At around a third of the price of the Canon and Nikon alternatives, the Samyang 35mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC is an affordable and most importantly excellent quality alternative to the OEM offerings, that's if you can live with the lack of auto-focusing and on the Canon version the transfer of metering...

At around a third of the price of the Canon and Nikon alternatives, the Samyang 35mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC is an affordable and most importantly excellent quality alternative to the OEM offerings, that's if you can live with the lack of auto-focusing and on the Canon version the transfer of metering...

It's a crowded field in the fast 35mm lens market, and Samyang's approach to make an economical manual focus lens was a wise one: if you don't need autofocus, but want the razor-thin depth-of-field of a fast lens, the lens was already in your crosshairs.

Handling and features Performance Verdict Specification 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.

Very inexpensive; Excellent sharpness; even at f/1.4; Even better sharpness when stopped down a little; Low CA and distortion; Good build

Contrast suffers when shooting into the light

Handling and features Performance Verdict Specification 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.

Very inexpensive; Excellent sharpness; even at f/1.4; Even better sharpness when stopped down a little; Low CA and distortion; Good build

Contrast suffers when shooting into the light

Handling and features Performance Verdict Specification 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.

Very inexpensive; Excellent sharpness; even at f/1.4; Even better sharpness when stopped down a little; Low CA and distortion; Good build

Contrast suffers when shooting into the light

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.

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.

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.

This Korean-made lens is manual-focus only, but has electronic AI-P contacts to couple to every digital and autofocus Nikon for full Matrix metering, EXIF data and exposure controls.