Cheap and Light: A First Look at the New Samyang 45mm f/1.8 Lens for Sony Mirrorless

The Samyang AF 45mm f/1.8 FE lens for Sony E is quite the intriguing lens, providing an autofocus prime with a wide maximum aperture in an impressively small and cheap package for Sony shooters. Does it give you a lot of bang for your buck? This great first look video aims to answer just that question. 

Coming to you from Dustin Abbott, this awesome video takes a look at the Samyang AF 45mm f/1.8 FE lens. While Sony shooters have plenty of high quality optics at their disposal, one thing the system could definitely use more of is budget-level lenses that still provide a lot of performance relative to their price. Samyang has always been known for producing manual focus lenses with great image quality at very low prices, but recently, the company started venturing into making autofocus lenses, giving Sony users the prospect of cheap, quality glass (as long as the autofocus could keep up). The 45mm looks to have a lot of promise, especially given its compact size and focal length, which could make it quite the appealing walkaround lens for a lot of Sony users. Check out the video above for Abbott's full thoughts on this interesting lens. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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2 Comments

Would be interesting to see a comparison of this one and Sigma 45mm 2.8. Of course, reviews like that would come sooner or later but the point is how detail those reviews are.

I have the 24mm AF version of this lens for a walkabout and compact travel lens. It delivers perfectly acceptable results and for the price ($270) & size it’s amazing. None of the native lenses are as small as the Samsung 24/35mm f2.8’s. AF works much, much better than Sony 50mm F1.8.

It’s nice to have a body/lens package small enough to throw in a backpack and take mountain biking which would be tough with any of my other lenses.