[mee]

I got a Firefly from Adorama, via Amazon. It had the same problem. Wouldn't reach infinity focus, even past the infinity click. And wasn't generally that impressed with the sharpness even at medium distance. So back it is going.

Must say I'm very disappointed in the quality control of these Korean manufactured ultra-wide primes. Had to send back two Rokinon 14mm with the same sort of issues. I think I'm about ready to punt an just get the Pentax 15-30, even though it's 3-4x as expensive.

Interesting. My copy is from Adorama too. I guess the whole batch is suspect. I just want to take pictures not deal with QA garbage and pleading my case to customer support to take it back.. or dealing with repair services..

I put in an RMA for a refund. I will weigh my options on lens choice. Ideally I'd go for the Pentax 15-30mm too. But after buying the K-1 and the 28-105, I'm looking to take a break from spending money. And the Pentax version is pricey. Beyond that not many other options at ultra wide...


On a side note, Adorama doesn't let you just generate an RMA on the website.. it seems one must email or call them to request one. Or fill out the RMA PDF and eat the shipping cost. Their competitor has the RMA system online where you don't have to deal with another person directly... click on the order, request the RMA through your account. I wish Adorama had a similar system developed to handle RMAs... if they do I'm not seeing it.

I get so frustrated with all these issues, the state of Pentax, the state of DSLRs in general.. today I half thought of boxing up all my camera gear and saying forget about it.. but then I realize I'd miss it. I think I need to simplify... take a break... and relax. phew.

[Driline]

I get so frustrated with all these issues, the state of Pentax, the state of DSLRs in general.. today I half thought of boxing up all my camera gear and saying forget about it

Or you could come to the "Dark Side".......Fuji

[mee]

Or you could come to the "Dark Side".......Fuji

Haha I coulddddd. But I had a Fuji XF1 for a time.. I found it had nice qualities but ultimately I didn't really take to it or the Fuji style.


I'll probably suck it up and either try another Irix, get a Rokinon 20mm (not super wide and edges potentially suspect, but it takes 77mm filters; I own many 77mm filters), or wait for a sale on the 15-30 (cha ching). The 15-30 would be the ultimate solution to my first world conundrum. But I'd kind of rather not go for the 15-30 though, since that will require an entirely new filter system.. one that costs around 150 bucks. Plus 200 dollar filters. I think I paid around 350ish for the Sigma 10-20mm lens total when I was using crop.

Friends, stay with the crop system.. because with full frame the money is burningg..

[IgorZ]

Their competitor has the RMA system online where you don't have to deal with another person directly...

I was chatting with a B&H guy yesterday, trying to figure out what happens if I get a problem lens. He told me I'd have to ship it to Irix, not to them...

---------- Post added 04-07-17 at 07:12 AM ----------

Haha I coulddddd. But I had a Fuji XF1 for a time.. I found it had nice qualities but ultimately I didn't really take to it or the Fuji style.


I'll probably suck it up and either try another Irix, get a Rokinon 20mm (not super wide and edges potentially suspect, but it takes 77mm filters; I own many 77mm filters), or wait for a sale on the 15-30 (cha ching). The 15-30 would be the ultimate solution to my first world conundrum. But I'd kind of rather not go for the 15-30 though, since that will require an entirely new filter system.. one that costs around 150 bucks. Plus 200 dollar filters. I think I paid around 350ish for the Sigma 10-20mm lens total when I was using crop.

Friends, stay with the crop system.. because with full frame the money is burningg..

by the way, Pentax 15-30 is $200 off on B&H website. Still about $1000 more than what my budget is...

[IgorZ]

just picked one up. Let the game of hot potatoes.. I mean.. creative process begin!

[mee]

I was chatting with a B&H guy yesterday, trying to figure out what happens if I get a problem lens. He told me I'd have to ship it to Irix, not to them...

That's not accurate. If your lens is faulty, you can return it. That's law. You've paid for a fully functioning product. You either get that or your money back within the posted return window.

What the B&H guy wants you to do is not give him a headache by returning a faulty lens that he is going to have to deal with Irix over. That's not your problem as a customer.

by the way, Pentax 15-30 is $200 off on B&H website. Still about $1000 more than what my budget is...

Yes, I saw that. Yet it is still 150 dollars more than the Tamron version for Canon or Nikon right now. Too much for me. I'm more or less thinking I'll settle (yes, settle) for the Rokinon 20mm since it accepts 77mm filters and hopefully has better QA.

