SAMYANG

Over a year ago, I was able to get a hold of Samyang MF 135mm F2 which I was already impressed about, the only downside is that it’s a manual focus, don’t get me wrong, I have no trouble using MF lenses, it's just, most of my subjects are children. With kids, manual focusing is very challenging since children are unpredictable and love to wander which makes me rely on the AF capabilities of a lens. So finally, Samyang released their AF 135mm F1.8, and honestly, I have been waiting for this since my review of the MF 135mm F2.

Now, I have been blessed to be chosen as one of the first few people to try this lens before its release, and trust me, it was quite difficult to keep the amazing photos I’ve taken with it to myself. I was so full of excitement that the very first day it arrived, I went out to shoot straightaway.

Right off the bat, it has jaw-dropping artistic bokeh. The superb shallow depth of field emphasizes your subject in the photograph with the background being blurred into a mixture of colours to complement. The best thing about its amazing bokeh is that when I shoot in areas where the busy background is technically part of the story of my photo, my subject is well separated from it allowing the viewers to look at the subject as the highlight of the image and everything else blends in harmony.

At first, I thought it was going to be a heavy lens since it’s a telephoto but surprisingly, its lightweight and well-balanced, making it easy for handling. We even took it with us during our hike in Snowdonia, a place field with a magical forest and breathtaking view. And while I was reviewing my images on my camera, I thought the sharpness I see is due to the good resolution of my Sony A7RIIIa but when I got home to see it on my computer, it does deliver sharp RAW images, especially when shooting in the right lighting condition.

This lens renders a warm colour tone which I like as it makes the skin looks better in general and easier to edit in post and that’s just one characteristic of Samyang that I personally love about. You can check the behind the scene on my YouTube.

Another thing that I really have to mention is its impressive control of chromatic aberration, now that’s a pain to remove especially when they occur on areas such as jewelleries, shiny and sharp contrasty edges. There’s just so much a de-fringing tool can do and it can take a whole lot of HSL tweaking to perfectly rid of them. When I discovered this superb ability, I was blown away to say the least.

And I must say, this lens’s modern design looks beautiful and professional like its stunning silver ring in the middle and catch the glimpse of Samyang’s signature red ring just hiding behind the front glass.

Built with a custom switch to change the aperture ring to focusing, a focus hold button which is very useful for Astrophotographers, and a focus limiter that limits the focus into a range. The focus ring has a soft feel texturized rubber, and it goes all around without limit. Small details are also thought of in its design such as the rubberized tip of the lens hood to prevent it from slipping when putting it down the lens first. On the inner part of the lens hood has a matte coating to combat light reflections which is great for astrophotography. The LED light that indicates infinity focus is also used as a mark when attaching the lens on a camera body, now that one is pretty cool.

Right at this moment, I am obsessed with this lens! From its stunning design to the quality images it renders will surely make anyone love using this as much as I do.