Samyang AF 85 mm f/1.8 P FE
10. Autofocus and focus breathing
Autofocus
The autofocus module of the Samyang AF 85 mm f/1.8 P FE was tested by us with the help of the Sony A7R IIIa and the Sony A7R V. In both cases the mechanism was noiseless but its speed could be called just moderate. Running through the whole distance range and confirming the focus, no matter from what direction, took about 0.7-0.8 of a second. At the same time we haven't notice any meaningful wavering or oscillation.It's worth noticing that the speed and work culture of the autofocus didn't change significantly when we switched between AF-S and AF-C modes. In case of lenses from some independent producers this second mode can accelerate the performance but here we didn't notice such an effect.
The accuracy of the focusing mechanism was a very nice surprise for a change. We didn't notice any significant problems no matter whether we worked in our studio or outside.
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When it comes to front or back focus tendencies the tested lens had a slight propensity toward front focus and it concerned both bodies. The effect was very slight; even when we took photos from really close distances so in the most difficult combination the depth of field still encompassed the photographed object. In practice such a performance will be almost completely unnoticeable.
| A7R IIIa, f/1.8 |
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| A7R V, f/1.8 |
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Focus breathing
Focus breathing test show reframing images as you oversharp them. We conduct the test by manually passing from the minimum focusing distance to infinity with the aperture stopped down; then we check how the field of view of the lens changed as a result.A frame change ranging from 0 to 5% we consider to be low. Between 5 and 10% you can speak about medium levels. Usually such values constitute also the maximum efficiency level of any breathing compensation algorithms, present in some bodies. Between 10 and 15% focus breathing is high, above 15% its level can be called very high.
Below we present the test video of the Samyang lens:
A fun fact: while approaching the minimum focusing distance the effective focal length of the tested lens changes from 85 mm to about 105 m and its effective aperture fastness decreases to near f/2.2.
