Samyang 14mm F2.8 ED AS IF UMC A-mount lens reviews
reviews found: 19
 mambo#39924 date: Aug-18-2017 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 4 build: 5 distortion: 4 flare control: 5 overall: 4.6 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I used to own this lens |
| compared to: | samyang 8mm & 24mm T1.5. Minolta 11-18, Minolta 16mm fisheye, sigma 18mm zen |
| price paid: | 180 |
| positive: | Great ultra wide lens, sharp +++, great for night sky photography, well built |
| negative: | No AF, No exif data,distortion |
| comment: | My go to lens. I love this lens. |
| Chrisblobster#38891 date: Jul-1-2017 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 3 flare control: 4 overall: 4.1 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | missing |
| price paid: | US$279 (new) |
| positive: | Very sharp right across an APS-C frame from closest focus to infinity even at f/2.8, f/2.8 allows plenty of light for astro, very affordable, acceptably wide for work on APS-C, nice colours on my SLT-A57. |
| negative: | Significant barrel/moustache distortion (correctable), the focus scale is way out - actual infinity focus is achieved at 0.7m on the focus scale with mine, no EXIF to camera, manual focus. Slightly soft corners on SLT-A99, but only if you pixel peep |
| comment: | Not without its quirks - work around those however and this lens can reward you with some stunning imagery. Some people report elsewhere they got bad copies (bad coatings and softer on one side) - thankfully mine is a good one, YMMV. I can correct distortion using The Gimp and GimpLensfun, but only 1 at a time - am still searching for a free method to batch correct the distortion so I can do corrected timelapses of city/cloudscapes. For the money its a winner! Mine is Rokinon brand. |
| Collingsandheal#37856 date: May-7-2017 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 5 build: 3 distortion: 5 flare control: 5 overall: 4.5 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Voightlander 15mm f4.5 iii. Minolta 20mm f2.8. Konica Minolta 17-35mm f2.8-4. Zeiss 16-35 f2.8 |
| price paid: | 200 GBP |
| positive: | Beautifully smooth manual focusing. Much sharper than reviews here would have you believe when shooting close for affect. |
| negative: | About as sharp as the reviews here would have you believe if you try shooting interiors. Plasticy. |
| comment: | A little to soft for photographing interiors but really rather sharp when used close up. A great lens for playing with creatively. I paid 4x the price for the voigtlander 15mm and it is an FE lens so there really isn't a comparison but the Samy 14mm does things that it can't and therefore I'm going to keep it. UPDATE. Don't stop down to much "f5.6" and it is sharper than I thought and usable for shooting interiors. |
| laptoprob#12117 date: Feb-2-2015 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.6 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | 7-14 Panasonic Lumix micro 4/3, fantastic small lens but for tiny sensors. 12 and 15mm Voigtlander on Leica. |
| price paid: | €200 2nd hand |
| positive: | very, very wide, just what I need. And being able to see that wide view through the a850 viewfinder is absolute bliss. Build quality is fine for the price. All is nice and firm. Yes, the front element is huge, but so is the view! |
| negative: | Mine has correct distance markings, but it's called 'Falcon'. Maybe a superior series? I glued a focus confirm chip, mainly to indicate for close focusing. Without that it's really very hard to do. |
| comment: | I really like this lens. I got an a850 recently and it shines in ff. On apsc the lens is too bulky for the resulting wide frame. It's still bulky and heavy on ff, but what a view! After some searching I found RAWtherapee, to correct the crazy distortion. Then it's a breeze, so no negative comment on that. |
| revdocjim#12112 date: Jan-26-2015 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 4 flare control: 3 overall: 4.3 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Tamron 11-18mmm |
| price paid: | 30,000 yen (new) |
| positive: | This lens offers a great solution to the UWA problem at an affordable price. |
| negative: | No different from any other UWA... distortion is the main issue.. lack of critical sharpness in the corners... |
| comment: | I moved from APS-C to FF and needed something for UWA. I used the APS-C Tamron 11-18 for a while since it doesn't vignette on FF between 15mm and 18mm but the IQ in the corners is really bad. In comparison this lens is much better (but still far from perfect). My ratings are generally in comparison to other UWA lenses. Others have reported the markings on the focus ring to be way off, but on my copy they are pretty close! |
