SamyangTilt-Shift SYTS24-N 24mm f/3.5 Tilt Shift lens for Nikon

My initial review of this lens was based on receiving it without the necessary adapter. I hope Amazon will correct the listing. It does NOT work on an E or FE mount without an adapter.All to the good, the build quality appears to be very good. The lens feels solid in the hand, and does not strike me as "plasticky" as some have reported. The tilt and shift mechanisms work very smoothly, and the degrees of tilt and shift are clearly marked. More importantly, the tilt and shift mechanisms can be rotated independently, which gives this lens a big step up on the much more expensive Nikon tilt-and-shift lens.Now to the bad: the listing. The listing lets you select the camera model and the mount, and then tells you whether the lens will work on your camera body. Through that exercise, I was informed that the lens would work on the Sony a7r. Well, it will - if you mount it on the correct adapter. There's a good Fotasy adapter on the Amazon site (model ANAF). To add to the confusion, Samyang also makes this lens in an FE-mount version. You just can't find that version anywhere.I encourage anyone considering this lens to do research on it prior to purchase. Otherwise, its limitations would look like flaws. It is completely manual; you set the aperture and focus by hand. There is no electronic communication with the camera. Its best performance is said to be at f8 to f11. If you know in advance that shooting at f3.5 is going to give you a soft image, you won't shoot at that aperture unless you WANT a soft image. OK, the Canon 24TSE will give you a sharp image at f3.5 - but at three times the price.I had a Canon 24TSE for a year, and shot with it on a Canon 5D Mk2. It never excited me, and I sold the lens. I'm shooting with this lens on a Sony a7r, and the combination is exciting. The Sony camera captures details and subtlety that the 5D never did. The 5D was great for wildlife when married to a big Canon super-tele, but for more "serious" work, it never approached the Sony.My initial experience with the lens is very good. All the mechanical controls work smoothly. Mounting on a tripod is highly advised, since it's much easier to make the adjustments to tilt and shift while viewing the subject. Like all tilt-and-shifts, it's front heavy. Color rendition is good, and believe me, this lens is plenty sharp. For a casual landscape or architectural photographer like myself, it offers the ability to shoot like the big boys and girls at the little-boys-and-girls price.

I opted to purchase this lens for use on my D600 instead of purchasing the Nikon version because the Nikon 24mm tilt/shift lens carried on the same tradition as their other tilt/shift lenses of not having these two functions rotate independently of one another. That is, one can rotate the lens to tilt/sift from horizontal to vertical, but both functions rotate together. Also the Nikon 24mm tilt/shift lens comes from the factory with these functions working at 90 degrees from one another. That means if you are using the shift function to cause the lens to rise or fall, the tilt function is operating from side to side. This is counter intuitive for someone who wants to shoot landscapes and architecture, especially with the camera in the portrait position. The shifting function will let you get in the top of the building (or the trees), keeping them perfectly vertical, but the lens, as configured from the factory, only permits the tilting (or swinging) function to work horizontally. That means that you can't use this function to enhance foreground and back ground depth-of-field. And that's what this lens is designed to do. The remedy is to have a Nikon technician re-configure the lens so it shifts and tilts in the same direction. I was hoping to avoid all of that by purchasing the Samyang 24mm tilt/shift lens. So the good news is that the Samyang permits one to align the shift and tilt functions so that they can either operate in the same direction (shifting and tilting up and down together) or one can shift up or down and tilt from side to side if that is desired. The bad news is that if one wants to shoot in a portrait position with both the shifting and tilting functions operating in an "up and down" action (which is the way I would use this lens 90% of the time), the very small adjustment knob for the shift function is at the top of lens and, therefore, right under the protruding pop-up flash housing on the D600. The shifting adjustment knob is now virtually inaccessible to twist with one's thumb and forefinger to make the shifting adjustments. Unfortunately the lens will not rotate 180 degrees to permit the adjustment knobs to be located at the bottom of the lens, which could have avoided this problem. I tried the lens on my D300 and there was a bit more clearance for one to grasp the the adjustment knob, but it was still difficult. Part of the problem is that the adjustment action is apparently not a precision design. It is not a smoothly, geared operation. It is actually quite stiff. If you are shifting or tilting the lens in an up-and-down direction, you are working against gravity and the weight of the front part of the lens. As a result, shifting or tilting "down" is quite effortless. In fact, it feels like the front part of the lens is going drop to it's maximum adjustment (shift or tilt) and you have to hold it back with the adjusting knob and then tighten the locking knob to lock it in place. On the other hand, adjusting the knob to shift or tilt the lens upward is a chore, requiring a tight grip on the adjustment knob and a strong twisting action. You are literally "lifting" the front of the lens against gravity. I was not expecting this lens to be the precision product that one would expect when purchasing the Nikon (or Canon) version of this optic. On the other hand, the Samyang has so many "warts and moles" in terms of its design and function (at least for the D600 and D300 models), that I am returning it to the seller for a refund. The bottom line is that for my cameras, this lens cannot not function as advertised. Because I really can't justify the expenditure of two grand for a Nikon lens that I won't use very often, I'll just carry on with my old Nikkor 28mm shift lens. It's a fabulous optic and I'll just have to get around the depth of field issue with Helicon Focus instead of a tilting function.

