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Best full frame ultra wide-angle prime

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Douglas F Watt

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I have 24 mm f2 Zeiss (which i love), but I'm thinking about picking up either a 20 mm or perhaps even 16mm prime for landscape and architecture photography, as 24 is just not wide enough, but I don't want a zoom, just because of the weight (although the Tamron 15-30 is tempting). I know Samyang make some highly regarded manual focus primes, and I'm not adverse to manual focus for this kind of application (as focus peaking makes this easy task).

Anybody have any hands-on experience with this one– And tried several of these with a clear favorite recommendation?

Thanks in advance
 
The Rokinon/Samyang 14mm (the manual focus version) can be excellent if you get a good one. I had a nice one back when I shot a D800e. But I bought one recently to try on the A99ii and it was terrible. So I sent it back.

As long as you get it from someplace that will take it back, might be worth a try.

I've got the 12mm Laowa coming today, so we'll see how that goes.
 
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Never mind.

The Laowa arrived this afternoon and it's already packed up to go back.

Fresh out of the sealed plastic bag, it had oil or grease leaked/smeared on the barrel. The mount is loose fitting, so it wiggles when mounted to the body. And edges/corners are pretty awful until you get to ƒ8...and then not very good.

In my view, if a Chinese lens cost 900 bucks, it better be something special, optically and mechanically. This was not.
 
Mike Evangelist said:
Never mind.

The Laowa arrived this afternoon and it's already packed up to go back.

Fresh out of the sealed plastic bag, it had oil or grease leaked/smeared on the barrel. The mount is loose fitting, so it wiggles when mounted to the body. And edges/corners are pretty awful until you get to ƒ8...and then not very good.

In my view, if a Chinese lens cost 900 bucks, it better be something special, optically and mechanically. This was not.
Click to expand...
Yuck! I'm hearing good things about the Samyang UWA 20mm?
 
I have the f3.5-6.3 version.
 
Is there a Sony version of the f4 ?
 
Around $300, low price of admission for FF UWA. Manual everything.

There are others, but many are not full frame.
Douglas F Watt said:
Yuck! I'm hearing good things about the Samyang UWA 20mm?
Click to expand...
I haven't seen that one for A-mount for sale anywhere.

Sure you can resist that nice Tamron 15-30?
 
Trevor_S said:
Is there a Sony version of the f4 ?
Click to expand...
Not if you are talking the Art version of the f4 12-24. That would have been an easy choice if it was available. Wouldn't have needed to post the question about an UWA prime, that lens is just soo good. But not in A mount. Shame
 
The Minolta 20mm f2.8 is a pretty decent performer, I'm happy enough with mine.
 
Douglas F Watt said:
I have 24 mm f2 Zeiss (which i love), but I'm thinking about picking up either a 20 mm or perhaps even 16mm prime for landscape and architecture photography, as 24 is just not wide enough, but I don't want a zoom, just because of the weight (although the Tamron 15-30 is tempting). I know Samyang make some highly regarded manual focus primes, and I'm not adverse to manual focus for this kind of application (as focus peaking makes this easy task).

Anybody have any hands-on experience with this one– And tried several of these with a clear favorite recommendation?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
 
lim yau tong said:
Douglas F Watt said:
Trevor_S said:
Is there a Sony version of the f4 ?
Click to expand...
Not if you are talking the Art version of the f4 12-24. That would have been an easy choice if it was available. Wouldn't have needed to post the question about an UWA prime, that lens is just soo good. But not in A mount. Shame
Click to expand...
Check out the Sigma mount conversion service.
Click to expand...
No, you can't. ;-)

Sigma mount conversion service can only convert to a mount that they have made,
otherwise they don't have the parts to do the conversion.

If the lens is not available in A-mount, there is no way to convert it to A-mount.

Here is the list for Sigma mount conversion:
https://www.sigma-photo.co.jp/support/mcs/list.html
 
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Lensmate said:
Douglas F Watt said:
I have 24 mm f2 Zeiss (which i love), but I'm thinking about picking up either a 20 mm or perhaps even 16mm prime for landscape and architecture photography, as 24 is just not wide enough, but I don't want a zoom, just because of the weight (although the Tamron 15-30 is tempting). I know Samyang make some highly regarded manual focus primes, and I'm not adverse to manual focus for this kind of application (as focus peaking makes this easy task).

Anybody have any hands-on experience with this one– And tried several of these with a clear favorite recommendation?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
It seems that Tamron 15-30, or Zeiss 16-35 are your best options if you want to go below 20mm.

if 20mm is fine, take the Minolta. I'm happy with lens, but still waiting for a decent <15mm prime for A-Mount. I'm too lazy to test several copies, due to production inconsistencies...
 