| pmrphoto#11700 date: Feb-17-2014 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 4 build: 4 distortion: 3 flare control: 4 overall: 3.9 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Nikon 14-24, Canon 14mm f/2.8L II, |
| price paid: | $325 |
| positive: | The Samyang glass is all very good and the 14mm is no exception. The color rendering is closer to Canon (warmer) than Nikon (cooler). I love the 14mm because you just cannot beat the price. It is such a good value overall for the money... You can find lenses that are better but they are usually over 5x the cost. Wide open, it's decent and always predictable. I especially like shooting this one close to people. As long as you keep with level and the person out of the extreme edges, it's a gray lens. When you want to do an interior, just use stix and close down to f/5.6 or 8 and you will be more than pleased. With software like LR and Aperture available, you can fix just about anything that is not perfect on this lens. |
| negative: | Build quality is right there in the 1970's with great focus feel perfect for video. NO AF, obviously. |
| comment: | I've shot this same optic on the D800E and it really is a performer. If you want a super wide but don't want to part with $2K, it's tough to find a better option. The Samyang glass would be a great deal at twice or even three times the price. |
| Mark_k#11664 date: Feb-2-2014 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 4 build: 4 distortion: 4 flare control: 3 overall: 4 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | 16-35 f2.8 ZA, 20/2.8 prime |
| price paid: | 319.99 |
| positive: | Great price, great |
| negative: | If there is an AF system |
| comment: | Will be sinful not to have one |
| Metasynthese#11488 date: Nov-18-2013 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 4 build: 4 distortion: 3 flare control: 5 overall: 4.2 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | -Tokina 17/3.5 -Sony SEL16F28 -Voigtländer 15/4.5 -Samyang 8/2.8 and 8/3.5 |
| price paid: | 180€ (used) |
| positive: | -Very sharp -FF coverage -Price -Low CAs, vignetting, distortion correctable,... -F2.8 is very fast for an 14mm lens with FF coverage! |
| negative: | -No filter screwmount :( -Vignetting on FF at wide apertures -Build could be better -Size -Heavy Distortion (partially correctable in Lightroom) |
| comment: | Very good lens. It soooo wide on FF that you wouldn't believe it ;) I prefer it over Voigtländer 15/4.5 but not over Voigtländer 12mm. For APS-C I prefer the 8/3.5 or 8/2.8 by Samyang. |
| tjack#11486 date: Nov-16-2013 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 4 build: 5 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.4 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Tokina 17mm f 3.5 (full-frame) Tokina 11-16 f 2.8 (APS-C) |
| price paid: | 339 USD (new) |
| positive: | Unbelievably sharp --and flat plane Great build (for the price, especially) Almost no chromatic aberrations or other need to defringe While there is a lot of moustache distortion, it can be corrected post-processing |
| negative: | Lousy focusing scale in terms of accuracy Need to be careful with rear lens element (protrudes beyond mount) as well as front lens element |
| comment: | What an amazing lens! On a full-frame, it is really wide. And it is sharp, almost corner to corner, from f 2.8 onward. (It just destroys my film-era Tokina 17 mm f 3.5, as well as—on an APS-C body—the digital-era Tokina 11-16mm f 2.8 at 14 mm.) While mine might have a very slight amount of decentering, it is simply amazing to me how flat the field of focus is, meaning the edges don’t decline a whole lot from the center, even wide open. With any lens this wide, there will be “issues.” First, distortion. There is a lot of “moustache”-like distortion. It can be removed post-processing (using Lightroom, most successfully for now with a Nikon Adobe Lens Profile Download—I’m working on my own, but so far it isn’t as successful as the existing Nikon), so I can live with that. [My rating for distortion is relative to the "class" of 14mm lenses and the ability to fix it.] There is also vignetting—as with all really wide-angle lenses—which I generally think needs to be removed manually (as attempting to do it through Adobe runs into the obstacle that the EXIF information doesn’t know if you are shooting at f 2.8 or at f 8). [But there is remarkably little chromatic aberrations, so that really isn’t a problem—my Tokina 17mm f 3.5 