Site Supporter Registered: January, 2024 Posts: 24 | Review Date: February 27, 2024 | Not Recommended | Price: $230.00
| Rating: 7 |
Pros: | Cheap | Cons: | Has Optical Flaws, weird coma | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 4
Bokeh: 5
Handling: 9
Value: 7
| | This is the review for samyang 14mm f/2.8 but they should be the same lens.
This lens is usable, but certainly not a good choice for high quality images.
I got this lens and it produces a really weird coma and it's almost impossible to use when shooting night photography with these point light sources. I am returning this lens.
Use for daily photography can be fine. | |
New Member Registered: November, 2020 Location: Palm Beach Posts: 17 | Review Date: October 20, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $260.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Sharp, lightweight, well built | Cons: | no autofocus | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K1-mkII
| | What to say? Ash said everything about it.
I will just add a personal point of view.
The quality of the pictures and the colors are mindblowing.
The price is ridiculously low regarding what you get.
A must have.
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Loyal Site Supporter Registered: March, 2007 Location: Toowoomba, Queensland Posts: 23,920 5 users found this helpful | Review Date: January 22, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $220.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Sharp throughout the frame, ultra-wide angle on full-frame camera, well-controlled aberrations, wide aperture, lightweight, relatively compact, tight tolerances to focus ring | Cons: | not autofocus, mixed plastic/metal construction, not much image 'pop' | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-1
| | This is a surprisingly excellent lens, regardless of its relatively economical price point for an ultra-wide angle prime lens suitable for the Pentax full-frame camera. This Korean made lens is well-put together manual focus lens, for a mixed plastic and metal construction, which makes it relatively light, but also feeling slightly on the cheap side. One feature that allows the user to overlook this is the auto-aperture setting on the aperture ring, which many other versions do not seem to have (it is refreshing to have an A lens version rather than have to settle for an M lens). The focusing ring is nicely dampened and is tightly fitted; no parts of the lens feel loose or flimsy. There is no facility to apply any filter to the lens.
The sharpness rendered from this very wide angle rectilinear lens is actually very impressive, from f/2.8 in the centre, to everywhere in the field from f/5.6; an amazing feat for such a lens. Beyond that, the CA and distortion control in this lens is also truly masterly. As expected, if there are such strengths, there has to be a weakness, and in this lens it is vignetting. Over 1.5 stops in the edges at f/2.8 and just under 1 stop at f/5.6, but it is still registrable at about 0.5 stop at all smaller apertures until diffraction sets in at f/22. The results from the lens are good to very good, subjectively. I don't see them having the same 'pop' as the Pentax DA 15 Limited; they are more 'clinical' than brilliant. So they may need a significantly more degree of post-processing to make the images more exceptional.
Most lenses of this ilk and fast aperture are bulky and heavy. That is another remarkable attribute to the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8; it is only 87 x 93.98 mm (3.43 x 3.7 in.) in size and weighs just 450 grams (1 lb), comparable to the Pentax DA 14mm f/2.8 lens, yet has full-frame capability (over 115 degree field of view). See the comparison between the two lenses here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/reviews/pentax-da-14mm-f28/introduction.html. The current full frame ultra-wide lens, the Pentax DFA 15-30mm f/2.8, is in comparison sized at 98.5 x 143.5 mm (3.9 x 5.6 in.) and weighs in at a whopping 1040 grams (2.3 lb).
Overall this lens is a stunner in all aspects other than vignetting, so it is well worth a consideration as an alternative to the DFA 15-30 at the wide end, waiting for any DFA wide angle prime that may in production in the coming years.
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