The Samyang 14mm f/2.8 is a relatively new lens that has become quite popular because of its price. This lens is manufactured in Korea, and it comes in a variety of different mounts. This specific model is made with an F-mount, so I can use it on my Nikon FM. This lens also has electronic contacts that will enable you to change apertures in camera on more modern cameras. I purchased this lens brand new at B&H for a little over $300 which is an absolute bargain for a focal length like this. Samyang makes a large variety of manual lenses that cost a fraction of their name brand counterparts. For instance Samyang sells this lens for a little over $300 and Nikon's 14mm f/2.8 costs nearly $1900. Obviously, these two lenses are drastically different and the Samyang is only manual focus, but you still can achieve the same focal length and maximum aperture at a substantial discount. The Samyang 14mm f/2.8 is built with 14 elements in 10 groups, which should assist in things like corner sharpness and chromatic aberration; these elements are also multi-coated to help minimize flare. This is an important feature due to the massive front element which creates a large potential for flare. The lens weighs in at about 1lb 2.6oz and is around 87mm wide and 93mm long. This lens provides an astounding 115 degree field of view which literally allows you to look around corners. The Samyang 14mm can focus extremely close at just 27cm. This is certainly a special purpose lens, but it is really great in tight situations, and can certainly create interesting images.

Build Quality

The Samyang 14mm f/2.8 is made with fantastic build quality, and this is quite surprising considering the price. The Samyang is mostly metal and glass, but it does have a rubber focus ring and a built in plastic hood. I appreciate that Samyang adding a built in hood for this lens; it is typical for ultra-wide angle lenses like this have flaring issues. The combination of the built in hood and the multi-coated elements should help to prevent flaring. The hood also acts as a protective feature for this lens. With the short minimum focusing distance combined with the massive field of view makes it easy to run into things while looking through the viewfinder. This lens has a very solid feel and also a very smooth focus throw of around 260 degrees. This long focus throw seems odd because when shooting with this lens nearly everything is in focus due to the wide focal length, but it does help when focusing very close. Unfortunately, the aperture ring is quite stiff on this model; this is most likely because it was meant for digital bodies so typically the aperture would be controlled with in camera software. The aperture ring takes some real force to turn sometimes, and the aperture ring is quite small and difficult to feel without looking. The Samyang’s weight is moderate, but it is a little front heavy due to the absolutely massive front element. Samyang did make this lens with internal focusing which means the lens does not extend when focusing, and this can help to prevent dust and other materials from getting inside of the lens elements. This lens isn’t ideal on my Sony A7 because of the adapter required, but this lens is also made for Sony E-mount which would eliminate that need for an adapter. Overall, this lens feels very solid and should withstand the tests of time.

Aperture

There are 6 straight blades that make up the Samyang 14mm aperture iris. This will mean there probably won’t be outstanding bokeh when stopping down, but honestly it is difficult to capture any bokeh with this lens especially when stopping down. The aperture in this lens is extremely small and regressed inside of the lens, it can be extremely difficult to identify any issues with the aperture without very close inspection. 

Sharpness

The Samyang 14mm f/2.8 is surprising sharp even when shooting wide open. You would expect a lens at this price to sacrifice something, but it just keeps surprising me with its results. This lens has amazing sharpness especially considering the price of this lens. You can see wide open center sharpness is very good, but you can see a slight softening in the center crop. When stopping down to f/4 the softness goes away and the image is already very sharp. When stopping down from f/5.6 to f/8 you will see mostly a contrast improvement and the lens reaches optimal sharpness and contrast at f/11. The corner sharpness acts very similarly to the center crops, the major difference is that it there is some pretty visible vignetting at almost all apertures. Corner sharpness is a little poorer than center sharpness, but overall sharpness is pretty even throughout the frame. This lens also has great color and contrast. This is quite impressive for a lens in this category. The only issue someone might have against this lens is that it is only manual focus. This really isn’t an issue though because when shooting at this focal length nearly the entire frame is in focus. The only time you might have to check focus is when you are shooting very close subjects. It would be hard to argue against choosing this lens over its massively more expensive counterparts.

Vignetting

The Samyang 14mm does have some serious vignetting issues which is very common with ultra-wide angle lenses. As you can see below this lens has very noticeable vignetting at every aperture stop. It is most drastic below f/5.6, but it will always be visible even in normal photos. This lens has the most severe vignetting I have encountered so far. I actually performed this test twice to double check due to the severity of light fall off. Thankfully, if you don’t like vignetting this is very easily removed in post processing. Vignetting is very typical of lenses such as this and even the more expensive ultra-wide angle lenses will have similar problems.

Flare

The Samyang 14mm has fantastic flare control; you can see the slightest amount of flare in the center of the image. It is only visible under close inspection even when pointed directly at the sun. Modern lens coatings help tremendously when it comes to these situations. This lens even manages to retain great color and contrast. Even with a massive front element, the Samyang handles itself very well even in these extreme conditions. 

Distortion

The distortion with the Samyang 14mm lens is very dramatic. The distortion is not only pretty severe, but it also is in a very unique pattern referred to as mustache distortion. Mustache distortion is a sort of combination between pincushion and barrel distortion, and because of this unique pattern it is more difficult to correct in post processing. I have heard there are lens profiles for this lens, but there will most definitely be some cropping done when implemented. This lens is probably not ideal for architecture photography because of the distortion, but with landscape photography you hardly recognise distortion.

Bokeh

This lens certainly was not made for any type of portraits, and bokeh most likely wasn’t a priority of Samyang when developing this lens. That being said, the out of focus areas of this lens aren’t the most desirable, and the only real way to achieve bokeh at all is by getting near the minimum focus distance of the lens and opening the aperture to f/2.8. You can see that the background in this image isn’t the smoothest; I find it quite distracting and not very desirable. Being an ultra-wide angle lens you would most likely not want to use this lens for portraits anyway; it would create a very unflattering image for your subjects because of the exaggerated field of view.

Conclusion

The Samyang 14mm f/2.8 is a fantastic lens by itself without even considering the cost, but when adding the cost it makes this lens a must have for many photographers. At a fraction of the cost of most lenses in this category, you can have a better performer than most ultra-wide angle lenses. The sharpness of this lens is simply outstanding even when shooting wide open. The coatings inside really help to prevent chromatic aberrations that are virtually nonexistent in any images. All of this packed in a beautiful lens with great build quality; it seems Samyang didn’t compromise on any parts of this lens. The only real drawbacks of choosing this lens are the manual focus, extensive vignetting, dramatic distortion, and no filter ring and most of these issues can be worked around if desired. This is dramatically outweighed by the benefits of this lens for me. This may not be a lens you use constantly, but it certainly comes in handy for tight situations or times when you are looking for a new perspective. I applaud the Samyang Company for providing these options for photographers. Some may have never been able to afford lenses such as this. My hope is to review other lenses this company offers in the future, and to provide some more insight about their wonderful line up. When I sold all of my Nikon equipment, this was the only lens I decided to keep because I knew I would find myself wanting to use this lens down the road regardless of what system I picked up.