Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC Ultra Wide Angle Fixed Lens w/ Built-in AE Chip for Nikon

I bought this lens specifically for real estate photography. There is noticeable distortion when looking at straight lines, however any photo editor that has lens profile adjustments can correct for these distortions fairly well. I have started to fall in love with this lens so much that I have been looking for and finding other places to use it, like in sports or street photography. This lens is actually getting used more than my 50mm right now.

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This lens is manual focus. I bought this for astrophotography but Ill now be using it for architectural photography as well. The lens is sharp and has a great price point. The infinity focus is off, mine is only mm off. I tape my focus down for shoots anyway since I dont want to refocus in the dark. It is amazing. Good solid lens and does everything I want it to. For the price, it could be hot pink and I would still use this lens. Photo is straight out of the camera. No adjustments (not even horizon correction)

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This lens is amazing. I bought it mainly for taking pictures of the Aurora. Which might I add it does extraordinarily! I live in Alaska, and one thing I hate is never getting enough of the scenery in my photo. This lens solves that problem. I pull it out everytime I am out now, and find that the pictures I take with this lens tend to be my favorite out of all of my pictures. For the price this lens is an A++ in my book!

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I purchased this for Nikon for use on a D7000. I will be moving to FX in the future, so this was my decision for a wide angle lens over the Tokina 11-16. What do I use this lens for? Landscape, architecture, astrophotography, night time long exposures, unique portrait angles and city/street scenes. I use all of my lenses for all kinds of things. Its just a tool, but a quality tool at that. Lets get down to it. Build: Solid. Very solid. This lens has heft to it, and its metal (except for built-in hood, thats thick plastic) and well put together. Its not overly heavy. It just feels right. Feel: The lens feels incredibly well built. The manual focus ring has just the right amount of grip and a perfect level of dampening in my opinion. The aperture ring is easily turn-able, but not too easy, and has a slightly firm click-into-place at each aperture marker. I feel the focus rings throw is a little too long. This wont bother you unless you need to make quick adjustments fast (candid, street shooting, concert). But, theres also technique to help you get through that. Image Quality: This lens is sharp. Super sharp at f/2.8 and just keeps getting better. Out of focus parts of the scene are rendered very nicely. Youre not going to blur things into oblivion, things will still have detail and shape, but its smooth and pleasing. The lens does flare quite a bit on long exposures with bright light sources. To me this seems very dependent on the scene and the contrast between different objects and ambient lighting, etc etc. Ive shot buildings with the sun just at the edge of the frame and there was no flare at all (lost a little contrast though). Ive also had a few small lights on long night exposures create long, hexagonal flare effects. What Im basically saying is that it doesnt flare on my all the time, but it does. Okay, yes, theres distortion in the lens. It has supposedly been corrected quite a bit from the last iteration. Do you post process? If not, then it might bother you. If you do, then distortion is easily corrected with a current lens profile from Adobes Lens Profile Downloader (if youre an Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom user). As far as perspective distortion, well, thats up to you. If you need your lines straight and nicely vertical and horizontal, then you need to mind your sensors angle with respect to your subject. Thats just the nature of wide angle. Chromatic aberration... I dont even notice any. Other: Ive read that others have had trouble with the accuracy of the focus confirm chip. Also, that the distance scale is not quite accurate. Either Ive gotten lucky or the lenses being made from now forward have been adjusted. Everything worked great on my copy out of the box, no fine tune or anything (unlike my Nikon 50 and 85 1.8G lenses that both needed this). If youve been doing your research on a lens in this focal length, then you know what youre getting and what youre giving up with this lens. The pros far outweigh the cons.

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Update 5/24/2018: I received the new Rokinon lens after sending back the first one and took the same test chart image in RAW format which was focused using live view in my Nikon D800. This copy of the lens was very sharp across the frame and even sharp in the extreme corners at f2.8. Then I took a night shot of the stars to inspect for lens aberrations and coma in the extreme ends is very well controlled unlike my first copy where stars looked like little crosses. This lens performs much better and as expected than the first copy. I’m impressed and very happy. It also confirms other reviews that state that QC control for this lens may not always be up to par and copies of this lens with poor performance may float around. Ultimately, if you do get a good copy like mine, this is an awesome lens that can run with the big brand name ultra wide lenses but at a much lower price point. I’m looking forward shooting the Milky Way with this lens. ——————— Review of first copy of this lens was only 2 stars. My first copy of this lens was very soft on the left side of the frame and sharp in the middle. I have read many reviews that quality control is poor for this lens and you may get a copy with edge sharpness issues, like mine, or you may get a good one. I’m returning this lens and waiting for my second copy which I hope will be better. I’m using this lens mainly for night sky and Astrophotography so for my purpose it needs to be sharp at f2.8. So far I’m not impressed by the quality but I will revise my review if the next copy is of better quality. I know the good ones are out there but it seems to be a luck of the draw so far.

