| Author: | | Site Supporter Registered: December, 2014 Location: Colorado Posts: 497
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 1, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $279.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | 10mm and f2.8, sharp | | Cons: | field curvature, difficult to focus, distortion | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-01, K-30
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My rating on sharpness is based on this lens's performance on the 16MP sensor of K-01/K30. Center sharpness is very good even wide open and becomes excellent after closing down 1-2 stops. Corner sharpness is a strange thing. When center is focused, corner sharpness is not so good at f2.8 but improves to very good at f5.6. I found that I can adjust the focus of the lens to make the corners very good at f2.8 and excellent at f5.6, but then center became blurry. Given that in my test the center and the corners are nearly flat, my guess is that this lens, or at least my sample, has a very strong field curvature. So when I look for uniform sharpness across the frame I close the lens down to f5.6 and below - everything then becomes (more than) acceptably sharp.
To put the performance of this lens in perspective, I can make reference to Sigma 10-20/3.5. Wide open the Sigma is a bit sharper in the center. In the corners this Samyang is MUCH better. Sigma needs to be closed to f11 at 10mm to have acceptably sharp corners - still they look worse than Samyang at f5.6.
As someone has already mentioned it is a challenge to focus this lens. On K-30 the in-focus prompt helps but I've found live view + focus peaking to be the most reliable.
| | | | | | | Forum Member Registered: May, 2020 Location: Cabo San Lucas Posts: 53
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 11, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $350.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharpness, good construction, included lens hood, portability. | | Cons: | No auto-focus, no wheather sealing. | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K-3 II
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I bought this lens primarily for real estate photography which has worked really good, lots of clients are happy with the results. I also have used the lens for landscape and night photography which has become very good also, the only downside i see is that doesn´t have auto-focus, don´t really miss it but i would help a little, other than that i´m very happy with the lens.
Its been a couple of years since i bought the lens and still performing really good. Indoors and outdoors can deliver sharp images, even at f2.8 the images are good quality, i have used it for some night photography and wide field astrophotography and also performs good. I use it mostly for real state photgraphy indoors so most of the time i´m shooting at f8 and the images are very sharp, shooting against the sun it will show a little CA but nothing too bad. Its a bit heavy but nothing that can become uncomfortable, indoors most of the time i´m using a tripod and for landscape mostly handheld, for astrophotography also on a tripod, overall i like the lens, like i mentioned before if it had auto focus it would be better.
 | | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: October, 2015 Location: Central Missouri Posts: 6,273
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 18, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $329.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Image Quality, Colors, Hyperfocal, Very Wide FOV | | Cons: | Size, Weight, No Filters | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-3, K20D
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I bought this lens from Amazon, awesome deal at $329! I have had it for about a month at the time of this review.
By way of introduction, this is an ultra wide angle, rectilinear lens. So for those that have not experienced an ultra wide lens, the field of view is huge, this is an advantage and a lot of fun at times but does have it's drawbacks. Simple things like getting your feet or the sun or other things when you don't want them in the picture can be a problem. Another issue is perspective distortion, while a rectilinear wide angle keeps the lines straight (instead of curved), the lines will tilt when they are off of the vertical and horizontal center of the photo. For a lens with this field of view, this distortion can be quite noticeable. This is however fairly easy to correct in PP software.
The optical design of this lens is nothing short of amazing for such a wide lens, and particularly for the cost. The color rendering is great and it is tack sharp. Like most lenses it is probably sharpest in the mid-range, say f/5.6 to f/11, but even wide open it is very sharp. I am amazed at the ability to resolve distant detail for such a wide lens. It handles direct sun in a way that I really like, with a characteristic star pattern. Yes there is flare, but it is well managed and there is very little loss of contrast (depending on the situation). There is some fringing in the typical extreme situations, but this is also well managed IMO. And on top of that it is fast at f/2.8.
My only complaint is the size and weight of the lens (but I usually prefer small lenses). I will say that on the K-3 the lens is well balanced and the handling is nice. It is just big.
I hate to even have to rate bokeh on a lens like this. I really don't use the lens that way, so I would say more like "not applicable" in my case. On the flip side, though is the hyper-focal. At about f/8 or so it is hard to get anything out of focus! I haven't done any technical analysis of this but for most scenic shooting everything is in focus. And when you do have to focus it is not too difficult. I suppose manual focus could be considered a drawback, but I personally don't mind manual focus lenses (I have a good mixture of manual and auto-focus, so switching to manual focus is pretty automatic). The manual focus is very smooth.
This lens is very well constructed. The hood, although plastic seems to be very durable. A potential drawback is that if the hood does get broken, it would require a shop repair.
In summary, this lens is a great buy and very well done. For anyone with a bent to ultra-wide shooting you can't go wrong.
Some samples:
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2006 Location: Antwerp, Belgium Posts: 1,727 | | Review Date: May 2, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $435.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | well made lens, decent corner to corner sharpness | | Cons: | large lens cap, no WR, no filters | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 5
Handling: 7
Value: 8
Camera Used: K3-II
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Just added this lens to my already too large collection of wide angles.
Actually, I already have the DA10-17 & Sigma 8-16 covering a similar FoV. However, my widest fixed focal length lenses are the DA15 and the Samyang 16/2. The Samyang 10/2.8 will complement these latter. Sometimes I just don't want to take zooms with me...
I tested this lens first a few years ago at Samyang's Photokina stand, at the same time trying out the 16/2. At the time the 16/2 was closer to what I was looking for (faster and sharper (in the corners) lens than the DA15), so I left the 10/2.8 for a while. However, things change and I find don't take my Sig8-16 with me when the Samy16/2 is already in the bag. Enter the Samy10/2.8.
