Bower 85mm f1.4

[Grev]

These are Korean made originally called Samyang lenses, probably haven't heard of them but the quality of these things are pretty amazing.

I just got mine today and the sharpness wide open is very good, I would say that it has a good lead compared to the Nikon AFD 85mm f1.4 that I have, and keeps up throughout the smaller apertures as well.

I don't have any photos to post but there should be lots of samples of this lens if you do a search, it is also a rebranded Vivitar 85mm f1.4 too.

The only thing regarding this compared to the AFD Nikon is that this lens is manual focus only. It cost me $350 US, a bargain I would say.

[aim54x]

I have been considering one, Thom Hogan wrote a note about it being a missing review for him

http://bythom.com/

The Missing Test
May 6--Originally I had hoped to post a test of the low-cost Korean 85mm f/1.4 along with my Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D review. Unfortunately, as I got deep into the testing, I discovered that my Bower 85mm sample had a clear manufacturing defect that precluded it from getting consistent or accurate exposures. Pity. Other than the fact it didn't work, the build quality seems quite good ;~). Optically, I was only able to accurately test at f/1.4, where it is slightly softer in the center and corner than all other 85mm's I've used, shows significantly more vignetting than the Nikkor that I just completed testing, but has about the same distortion numbers (i.e. nearly none). I'm not going to retest it.

[Grev]

Yeah, mine does work. And testing it on the D700, edge sharpness wide open is very good, definitely better than the Nikkor, centre sharpness looks about the same wide open.

And now I heard there is a thing called Kiron 28mm f2, also can get as a rebadged Vivitar, that lens looks pretty good, would be a good comparison to the AiS 28mm f2 I have.

[aim54x]

I have seen a lot of reviews on this lens, almost all of them agree with your findings Grev, but they do indicate that the lens does not transmit as much light as the Nikkor does (ie at the same settings in the same conditions, the Nikkor takes brighter images)

[Murray Foote]

If that's the case then maybe it's a 1.6 rather than a 1.4 and if so should the comparison be with the Nikon 1.4 or 1.8?

[Grev]

Oh I can't compare the smaller aperture on the bower, since all my gear are packed at the moment so I'll try and do a comparison soon.

And it doesn't matter if it's comparing it to the f1.4 or f1.8, and between the AFD 85mm f1.4 and AFD 85mm f1.8, from my personal experience, the f1.4 is sharper wide open than the f1.8, but other sources might suggest otherwise.

I find this korean gem to be sharper than both nikkors and also better than the 85L, wide open that is. BTW Thom Hogan posted a review on the AFD 85mm f1.4: http://bythom.com/Nikkor-85mm-lensreview.htm He saids the f1.8 is sharper than the f1.4 wide open...

[gstark]

BTW Thom Hogan posted a review on the AFD 85mm f1.4: http://bythom.com/Nikkor-85mm-lensreview.htm He saids the f1.8 is sharper than the f1.4 wide open...

But the f/1.4 wide open is f/1.4. SOmething that the f/1.8 can never do.

I would like to see evidence of the Bower being sharper than the Nikkor.

[Grev]

I will test it out once I unpack my camera gear. I'll do a test between:

- Nikkor AFD 85mm f1.4
- Bower 85mm f1.4
- Mamiya 80mm f1.9

Just for fun.

[Murray Foote]

BTW Thom Hogan posted a review on the AFD 85mm f1.4: http://bythom.com/Nikkor-85mm-lensreview.htm He saids the f1.8 is sharper than the f1.4 wide open...

He said that the 1.8 wide open is sharper than the 1.4 at 1.8.

[Grev]

I have taken the photos for this unscientific test.

Results are hard to explain, the Korean made lens and the Mamiya isn't troubled by (I assume) internal flaring like the Nikon does wide open, where the Nikon will have halos around the edges, the other 2 doesn't. Maybe it's a characteristic of the bokeh rendering of the Nikon, I'm not sure, and I do find this on my AiS 35mm f1.4 and AiS 50mm f1.2 as well, where as the AiS 28mm f2 is very contrasty and lack of this halo wide open.

It is also one of the reason which make the Canon EF 50mm f1.2 appear to be sharper and less dreamy than the Nikon 50mm f1.2.

I will post the photos later (I'll post the full resolution stuff on my flickr).

Here are the methods I used
- Hand held
- Same exposure
- D700 at 400iso, 1/125sec, all wide open

[Grev]

Surprisingly the results on the D300 is closer than the ones that were taken on the D700.

Which might suggest the low resolution score of the Nikkor in tests since the internal flaring pollutes the results at the edge of the frame, again, like the other fast Nikon primes.