Idahome
First off, shipping was lightening quick. Ordered the afternoon of the 23rd, received early afternoon on the 24th!! Almost would have thought the delivery truck was parked at the end of the street in anticipation of my order...! I originally ordered this lens for astrophotography and read a lot of reviews saying it was really sharp even considering the lower cost. Immediately I put it on my EOS7d MKII (because I dont have my 6d yet) to shoot a sharpness comparison. Well, the sharpness claim is not true. I have a Canon EF-S 17-55mm f2.8 and a Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 and even wide open both of these zoom lenses were hands down sharper than the Rokinon 14mm prime lens. I shot the comparison off a Gitzo tripod (cant remember the model # which is covered up by foam rubber cushioning, but it will easily support my 500 f4 L lens) and for this comparison I had a large arca swiss style ballhead mounted on it. I shot with the mirror lock-up enabled and 2 second shutter delay. This was shot in my living room against a wall about 14 feet away which had a picture with text on it. To focus the Rokinon lens which is manual, I enabled live view, then used the magnification function which allowed me to fine tune the focus as precisely as possible and nothing was moving. Unless I was using f4 or smaller aperture, the text was soft with the Rokinon. Both the Canon and the Sigma lenses were much sharper even wide open, which I verified by magnifying the picture to its max, and checked all the extreme edges and corners. The Sigma lens will work on a full frame camera, but the f4 aperture is too slow for astrophotography. The Canon lens is f2.8, but it only fits EF-S cropped sensor bodies. I am returning the Rokinon and will begin my search again for a fast, yet sharp, lens! :(( I am returning this lens immediately, so I cannot factually comment on its durability, but the build quality seems very good.