It's not much smaller or lighter than the 8-16, so that's not really a reason to prefer it. It is much faster though. One application I will be using it for is wide open night photography, and having a reasonably performing f/2.8 is important for that purpose. Though its wide open performance is not as stellar as the Samy16/2, it is still very usable, and even stopping down 0.5 or 1 stop will still gather more light than the 8-16 wide open.
Stopped down to f/6.7 (my most used aperture) or f/8 and focus set to hyperfocal distance, the lens offers almost full DoF. At least at the K-3II's 24MP I cannot see any significant OOF even when pixel peeping. Contrary to that, at f/2.8 you need to focus very close by to have minor Bokeh in the background. As can be expected at this focal length, this is not a Bokeh lens.
Construction wise it's well built. Even the hood, which some reviewers consider flimsy, is better than most bayonet hoods provided with the other WA Samyangs (I have the 16/2 and the 24/1.4). The lens cap is very big to cover the tulip hood, and that's a big more difficult to store, which makes it the most practical issue for this lens IMHO...
Shame there's no way to mount filters, though Samyang does make an accessory (huge!) filter holder that allows mounting specially made Cokin filters in front of its 14/2.8 lens. This filter holder is said to also work on the 10/2. Seems a bit bulky to me, but better than the Sig8-16 which doesn't have such ready made solution. Perhaps one day I'll add this to my kit...
I like the images I got so far, esp the corner sharpness. I often shoot vertical and crop the top square for architecture (to achieve sometime like shift). The DA15 was never great at that, and the Samy10/2 does much better (though not as good as the 16/2).
In short: I like this lens a lot and I'm sure it will see a lot of use!!
Wim
| | | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: February, 2010 Location: Northern Michigan Posts: 6,173
5 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 16, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $380.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | reasonably sharp, contrasty, decent color, very wide | | Cons: | big and heavy, filter use probably impossible, mediocre light transmission, white fringing under extreme conditions | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 5
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax K-5iis
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The Samyang lenses generally give good value. They are sharp, with decent contrast, decent color. They are not without flaws, nor are they quite on the level with the best Pentax primes. However, with this Samyang 10mm, we have a lens that covers a gaping hole in the K-mount line-up, which is reason enough to consider it.
The lens itself is plenty sharp over much of its image circle. Only on the far edges do I see a bit of a drop in resolution, even when stopped down. However, in terms of practical output, it's not all that important. Color rendition and contrast is good to very good. Flare is decent, although hardly stellar. This lens is advertised as having "nano" anti-reflective coatings. While these coatings may be a tad better than Samyang's UMC coatings, they hardly the equal of Pentax's nano coatings. Indeed, I doubt they are the equal of Pentax's ghostless coatings. Although this lens is a stop faster than the DA 15 in terms of aperture, in terms of light transmission, there might be only a half or a third of a stop difference, and it is unlikely that all of that can be explained solely by the extra glass inside the Samyang lens.
Chromatic aberration control is fairly good for a lens of this extreme FOV. However, in extreme situations, with dark edge against a blue sky, the lens is prone to white fringing, which, unlike chromatic aberrations, is not an easy fix in Lightroom. Distortion is also an issue if you're photographing anything with straight lines (like a the horizon at sea).
The lens features an adjustable hyper focal scale, and an "A" setting on the aperture for automatic exposure capability with K-Mount DSLRs. The lens is manufactured with metal and high-end plastics. The manual focus ring is nicely dampened.
Below are some sample images, all shot at f8:
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2012 Location: Colorado Posts: 1,437
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 30, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $293.44
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Almost covers full frame, great AoV, bright in the viewfinder, acceptable distortion, nice corner detail, build quality, handling, aperture ring | | Cons: | Size, no ability to accept filters | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 7
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax K-3, MG, MX
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After using this the first time, I admit the 10mm 2.8 is a curious lens. It's sharp, has great out of focus characteristics, transmits color nicely, and exhibited no aberration that I could see on my first use. So, from a technical standpoint, it's exceptional.
I did some tests with this lens, closest focus and infinity, and found that at close focus the Samyang 10mm as good sharpness at f2.8, better at f4, and peaks from f5.6 to f8 with f11 also being very good. f16 and f22 (especially the latter) exhibit diffraction softening. The lens also vignettes at f2.8. Take the same photo at f2.8 and then f4 and switch between them and the vignette is easily noticed.
In terms of focusing, your best bet is to calibrate the focus for infinity and then hyperfocal at f5.6 or f8. The lens only marks hyperfocal distance to f5.6, and with the infinity mark on one side everything to 1.35-ish feet is in focus. At f16, the lens is basically a pinhole (not in terms of light transmission) in that everything from, seemingly, the atoms of air in front of the lens to the sky and distant ridgelines is in basically the same amount of focus. One of the nice things about this lens having a hyperfocal range of f5.6 is that, at f11, you can basically use this focus-free.
The lens' angle of view is wide -- almost too wide. It's kinda crazy how much of the world can be seen. I often -- OFTEN -- found myself on my first shoot with it wishing I had gotten the 14mm lens. That said, there were a LOT of times that the added width was very helpful. When? When the subject was close. This lens, so far for me, shines when it's used on subjects that are close to the camera.
This lens is VERY hard to focus optically. Using live view with 8X magnification on this lens will be a great help in focusing. Also, you'll want to calibrate the infinity focus. Here are some sample photos.
 | | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: October, 2009 Posts: 137
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 12, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $460.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, Sharp, IQ, | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K5IIs
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I have been waiting for this next jewel from SamYang....10mm
It looks a bit like the 14mm
calibration of this copy is OK; so distance scale is correct (and checked with Live View)
a few examples..
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