Samyang SY14MAE-N 14mm F2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Lens for Nikon AE

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)

I'm not a pro photographer. It's a hobby. But I am a pro specifier. I get a lot of comments after putting my hands on my own copy of this lens and shooting with it this week. I have everything from $20,000 cinema lenses to $50 ebay primes from 1975.1. This lens has a long focus movement. It is VERY hard to detect the focal plane with a modern digital camera. That is because your viewfinder is not high enough resolution for such a wide lens. The lens DOES focus trust me. If it doesn't focus you probably need glasses.. and it takes a lot of spinning to do its job.. but it does it.2. This lens is 1/3 the price of the obvious equivalent. It is fairly sharp with about the same lens properties one could expect from a superwide. If you want a L go buy it. If not this lens is a great3. The lens feels cheap. It feels like a typical sub $1k lens that is a value lens. If you don't abuse it and you get a good copy (mine was fine, and i can't speak for others) then you probably will have a good piece of glass that will do you justice.-1 star for the cheapness of the lens.. the quality is as good as I can expect and I can't detect softness on my "measly 12mp a7s2"

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.