I'm leaning strongly towards the Samyang 14 mm 2.8 manual focus lens. I understand it is optically and in every other way identical to the Rokinon 14 mm 2.8. Gets very good reviews, especially for the price. Samyang also makes a 20 mm 1.8 lens for three times as much money – anyone had any experience with that?

And again all of you who are encouraging me to get either the Zeiss or Tamron zoom lenses, not going to go there. I've got too many lenses that weigh too much already in the lens bag. So it's going to be a prime.

So these look like my two best options the cheap one – Samyang or Rokinon 14 mm 2.8 or upmarket with three times as much money the Samyang 20 mm 1.8. Have to believe that the 20 mm 1.8 lens is going to be optically superior, but I've seen no testing on it at all. The Samyang 14 mm tests out as exceptionally sharp particularly centrally, with very low CA, but with rather bad and complex barrel distortion. Does anybody know if optics Pro 11 has correction profiles?

Thanks in advance

--
Sony A99ii-A77ii-RX10III-RX100III
Sigma: 8-16 f4.5-5.6, 500 4.5 EX DG APO.
Sigma Art: 35 f1.4, 50 f1.4, 24-105 f4.
Tamron: 70-200 f2.8 USD
Sony Zeiss Alpha: 24 f2, 85 1.4, 135 1.8, 24-70 2.8 SSMII
Sony: 16-50 f2.8, 100 f2.8M, 70-400 f4-5.6 G2
Minolta: 600 f4, 70-210 f4 ('Beercan').
DFW
 
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Wddn said:
It seems that Tamron 15-30, or Zeiss 16-35 are your best options if you want to go below 20mm.

if 20mm is fine, take the Minolta. I'm happy with lens, but still waiting for a decent <15mm prime for A-Mount. I'm too lazy to test several copies, due to production inconsistencies...
Click to expand...
I'm leaning strongly in the direction of the Samyang Rokinon 14 mm 2.8. Just trying to find out if OP 11 as correction profiles given that it's got apparently rather bad barrel distortion.
 
Douglas F Watt said:
Douglas F Watt said:
I'm leaning strongly in the direction of the Samyang Rokinon 14 mm 2.8. Just trying to find out if OP 11 as correction profiles given that it's got apparently rather bad barrel distortion.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
It's actually 'mustache' type distortion, which is quite bizarre/pronounced if not corrected. Lightroom does a pretty good job fixing it. Not sure about other applications.

Here's before and after correction (an old shot, taken with a A7R) -

Uncorrected from Rokinon 14mm
Uncorrected from Rokinon 14mm

Corrected with Lightroom profile
Corrected with Lightroom profile
 
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Douglas F Watt said:
Lensmate said:
Douglas F Watt said:
I have 24 mm f2 Zeiss (which i love), but I'm thinking about picking up either a 20 mm or perhaps even 16mm prime for landscape and architecture photography, as 24 is just not wide enough, but I don't want a zoom, just because of the weight (although the Tamron 15-30 is tempting). I know Samyang make some highly regarded manual focus primes, and I'm not adverse to manual focus for this kind of application (as focus peaking makes this easy task).

Anybody have any hands-on experience with this one– And tried several of these with a clear favorite recommendation?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Mike Evangelist said:
Douglas F Watt said:
Mike Evangelist said:
I'm leaning strongly in the direction of the Samyang Rokinon 14 mm 2.8. Just trying to find out if OP 11 as correction profiles given that it's got apparently rather bad barrel distortion.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
It's actually 'mustache' type distortion, which is quite bizarre/pronounced if not corrected. Lightroom does a pretty good job fixing it. Not sure about other applications.

Here's before and after correction (an old shot, taken with a A7R) -

Uncorrected from Rokinon 14mm
Uncorrected from Rokinon 14mm

Corrected with Lightroom profile
Corrected with Lightroom profile
Click to expand...
Thanks for responding Mike. Yes I've heard it's a weird version of barrel distortion – 'Mustache distortion'. I had never heard of it until I read the review this lens. But aside from that problem, what do you think of it? Everybody pretty much raves about it, particularly in terms of sharpness for the price

--
Sony A99ii-A77ii-RX10III-RX100III
Sigma: 8-16 f4.5-5.6, 500 4.5 EX DG APO.
Sigma Art: 35 f1.4, 50 f1.4, 24-105 f4.
Tamron: 70-200 f2.8 USD
Sony Zeiss Alpha: 24 f2, 85 1.4, 135 1.8, 24-70 2.8 SSMII
Sony: 16-50 f2.8, 100 f2.8M, 70-400 f4-5.6 G2
Minolta: 600 f4, 70-210 f4 ('Beercan').
DFW
 
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