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Old 27-07-2017, 03:40 PM
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gregbradley
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gregbradley is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Sydney
Posts: 17,877
Make sure they take returns. The Samyang 14mm is notorious for bad copies. I think they are cheap because Samyang must not test them or check them out. I would check it out as soon as I got it to make sure it was ok or start the returns process if there is a deadline which there would be.

I got one 2nd hand a few months back off ebay and it was useless. I managed to get the seller to take it back. She claimed I was cherry picking but I suspect she was ditching a dud copy which is common with this lens.
Sides and corners were showing really bad coma plus badly out of focus.
I got a Samyang 1.4 once and it was similar. I had to return it and the replacement one was good. The dud one left side of the image would be out of focus whilst the right side was in focus.

But when you get a good copy of the 14 or 24 I believe they are very good and are commonly recommended.

The other competitor is the Irix 15mm F2.4. I ordered one off ebay new for $587 and they take returns.

I've read reviews between it and the Samyang and its better in most regards except one or two where they tie.

I can post back here to say if its any good or not.

The new Sigma Art 14mm F1.8 is getting quite good reviews. Still some coma. I was thinking of this one but its AUD$1959 and in DPReview comparisons the Irix was just as good if not better at F2.4.

The main advantage of the Sigma of course is F1.8 and this allows a lower ISO and lowers noise for the same brightness image.

I am less concerned about that as I mainly stack now anyway to get rid of noise or use a tracker and go longer exposures anyway. Weight and cost for the slight extra performance then of the Sigma is not as valuable to me.

If you want to take casual shots of the Milky Way, say a panorama of 20-30 seconds ISO3200-6400 then the Sigma is the go. You could lower the ISO to 1600 and be just as bright or do shorter exposures and get rounder stars at ISO3200-6400.

Greg.
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