Review of the Rokinon (Samyang) 85mm F/1.4 Lens for Sony
Rokinon / Samyang 85mm F/1.4 Review
I’ve said this repeatedly in various posts: 85mm is my favorite focal length for portraits. Shooting outdoors when you have space to maneuver, it gives you a proper working distance for everything from headshots to full body images of small groups. The telephoto length allows for flattering compression of subjects. A fast aperture prime lens allows for lovely background separation and bokeh.
Truly premium “professional” 85mm lenses will utilize a fast 1.4 aperture (with a few 1.2 options in other brands). For many users, a 1.8 aperture is fast enough, while allowing for a lens that is much cheaper and lighter in weight. I previously reviewed the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM, the flagship Sony lens which is exceptional but also exceptionally expensive and quite heavy. I reviewed and preferred the Sony FE 85mm F/1.8 to save significant dollars and weight.
If you go back a few years, Samyang was known to make affordable fair quality manual focus primes in various mounts. Samyang sold the lenses under multiple brand names, “Rokinon” often used in USA markets. In recent years, Samyang has been improving the quality of their lenses and offering more autofocus options. Considering the hefty price of native Sony-branded lenses, Samyang can offer a great value as they start to make competitive lenses. I reviewed the Rokinon 35mm F/1.4 which found a permanent place in my camera bag.
While I was personally happy with the Sony 85mm F/1.8, the announcement of the Samyang 85mm F/1.4 piqued my interest. Would this be the chance for me to get a top quality lens with the benefits of 1.4 aperture, at a price and weight more reasonable than the other options?
For this review, I tested the Rokinon 85mm F/1.4, which is identical to the Samyang version. Let’s see if it’s going to become a permanent part of my kit..
Body and Handling:
Build quality is very solid though basic. The barrel is a solid metallic design and weather sealed. It definitely feels like a precision professional instrument in the hand.
Unlike many Sony first party lenses, there are no additional features on the lens body: no focus hold button, no AF/MF switch, no aperture ring. The lens is fully controlled from the camera body.
Manual focus ring is ridged and works smoothly.
As shown in the above photos compared to the Sony FE 85mm F/1.8, the 1.4 aperture adds a good amount of size. It is notably larger than the Sony FE 85mm F/1.8 in both bulk and weight. Still, the size is overall a positive for an 85mm lens with 1.4 aperture. Let’s compare the weight of the various 85mm lens options for Sony along with price:
- Sony FE 85mm F/1.8: 371 grams and $550
- Zeiss Batis 85mm F/1.8: 452 grams and $1050
- Sigma ART 85mm F/1.4: 1130 grams and $1200
- Sony FE 85mm F/1.4 GM: 820 grams and $1800
- Samyang / Rokinon 85mm F/1.4: : 652 grams and $700
Remarkably, the Samyang/Rokinon 85mm F/1.4 is the lightest 1.4 options by a wide margin, 170 grams lighter than the GM lens and 280 grams more than the Sony 85/1.8. At the same time, it’s the second cheapest option, just $150 more than the Sony 85/1.8.
In practical use, the lens + camera combination is noticeably heavier with the Samyang / Rokinon compared to the Sony 85mm F/1.8. But having used the 85/1.8, the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM and the Rokinon/Samyang for extended photo shoots, you definitely appreciate that the Rokinon/Samyang is lighter than the GM.
Below, we take a look at the aperture blades:
As shown above, the Rokinon 85mm F/1.4 has a fairly standard 9 aperture blades. The Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM lens sports 11 aperture blades, allowing it to maintain very round aperture even at smaller apertures. While the Rokinon/Samyang lens can produce some lovely bokeh at wide aperture, as you stop down to F2.8 and smaller, you start to get the angular shape of the aperture as opposed to perfectly rounded circles.
