Samyang AF 24mm F 1 8 FE Review | 54 Data compared

The Samyang AF 24mm F1.8 FE (also branded as Rokinon) is a compact, lightweight wide-angle prime lens designed for Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras. Weighing 230g and measuring 65x72mm, it balances a fast f/1.8 aperture with portability, making it highly versatile for sweeping landscapes, tight architectural interiors, and astrophotography. Its optical construction packs 11 elements in 8 groups, featuring specialized glass including aspherical, high-refractive index, and extra-low dispersion elements. A standout feature for night-sky shooters is its customizable autofocus hold button and mode switch paired with a bi-color LED; the LED turns from red to green when infinity focus is achieved, eliminating guesswork in the dark. The review highlights strong performance and exceptional value, noting outstanding center-sharpness even when shooting wide-open at f/1.8, and excellent corner-sharpness between f/4 and f/11. Main advantages of the lens include its highly impressive overall image quality, tough weather-resistant construction, and highly customizable physical controls. Additionally, its linear stepping motor autofocus operates with speedy, virtually silent, and consistent accuracy. On the downside, the lens is not entirely distortion-free, exhibiting a very slight barrel distortion score of...

The ePHOTOzine review highlights the Samyang AF 24mm f/1.8 FE as a compact, weather-sealed, and budget-friendly wide-angle lens for Sony mirrorless users, offering outstanding central sharpness and an innovative custom astrophotography focus button. Praised for its excellent performance and smooth bokeh, the lens delivers high-quality results from f/2 to f/4, earning an "Editor's Choice" designation. While offering great value, the lens does exhibit noticeable barrel distortion and chromatic aberration, though these are manageable in post-processing. The review ultimately recommends it for its high performance-to-price ratio and handling. For full details, read the review on ePHOTOzine.

The Samyang AF 24 mm f/1.8 FE is a compact, lightweight prime lens designed for Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras. According to the comprehensive testing by LensTip, its primary advantages include a highly portable and shapely design, sensible image resolution in the frame center, and decent sharpness at the edges once stopped down slightly. The lens also boasts silent and accurate autofocus performance, very low lateral chromatic aberration, minimal spherical aberration, and manageable vignetting when paired with an APS-C crop sensor. Additionally, it serves as a highly specialized tool for night sky enthusiasts due to its low coma and a dedicated, innovative astrophotography infinity-lock mode. However, the review outlines several distinct disadvantages that buyers should consider before purchasing. The lens suffers from noticeable longitudinal chromatic aberration at wider apertures and produces complex moustache distortion instead of a standard linear barrel pattern. Optical performance also degrades significantly when shooting directly into bright environments, revealing heavy ghosting and intensive flare artifacts when the aperture is stopped down or when light hits the corners of the frame. Finally, while still offering a competitive price-to-performance...

The Samyang AF 24mm F1.8 FE is a highly portable, "pocket-sized" lens that delivers impressive versatility and exceptional sharpness for portraiture, despite its primary design focus on astrophotography. Photographer Alyssa Zalabai highlights several major pros, including its lightweight build which prevents exhaustion during long outdoor shoots, and its fast autofocus capability that easily captures candid movements, such as children playing or models spinning. Optically, the lens demonstrates outstanding performance against bright, direct sunlight by maintaining high contrast and sharpness without producing unwanted lens flare. Furthermore, it handles complex environments beautifully, capturing sharp night portraits under low shutter speeds in heavy rain, and generating a subtle, complimentary bokeh for close-up shots. While the review is overwhelmingly positive, it does touch upon a few minor limitations and constraints. For indoor close-up portraits, the 24mm focal length introduces a small amount of physical distortion, which, while styled as an artistic effect in this review, may not suit photographers seeking entirely flat or traditional portraits. Additionally, for the challenging night street photoshoot, the lens required a very low shutter speed of 2.5 seconds to...

The Samyang AF 24mm F1.8 (also sold as Rokinon) is a highly capable, svelte full-frame prime lens for Sony FE mounts, weighing just 230g and measuring 65mm by 71.5mm. Designed with a unique focus for astrophotography, the lens features a customizable focus hold button that automatically locks to accurate infinity focus for star shooting when the camera is powered on while pressing the button. Optically, it punches far above its price point, delivering exceptional sharpness, strong contrast across the frame even wide open at F1.8, and low chromatic aberrations. It outperforms competitors like the Viltrox 24mm F1.8 in sharpness and matches or exceeds the more expensive Sony FE 20mm F1.8 G in center performance. Additionally, it boasts an impressive 0.21x magnification at a minimum focus distance of 19cm, and its Linear STM motor delivers silent, rapid, and highly stable autofocus tracking.

The ePHOTOzine review highlights the Samyang AF 24mm f/1.8 FE as a compact, 230g, weather-sealed prime lens offering exceptional value and outstanding sharpness for Sony E-mount cameras. It features 11 elements in 8 groups, a 9-blade diaphragm, and specialized, silent autofocus, earning an "Editor's Choice" award for its versatility, particularly with an astrophotography focus mode. Performance highlights include exceptional central resolution and consistent, high-quality imaging, with pros noting the robust, lightweight design and quiet operation. While minor barrel distortion and chromatic aberration are present, the review notes these are easily corrected, keeping the lens an excellent, cost-effective option.