Samyang has announced the AF 35mm F1.8 FE, a lightweight autofocus prime lens for Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras. It’s designed for a variety of uses, including street, cityscape and landscape photography. While it’s built for use on full-frame cameras, it can also be used on APS-C models, offering a 53mm equivalent focal length.

Samyang’s AF 35mm F1.8 FE is smaller, lighter and cheaper than its Sony counterpart

Optically the lens employs 10 elements in 8 groups, with two aspheric elements and two made from high refractive-index (HR) glass to minimise distortion and chromatic aberration. The aperture diaphragm employs 9 curved blades for attractively blurred backgrounds. A linear stepper motor promises fast, quiet autofocus for both stills and video.

Samyang AF 35mm F1.8 FE on Sony A7R III body (C) Nic Taylor

The barrel measures 65mm in diameter and 63.5mm in length, while the full package weighs 235g including lens caps and the supplied petal-type hood. This makes it even smaller and lighter than its Sony equivalent. Despite this, Samyang says it’s sealed against dust, light rain and snow. A custom switch on the barrel, as first seen on the AF 75mm F1.8 FE, allows the manual focus ring to be re-purposed for controlling the aperture or other exposure settings.

A switch on the side allows the manual focus ring to be repurposed to change an exposure setting instead

Due to go sale in the UK at the beginning of October, the Samyang AF 35mm F1.8 FE will cost £359.99.