I bought this lens for my 5D2. The image quality is not bad but there are some flaws of this lens.First, the tilt and shift parts are not so tight. Second, the mount does not match 5d2 perfectly-- it is also a little loose. These two problems do not bother me so much.But the last problem is so annoying. When I use shift function, the 5d2 cannot give the correct exposure indication that means I have to take one photo BEFORE I use shift -- to set the shutter speed in order to get the right exposure. Only after this step can I adjust the shift. It brings me so many troubles.sample image(s) taken by this lens: [...]

Step it down a little and enjoy amazing quality images. Use it carefully and you won't have a problem. Im a full time pro with tons of the finest lenses and this was a really nice buy.

Lente de calidad quenofrece resultados nítidos para usuarios con experiencia en éstas lentes

At the price i paid, it was a steal ... excellent for architectural and city scenes. I use it with a step by step approach, and off a tripod using Live View. Stopped down to f/8 or f/11 as sharp as I need.

Me gusta, aunque hay ciertas combinaciones que producen encuadres incompletos. Me molesta mucho que en "live view" se oscurezca tanto la imagen al utilizar diafragmas muy cerrados.

Already an economical alternative to the big name mfrs, getting this lens during a really good sale made it hard to pass up. Build quality is decent but not like the heavy metal masters from Canon or Nikon. With independently rotatable tilt and shift axes, very similar to the Canon version, you are able to arrange a wide variety of optical adjustments with this lens. The super close-focus ability extends the usefulness to small scale subjects.This lens is great for expanding your creative abilities in ways you can't easily accomplish with software. Perspective distortion creation or correction, focus plane shifting and control, this is a very versatile optical tool. This lens allows me a lot of creative control in a variety of situations i could not otherwise accomplish with a wide angle lens.Optical performance is decent and meets my expectations. When used on a full frame camera, sharpness, even wide open, is pretty good out to the corners when the lens is not shifted or tilted. When you alter the focal plane by tilting, you very quickly generate out of focus areas, that's how it's supposed to work. Depending on the scene you are shooting, you can increase or decrease depth of field not just by the aperture setting but also by the tilt position relative to the camera and the scene you're imaging. When you combine the 2 movement functions you can create extensive depth of field where you otherwise would have to resort to focus-stacking. You can also correct the perspective distortion that wide angle lense can otherwise really exaggerate when shooting architectural or other geometric subjects.I had some reservations about this lens after reading about possible control knob conflict with the camera body but these proved unfounded for the Nikon camera I'm using it with. There are some positions where it's not possible to access the setting knob but you can still easily access the lock knob so you're still free to adjust the lens' movements then lock it back into position.I'm having a lot of fun with this lens and I still have a lot to learn about the different things I can use it for. No regrets. :)

Buen precio, entrega en tiempo. Articulo hasta ahora muy bueno, lo que esperaba.-