Review on 📸 Samyang SYIO18AF-E AF 18mm F2.8 Wide Angle Auto Focus Full Frame Lens for Sony E Mount in Black by Brian West

The lens is all plastic except for the mount and is very light which while a plus for some feels like a cheap plastic toy. The autofocus works well, as does everything else on my Sony A7RII camera. The lens is built in smoothly, with no play. Manual focus by cable but works well enough. Optically, the lens leaves a lot to be desired. Overall contrast and color saturation are low, which can be okay in some situations but generally doesn't work. At 2.8 the lens is not sharp so this setting is useless. At 4.0 the sharpness of the lens is increased slightly and at 5.6 a consistent level of sharpness is achieved across the entire frame, but this is hardly enough as the lens is still noticeably soft. The lens shows only a very modest improvement in optical quality as it continues to stop down to F11.0, after which the already mediocre sharpness continues to decline, rendering the lens unusable. I would recommend not using this lens, spending a little more money and getting a lens of comparable focal length from another manufacturer. However, some people may feel that this lens's so-so performance is 'good for the money'. I think when you spend thousands of dollars traveling you want only the very best lenses you can afford. Otherwise, you can just use the phone's camera and not bother with expensive photo equipment at all.