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Amazing lens! I use it on my T4i mostly for astrophotography and the lens performs very well. I love the full manual nature of the lens. When you pull it from the box and remove it from the included lens sack, youll be struck by the monster slab of glass the greets you. Be careful as this thing makes your rig very front heavy so take appropriate precautions to ensure your tripod doesnt take a tumble. If youre just getting into night photography, grab this lens and spend a few nights under the stars to see just how amazing the images you can get with this baby are. The lens profile was easy to install for lightroom and corrected any distortion though my crop sensor takes care of most of it.

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In March (0f 2018), I purchased the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC Ultra Wide Angle Fixed Lens w/ Built-in AE Chip for Nikon. So far I have been extremely pleased with its performance, and will update this post as needed. (For background on this review, I use this lens with my Nikon D5100 purchased in 2013.) It is extremely versatile in what I am able to photograph. I can easily shoot any situation for a real estate agent or a property rental owner. I am able to shoot very dramatic portrait session photos when I want to include large buildings, etc. It is also helpful when doing a large family session during a family reunion or wedding, but I would caution that you leave enough space around the edges of your frame to account for the fall off (discussed below). As with many wide angle lenses I have used, there is always fall off on the clarity around the perimeter of your photo. You can see it in the examples above. The center will be very clear, so long as you get your focus correct, but there really isn’t much that can be done for the edges of your photos. With that said, given you know that will happen you can make the necessary adjustments to compensate for that by cropping later on if needed.

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This is my 3rd Rokinon lens and I am very please with their products overall. This glass performs so well! The AE chips works great on my D7200 and is pretty accurate in terms of showing me focus confirmation in the viewfinder. (You will still need to turn the focus ring manually, but with the chip, you get the indicators in the viewfinder) The manual focus ring is smooth and the construction of the lens feels Rock Solid. It produces awesome images. My copy is pretty sharp from the center to the corners.I use the built in Lightroom lens profile to correct the vignetting, which honestly, I dont find bothersome at all. But if I need to remove it its beyond simple in post.

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I am an amateur Nikon shooter... that is to say, I dont make any money off of it and it is just a hobby. This is my 3rd Rokinon lens (I also have a Tamron, and many Nikon lenses both DX/FX and pro lenses). When I received this lens I thought the same 3 things I thought when I got my other 2 Rokinon lenses.... 1) It really feels like a quality lens in my hands. 2) What an incredibly sharp image such a "cheap" lens takes... and 3) Worst/cheapest lens cover ever. The first 2 are so good, I end up forgiving the 3rd. These wider angle lenses really let you capture things typical lenses cannot. When shooting in situations like street shots and especially for things like inside museums... they always end up getting my best shots that I just couldnt get with any other lens. These Rokinons are manual... but honestly, that really helps teach you how to take a good picture and once you learn the nuances of focusing yourself, it is quite easy and sometimes even preferred over an auto focus lens. Did I mention this thing is sharp? The price for Rokinons are also incredibly reasonable, and at times kind of a steal, largely because they do not have some of the functions like autofocus. This particular 14mm doesnt provide a drastic "fisheye" effect that the 8mm and lower does.... so if youre looking for that strong effect go for a lower mm lens. But this one provides excellent wide angle abilities with out an intense distortion... especially on a DX. Its f2.8 which really makes lower light situations easier as well... again, for inside places like museums and building photography this really comes in handy. I really cant say anything bad about this lens... the only things people will typically complain about is the lack of autofocus, size, weight... but all of that is done on purpose to keep a product that creates a really high quality image while keeping the cost of the lens down... and Rokinon seems to really have that concept down successfully. Dont let the fact that its not a "brand" name lens deter you... take a little time to get to know it and itll prove itself to be a more than capable lens in your kit.

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After countless hours of reading and watching reviews all arrows for my budget and purposes pointed only to this lens. I am at best a spirited enthusiast with a decent budget. I use many Nikkor lenses, acquired when they made the most logical sense to me and Ive been very happy. Some of their lens arent at all in my price point and it isnt for the sake of not buying excellent glass, it because of use vs price. I love prime lenses and use them to fill out my arsenal of zooms which can be cumbersome and for my needs always having a zoom for me isnt an issue. So, what to get? Spend $2,000 on an Nikkor 14mm? Not going to happen.... For less than three hundred and spare a little performance? It wasnt difficult to decide. My first impressions after 200+ shots is more than I expected. I cant rate this lens to any other brand so its really not a tech review. I have a 14mm 2.8 for my D750 for under $300 and Im pleased. Yea theres a slight bit of vignetting...and yes the focus is cumbersome and manual focus is something some might purely hate. As an old-school film, darkroom guy and as a hobbyist, is there really anything you cant correct/live with in LR/PS, (except sharpness lens wise) that you cant justify a huge savings over a name brand lens? Try this lens. Return it if you think you overspent.

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