Quick Samyang 14mm f2.8 test

Ugg10

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So, got my Samyang manual 14mm f2.8 lens this week for my Canon 6D so thought I'd do a quick test to see what it performs like, so details below -

Baseline - Canon 24-105 f4.0 IS USM L (Kit lens) at 24mm
Scene - single picture of my front drive, lots of texture, trees and sky so should be good for showing sharpness and chromatic aberration. Overcast day, focus on tree in centre of image (mid ground approx 30ft away).
Processing - Exif edited using Exiftool for Samyang, DXO used with auto lens correct (distortion, CA and vignette) for both lenses plus used the same sharpness profile on all pics (moderate). All other setting were default and no compensation for exposure.
Compared 100% crops in extreme top left, centre and bottom right.
(All pics and more comparisons on flickr, worth looking at the full size pics).

Results

My god this is wide - 14mm on left, 24mm on right


14 vs 24mm comparison
by A H, on Flickr

Heavy Vignette at f2.8 (original left, corrected right)


14-28-full
by A H, on Flickr

This is seriously sharp right into the corners confirming the various online reviews. Sharp at f2.8, even better at f5.6, drops off a bit at f11. Compare the Samyang 14mm at f2.8 vs the Canon 24-105mm at f4.0 (wide open), top left corner 100% crop (not scaled).

Samyang

14-28-TL100
by A H, on Flickr

Canon

24-105-40-TL100
by A H, on Flickr

So, only a quick check but seems to confirm what all of the reviews say - very sharp from f2.8, best at f5.6, drops off a bit at f11, sharp right into the corners and virtually no CA. Also I can confirm that if you edit the EXIf using Exiftool using:

exiftool -Lens="Samyang 14mm F2.8 IF ED UMC AE Aspherical" -LensModel="Samyang 14mm F2.8 IF ED UMC AE Aspherical" -FocalLength="14" -FNumber="x.x" -MaxFocalLength="14" -MaxApertureValue="2.8" -MinApertureValue="22" -TargetAperture="2.8" -LensType="Samyang 14mm F2.8" -m filename

>> add F stop number and filename

then DXO will pick up the Samyang lens profile and auto correct.

I think I am going to enjoy using this lens !!
 
Thanks for the review, very interesting. Got to say I'm blown away by the lens corrections of DXO, I've never seen anything close to that in LR :eek:
 
I can't remember if I have this software or not. Can you link it to LR so that you can do your edits as normal and the send to DXO for lens corrections?
 
Not sure what you are after, I only have elements not LR, my version on DXO is the free version 9 Jim linked the other day. Running them all stand alone.
 
Not sure what you are after, I only have elements not LR, my version on DXO is the free version 9 Jim linked the other day. Running them all stand alone.
Thanks. When I trialed DXO I didn't like it as much as LR so would like to still do my edits in LR and just use DXO for the lens corrections as it looks really impressive. Quite often you can link software so that you can send images from LR to another piece of software, edit in there, save it and then it saves a new copy in LR.
 

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