Samyang AF 135mm F/1.8 FE Lens Review

Once the first lens choice after the purchase of a camera body plus its standard lens, the 135mm lens was made by every manufacturer and in huge quantities. Supplanted by the zoom lens that was more compact, focused closer and was much more versatile, there are now very few 135mm lenses available. However, there are also advantages to be gained and for one the fast, bright f/1.8 aperture adds many possibilities for low light photography, portraits with blurred backgrounds and even astrophotography. Enter the new Samyang 135mm f/1.8 FE, designed for Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras, although it can equally well be used on the crop sensor cameras, where the focal length is a "35mm format equivalent" of around 200mm in terms of field of view. Here we look closely at the new lens, coupling it up with the 42MP Sony A7R III body. Let's see how it handles and how well it performs.

Samyang AF 135mm F/1.8 FE Handling and Features

The lens is bulky but not overly heavy, weighing in at 770g without a hood and 880g with. The provided circular hood, of generous proportions, bayonets lightly but positively into position. A nice simple bit of engineering that results in a secure fit. Within the bayonet fit for the hood is a standard 82mm filter thread.

The focusing ring is electronic, totally smooth and has an excellent feel to it – just the right amount of resistance. Focusing is down to 0.69m, or 2.26 feet, for a maximum magnification of 0.243x. This extends the usefulness of the lens considerably, compared to the classic 135mm lenses of the 1970s and 1980s that might only have focused down to around 4 feet. We can see how far we have come with close focusing when we look at, say, the Voigtlander Dynarex 135mm f/4 lens of 1959, which focused down to 13 feet...

The focusing ring supports the usual Sony focusing options, such as DMF, where manual focusing tweaks can be made during AF operation but has additional functionality via the mode switch. Mode 1 operates as a focusing ring. Mode 2 acts as a silent aperture control, which could be ideal for videographers.

The Focus Limiter switch offers three focusing ranges, Full, 0.69m to 2m and 1.5m to infinity. The Focus Hold button locks the focus whilst using AF, but can also be programmed for a long list of other functions via the camera menus.

There is one final trick for the focus hold button, which, if pressed whilst the camera is turned on, will activate the lens's Astro-Focus mode. This sets the lens at a factory-set infinity setting for astrophotography. The lens is in manual focus mode at this setting and a green LED indicates infinity is set. If the MF setting is changed a red LED lights, going back to green when the focus hold button is pressed again. There is also a simple method for calibrating the infinity setting and this custom infinity setting is then stored in the lens's chip. During the review period, constant cloud cover meant that trying out astrophotography was not possible.

Optical construction is 13 elements in 11 groups, including 3 ED (Extra Low Dispersion), 2 HR (High Refractive Index) and 1 U-Asph (Ultra-precision aspherical). Add 11 bladed diaphragm, weather sealing and a virtually silent Linear STM motor and we have a highly effective design. This completes a series of Samyang AF prime lenses, covering 24mm, 35mm, 45mm, 75mm and now 135mm.

Apart from the astrophotography that was not tested because of the weather, the lens was faultless in its operation. Suitable subjects are landscapes, architecture, portraiture, sports events, street and low light. The SteadyShot system built into Sony camera bodies effectively helps to keep images as crisp as possible.

Now on to the performance.