Samyang AF 45mm F 1 8 FE Review | 54 Data compared

📸 Samyang AF 45mm F1.8 FE Review Summary The Samyang AF 45mm F1.8 FE is a highly compact and lightweight ($399 USD) normal prime lens for Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras that delivers a beautiful blend of modern sharpness and vintage optical character. Driven by a refined linear STM motor, its autofocus system is exceptionally quick, quiet, and reliable, tracking action smoothly and working seamlessly with Sony's Eye AF. Optically, the lens shines in the center of the frame with excellent resolution, high contrast, and low vignette even wide open. Its standout feature is its warm, analog rendering, which produces punchy colors and a surprisingly soft, creamy background bokeh with a unique "swirly" or "cat-eye" geometry at the edges. On the downside, the lens completely lacks weather sealing, which can lead to camera error codes if moisture gets between the lens and the mount. Additionally, its outer corners never get pin-sharp, looking clearly softer than the center even when stopped down to landscape apertures like F5.6 or F8. It also suffers from a low 0.12x maximum magnification due to a long...

The ePHOTOzine review highlights the Samyang AF 45mm f/1.8 FE as a compact, 162-gram prime for Sony E-mount that delivers excellent central sharpness, low distortion, and great value for money. It is praised for its lightweight, "highly recommended" design that is ideal for street photography. While offering high performance, the lens exhibits significant flare in strong backlight and lacks weather sealing for challenging environments. Despite these limitations, it is deemed a versatile, high-value, and lightweight lens with fast, accurate autofocus.

The Rokinon 45mm F1.8 AF Sony E is a lightweight, budget-friendly prime lens that delivers surprisingly strong optical performance for its $399 price tag. When tested on a 60MP Sony a7R IV, it captures sharp, high-resolution results, achieving an outstanding 5,030 lines at f/5.6 and maintaining good sharpness even wide open at f/1.8. Autofocus is quick, quiet, and fully compatible with Sony’s advanced tracking, face, and eye detection features, making it a solid choice for both photographers and videographers. Additionally, the lens completely lacks distortion and boasts full-frame sensor coverage while weighing a mere 5.7 ounces. However, the lens makes noticeable compromises in build quality and versatility. Its body features a cheap, glossy "piano black" plastic construction and entirely omits dust or splash protection, requiring extra care when shooting outdoors. Optically, users will encounter visible chromatic aberration, specifically purple and green fringing in the bokeh and high-contrast areas. Close-up shooting is another major limitation; the lens cannot focus closer than 17.7 inches, resulting in a poor 1:8.3 reproduction ratio that limits its usefulness for macro photography or tight food shots.

The Rokinon/Samyang AF 45mm f/1.8 FE is a highly portable, lightweight full-frame Sony E-mount standard prime lens priced between $329 and $399, designed primarily as a casual walk-around lens for portraits, street photography, and vloggers using gimbals. Optically, the lens delivers impressive central sharpness even on high-megapixel sensors like the Sony A7R IV, produces beautiful and smooth bokeh, and features fast, snappy autofocus that easily handles low-light candids. Its compact size makes it an excellent incognito choice for wedding photojournalism or an easy backup lens to "fill the gap" in a photographer's bag without adding restrictive weight. However, the lens makes several compromises to achieve its ultra-lightweight profile. The build quality feels cheap with plastic filter threads, a plastic hood, and a thin metal barrel susceptible to dings and dents. It lacks weather sealing and displays noticeable edge-and-corner sharpness degradation until stopped down to f/2.8 or f/5.6. Additionally, it exhibits visible chromatic aberration and coma in harsh or demanding lighting, making it a poor fit for clinical editorial work, landscape photography, or serious astrophotography. While it offers great value compared...

The Rokinon/Samyang AF 45mm f/1.8 FE is a highly capable full-frame lens for Sony cameras that delivers an exceptional balance of modern performance and vintage aesthetic charm. The reviewer praises the lens for its extremely fast, silent autofocus that matches native options like the Sony 85mm f/1.8, making it highly effective for both video capture and spontaneous snapshot photography. Optically, the lens excels by remaining very sharp even when shot wide open at f/1.8. It is celebrated for its organic, "wet" rendering and superb colour reproduction that avoids the dry, lifeless quality common to many modern, technically perfect lenses. Additionally, it offers outstanding value at a price under $400, providing excellent build quality while including a zippered case and a lens hood. Despite these strengths, the lens has a few limitations to consider before purchasing. The most notable drawback is its lack of weather resistance, which could be a deciding factor for outdoor photographers working in harsh conditions. While the reviewer found its small, lightweight footprint to be a perfect compromise between competing 35mm and 50mm primes, it is worth...

The Samyang AF 45mm f/1.8 FE is a highly recommended, compact, and lightweight prime lens delivering excellent sharpness, low distortion, and low central chromatic aberration at an attractive price point. Its unobtrusive design makes it an ideal, well-handling choice for street photography. ePHOTOzine While offering excellent value, the lens lacks weather sealing and suffers from flare when shooting against strong backlight. Additionally, it requires digital software correction for certain parameters, though the overall performance earns a 5/5 rating.