15mm would be fun since there is more 'wow' effect at that focal length though for landscape... but I can't always get what I want.. (filters and focal length)

[cyberjunkie]

It seems Samyang has improved a lot in recent years.
I bought a 14mm from a USA vendor, and fortunately I've been very satisfied.
Dealing with warranties from abroad is always tricky, most of the times the camera/lens has to be shipped to the same country were it was purchased.
Another good reason to buy second hand...
The main ones are bulk/weight and of course price.
I have to travel a lot, and every time I have to choose, based on room and weight. Most of the new full frame lenses are fast and huge.
This time I brought with me a few vintage lenses, so I had very little room left in my cabin luggage.
I left the Samyang, and chose an old Tamron SP 17mm with PK/A mount. Not as super-wide as the Samyang, but definitely smaller!
I'll see if I'm happy with this... downgrading

What about Laowa's quality control?
The 105mm seems to be a very interesting optic, probably the only brand new lens I would buy, but I have no idea about the consistency of their production.

Cheers

Paolo

[Greenneck]

The irix video says theres a focus calibration, has anyone figured out how to do it/ if it helps?

[IgorZ]

The irix video says theres a focus calibration, has anyone figured out how to do it/ if it helps?

Just took my first shots with it this morning. Will check if it needs any adjustments when I get home after the weekend

[mee]

The irix video says theres a focus calibration, has anyone figured out how to do it/ if it helps?

The Irix manual shows how to do it.. there is a screw near the front of the lens (but around back if you are looking at the lens as if it was on the camera) on the bottom holding a tiny panel. Once you remove that you can use a screwdriver to adjust the ring and then tighten it back down.

I tried it on my first copy. It didn't help.

I just got my second copy (this one from B&H) and it is the same way.. incredibly soft (almost a glow around objects) and does not reach infinity focus even going past infinity. So back it goes. But I'm done playing the QA game with Irix. Too bad, I've seen some great shots with solid working copies of this lens on the forum.

I was trying to avoid it, but more and more it seems to me a D-FA 15-30 purchase is upcoming sometime. That is rather expensive and the filter system seems to give me pause. But there aren't a ton of other new options out there for K mount full frame..

Kudos, however, to B&H for having an outstanding RMA system. Click of a button. 5 minutes later my RMA and prepaid label in my inbox. Service doesn't get better than that.

[Sinclair]

Hi, I had a big win this afternoon. Found this video;

You Tube

You Tube

The manual doesn't state that the calibration ring rotates as much as it does and expose more holes for the grub screw. I thought I was limited to the range within the recess and didn't fully remove the grub screw. I was able to calibrate it so that it focussed beyond infinity but I had to turn the ring at least 180 degrees. Hope this helps and looking forward to some astro now with this lens.

[wanderer2]

I just received an Irix 15mm f/2.4 firefly this evening.

The issue I'm having with it, is it doesn't seem to ever reach infinity focus. This lens has a notch in the focus ring that 'clicks' into place at infinity (nice touch). Yet, the focus is not correct at this setting (tested on a tripod in live view zoomed in mode) even at the center point of the image.

I can go beyond infinity and the lens picks up sharpness yet it never reaches complete sharpness before I seem to run out of real estate on the focus ring.

What to do? There is a means of adjusting the ring to infinity as indicated in the user manual. Yet that doesn't seem to have any affect with my lens.. unless I'm doing something incorrectly.

Any ideas beyond boxing the lens and returning it?

I have this lens and it focuses accurately to infinity, The focusing ring has to moved beyond the little click at the infinity indicator but then it is focused at infinity. Perhaps you have a bad copy. I would suggest contacting Iriix about it. IMHO it's an excellent lens if a good copy and you might want to try another copy if Irix will send you one and accept that second one in return if it also doesn't focus properly.

[zapp]

The optical unit needs to travel back and forth for focus. If there is not enough travel space you can either not reach infinity or closeup - not reaching infinity is worse. In this case the distance is always too long. Fine adjustment will only place infinity focus somewhere on the given distance scale not extent it.
Looks like the lens is too long. This can be handled by the manufacturer only, they can remove lens shims from the mount for instance. A digital back manufacturer had the same problem some time ago. They missed by 0.030mm the correct distance which is the world for a wide angle lens’s back focus distance.