Rokinon MF 14mm F 2 8 Z Review | 54 Data compared

This forum review thread from Webastro discusses the Samyang 14mm f/2.8 MF Mark II ultra-wide-angle lens, specifically focusing on its capabilities in astrophotography and night landscape photography. The original reviewer, Lighty50, highlights that this modernized "Mark II" variant retains the key characteristics of its popular predecessor—such as manual focus and a bright f/2.8 aperture—but upgrades the build quality and optical formula. Key pros mentioned by users and detailed in the referenced Maxime Oudoux Photographie review include weather-sealing via a rubber mount gasket, a 9-blade diaphragm, and sharp performance. Community members also praise its ultra-wide 115.7° field of view, making it a great budget-friendly tool for capturing expansive night skies. However, the forum discussion highlights several notable cons and user grievances regarding the real-world application of the lens. For astrophotography, using it on smaller APS-C sensor cameras requires a reduced exposure time (around 16 to 22 seconds) to avoid star trailing due to a tighter 22mm equivalent field of view. The most significant downsides come from a user named betal, who reports prominent corner aberrations, specifically coma, and severe quality control...

The Samyang 14mm f/2.8 is an affordable, ultra-wide-angle lens designed for full-frame cameras, offering a unique focal length that translates to a 21-22mm equivalent on APS-C sensors. Priced around €300, it features a robust all-metal body and mount, a large rubberised manual focus ring with a long travel distance for precise close-up adjustments, and a built-in plastic lens hood. Optically, the lens delivers very good sharpness, faithful color reproduction, and reliable contrast performance. Due to the extremely wide focal length, it provides an expansive depth of field; setting the aperture to f/8 or f/11 and focus to 3 metres creates a vast zone of sharpness stretching to infinity, minimizing the need for constant refocusing during landscape shoot sessions. However, the lens comes with several notable limitations, primarily its completely manual workflow lacking autofocus, optical stabilization, or electronic aperture control on base models. Its massive, bulbous front element lacks threading, meaning users cannot use standard screw-on filters and must instead rely on specialized 150mm filter systems. Additionally, manual aperture adjustments dim the optical viewfinder directly, requiring users to rely on LiveView...

Despite its stellar performance, the review highlights a few distinct drawbacks. The most prominent optical flaw is the heavy vignetting present at f/2.8, which leaves the left and right sides of the image dark and may require a higher ISO setting to compensate. While stopping down to f/4 reduces this vignetting, dark vertical bands still persist on the edges of the frame. Additionally, bright stars (such as Vega or Antares) tend to appear bloated and slightly blurry compared to smaller stars. On the handling side, the aperture ring's click mechanism is overly sensitive and can accidentally shift during manual handling—a particular nuisance at night on camera bodies that do not communicate electronically with the lens. Finally, the newly added focus lock ring is deemed somewhat superfluous for an ultra-wide lens where hyperfocal distance is quickly achieved, and users will still need to purchase specialised third-party adapters if they wish to use physical filters.