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| Close-up of the branding on the lens |
The Brand New Samyang 14mm F2.4 XP Lens
Last week I had an email from Samyang in
South Korea explaining that they had just sent out their new
14mm f2.4 XP
sample lens to me via express courier direct from South Korea. The email went
on to explain that this was the only sample lens in existence to create content
globally. A HUGE deal. I was so thrilled and honoured to be able to get my
hands on this lens before pretty much anyone. I was fortunate enough to receive
one of the 1
st AF 50mm f1.4 lenses in the UK again direct from Samyang themselves for testing and reviewing only a few months ago (review of this lens
HERE) so to follow
up with another high profile and much anticipated lens was great news for me.
Overview of the lens
Having recently looked into the options available to me as a Sony shooter for ultra-wide lenses I think that I know the market pretty well. I wrote a blog post a few months ago (give it a read
HERE) where I looked at a few different options in my search for a full frame ultra-wide angle lens. In the end I went with the stellar
Canon 16-35mm F4L IS USM. A decision that has definitely paid off for me as the images that the lens produces are superb with sharpness throughout the frame and not just in the centre of the image. Enough of my waffle about the Canon lens. This review is about the new Samyang. Samyang is renowned for making great lenses at an affordable price and so a lot of photographers find that these lenses are a very accessible option. Samyang has quite a few options that would be classed as ultra-wide lenses and in fact have recently added to their line-up with the launch of their new 14mm AF f2.8 lens which has been received really well by photographers worldwide. The older 14mm f2.8 (manual) focus is also very well thought of lens with many a landscape photographer. So, they have a manual 14mm f2.8 and an autofocusing 14mm f2.8 and now they've introduced the 14mm f2.4 which will allow half an f-stop of extra light into the camera. This can then allow for lower ISO or faster shutter speeds in low light situations.
Lens design and specs
The lens has been designed very differently to how the rest of Samyang's lens' look but then again this is a totally different line of lenses that they are starting to produce aimed at a higher end of the market with performance to match. The look of the lens is kind of similar to the very sleek
Zeiss Milvus range of lenses where the lens hood flows seamlessly into the body of the lens. The build quality of this lens is superb with emphasis made on optical excellence. It's made from aluminium alloy and feels very solid and quite heavy at 791g. The rubber focussing ring feels nice and has a really long focus throw meaning you can really 'nail' focus as precisely as possible. However, it does attract a little dust and dirt. Inside the lens are 18 elements in 14 groups, so a very complex construction which justifies the 'Premium' tag for these lenses. There are 2 aspherical, 1 hybrid aspherical, two extra
low dispersion and 3 high refractive elements. This all helps minimise distortion and chromatic aberration. It's worth noting that the lens is not weather sealed. This is no big deal to me as I tend not to take my camera out in harsh conditions and would mainly use this lens to shoot interiors and on the odd occasion shoot landscape scenes.
See more about specs in the table below:
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1/50sec - f10 - ISO 100
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Fixed focal length (Prime) lenses in their nature do tend to be sharper
than their variable focal length (zoom) lens counterparts so its no surprise to find that this lens is tack sharp throughout the frame given the amount of glass that goes into the construction of this lens.
As you can see from the image below the
lens is capable of capturing beautifully crisp images which are sharp
corner to corner. This image has been shot directly into the sunlight
and flare has been kept to a minimum due to the sheer amount of elements
within the Premium construction.  |
1/50sec - f13 - ISO 160
Below are some examples showing the same composition shot at different apertures. I mistakenly had my EV step value set to 0.3 instead of 0.5 so as a result the widest aperture showed up as f2.2.
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| Shot at f2.2 (Noticeable vignetting) |
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| Shot at f4 (slight vignetting) |
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| Shot at f8 |
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| Shot at f11 |
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| Shot at f16 |
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| Shot at f22 |
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| 1/60sec - f10 - ISO 100 (Vertical lines corrected in Photoshop) |
Conclusion
During my relatively short time with this
lens I've tried to test it out in various locations and situations to
showcase the lens' capabilities and have been left impressed time after
time at how sharp the images are that it produces throughout the frame
and not just the centre. The build quality is solid as it's made from
aluminium alloy so you know that this thing is built to last. Distortion and chromatic aberration are kept to an absolute minimum with this lens. The focus ring has a long throw so you can focus precisely on your subject to create killer compositions. A 14mm lens is a
focal length I would probably use while shooting restaurant/bar/hotel
interiors in my day to day job so yes I would like to have this lens in
my bag for times when my 16-35mm just isn't quite wide enough and I know
that I will still maintain quality of image. Releasing this line of
Premium lenses is a great follow up to introducing autofocusing lenses
for the first time in the company's history earlier in the summer and I
have no doubt that these lenses are sending Samyang more than a step in the right
direction.
Thanks for reading. I hope that you
enjoyed my review. More test images are below. Please check out my
Facebook page and
website for more of my work or follow me on
Flickr.
The lenses will be globally available in 2016, with suggested retail prices announced at a later date.
I'd like to thank Karin and all involved at Samyang Korea for sending the lens out to me for testing.
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| 1/100sec - f8 - ISO 100 |
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| Samyang 14mm f2.4 Premium |
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| 1/60sec - f11 - ISO 100 |
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| Size in hand (I don't have the biggest of hands) |
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| Shot at f2.4 |
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| Shot at f10 |
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| Samyang 14mm f2.4 Premium (Canon fit), Sony A7R & Commlite Adapter |
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| Samyang 14mm f2.4 Premium front element |
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| Samyang 14mm f2.4 Premium |
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| 13secs - f2.4- ISO 640 (253 images stacked) |
Build quality for this lens is as you can imagine very similar to the 14mm
f2.4 XP that I recently tested. It's made of aluminium alloy so is very solid.
It has a similar long throw rubber focus ring like the 14mm f2.4 XP that I
recently tested. Great for focussing on your subject precisely. However the
rubber does attract dust a little but not much of an issue as it can be cleaned
fairly easily. Weighing in at 1050g this lens is quite a heavy piece of glass
compared to the 791g of the 14mm f2.4. The 85mm has less glass than the 14mm
and is made up of 10 elements in 7 groups - including one aspherical lens and
two high refractive lenses. It has a minimum focus distance of 0.8m and a
filter thread diameter of 86mm so a very wide front element but what do you
expect for a lens with a maximum aperture of f1.2? The design of the lens
is in line with the 14mm f2.4 which shares a similarity with the Zeiss Milvus
range of lenses. The 85mm differs from the 14mm where it has a detachable lens
hood which is made of high quality plastic. Initially this lens will be
available in Canon EF mount only but hopefully Samyang will add Nikon and Sony
mounts to their line-up in the not too distant future to satisfy the majority
of the market. However, I have read somewhere that it would not be possible to
make this lens for Sony E-mount due to the bayonet not being wide enough to be
able to do f1.2. I hope that this isn't the case.
