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Sammy NX 16mm vs Samyang 14mm 2.8 sharpness

Started Dec 21, 2018 | Discussions thread
norman shearer Senior Member • Posts: 1,418
Re: Sammy NX 16mm vs Samyang 14mm 2.8 sharpness

PhotonRustler wrote:

Hello Samsungists, I once again require your immense collective knowledge.

I have a couple of 16mm pancakes and neither are what I would call sharp, particularly when compared to the 30mm. On the NX1 they clearly well below the resolution of the sensor. I've got a Samyang 14mm available from a friend but before he posts it to me I was wondering if I'd get any real sharpness benefit from it. It would be used exclusively for landscapes in good lighting. Obviously it has the increased distortion but I can live with that.
Does anyone have any experience comparing the lenses and is the 14mm significantly sharper?
P.S. if anyone can give an opinion on the 12-24mm in terms of sharpness that would be a bonus

I have both and did also own the 12-24mm Samsung too.

The 16mm pancake is my street lens on my NX500. I zone focus so AF performance is of no concern to me with this lens. For this niche I love the 16mm. It was sharper than my 20mm pancake and the 30mm is just a bit too long for my style.

I bought the Samyang 14/2.8 for more leisurely subjects such as landscape/nature and the like. For this it is very good but it's big and heavy and is a better fit on my NX1 than my NX500.

Then I got the 12-24mm lens and this really impressed me. So much so the Samyang has not been used since. I've not done any extensive comparisons but the convenience of AF and a variable zoom makes for a much more enjoyable experience. I think the edge to edge sharpness is good enough and would consider this lens a bag of primes. I'd only take primes if shooting low light, indoors etc or if I wanted some shallow DOF.

I've since sold the 12-24mm and 20mm pancake and the Samyang will be sold also. I have A7R2 for landscape/nature now and the NX500 is strictly street only. I like it for street so much I bought a 2nd copy. I'll be selling my NX1 next year also because I have Sony A77ii for sports/action and I can use many more lenses with that camera and share them with my A7R2 when I need more MP.

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