has a large amount of chromatic aberrations and even more “purple defringing”; compared to the Tokina, this Samyang is a gem in that respect.] Anyone buying one of these should also be aware of a couple of other issues. First, the focusing scale sucks. Even going past the infinity “mark”—and even the infinity “symbol”—was necessary to get the lens to focus accurately at infinity. (Others have had the exact opposite problem, so I assume there is a fair amount of “tolerance” in the initial set-up in this respect.) Even at 14 mm—with its huge depth-of-field--this makes a difference (at least if you are pixel-peeping). Second, that matters, because on my a850, it is very hard to figure out the right focus (I have not “chipped” the lens, as I have done with my 85 mm f 1.4 Samyang, which brings into play the focus confirmation). I’ve learned the adjustment I need to make from the scale, so I can live with that. [Figuring out whether focus is OK is easier on my a77, with focus peaking and magnification.] Still, with this wide of an angle lens, it would almost be easiest to set the focus manually, and the mis-match of the scale with the actual focus makes this something you need to learn, rather than just do. Second—and I’ve seen little reference to this. The rear lens element sticks out beyond the mount. That means, don’t stick the lens facing “upwards” on a surface without the rear cap! And beware of stray fingers.... (It isn’t only the front element that is exposed.) All that said, for the price it is one amazing lens. Sure, it doesn’t auto-focus (but I’m not sure how accurate auto-focus is with such a wide-angle lens—and thus, why one really would want it). And, yes, it doesn’t give you EXIF read-out data, but you can use it in “A” mode, because the exposure meter in the camera reads out the amount of light coming in, which you adjust on the lens’s aperture ring. W/o a chip, it won’t do IBIS perfectly, either, but I’m not really sure that makes a huge difference with a 14mm lens (I rather like the chip I put in my 85mm lens, for that reason). And the front element—and lens cap—makes using filters all but impossible. But the amazing wide-angle perspective, the detail, and the general feel of the lens make all of these “learning experiences” more than complaints about things that could be fixed—without vastly increasing the cost of the lens. |
| livinginparadise#10649 date: Nov-4-2012 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 3 flare control: 4 overall: 4.4 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Tokina 19-35 Sony 18-55 |
| price paid: | missing |
| positive: | Sharp Contrasy Very good image quality |
| negative: | Distortion Mf No filters usable |
| comment: | A very nice lens I don't like distortion, but there's a photoshop CS5 plugin for nikon 700 Samyang 14/2.8f11 which fixes that problem. A polarizer would be useful for rainforest and creek/waterfall scenes |
| tekwizard#10483 date: Sep-3-2012 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.5 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Tokina DX 11-16 F2.8 Sony 16-80ZA Minolta 28f2.0 Samyang 8mm f3.5 |
| price paid: | 260€ |
| positive: | sharpness 2.8 bokeh build value |
| negative: | distortion |
| comment: | I enjoy this lens very much, it is sharp and the focusing is very smooth. The distortion seems to be the only problem but as other reviewers have mentioned it can be corrected with PT Lens. What needs to be pointed out is that this lens gives a very smooth bokeh which is quite surprising for an ultra wide angle and significantly better than the Tokina 11-16 which can be quite restless in some situation. As I am comparing already with the Tokina, from my copies the Samyang is sharper at 14mm. |
| szupinglee#10447 date: Aug-11-2012 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 4 build: 5 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.3 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | 18-55 kit Minolta 28 2.8 |
| price paid: | 390 USD(new) |
| positive: | center sharpness coverage (FF and APS-C) value build |
| negative: | Incorrect focus ring marking focuses way beyond infinite |
| comment: | This review is for the updated Samyang/Rokinon 14mm 2.8 I bought this lens for shooting landscape and in certain indoor architectural situations. This is great value considering it has FF coverage. This lens has great sharpness in the center. The edges are certainly not bad considering the price. This is a full mechanical lens, so no metadata. The build is solid, smooth focus ring, but one glaring problem - focus markings are labelled WAY off. On my copy, infinity is between the 1-2m markings. If you are new to this lens, you need to do some testing to find your sweet spot. Going beyond focus gives terrible results wide open(obviously). Stopping down to f11 widens the in-focus range, but still, infinity marking is beyond infinity and never comes in-focus, except if you shoot at f22. Other than this, the lens is a staple for my shooting. |
