting wide open at f/1.4, which is further complicated by a slight physical slack or play when first...

The Samyang 35mm f/1.4 AS UMC AE for Canon is a robust, manual-focus prime lens well-suited for street and general-purpose photography. Despite lacking autofocus, its built-in electronic contacts provide a highly refined user experience by activating the focus confirmation lamp inside the camera's viewfinder. These electronic linkages also enable full camera-based aperture control and support for standard P, Av, Tv, and M shooting modes. The physical build features a solid, durable construction with a smooth focus ring and clear focus scales. However, the lens is exceptionally big and heavy for a 35mm focal length, measuring 83x110mm and carrying a massive 77mm filter thread. In terms of optical performance, the review notes distinct pros and cons regarding its image delivery and handling. A major pro is its exceptionally smooth manual focusing action and minimal color fringing, even at the extreme corners of the frame. Furthermore, sharpness and contrast improve dramatically from f/2.8 down to f/22. On the downside, the lens suffers from a disappointing lack of sharpness and contrast when shooting wide open at its maximum f/1.4 aperture. It also exhibits...

The Samyang 35mm f/1.4 AS UMC lens delivers exceptional optical performance and robust build quality at a remarkably low street price of around £320, which is roughly £1,000 less than its competitors. Built with a tough plastic body and solid metal mounts, this full-frame lens features a 12-element optical construction that includes two High Refraction (HR) elements and one aspherical element to aggressively control chromatic aberration. Its standout strengths include pin-sharp image resolution across the entire frame, beautifully dampened manual focus ring operation, impressive 30cm close-focusing capabilities, and well-managed vignetting and barrel distortion. The most significant drawback of this lens is that it is strictly manual focus, which lowers your hit ratio in erratic scenes and demands high patience at wider apertures where the depth of field is razor-thin. Additionally, it is the biggest and heaviest lens among its rivals, weighing a substantial 660g with a large 77mm filter diameter. Except for the Nikon version, the lens completely lacks electronic contacts, meaning it will not communicate exposure metadata to digital cameras, and stopping down the physical aperture ring to settings...

The Samyang 35mm f/1.4 AS UMC is reviewed as a highly capable, specialist prime lens that offers exceptional value for money, earning a high overall score of 91% from What Digital Camera. Its standout pros include an ultra-bright f/1.4 maximum aperture, an affordable budget-friendly price tag of £350 (drawing aesthetic comparisons to premium Zeiss optics), and a highly precise manual focus collar featuring a perfect mechanical action with a 120° throw. Additionally, the lens boasts strong build quality, includes a petal-type lens hood and a soft carrying pouch, and supports electronic data transfer for automatic exposure on compatible camera bodies like Nikon. What Digital Camera However, the lens comes with notable cons, primarily its lack of autofocus capabilities, making it a fully manual lens that may not appeal to all photographers. It is also described as being on the heavier side. Optically, lab testing revealed weak performance figures and somewhat disappointing image quality at very wide apertures. While stopping down the aperture greatly improves sharpness and optical correctness, the reviewer notes it is a shame that the widest settings are...

Optical Performance and Sharpness Pros The Samyang 35mm f/1.4 AS UMC delivers impressive, very high-quality resolution in the MTF lab testing. The image center is very good even wide open at f/1.4, with the borders and corners closely matching, although contrast is slightly reduced at this maximum setting. By f/2.8, the lens shows an exceptional resolution characteristic, becoming outstanding in the center between f/4 and f/8, while the outer image zones maintain very good to excellent sharpness. Additionally, lateral chromatic aberrations are kept quite low, averaging just ~0.8 pixels at the borders, and the lens exhibits minimal focus shift or residual spherical aberrations. Optical and Mechanical Cons Despite its strong resolution, the lens struggles in its out-of-focus rendering, as the bokeh has a somewhat nervous inner zone and a rather busy background blur. Vignetting is also a massive issue in native full-format scope, producing a heavy light falloff that exceeds 1.7 EV at f/1.4 and remains very pronounced at f/2 (1.1 EV), before finally becoming irrelevant at f/4. Users will also encounter a moderate amount of barrel distortion (~1.6%). Finally,...

The Samyang 35mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC is an optically outstanding manual-focus lens, offering exceptional sharpness at a budget-friendly price point, with central resolution approaching excellent levels even at f/1.4. It features a useful hyperfocal scale for astrophotography and includes a metering chip for compatibility with modern cameras. ePHOTOzine However, the lens lacks a lock to secure the aperture ring at f/22, and the bayonet lens hood frequently detaches when removing the lens from the camera. The plastic build is lightweight, but these design drawbacks represent significant handling cons for users.

The Samyang 35mm f/1.4 AS UMC is an ultra-large aperture, manual-focus full-format lens that offers exceptional value at around 400EUR/500US$, which is less than a third of the price of original manufacturer equivalents. Built with a high-quality plastic body and a metal mount, it features a nicely damped, rubberized focus ring and a front element that does not rotate during focusing. A major technical highlight is its advanced floating element system, typically reserved for high-end or macro lenses, which optimizes internal element layout during close-focus scenarios down to 0.3 meters. For Nikon users, the lens includes aperture coupling (behaving like a Nikkor Ai-P lens), allowing users to control the aperture directly from the camera body. The lens presents a distinct set of pros and cons depending on user shooting styles. On the positive side, its main advantages include its extreme affordability, solid construction, and the inclusion of a supplied petal-shaped lens hood. Its optical design also benefits from two high-refraction elements and one aspherical element to assist with image quality. Conversely, the primary drawback is that it is strictly manual...

The Samyang 35mm f/1.4 offers exceptional, high-contrast optical performance that rivals much more expensive lenses, featuring impressive sharpness at wide apertures and excellent flare resistance. Its pros include a smooth manual focus ring, solid build quality, and a 77mm filter size that avoids vignetting, providing an excellent value for photographers prioritizing manual shooting. Conversely, this lens is strictly manual-focus with no electronic communication for EXIF data or automatic aperture control. Additional cons include its heavy, bulky design, moderate barrel distortion on full-frame cameras, and noticeable light falloff when used at f/1.4.

The Samyang 35mm f/1.4 AS UMC is an ultra-large aperture, full-format moderate wide-angle lens that stands out for its exceptional affordability, costing roughly a third of comparable original manufacturer alternatives. It is constructed with a high-quality plastic body built on a metal mount, featuring a non-rotating front element and a well-damped, rubberised focus ring. A premium and surprising addition for its price point is an internal floating element system, an optical mechanism usually reserved for macro or high-end lenses to optimize element layouts during close-focus shooting. The lens contains 12 elements in 10 groups, including one aspherical and two high refraction elements. However, the lens has several physical and operational limitations. It is completely manual, meaning users must operate both the focusing and the uncoupled aperture mechanism by hand, which also causes the viewfinder to darken significantly as you stop down. Because it lacks a focus confirmation indicator in the standard viewfinder, tracking moving objects at large apertures is highly challenging, making slow Live-View focusing the only reliable option for sharp static shots. Additionally, despite incorporating high refraction elements intended...