Samyang 24mm F 1 4 ED AS IF UMC Review | 54 Data compared

The Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED AS IF UMC provides the most affordable pathway to a wide-angle, full-frame f/1.4 prime lens, costing roughly €200 less than its closest competitor, the Sigma 24mm f/1.4 Art. Optically, the lens excels at minimizing coma—producing the least among its direct rivals—and delivers a soft, pleasing bokeh aesthetic. It features a solid build quality, a 77mm filter thread standard for professional gear, and a smooth manual focus ring with a 110-degree throw that allows for highly accurate focus adjustments. Additionally, the Nikon-specific version includes electrical contacts to transmit basic EXIF data and features an integrated physical aperture ring for direct exposure adjustments. However, this lower price point demands significant functionality compromises, most notably the complete lack of autofocus functionality. Optically, the lens is less sharp at infinity compared to Nikon or Sigma alternatives, exhibits the strongest geometric distortions of its trio, and suffers from lower contrast wide open in the center at close-up distances. Beyond the optics, the lens lacks both weather sealing and image stabilization. Furthermore, non-Nikon mounts lack any electrical contacts, and the lens...

The Samyang/Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 ED AS IF UMC is a manual-focus lens that provides a classic wide viewing angle on full-frame cameras, while functioning similarly to a 35mm or 50mm lens on APS-C and Micro Four Thirds crop bodies respectively. Available across numerous mount systems like Canon EF/EF-M, Fuji X, Pentax K, and Sony E, its standout trait is the fast f/1.4 maximum aperture. However, the lens performs vastly differently depending on the mount chosen; only the Nikon F-mount version contains a built-in processor and electronic communication. For all other camera systems, it behaves as a "dumb lens," meaning users are restricted to controlling the aperture via the manual control ring, which completely eliminates the ability to shoot in Program AE or Shutter-priority modes. The lens boasts several physical and performance advantages, alongside prominent drawbacks that buyers should consider. On the positive side, it features solid build quality, smooth-action manual focusing with a long throw for precision, a non-rotating 77mm filter thread, and highly minimal color fringing. Furthermore, lab tests reveal that image sharpness is excellent when stopped down between...

The Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC lens is a manual-focus wideangle lens that offers exceptional edge-to-edge optical performance at approximately one-third the cost of competing own-brand versions. Built with a reassuringly heavy and high-quality exterior, the lens barrel features a beautifully dampened, smooth-rotating focus ring and a near-circular eight-blade diaphragm. Center sharpness is superb, particularly between f/4 and f/11, rendering crisp details that closely rival own-brand optics during close comparison. It serves as a highly practical choice for landscape photographers who have the extra time to manually compose their shots. However, the lens lacks autofocus, which makes capturing spontaneous, everyday action tricky and prone to focus errors. Its widest aperture setting of f/1.4 should generally be avoided, as it produces pronounced vignetting, distracting chromatic aberrations, and a soft glow over the entire frame. Furthermore, except for the Nikon-mount version, the lens completely lacks electronic contacts; this means the camera cannot display or record metadata, the viewfinder significantly darkens when stopping down the aperture ring, and exposure modes are restricted to aperture priority or manual.

The Lonely Speck review identifies the Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC as an exceptional, budget-friendly prime lens for wide-angle astrophotography, highlighting its ultra-fast f/1.4 aperture for capturing detailed, low-noise Milky Way images. Key advantages include excellent control over coma and astigmatism, ensuring sharp stars across the frame, paired with a durable yet lightweight build featuring a smooth manual focus ring. Conversely, the lens is limited by its fully manual nature, lacking autofocus or electronic communication with the camera. While it delivers excellent sharpness at f/2.0, wide-open performance at f/1.4 shows minor aberration, and its large size makes it less practical for daily walkaround shooting.

The Samyang 24mm F1.4 ED AS IF UMC is a fully manual wide-angle prime lens highly favored by landscape and astrophotographers for its impressive light gathering capabilities and excellent value for money. Built from a mix of aluminium and high-quality plastic, it features a smooth focus ring with a long 135-degree throw and hard stops, alongside a grooved manual aperture ring that is easy to operate with gloves. While the lens is slightly soft across the frame and displays noticeable vignetting, coma, and astigmatism when shot wide open at F1.4, its sharpness and contrast improve drastically when stopped down. Between F8 and F11, it becomes incredibly sharp across the entire frame, including the corners, making it a powerful tool for daytime landscapes. For astrophotography, the reviewer achieves the best results by using a star tracker and stopping the lens down to F4 or F5.6. The lens offers clear advantages and drawbacks depending on user needs. Its pros include an ultra-fast F1.4 maximum aperture that allows for lower ISO settings to reduce image noise, excellent build quality, a smooth focus lock,...

The Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED AS IF UMC is a manual-focus prime lens that offers exceptional potential for landscape astrophotography due to its outstanding control of coma and astigmatism at the outer edges of the frame. Priced affordably under £500, it features a solid build quality constructed on a rugged metal chassis, despite its external plastic casing. For night-sky shooting, it easily outperforms more expensive lenses like the Fuji XF 23mm by keeping stars at the extreme corners sharp and well-defined without stretching them, making it a highly regarded value option for night photographers when working correctly. However, severe quality control issues heavily undermine the lens, as the specific unit tested arrived fundamentally flawed and optically defective. During daytime testing, the lens produced incredibly unsharp, blurry images across the entire frame at f/1.4, failing to achieve a crisp focus even through live view. Additionally, the optics suffered from massive lens flare when bright light sources like Venus or house windows entered the frame, and the manual aperture ring lacked intermediate detents between f/1.4 and f/2.0. Ultimately, while a flawless copy...

The Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC (AE) lens offers excellent image quality and value for Nikon full-frame users, achieving a high DxOMark score of 33 points when tested on the Nikon D800. A major pro of this Nikon-mount (AE) version is its built-in CPU, data-bus contacts, and automatic aperture control, providing full exposure and metering compatibility with Nikon DSLRs. Optically, the lens boasts an impressive build with 13 elements in 12 groups, including four ED glass elements to minimize chromatic aberration and two aspherical elements. Its peak sharpness surpasses even the more expensive Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24mm f/1.4G ED when stopped down, reaching optimal performance between f/4 and f/5.6 where edge-to-center sharpness levels out. However, the lens comes with several notable cons, most significantly the total lack of auto-focus functionality. At wider apertures, the Samyang lacks the overall sharpness and uniformity across the field demonstrated by the Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 25mm f/2. It is also a physically demanding piece of gear, featuring a large 77mm filter thread and weighing over half a kilo (580g). Optically, it exhibits higher-than-expected...

The Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC Canon lens offers a strong combination of affordability and optical correction, earning a high DxOMark score of 31 points that ties it for first place with the premium Canon alternative. Its complex optical layout includes four ED glass elements and two aspherical elements, which successfully result in impressively low chromatic aberration and well-controlled distortion. Furthermore, the lens achieves very good sharpness when stopped down to f/2.8, making it a highly attractive option for budget-conscious photographers looking to capture expansive landscapes and detailed low-light interiors. However, the lens suffers from notable performance and handling trade-offs, most prominently its disappointing center sharpness when shot wide-open at f/1.4. It also displays heavy vignetting that reaches -2.3Ev in the extreme corners, paired with a complex "moustache" type distortion pattern that is difficult to correct manually. On the operational side, this Canon-mount version completely lacks auto-focus, electronic data-bus contacts, and automatic aperture control. This omission limits users to stopped-down metering, restricts the camera's exposure modes, and prevents the storage of valuable EXIF lens data for automated post-processing corrections.

The Samyang 24mm f1.4 ED AS UMC is a budget-friendly wide-angle lens that offers a strong optical construction featuring 13 elements in 12 groups, including four ED and two aspherical elements. Retailing at $669, its standout pros include a fast f/1.4 aperture, excellent light transmission, and highly controlled distortion and chromatic aberration. When tested on a full-frame Sony A99, it achieved a high DxOMark score of 27 points, outperforming the premium Zeiss 24-70mm f2.8 zoom at the 24mm focal length by delivering superior edge-to-edge sharpness at f/2.8, lower vignetting, and easier-to-correct distortion. Optimum sharpness for this lens is reached when it is stopped down to f/4–5.6. However, the lens comes with notable cons regarding its physical build, handling, and wide-open performance. It is a large and heavy piece of gear, weighing 20.46 oz (580g) with a 77mm filter thread. Operationally, the Sony and Pentax versions lack mechanical or electronic linkages, meaning they do not feature an automatic diaphragm and require tedious stopped-down metering. Performance at the maximum f/1.4 aperture is generally disappointing and soft, particularly on the APS-C Pentax K-3...

The Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC (EOS) review outlines a moderate ultra-wide-angle prime lens designed for full-format SLR cameras, offering high-end large aperture specifications at a fraction of the cost of its original manufacturer counterparts. A major pro of this lens is its outstanding outer build quality, featuring a tightly assembled mix of plastic and metal parts, a metal mount, and a smooth, well-dampened focus ring that maintains a constant lens length during operation. Additionally, its highly attractive pricing—coming in at about half the price of the comparable Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 USM L II—makes it a compelling budget-friendly option for photographers seeking a fast 24mm prime lens. However, the review highlights several critical cons, particularly regarding quality control and its purely mechanical nature. The specific tested sample suffered from a centering defect and a poorly calibrated focus scale, pointing to ongoing quality control issues from the manufacturer. Furthermore, because the lens is entirely mechanical, users must deal with the complete lack of autofocus (AF), lack of camera-controlled aperture, and the omission of lens data in the camera-produced EXIF...