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Sharon Johnson photo
Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby
1 Level
473 Review
0 Karma

Review on πŸ“· Black Rokinon FE14M-C 14mm F2.8 Ultra Wide Lens for Canon by Sharon Johnson

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Not as hard as I heard it should have been.

First of all the delivery was lightning fast. Ordered on the afternoon of the 23rd, received the morning of the 24th! You almost thought the delivery truck was at the end of the street waiting for my order! I originally ordered this lens for astrophotography and read many reviews about it being really sharp despite the lower price. I immediately put it on my EOS7d MKII (because I don't have my 6d yet) to shoot for sharpness comparison. Well, the sharpness claim isn't true. I have a Canon EF-S 17-55mm f2.8 and a Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 and both zooms were much sharper even wide open than the 14mm Rokinon Prime lens. I made a comparison with a Gitzo tripod (can't remember the model number, it's covered in shock absorbing foam rubber but can easily accommodate my 500 f4 L lens) and for this comparison I had a large Swiss style ball head mounted on it. I took pictures with the mirror lock-up activated and a shutter release delay of 2 seconds. This was taken in my living room against a wall about 14 feet away that had a photo with text attached to it. To focus the Rokinon lens, which is manual, I turned on live view and then used the zoom function, which allowed me to fine-tune the focus, and nothing moved. Unless I was using f4 or less, text was soft with Rokinon. The Canon and Sigma lenses were much sharper even at wide open apertures, as I found when I zoomed in to the maximum and checked all the extreme edges and corners. A sigma lens will work on a full frame camera, but f4 is too small for astrophotography. The Canon lens has an aperture of f2.8 but will only fit cropped EF-S sensor bodies. I'm sending the Rokinon back and will look around again for a fast but sharp lens! :(( I am returning this lens immediately so I can't really comment on the durability but the build quality seems very good.

Pros
  • Camera lenses
Cons
  • Expensive