Hi all, just wondering if anyone has this lens in there bag, and what their thoughts of it are. I have read multiple reports on the net about the overall bad quality and that some people have had to go through 5 copies before the get a good one. Looking to use this on a Sony A7ii for night scape photography.
Thanks
Andrew...
the one i bought (direct from korea when I was visiting family) was fantastic. You do need to drop it down to maybe f4 but its tack sharp with almost 0 CA. I do hear that the quality control leaves something to be desired but if you do get a decent copy, they're an absolute keeper and you won't find a better lens for the price elsewhere. I reckon they're worth the gamble. Just buy them from a reputable dealer that accept returns OR you can buy second hand and try it out beforehand.
It's got 3 features one can make use of or get annoyed with: the star-like sun. Doesn't happen with real stars, though.
And the lens flare - only happens at certain angles.
And on my old Sony Nex-5N vignetting is palpable.
I recommend this lens. Squeezing it to f/4 or 5.6 makes tad sharp photos.
Even with a steady camera with 30 seconds exposure and stack them gives awesome results. But doe to the rectilinear nature and the FOV of over 100 degrees, the corners look rather distorted, but can be corrected with Photoshop (CS6 or higher) with Filter => 'Wide angle adaptation'.
And the 'moustache distortion' can be corrected with a Photoshop plugin for this lens, although with sky shots it is not a big deal.
Here some single frame examples with f/4 on a partly cloudy sky with FQ Moon in a February night.
I use Aperture on a Mac, it's no longer available.
And sometimes Gimp. Gimp is free software, donations appreciated, and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. https://www.gimp.org/downloads/