The Samyang AF 45 mm f/1.8 FE is a highly compact, lightweight autofocus lens designed for Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras. Evaluated by reviewers on LensTip.com, the lens is praised for its outstanding price-to-performance ratio and daily usability. Its chief optical advantage is excellent image quality and sharpness in the frame centre, which remains crisp even at wider apertures. Additionally, it features exceptionally low distortion that is practically zero on APS-C sensors (-0.02%) and barely noticeable on full-frame bodies (-0.34%), proving that the optics were meticulously corrected without relying heavily on camera software. Photographers will also benefit from its silent, reasonably fast autofocus tracking and a well-designed casing that keeps the overall footprint remarkably small. Despite its strong overall score, the review highlights distinct compromises necessary to maintain such a small form factor and affordable price tag. The primary drawback is noticeably weaker resolution values on the edges of the frame when compared to the highly sharp centre. Flaring and ghosting are also problematic; when shooting against bright light, the lens is prone to generating distinct artifacts when the sun hits...

The Samyang AF 45mm F1.8 FE is a compact, lightweight standard lens designed for full-frame Sony E-mount mirrorless cameras, weighing just 162 grams. Optically, it features seven elements in six groups, including two aspherical lenses and one Extra-low Dispersion element, paired with a nine-bladed diaphragm designed to optimize bokeh. The lens delivers strong center sharpness even at full aperture, with excellent corner performance that surpasses the competing Sony 50mm f/1.8 FE. Its 45mm focal length offers a slightly wider, more natural "true" standard field of view compared to a traditional 50mm, making it highly versatile for street, documentary, and portrait photography. The review highlights several key advantages and drawbacks for photographers to consider. On the positive side, its major pros include high image sharpness, a bright f/1.8 aperture, an attractive low price point, and a highly portable, lightweight build that includes a storage case. It also handles lens flare well and produces clean, circular bokeh balls in the center of the frame. However, the lens does have notable cons, specifically issues with autofocus reproducibility and highly visible longitudinal chromatic aberration...

The Samyang AF 45mm f/1.8 FE is a highly compact, lightweight "tiny" prime lens designed for full-frame Sony E-mount cameras, weighing just 162g and measuring 56mm in length. Reviewed using a Sony A7RIII, the lens delivers exceptional center sharpness from its maximum aperture of f/1.8 up through f/11. Its lightweight build makes it easy to handhold at slow shutter speeds, rendering it an excellent option for low-light, street, and travel photography where a discreet profile is preferred. The reviewer notes that its corner-to-corner sweet spot for peak sharpness occurs between f/8 and f/11, while diffraction begins to slightly soften the image at f/16 and f/22. Despite its strong performance, the lens exhibits notable drawbacks, including significant vignetting at f/1.8 (though this is correctable in post-processing) and slightly softer corners when wide open. Structurally, its main weaknesses are a total lack of weather sealing and the absence of built-in Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), requiring reliance on the camera body's internal stabilization. Additionally, updating the lens's firmware to resolve autofocus issues requires the separate purchase of a Samyang Lens Station if you...

The Samyang AF 45mm F1.8 FE is a consumer-grade prime lens for Sony E-mount cameras that offers a highly versatile 45mm focal length, which the reviewer notes provides a more creative, less distorted composition than standard 50mm lenses. Designed with a solid plastic exterior and a metal mount, this compact and lightweight lens weighs just 162g, making it exceptionally well-suited for street photography and stable video recording on lightweight gimbals. Tested on full-frame bodies like the Sony a7III and APS-C models like the a6300, it delivers an impressive price-to-performance ratio with colors and contrast that rival more expensive alternatives. The review highlights several prominent advantages, including excellent image sharpness, a lovely sunstar effect, and a fast, accurate autofocus system that matches the performance of the premium Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art lens even in dim lighting conditions. Its large f/1.8 maximum aperture is highly effective for low-light environments and isolating subjects from the background. On the downside, the review notes that the quality of higher-tier lenses like the Sigma Art is unavoidably superior due to different market segments. Additionally, the background...

The Samyang AF 45mm F1.8 FE is a compact, lightweight standard prime lens designed for Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras that delivers great value for money at a £349 price point. Optically, the lens is exceptionally sharp in the center of the frame, reaching superlative levels by f/2.8, and it renders backgrounds with a gorgeous, high-quality bokeh. Its natural 45mm perspective and fast f/1.8 aperture make it highly effective for low-light indoor shooting and achieving a shallow depth of field. However, the budget price tag brings clear compromises in build quality and performance. The lens features a plasticky barrel that lacks dust- or splash-resistance, and its autofocus system is slightly sluggish and audible compared to native Sony alternatives. Optical flaws include heavy corner vignetting at f/1.8, longitudinal chromatic aberration (green and purple fringing) around highlights, and a noticeable drop-off in sharpness at close focus distances, which is limited to a 45cm minimum focus capability. Despite these edge distortions and simpler build, it remains an excellent, budget-friendly recommendation over bulkier lenses like the Sony FE 50mm F1.8.

The Samyang AF 45mm F1.8 FE is a highly compact and lightweight full-frame E-mount lens, measuring under 7cm long and weighing just 166 grams, making it an excellent budget-friendly walk-around option at $350. Optically, it utilizes a simple 7-element design with 9 aperture blades, a 49mm filter thread, and a metal mount, though its outer barrel is primarily plastic. The lens lacks external buttons, switches, image stabilization, and weather sealing, relying entirely on camera body controls. Its single fly-by-wire focus ring offers good resistance, but the minimum focusing distance is relatively long at 40cm. Performance-wise, the lens delivers distinct pros and cons. Its primary strengths are its low price point, exceptional center sharpness and contrast when stopped down to f/2.8 or f/4, and generally fast autofocus performance during still photography. However, its notable drawbacks include significant chromatic aberration, a high tendency to flare, and noticeable corner darkening (vignetting) when shot wide open. Additionally, while the autofocus functions well for stills, the focus motor moves in jumpy, unsmooth increments during video recording, and it lacks the edge-to-edge corner sharpness found in...