| The Samsung 85 mm f/1.4 is an ultra-bright, fixed focal length lens for the serious user. We reviewed it on an NX30. The lens is both mechanically and optically very well built, and considerably big and heavy. There is no image stabilization, but there is a distance scale. Uniquely, this lens has a fast focus motor. The optical performance is exceptionally good, as you don’t often see… | |
Samsung 85 mm f/1.4 ED SSA NX + NX30 |
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The 85 mm is a good portrait lens, although some people for that application prefer a shorter focal length. Street musician at full aperture (f/1.4), 1/2000 second. Focused on the eyes. Nose and ears are already blurred. |
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Build and auto focus |
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| This is a whopper of a lens! From the mount, it extends forward 90 mm, and it weighs just slightly under 700 grams. There is one ED glass element, to combat chromatic aberration. The lens has an “SSA” focus motor, according to the manufacturer’s documentation, “super-soon.” Unfortunately, this does not translate in practice into superfast focusing. On the test body (NX30), the AF was a bit on the slow side, in our standard test (focusing from 8 m to 80 cm), it needed more than 1 second. That disappointed us. The focus motor is both good and soundless. | {insertgrid ID = 289} |
Vignetting and distortion |
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| In RAW, at the largest lens aperture, there is vignetting, but in the JPEG shots, that can’t be seen (move your cursor over the picture). Starting at f/2.8, both RAW and JPEG are outstanding. We can be brief about distortion: there isn’t any! You don’t see such perfection often. |
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Flare and artefacts |
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| The 85 mm is not completely free of flare. There is a sun cap included, and our recommendation is that you would be smart to use it. The lens, although already not the smallest, then gets even a bit bigger. In the photo shown here, you see two grey streaks as the result of flare, and a green “sun” at the bottom of the image. Such phenomena, called “artefacts,” always lies on the line that runs from the sun down through the center of the image. |  |
Sharpness |
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| We were especially impressed by the resolution (sharpness); both in the laboratory and in practice. We have seldom seen such values for the MTF50 with an APS-C lens across the whole aperture range, including at the typically difficult full aperture. The maximum sharpness is reached at f/8. |  |
1/2000 at f/3.5. Outstanding detail, even in the corners, and no trace of chromatic aberration. |
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Chromatic aberration |
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| Chromatic aberration (CA) is the phenomenon that causes sharp contrast transitions to take on green and purple edges. Tree branches are notorious for this, especially in the corners of the image. Both in the Imatest and in the practice shots, in RAW and in JPEG, the images were completely free of CA: perfect! |  |
Bokeh |
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| The bokeh, an important property when you want to work at full aperture a lot, is beautifully soft and round, thanks to the 9 aperture blades. The lens is thus very well suited for product shots in the studio. | |
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Conclusion Samsung 85 mm f/1.4 NX review with Samsung NX30
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Look in our list of reviewed lenses in order to compare the performance of this lens with that of other lenses. |
 WYSIWYG score: This table shows the performance of this lens if the files are stored in the camera in jpg format, with all available in-camera lens corrections applied. This score gives you for this lens/test camera combination: “What you see is what you get”. |
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Pros
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Cons
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| The Samsung 85 mm f/1.4 has exceptionally good optical properties. It is big and heavy, and the auto focus is rather slow, but for those who set the highest requirements for image quality, this is an absolute must-buy. Especially in combination with the new NX1, this appears to us to be a very desirable possession. | |
