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Old 25-04-2012, 05:10 PM
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troypiggo (Troy)
Bust Duster

troypiggo is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posts: 4,846
I've got this lens. It goes by many names. Samyang is the manufacturer, but it's been rebranded as Rokinon, Vivitar, Bower, Pro Optic (that's what I got from Adorama) as far as I've seen.

I got it specifically because of that edge sharpness in reviews. While I haven't used it as extensively as Colin probably has, and haven't yet tested it for astro, I have the following comments in addition to Colin's:

- It's fully manual focus and manual aperture. Not a problem presumably for astro. I used liveview zoomed right in and it worked fine.

- As Colin mentions, the quality control is probably not up there with Canon etc. From reviews I've been reading, and mine is like this, the focus ring scale cannot be trusted. It shows focus distance, but in reality they're nowhere near right. Not a problem if you're ignoring it and focusing through the viewfinder by eye or using liveview, just something to be aware of.

- While I haven't experienced it, I can see the flare being a problem with bright light sources just out of frame. With a lens this wide, the hood (which is permanently fixed by the way) is very shallow. On top of that, the front lens glass is very rounded. ie looks like a fisheye if you've seen one. It's not a fisheye by definition, it's a rectilinear lens. But the glass looks deceptively like it.

- There is a bit of distortion, but I've found and downloaded a LightRoom profile that corrects it very well. I'm sure there'll be one for DPP or others. Just search around.

Here's a link to sample images. Mostly landscapes etc, but you get the idea. It's pretty popular.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php?t=909272
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