Autofocus is mostly a positive experience. There is just a slight whine to the focus motor but in total, it’s not really any louder than the Sony 85mm F/1.4. Focus speed is average. There is one caveat that may be fixed by a future firmware update: the lens can’t continuously autofocus with burst shooting on the A9. At first, I thought it was an issue I was finding just with my camera and lens but later found out Samyang is aware of the issue. You will lose focus after a few frames and the lens cannot re-acquire focus. I’m not particularly concerned: It’s only an issue on the A9, I had no problem shooting bursts with the A7riii. And it’s not exactly the type of lens one would be routinely using for sports or wildlife where one most often will use burst shooting.
Stabilization
The Rokinon/Samyang 85mm F/1.4 does not have lens based stabilization but benefits from the in body stabilization (IBIS) found on most recent Sony bodies. Different lenses seem to benefit to varying degrees. Below see some crops of slower shutter speeds on the Sony A7riii.
Although it was possible to get a few sharp images as slow as 1/10, the percentage of keepers really started to drop at 1/25 and slower.
Image Quality of Rokinon 85mm F/1.4 for Sony
The Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is heavy and expensive. There would be no reason to even consider this lens unless the image quality is a cut above.
Vignetting and Distortion
As one would hope with a prime lens, distortion is simply not an issue. Vignetting is very significant at F 1.4 but improves significantly upon stepping down. There is still moderate vignetting at 1.8. By F2.8, you get a very even exposure across the frame.
Unfortunately, as of this writing, Lightroom doesn’t have a lens profile for the Samyang/Rokinon 85mm F/1.4. Accordingly, you need to manually correct the vignette in each issue. Shooting at 1.4, it’s significant enough that you’ll want to correct it in most shots.
Flare / CA / Purple fringing
Flare is a weakness on the Rokinon 85mm F/1.4. The Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM had some flare issues and the Rokinon is just a bit worse. The above-testing was with the lens hood in place: At smaller aperture and bright light at the edges of the frame, you can get some really massive degree of flare. At larger apertures, there is less susceptibility to flare but you still can get some rainbow flare.
In real world shooting, it’s actually pretty easy to manage and avoid. In fact, I did a portrait session with some heavy sunset backlighting. I left the hood off, because some mild flare can add a bit of romance to engagement photos. (Engagement photography guide here.)
So at large aperture, without the hood, at most generally got some mild flare that can be attractive:
The below image represents the worst flare I got at wide aperture without the hood, an unattractive red ring. But then, in the next photo, I applied the hood and it resolved the flare:
I noticed almost no problematic chromatic aberrations or color fringing. Fast aperture lenses will sometimes show purple or green fringing in areas of high contrast. It was virtually absent. I saw some very minor fringing only wide open at F 1.4, but even that was negligible.
Bokeh
Bokeh refers to the quality of the out of focus region of an image. Most photographers especially look at the out of focus highlights, valuing soft smooth perfectly rounded circles. A big reason for buying a 1.4 aperture telephoto lens is because of the superior bokeh possibilities compared to a 1.8 prime or 2.8 zoom.
So below, let’s see a gallery showing off the bokeh…
Where the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM retains rounder bokeh to the edges and at smaller aperture, the Rokinon 85mm F/1.4 becomes more angular at smaller aperture with the “cat’s eye” effect at the corners of the frame. Still, at large aperture, you get very pleasant round smooth bokeh over most of the frame. While not up to the exceptional level of the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM, it is still an overall strength for the Rokinon/Samyang.
Sharpness of the Rokinon 85mm F/1.4
The Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is an exceptionally sharp lens. Nearly tack sharp in the center even wide open, completely usable at all apertures. Tack sharp across the frame between F2 and F2.8. The Sony 85mm F/1.8 is capable of extraordinary sharpness as well, though the corners don’t become fully tack sharp until about F5.6. How well does the Rokinon 85mm F/1.4 stack up? Did two sets of tests at a medium distance and a close distance…
Center Sharpness
Starting with center crops (click for large):
Center crops from closer distance:
The Samyang / Rokinon seemed to be sharper in the closer focus images. Overall performance was quite good. There is some softness wide open, even at F/1.4. It is absolutely not unusable wide open, especially for the intended purpose of a portrait lens. But there is no denying that it is a bit soft at F1.4. It sharpens up quickly, becoming tack sharp by F1.8-2.2. Seems to reach a peak of sharpness around F2.8 in the center.
