Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC Lens For Sony A
Took more than 1 copy to get a good one
This is a great lens for night photography. It is very sharp throughout including corner to corner. Especially at f2.8, which is what you need at night. Far better than the Canon 14mm (I'm a Canon shooter) and just about as good as the Nikon 14-24. Here's the rub. The quality control from the manufacturer is pretty bad. It took 5 copies of this lens before I could get one that was not significantly decentered. The first few copies were sharp in t... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Solid Performing Wide Angle Lens
I did a lot of research before I bought this lens. I read every review here on this website as well as some others. I took the chance and purchased it. This lens fits my personality. I really like that aperture and focus have to be done with your hand. A simple click of the aperture ring and then adjust focus. If you shoot in aperture priority mode, then you can choose aperture and just pay attention to focus. Of course, the smaller the aperture ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Fun, but difficult to focus
I first considered this lens due to a friend's recommendation. I read a lot of reviews and when it went on sale I decided to bite the bullet and buy it.Cons:1) Difficult to focus - if you are on a tripod and switch to live view and zoom in then you can focus pretty well, but it is pretty difficult to focus when using the viewfinder. This is because everything looks so small you can never be sure. I read about this, and am fairly certain that it i... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Good Wide Angle Lens for Stars
I bought this lens for taking night shots with my Pentax K-5. The lens is manual focus, but the Pentax version does have an auto position on the aperture ring so the camera will control the aperture. I have used the lens for both day and night shots wide open at f/2.8 and I have been impressed by the sharpness. It is even better at f/4. One thing I noticed is that it is difficult to evaluate the sharpness and focus using either live view or on th... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Decent ultra wide for the money
I shoot primarily landscape. I wanted an ultra wide lens that was compatible with a full frame DSLR, and wasn't going to cost $1000+. The lens arrived in good condition. I was surprised at how relatively small it was. It seems solid, but doesn't have the Robust feel of some of my higher end lenses. Then again it costs 2/3 less than those lenses. the lens is chipped to be compatible with Nikon cameras, as far as aperture and focus indicators. Focu... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Affordable Wide angle but a bit soft
Wonderful infinity shots of landscapes and astrophotography, while macro close ups take a lot of attention to manual focus with an eye piece only. Those with screen preview on their DSLR's may find it a bit easier, but shots are soft on the sharpness if you are even a little bit out of focus. This is a manual focus lens though, so it can take some time getting used to. Focus knob has a lot of room for micro adjustment which means a tripod in most... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Fantastic Lens and I Love it :)
I shoot with prime lenses and I spend months reading forums/reviews to find the best wide angle lens for me. Although it seems like 14mm is bit too wide on my full frame, I now know that I found the best wide angle lens for me. The greatest thing in this lens which I experienced is it's superior image sharpness. I shoot with Canon 6D and 600D and the results are superb. I like the colors (specially wide blue sky with clouds) this lens offer. This... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Does what I expected it to do, and does it well
I hate it when people praise a piece of equipment and then qualify that praise with ...for the money. I've read a lot of reviews about this lens that end with that qualifier. It leaves me wondering, well, what if I spent 5,6X for a Nikon 14mm to 24mm f/2.8 or the Tamron 15 - 30mm f/2.8, will my shots be that much better? I played tug of war over this thought for better than an year and then finally said, just buy it. And I did. It's a wonderful l... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Rokinon 14mm 2.8
I bought this lens to start trying landscapes and wasn't willing to pay for a Canon L for something I wasn't sure if I would like the view. Read several reviews from Photography-on-the-Net and jumped on it. I am still trying to get used to how wide this lens is compared to a 35mm and 50mm. Pros: The color out of this lens is great! A definite must have if you want to do any sort of landscapes. The build is solid although you will have to be caref... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Great lens. Great.
If you like being part of your photography and think being in control of how you do it is what makes our hobby great, this is totally for you. Think of it as the highest quality big name lens without power windows, locks or cruise control. Seriously, depth of field is phenomenal, color rendition is perfect and it should sell for much more. It has little distortion and makes my other(more expensive) lenses look very bad when shooting at night. If ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Good Lens for the price, would recommend!