| joeyc#9197 date: Jul-1-2011 | |
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sharpness: 4 color: 4 build: 5 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.2 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | missing |
| price paid: | 345 USD New |
| positive: | Great Build Smooth Focus Action Sharp Decent Micro Contrast |
| negative: | Distortion Bulging Front Element No Electronics |
| comment: | This lens has been a nice surprise. I needed a decent wide angle to use on both my A850 and A55. I have been waiting for the new Sigma 12-24, but became impatient. I grabbed the Rokinon version of this lens and have recently put it through its paces. In my opinion, there are only two negatives with this lens. 1.Distortion requires processing to fix (PT Lens) and 2.no electronics. I ordered a chip for this lens, so perhaps that will address #2. I find the sharpness to be above average across 90% of the frame on my A850. Extreme corners have some smearing of details, but compared to my Tokina 19-35, this is minimal. I find it an useful 21mm on the A55 and the zoom during focus to check for optimal accuracy is great. Started using this for interior shots. In camera HDR and a quick pass through with PT Lens = good to go. I need to spend more time with this lens on my A850, but initial impressions are high for this lens. Excellent value all around. |
| mvanrheenen#9191 date: Jun-29-2011 | |
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sharpness: 4 color: 4 build: 4 distortion: 3 flare control: 3 overall: 3.6 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | missing |
| price paid: | 269 EUR (new) |
| positive: | Sharpness Speed Price Build quality |
| negative: | Quality Hood and Cap Rather stiff focus ring Flare control |
| comment: | I was pleasantly supprised about this lens' performance. With f2.8 it's reasonably fast, stopped down it's sharp and the build quality is very good for use in the field. Although, for a manual lens, the focus ring is a bit stiff for my taste. Although reading several reviews about the complex barrel distortion, I find it fairly easy to correct in post production. Also, because I use it mainly for landscape overviews, most of the time I notice the distortion after correcting it. That's why I didn't note it as a negative point. The protruding curved front element does make it prone to flare under certain angles. The hood doesn't help in those conditions. This also prevents the use of filters on this lens. The lens hood and cap are made from a very cheap plastic. You know that even if plastic fantastic feels cheap, it's not good :-) Not a real big issue though, I just need to be more carefull when using it in the field. Most people feel you don't need to focus to get the best result with these focal lengths. I tend to disagree. Especially when focus is crucial, it pays of focussing more accurately with this lens, especially at extreme apertures. All in all for the money, you can't beat this lens in my opinion. If you can live with manual focussing, know how to correct the distortion and can live without using filters, this is your lens. |
| gouldina#9025 date: May-14-2011 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 4 flare control: 5 overall: 4.6 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | missing |
| price paid: | missing |
| positive: | Sharp Wide as hell on FF Cheap |
| negative: | "Funny" distortion |
| comment: | I'm very happy with this lens I must say. On a full frame camera it's astonishingly wide - less so on APS-C but still pretty damn wide. Sharpness is extremely good and it's very hard to get it to flare. I really don't find manual focus a problem with this lens because being so wide, it's very easy to set for hyperfocus using the distance marks on the focus ring. Two small negatives - 1. there's some "interesting" distortion to the image which is hard to fix by hand and 2. The rear lens cap falls off a lot I find like the fit is too loose. Otherwise you can't fail to be happy with such a high quality lens at such a low price I don't think. |
| Dipsausje#8592 date: Jan-29-2011 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 3 flare control: 5 overall: 4.4 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I used to own this lens |
