Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC Wide-Angle Lens for Sony Alpha

While I would like to complete a full Samyang 24mm f/1.4 US UMC Lens review in the future, please use the standard lens test results for now.

Handling and features This lens is available to fit many different types of cameras, including Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony and Four Thirds SLRs as well as Samsung NX mirrorless cameras.

Apart from a lack of sharpness at very wide apertures, image quality is very convincing from this Samyang, making it very good value.

Samyang has long been a minor player in the UK lens market, but with supply improving, new releases extending the company’s range and each model available in most of the popular lens mounts, Samyang may just find itself emerging from the shadows.

It may be a bit embarrassing for the original manufacturers but the Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC manages to produce a quality similar to its roughly double priced counterparts. Admittedly, the 24mm f/1.4 suffers from slightly lower contrast at large apertures but the resolution is already pretty...

For the price, this Samyang 24mm f/1.4 offers a decent, budget introduction to fast aperture lenses. Although the sharpness delivered at f/1.4 may not be up to that delivered my manufacturer’s own lenses, it may still be usable for some applications, and it certainly costs a lot less too.

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  Very good value for the price, Excellent sharpness when stopped down, Good build, Good sharpness in the centre stopped down to f/2 or beyond

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  A little soft at f/1.4, Pronounced falloff at f/1.4

Our summary can be a simple parable about climbing to the top, which was too quick, and a very painful downfall. After several very successful launches Samyang assumed too hastily that they belong to the elite and they can offer a lens with professional parameters in every category for a price not...

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  very good image quality on stopping down the lens by 1.5 EV,, chromatic aberration well-controlled,, decent work against bright light,, well-corrected coma on APS-C/DX and smaller detectors.

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  real aperture of the lens is much closer to f/1.8 than to f/1.4 or/and wrong conctruction of the diaphragm,, distortion level higher than in the case of its competitors,, slackened manual focus ring,, very high vignetting on full frame,, no contacts in the Canon mount version,, weak image quality by...

I own many SamYangs; and I like this one very much; good for walkaround

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  sharp, contrasty

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  can catch some flair; not very sharp at 1.4 - 2.0

Overall a quite good wide angle lens for photographers who have time for image setup, focussing,...

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  well suited for astrophotography

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  Large housing, could be more compact no chip/auto focus