Samyang SY14M-P 14mm F2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Lens for Pentax

Please note- For Nikon digital slrs, make sure and set the aperture on the lens to f22 or you'll get an error message and the camera will not function. It says to set the lens to f22 in the lens instructions, which I failed to read before mounting the lens. Setting the lens to f22 allows the camera body to interface with the lens and control the lens aperture via the rotary dial on the camera and allows for metering. You get fractional aperture control with Nikon digital slrs.I'm very impressed by this lens! I'm using the lens for landscape in combination with a Nikon D800. Mirror up, remote release, on a sturdy tripod, shooting at f5.6 to f11 this lens performs beautifully. I'm astounded by the sharpness at all apertures. There's a large amount of barrel distortion, so this lens isn't for straight lines(architecture, interiors...). Large amount of vignetting at 2.8 which diminishes by f8. Most importantly to me, chromatic aberrations throughout the aperture range are virtually nonexistent!!! I make very large pigment ink prints (Epson 9880), chromatic aberrations can be a problem, though not with this lens. The artifacts from software correction of chromatic aberrations are visible in large prints, so that is one of the primary factors I consider when purchasing a lens. Build quality of the lens is solid.A quick plug for the Nikon D800- I never imagined that I would be making sellable 44" wide X 60"+/- (depending on crop) prints with captures from a digital slr. After a lot of refinement of technique (aka trial and error), both while capturing the image and in post processing I'm having excellent results with these very large prints. They are not in the same league with large prints from large format film, which are much higher quality, but the prints greatly surpass what I was achieving from medium format film.

Okay this is not the highest end lens you can buy but for the price, it does a really good job. First of all, there are a bunch of different versions of this so the picture that you see may not be the same that you get because it depends on the camera body and mount style you are buying it for. When I first got mine, I was very surprised at how large it is. Its about 5.5 inches long and 3.5 inches wide at the end of the lens. Mine's much longer because it has an extra adapter built into the end of it to fit a Sony E mount. Because of it's size, it also has some significant weight to it. As far as pictures go, it takes a great photo. The 14mm has a such a large field of view that this lens works great for landscape photos. It also works amazing for astro-photography and when you mix them together, you can get some really cool effects. That being said, it also has some negatives. The edges of the photos are always very dark. I also had to do a lot of test shots to figure out how it focuses. Since this is a manual lens, the focus ring has to be used to focus the image but I've found my infinity point to actually be almost an inch away from the furthest focus for infinity on the lens. This basically makes the markings for distances they put on it nearly useless. Lastly, there is a ton of distortion with this lens. You can easily correct it with post-processing but I do notice near the edges, can can still be there . Next to the focus ring, there is a second ring for controlling aperture. Since mine has the built in adapter for the e mount, it does not have any connections to relay information back to the camera and the camera is unable to store the aperture in the photo's meta data so it's been difficult to compare photos back in editing without fulling looking at them. All in all, this is a great value for the lens. I think it's a good start, especially if your budget doesn't allow for several thousands. I hope to use this to get better and to make it worth upgrading to something more accurate and controllable in the future.

I wanted an inexpensive wide-angle lens for my full-frame Sony a7RIII and this fits the bill perfect. The ideal lens for my a7RIII would be the Sony 12-24 f/4 or, better yet, the Sony 16-35 f/2.8 GM, but both of those lenses are well over $1000. For around $300 the Samyang 14mm offers some amazing image quality for the price. The build quality seems pretty sturdy, the outside is metal with rubber grip on the focus ring, which is smooth with good tension and the mount is solid. I primarily use it for real estate photography and landscapes (mainly astrophotography). The wide 14mm angle on my full-frame a7RIII is perfect for real estate because you can show an entire room with little distortion and the f/2.8 is perfect for low-light and astrophotography because you can let a lot of light in at a low cost. The focusing distance is really good and I've used it to make some pretty cool close-up shots of things like flowers and wedding cakes that gives a different perspective. All that said, there is a pretty noticeable amount of distortion on this lens, but it is easily fixed with the Samyang/Rokinon 14mm lens profile in Lightroom (it doesn't auto-correct for distortion since Lightroom has no way of knowing what lens you are using, but the profile is available for RAW files). Finally, this lens is sharp from edge to edge. I've seen some people complain about some Samyang and Rokinon 14mm lenses being soft on the edges (and my friend has the 14mm Rokinon that does have soft edges), but I have no issues with mine.As a recap:Pros:- Great, wide-angle for the price- f/2.8 is great in low-light (and again, great for this price)- Close focusing distance- Good build quality (metal, but not weather sealed)Cons:- All manual: manual aperture, manual focus- Pretty bad distortion (easily fixed with the lens profile in Lightroom)