| compared to: | Sigma 12-24 Sony ZA 24-70 |
| price paid: | 280 GBP (new) |
| positive: | Sharp Good Colours Good Flare control Well built |
| negative: | No AF or any electronics Distortion |
| comment: | This lens is the best value in a lens ever in my opinion. Starting at f2.8 the results are sharp, and very pleasing. The lens uses metal and plastic parts, build quality feels good and the focus ring is smooth (maybe a bit too smooth even). Especially for such a wide-angle lens the flare control is very good, I've used the lens with the sun clearly in view and then you start noticing flare, but this is at the point were the sun also influenced my view quite a lot. The amount of contrast my a850+Samyang 14mm managed to get from this situation was astonishing. Now the downside: this lens has no AF, a manual aperture and no electronics to communicate with the body. Since the firmware update it is possible to use this lens in A-mode on the a850/a900. MF is something to learn, especially at this focal length, however at f5.6-f8 nearly everything will be in focus if you ust put the focus at about 2m. The distortion is a bigger problem. With objects in close you'll see strange effects in the corners, I think simply because of the huge fov. Also the lens shows a strange "mustache" shape distortion which is disturbing in some shots, however PTLens can correct most of it with ease. Also quite often the distortion is there, but not disturbing, this of course depends on subject and composition. Also the results are sharp at f2.8 but vignetting is visible then. It's not a perfect lens and it definitely has flaws (distortion mostly), but especially considering price this lens is simply stunning even with it's flaws (vignetting at 2.8 and distortion). Edit: I'm referring to a850 several times, I've tested this lens on my A100 as well but for me this lens is really for FF, this lens just shines with the large fov. |
| tgx78#8380 date: Dec-9-2010 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 3 flare control: 4 overall: 4.4 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | 17-35D 16-35ZA 20mm 2.8 |
| price paid: | 400 CDN (new) |
| positive: | very sharp even wide open neutral color low price |
| negative: | distortion no AF confirm |
| comment: | This lens is hard to master but really rewards you with sharp and detailed images once you learn how to use it. Full manual control really makes you think before each shots are taken. I correct distortion with PTLens in CS5 but still there are trace of diagonal distortion if you are not careful about composition. Let's talk about sharpness.. this lens is one amazing pixel resolving machine! At f/2.8, 80% of image field is already sharp! around f/5.6 almost 95% coverage becomes sharp - truly outstanding. negatives - mounting filters can be challenging. flare control is bad, and as I said earlier.. barrel distortion with a mustache-style sub-frequency. |
| cat.spb#8374 date: Dec-8-2010 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 4 flare control: 5 overall: 4.8 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Sony 16/2.8, Sony 20/2.8, Sony 16-35/2.8, Tokina 20-35/2.8. |
| price paid: | 430 USD(new) |
| positive: | - 14mm, f2.8 on FF - Very sharp and contrast - Minimum CA - Build quality - Low price |
| negative: | - Distortion - Vignette in open |
| comment: | I like this lens. This lens very sharp in the center and on corners in A900. |
| jeep#8307 date: Nov-26-2010 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 3 flare control: 4 overall: 4.2 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | 17-35 mm Konica Minolta 20 mm Sony |
| price paid: | £290.00 |
| positive: | Great fun and value. Super resolution. A manual focus and aperture lens that makes you think when you are using it |
| negative: | Nothing considering price. Distortion can be corrected and my main use is for landscapes where it is not so much of a problem anyway. Difficult to use filters or grads with this kind of lens design |
| comment: | Very pleased with this inexpensive lens on my a900. The resolution is excellent and can produce some really creative images. Being fully manual it slows you down and makes you think when composing shots, no bad thing. Update: I did not find this very good on Sony NEX7 or A7R, might be an adapter fault but parts of the image were soft |
reviews found: 19
rating summary
- total reviews: 19
- sharpness: 4.74
- color: 4.58
- build: 4.47
- distortion: 3.63
- flare control: 4.16
- overall: 4.32
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