Border Sharpness
And borders from closer focus:
The borders are about a half step behind the center. The Samyang/Rokinon 85mm F/1.4 starts out just slightly soft wide open. It gradually sharpens up as you stop down, really becoming tack sharp by the time you reach F2.8.
Corner Sharpness:
Corners are the most challenging and the Rokinon 85mm F/1.4 held up well. The extreme corners are a bit poor wide open at F1.4. But when you’re shooting portraits, you expect the corners to be blurred anyway at 1.4 aperture. The corners improve quickly upon stopping down, becoming basically tack sharp by F4.
Real World Sharpness
We don’t usually shoot for the purpose of 100% crops of street signs. So wide open at F1.4, is the Rokinon 85mm F/1.4 truly usable for portraits (the most common use for a lens of this design)?
Below see a real portrait, with the eyes in the “border” region of the frame. Then take a look at the 100% crop…
Unlike the test images, these portraits used off-camera lighting and went through typical post-processing. The results amply demonstrate that for portrait shooting, you absolutely get a sharp usable image wide open at f1.4, as long as you nail the focus.
Sharpness: Rokinon 85mm F/1.4 vs Sony 85mm F/1.8
While I don’t currently have the 85/1.4 GM lens available, I previously did side by side sharpness comparison of the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM and the Sony 85mm F/1.8.
Now let’s compare the Sony 85mm F/1.8 against the Rokinon 85mm F/1.4 at similar apertures:
Center comparison:
At F1.8, the Rokinon center is noticeably sharper than the Sony 85mm F/1.8 but the centers are pretty equivalent once you stop down to F2.2 and beyond.
Borders comparison:
At the borders, the Rokinon is simply better than the Sony 85/1.8. Not just at wide open aperture. Comparing even the 2.8 crops, the Rokinon 85mm F/1.4 is noticeably sharper, at least when you pixel peep.
Extreme corners:
At F1.8, the Rokinon corner is far better than the Sony 85mm F/1.8. Upon stopping down, the difference narrows, but the Rokinon remains just a slight bit sharper.
Please note that this comparison is mostly academic. These are differences very difficult to notice in any real world situation.
Overall:
The Rokinon/Samyang 85mm F/1.4 turned in a very solid performance. It has lovely bokeh. It is quite sharp, a tad sharper than the Sony 85mm F/1.8. To be clear, optically, it is not as good as the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM, which remains the superior lens. The Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is just slightly better in almost every way: less vignetting, rounder bokeh, and slightly sharper overall. While both lenses can struggle with flare, the Rokinon struggles far more.
But overall, the Rokinon 85mm F/1.4 put in a top notch performance capable of delivering stunning images. Oh… and it’s $1100 cheaper than the GM as well as 170 grams lighter. If you want the absolute best, buy the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM (on Amazon / Adorama). If you want all the benefits of the 1.4 aperture, you’re willing to take just slightly lower image quality and you want to save over $1000, the Rokinon / Samyang 85mm F/1.4 for Sony is a fantastic choice. You can purchase it on Amazon. You can purchase it from Adorama with a lens station included for the same price, allowing you to update the firmware of the lens.
It’s not quite as good as the Sony GM, but it’s so much cheaper, gaining a bit in my scoring for price/performance. As a result, I give it the same overall score as the GM…
Rating (1-10): Score: 8
(About my scoring: 9-10 is a superb lens which could have a place in the bag of almost every photographer. 6-8: recommended with caveats. 3-5: A compromised lens that may still be suitable for some shooters and situations. 1-2: Just stick to your phone camera)
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