Samyang 14mm f/2.8

[Wayland]

I had the opportunity to try out a Samyang 14mm f/2.8 lens yesterday.



I have to admit I'm impressed.

It would mostly be used for landscape so the barrel distortion doesn't worry me but It's impresively sharp right into the corners at f/11 and very little vignetting that I can see.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Gary,

I have a colleague at work with one of these on a D800, he's quite pleased with it for landscape, even vehicles, but for outdoor architecture shots he finds the distortion uncorrectable - buildings don't so much slope back as curve away from you to the top of frame

I must ask if he's tried keeping it level/horizontal, shooting portrait orientation and cropping the boring foreground off.

It certainly works for your shot here - lovely.

Cheers,

[Wayland]

There is certainly noticeable distortion and I have yet to find a profile for it so as you say it's not ideal for architecture.

As a landscape lens thought it will be a very useful extension to my 17-40mm which I'm nearly always using at the wider end.

The one I tried had a sticky diaphragm, probably something that would clear itself with a bit of work but not something I wanted in a new lens, otherwise I would have bought it on the spot.

It's definitely top of my wish list though.

[Dave Humphries]

Yes that is nice'n'sharp into the corners, isn't it.

Good composition to make the most of the lens and the least of the distortion to the point where it looks correctable, but isn't worth it

Next on my lens shopping list is the Nikon 10-24mm (for a DX body) for a bit more versatility.

Cheers,

[inkista]

You could try this LR profile:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/30251825/5dm...g14profile.zip

The Samyang 14/2.8 doesn't have barrel distortion, it has wave/mustache distortion (combined pincushion and barrel distortion), so simple correction won't work.

You could also use PTLens.

[moopy goops]

So, what is the BEST equivilant version of the 10-24mm that I can get for my 5D II ?
(An L version would be nice)

[Wayland]

Next on my lens shopping list is the Nikon 10-24mm (for a DX body) for a bit more versatility.

Cheers,

I was looking at the Sigma 12 - 24mm for similar reasons but I think the Samyang will fit the bill for me now.

The wider aperture should also suit the astro stuff I'm getting into at the moment too.

[Wayland]

You could try this LR profile:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/30251825/5dm...g14profile.zip

The Samyang 14/2.8 doesn't have barrel distortion, it has wave/mustache distortion (combined pincushion and barrel distortion), so simple correction won't work.

You could also use PTLens.

Thanks for that Kathy, I'll check it out when I get back to my desktop machine.

[Wayland]

So, what is the BEST equivilant version of the 10-24mm that I can get for my 5D II ?
(An L version would be nice)

I use a 17-40 L which I'm very happy with, the 8-15 L is a fisheye on full frame so not really suitable for me.

[MilT0s]

I think there are profiles for this lens available at Adobe Lens Profile Downloader

[loosecanon]

It is a great lens to have for the odd image, far cheaper than say canon's 14mm. I have one, but don't use it a lot, inpart as it is totally manual. The distortion is correctable in ACR but one has to allow for this in composing the image. Where the large aperture is not needed I tend to use the sigma 12-24 on full frame.

[Wayland]

How would you compare it to the sigma?

[Wayland]

I've finally had time to play with a couple of profiles for this lens and the one that's available through the Adobe Profile Downloader seems to do a pretty good job.

I'm impressed enough that I've just ordered a lens.

[RustBeltRaw]

As much as I like my Tokina 11-16mm, I'm jealous of the Sigma 14mm f2.8's corner sharpness. Your thread-opening shot is a stunner. Hard to be totally certain without a look at 100% crops of side-by-side shots, but it looks like a beautiful lens.

I can vouch for the Sigma 12-24. It's beastly for a wide-angle, has a rather narrow maximum aperture (f4.5-5.6), and the focus action is rather slow, but the IQ's great. Fine architecture lens and landscape lens.

[Wayland]

I have to admit that one of the things that attracted me was the wide f/2.8 maximum aperture.

I've seen a few starscape shots supposedly taken wide open on the Samyang which look pretty impressive.

Hopefully itt will give me a usable extra stop over my Canon 17-40 wide open as well as a bit of extra coverage.

[Wayland]

While not quite corner and centre here are a couple of unsharpened 100% crops from areas that show a few challenges.





I don't know about you but I think it has handled things quite well for a budget lens.

I'm particularly impressed with the low levels of Chromatic Aberration.

[loosecanon]

Comparison - well the corrected samyang is sharper and larger aperture. The Sigma 12-24 slightly wider, heavier, auto focus and aperture so easier to use, but image quality no as good, but less distortion and easier to correct. Niether can use a front filter so care needed not to damage the large protruding chunk of glass on the front. My Sigma is the older model, not sure what benefit the II version has, but when I looked the sigma website seems to show the older one had better resolution!

[RustBeltRaw]

I'm particularly impressed with the low levels of Chromatic Aberration.

Likewise. I can't see any in the lead-glass windows, which I'd expect to be a nightmare near the corners.

Niether can use a front filter so care needed not to damage the large protruding chunk of glass on the front.

This is a bigger deal than I initially thought. Not a huge deal for indoor work, but a bit of a problem elsewhere. If I'd known my long-term lens targets waaay back, I would have bought an 82mm polarizer and step rings instead of 58, 72, and 77mm polarizers. But I'm planning to take the step ring path when buying my variable ND. Planning on an 82mm Hoya 1.5-9stop variable ND, which is large enough to cover my Tokina 11-16mm (17mm equivalent on 135-format, 77mm filter thread), and the largest-element lens I may ever buy (Canon 24-70mm f2.8L II, 82mm filter thread).

[Glenn NK]

I'd never heard of the lens until Wayland brought it up.

Photozone were seemingly very impressed by it's resolution:

http://www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff...8eosff?start=1

I was stunned by the MTF values.

And the CA values were ridiculously low.

It's only drawbacks were distortion (hard to avoid at this FL), and vignetting.

Glenn

[Wayland]

I've seen a few threads talking about making adapters for large square filters but I have my doubts about that.

I do most of my grad effects in software and I don't often use polarisers with wide angles so I won't miss that too much.

For long exposure ND shots I'll just have to live with my 17mm I guess but it should be great in the twilight hours.