Samyang 14mm f/2.8 full frame

[Arkku]

Apparently Samyang has announced a rectilinear full-frame 14mm f/2.8 for Sony/Minolta, Pentax K-mount, Canon and Nikon systems. Looks to be a manual focus lens, like the 85mm f/1.4…

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09091801samyung14mm.asp

[Arkku]

Suggested retail price also promises to be a relatively low €259. There are some sample photos with a Canon 20D and what is presumably the same lens (although called “Falcon” here, seems like the multitude of brandings will apply like it does for the 85mm):

http://www.optyczne.pl/2238-nowość-Falcon_14_mm_f_2.8_ED_Asph._IF_-_zdjęcia_przykładowe.html

At first glance the images look a bit soft (although no worse than Sigma 10-20mm, and some may be due to missed focus) but otherwise quite pleasant.

[sichko]

Thanks for the information. It looks very interesting.

[trifox]

that's interesting...

the colour balance is pretty good -- I would say VERY GOOD for that price.

But I can not see any sharpness, so far.

-- the tests show some blur - but the picture in the 3rd row in the middle - sharpness improved a bit ..

So, it needs to be tested on FF

tf

[Orio]

Sharpness doesn't really matter in such a wide lens. You would never use it for picking details anyway, you would use it to get the scene as wide as you can and watch it as wide as possible - otherwise you would just use a 35mm or 50mm lens...

What really matters in this type of lens is:

- amount of geometrical distortion
- amount of peripheral aberrations (coma and falloff in the corners, fringes)

The samples on the page are nice, but they're taken with an APS-C camera. This would hide any peripheral/corner problems the lens might have...

[sichko]

[Swappo]

I think this lens looks very interesting, especially for that price.

I also strongly agree with Orio that sharpness isn't that important with ultra wide lenses (ofcourse there are exceptions). I use Canon EF 16-35/2.8L (first version that is) as ultra wide and I'm very satisfied with the results even thou sharpness isn't the best, at least not in the corners.

If you for some reason, would use an ultra wide lens (with the distorsion, vingetting and unsharp edges) for eg landscape or architecture photographing where sharpness is important... Well, I guess you'll have to deal with the optical flaws.


The CA in this lens doesn't look to be that bad at all, as far as I can tell from the few pics I've seen so far.
Distortion is... well, what could you expect from an ultra wide in that price class? I think it's ok.

I will defenitly check this lens out closer.

[SkedAddled]

[gcrimmins]

If this is anywhere near as good as their 85mm, this is pretty exciting news. An inexpensive untra-wide for full-frame, and a nice wide for APS-C.

There's a rumor on the Web that Samyang's next lens will be a 35mm f1.4. And the Canon-mount lens is rumored to be an f1.2. If true, that could be very exciting, too.

--Geoff

[sichko]

[Olivier]

Posted by ptodd nearly at the very same moment as Arkku.

http://forum.mflenses.com/samyang-14mm-f-2-8-t20420.html

[berraneck]

For that price it´s pretty good deal i think. And if will be reasonable-sized, it´s nice prime for APS-C too.

[PaulC]

The distortions towards the edges seem fairly severe.



Since I never use a lens this wide perhaps I am too critical

[Orio]

[sichko]

[PaulC]

[Orio]

The problem of inherent distortion in a superwide lens, is not the distortion per se, it's how the lens handle it. You can have an optically clean distortion, that you can try to fix in a software, or you can have a distortion with coma, spherical aberration, chromatic aberration...

[karabud]

Some samples
D3
http://www.fotopolis.pl/index.php?n=9606&p=1

D3X
http://www.swiatobrazu.pl/samyang_14_mm_f28_if_ed_mc_aspherical_i_nikon_d3x__pierwsze_zdjecia_testowe.html,2

hmm i think it will be bargain for FF sensors, like a 8mm fisheye for aps-c

[poilu]

[trifox]

[Orio]

Well, I am impressed by the very good results for a bargain lens.
Central sharpness becomes acceptable at f/4 and good at f/5.6, where corners also improve significantly. f/2.8 is useable for low light emergency but I think it should otherwise be left alone - but it's good that it's there as an aid for manual focusing.
Since diffraction begins to visibly set in at f/11 I would say that the best use of this lens is between f/5.6 and f/8.
Flare is very good in terms of haze, and more than acceptable in terms of ghosts. This is important in a 14mm lens because in sunny days you're likely to have the sun into most of your shots. Too bad for the hexagon shape of the iris but of course you can't have everything from a bargain lens.
Chromatic aberration, mostly green, is there in high contrast situations, but I was expecting a lot worse. What I see is more than acceptable for such a wide lens and in most cases not going to be a problem even without correction.
Geometric distortion seems very well controlled and this is the best news as far as I am concerned. I am not seeing the obscenities that I was used to see from my Sigma superwide zoom. We don't have a real geometrical test shot in the samples, but my fairly well trained eye does guess a quite nice performance.

It looks like I'm going to have a new 14mm lens soon - when is it going to be released?

-

[trifox]

it's available by NOVEMBER -- here's some link to make pre-order

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PRE-ORDER-Samyang-14mm-f-2-8-IF-ED-MC-for-CANON_W0QQitemZ350255337719QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CamerasPhoto_CameraAccessories_CameraLensesFilters_JN?hash=item518cd850f7&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_6205wt_1042

tf

[Arkku]

Apparently the lens has been delayed until early 2010, “due to partial redesigning of the lens construction and further improvements.”