As a rookie photographer, I feel like this lens is great for the price. I bought this lens to shoot the Milky Way/ night sky on a recent camping trip, 40 miles away from any light pollution. I'm used to an automatic focus lens, so getting used to the manual lens was quite different. Because of the f2.8, the ISO had to be set high (over 3200) to pick up enough light for a decent picture, which was tested at 30, 40, 45, 50, and 60 second exposures.... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
I am glad that I got this lens
At this price, I have the best lens so far in my bag. I use this lens with D7000. I wanted a wide angle lens but couldn't afford the Nikon 14-24mm. After reading all reviews, I took my chance and got lucky with the first copy I got. Focus ring matches the mark and no skewed lens aberrations. There is some 'moustache' (probably) distortion that can be corrected using PT lens with preloaded lens profile or manually with ACR. I shoot mostly shoot la... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Cheap ultrawide angle
The manual focus Rokinon/Samyang/Bower/etc. lenses are a budget way to get into ultra wide angle. This is my first experience with one.It does what it's supposed to do. Stop down for best results. I hear f/8 is where it's at. Lots of distortion and vignetting, but there are free lens correction profiles you can download to correct this pretty easily. This comes with the territory of a $$UWA lens, though.The manual focus isn't difficult to work wi... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Lens is a tight fit in the Nikon mount
The lens appears to be well-constructed and is reasonably sharp. As would be expected there is significant distortion in this ultra-wide angle lens, however, that can be significantly mitigated by applying the lens corrections in Adobe Camera Raw or other program. Personally I prefer to use an ultra-wide angle lens as a compositional tool for the perspective distortion of foreground objects rather than just taking in a wide scene, so the distorti... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Great, sharp lens for a great price
I've got nothing but good things to say about this lens. I wanted a Canon 14mm but is way too expensive for my budget. The Rokinon was recommended by a friend who does astrolandscape (star photos), so I thought I'd give it a try. I am glad I did! Now, it's a manual lens - not for everyone. You set the aperture and fiddle with the focus. The aperture was no problem since I usually shoot in AV mode. The focusing took some coaching from my friend. B... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Changed my view on lenses!
I pretty much have this lens attached to my 5D Mark ii 90% of the time. I use it for street shooting, landscapes, general walk arounds and Light painting. I love the ability to control the f stop directly on the lens. I tend to keep my pictures to -1 on the view finder meter, I tend to find it's better to shoot lower and boost what I need in lightroom. This lens makes my camera feel much light as opposed to my 24-105 and even when I used the 24-7... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
I'm a believer!
After buying the Rokinon 8mm fisheye and being totally pleased with my purchase... I had to give the Rokinon 14mm a chance. In a previous review, I mentioned that I compared the chromatic aberration of the 8mm Rokinon to that of my Canon 17-35mm f/2.8L lens. The Rokinon actually had lens fringing than the Canon L glass. But I was curious to see how it compared to the Rokinon 14mm. Well, guess what? The Rokinon almost no chromatic aberration! It t... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Cheap - Sharp - Manual Focus - Distortio
I have a 17-40L and wanted something wider. However the Canon 14 2.8 is prohibitively expensive, and the sigma 12-24 to a lesser extent. This is a great lens for the price. There is no electronic contact with the camera at all. There is no auto focus - however with a lens this wide you have huge depth of field and generally if you have the focus ring between 2 meters-infinity and stopped down to f8 most things you want are in focus. If you have l... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Wide, sharp, and versatile!
I purchased this lens mainly for architectural interiors. On FX format it yields a very wide angle of view allowing for some very nice compositions. Stopped down to f8 or f11 the far corners are nice and sharp. Color rendition and contrast, are first rate. The complex barrel distortion along the long edges of the image frame are easily removed in Lightroom. Secondarily I am using this lens for astrophotography and landscape work. Great for captur... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Great for astrophotography
I purchased this lens primarily for astrophotography and landscape photography after reading positive reviews for the lens in those applications. After using it on a couple weekend shoots I feel it is the only way to get into an ultra wide angle lens under $500. As has been noted, there is some barrel distortion, and since the lens doesn't communicate metadata with the camera, you must import a custom lens profile for lens corrections in LR/... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Back to basics.
Thus far, I have only been using this lens for landscape photography. It is not something that you just start to use righ away for the very reason that it is a very basic objective with manual focus and manual diaphragm. You open up, compose, close down to where you like, probably 16, with the camera on manual you select the time and the ISO, then you take the picture. SURPRISE: The exposure is off! So you take a couple of more shots and finally ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
don't give up!
A well built robust lens. Set the focus ring between 1 and 2 and almost everything will be in focus all the time thanks to the huge focus range of the wide angle. The focus ring is damped but turns a little too easily so you need to check that you haven't accidentally bumped it off its universal setting (between the 1 and 2m marks). Make sure the camera is set on manual look through the viewfinder and check the light reading on the exposure scale... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
No pretending here
First of all, I only gave this lens a 4 star rating because it isn't perfect. I did give it a 4 star rating however, because it is a great lens for what it is. I have taken a few night shots, the stars look like stars. No coma that I can see. I don't mind that this is a manual lens. I did have one situation where I wished I had auto focus. I was in the middle of about 20 baby ducks. I had some great shots where I had a few seconds to focus, but a... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Bang for your Buck
Lets be honest, at this price, this lens is tough to beat. I did some quick comparisons vs. my Canon 17-40, and this lens was sharper. It seems well built and isn't overly heavy. The question is: are you are willing to deal with the manual operation of everything about this lens and the annoyance of focusing. Focusing tip: open the aperture to the max level so that your viewfinder is nice and bright, put the camera in live view mode, zoom in to t... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
