Rokinon FE14M-C 14mm F2.8 Ultra Wide Lens for Canon (Black)

Comment

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.

Show more

Comment

This is a super deal for 300 dollars. Its fun to use for all kinds of situations. I bought it originally to do astrophotographry, which it does beautifully, but its also a fun lens for taking portraits. The manual part of the lens is a minor inconvenience and will probably just make you a better photographer because you have to think a little more when youre taking a shot. Like a lot of people have said, using Live View on a Canon and then zooming in on a particular area will help you nail down focus. This is a sweet little lens that is awesome fun. Dont hesitate to throw away that money you were going to spend on groceries. You can eat later.

Show more

Comment

This lens can do some pretty cools stuff, but it takes a little work and knowledge of your camera. Remember you have to manually focus it and the focus ring is so big that it takes forever to feel like you have your subject just right. However, I didnt get the lens for close up photography, but more for landscapes and mainly for astrophotography where you just set the focus to infinity. When i do focus on near subjects I have a hard time getting a clear image. It is amazing what you can see at night with this lens and a long shutter speed. Below is a picture of a vacation home we rented and it came out amazing. Again slow shutter speed and a tripod are the trick. All of the images were shot with this lens at night. Some of the images look like there is daylight, but you can tell by the night sky this is at night. In fact, it was a completely dark field using 30 second exposure times. Really fun to shoot. Hoping to get a cool shot of the milky way one night.

Show more

Comment

Ill keep this short. I use this for Real Estate Photography on my Full Frame 5D Mark II. Its not as sharp as Ide like it to be. Its the most cost efficient wide angle lens. Most of my real estate work is on a tripod anyway. Big bang for your buck if you need a wide angle lens. I do get chromatic aberration when I use it for HDR. That could be my fault, and Im doing something wrong. Sample photos below.

Show more

Comment

HIGHLIGHTS: manual lens with excellent image quality, ultra wide coverage and affordable pricing, but with few concessions in durability and performance. BUILD: The Rokinon FE14M-C 14mm F2.8 looks striking with its large bulbous front element and integral petal hood. Most EOS users will be surprised to find a manual aperture ring with click-stops. Construction is robust: metal EF mount, sturdy plastic barrel and black matte finish. At 1.2LB it has serious heft for a small lens. The EF mount fits both full frame and APS-C (1.6x crop) Canon cameras, e.g., Rebels and 5D series. This lens has no mechanical or electronic linkage with Canon cameras and, thus, focus and aperture are manually set. There are no filter threads or rear filter gel holder. IMAGE QUALITY: The diagonal field of view is 115.7° on Canon full-frame and 89.9° on APS-C. Coupled with a fast F2.8 aperture, is ideal for landscape and astro photography. Wide open its sharp center frame but corners are softer and darker (light falloff). Corners sharpen and brighten considerably by stopping down and are shockingly sharp by F5.6. CA and coma are well controlled and better than most of my primes. Its weakest point is mustache distortion, so not a good choice for architecture, but easy to correct with software in post production. MANUAL FOCUS is reasonably smooth but stiff compared to my old manual Nikkors. I cant focus well with the viewfinder as depth of field is vast and everything looks in focus. I normally stop down to F5.6 or F8, prefocus with the distance scale and everything from a few feet out to infinity is sharp when I look at the files on a big monitor. The infinity mark is one notch off on my lens. Distant objects are sharpest when focus is set to the 3m (10) mark. Test your focus scale accuracy for best results. METERING: I shoot in aperture priority mode on a 5D MKII and 6D and metering is a little whacky, tending to overexpose a stop in Evaluative metering. The partial and center weighted patterns are dead on as long as mid-frame falls on a medium toned area. GOTCHAS: The red dot for aligning the lens with the camera mount is hidden on the underside of the lens mount. It should be on the side of the barrel so you can actually see it. FINAL BLURB: The Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 provides an extremely wide field of view and excellent image quality at reasonable cost. The weak points are light falloff wide open and distortion. If you make a living shooting architecture, dish out two grand for the better corrected Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM . However, for weekend warrior photogs, this Rokinon hits the sweet spot with a perfect balance of performance and cost.

Show more

Comment

When I purchased this lens I was searching for a new wide angle for my Canon 6D. There were a lot of options including the Canon 16-35mm lens that is much more expensive than this lens. After coming across this I watched some review videos and comparison posts about the sharpness and was surprised to see this lens blew multi thousand dollar lenses out of the water! I had to see if this was true and ordered one for my self. This lens is truly amazing. I took it on a trip to Utah for landscape photography and it blew me away. Set it to F/8-F/11 and set the focus to infinity and enjoy your corner to corner sharp images with very accurate colors. Yes manually focusing can be slightly cumbersome compared to autofocus but for a landscape lens its really not a big deal whatsoever. Everything beyond a couple feet is going to be tack sharp so dont even worry about it. If youre concerned about the sharpness there are lens profile corrections available for Lightroom that will fix the issue. If youre on the fence and want a wide angle for your full frame camera this is the way to go!

Show more

Comment

I was looking for an ultra wide for my full frame Canon 6D that, for the present, would fit my budget. Given the reviews this lens seemed to fit the bill, especially given the chip that permits automatic exposure and indicates when focus is achieved. Thus far I am very pleased with the lens: meets the ultra wide criterion, is sharp, and the chip works well. It complements my 24mm-104mm Canon L lens (as well as others).

Show more

Comment

Awesome lens! I use it for landscape and starscape photography and get fantastic results with my little Cannon T5i. This thing offers great bang for your buck.

Show more

Comment

The Rokinon FE14M-S 14mm scared me at first, given the fact that it’s manual-focus only but I packed it for a trip to Paris nonetheless - and I’m incredibly pleased with the results. Whether crammed into various royal rooms at the Palace of Versailles or standing outside the Louvre this lens captured the trip in stunning detail. It really shined in low lit, tight quarters surrounded by hordes of tourists. The walls and ceilings of the Palace were covered in intricate gold patterns, delicate etchings, Gods and rotund cherubs, all of which were captured with the monstrously wide 14mm lens of the Rokinon. This lens pairs nicely with the Sony A99II, given its focus highlighting functionality which makes grabbing sharp pics a snap.

Show more

Comment

I love this lens! I bought the lens to supplement my UWA lens corral, having an 11-16mm for my Canon 7D and a 17-40L for my Canon 5D MkIII. My 17-40L works well for the Real Estate work I do but just not quite wide enough! 16mm is the sweet spot for me with Real Estate Photography. The 11-16mm f/2.8 Tokina wont work properly on my 5D MkIII, so I picked up one of these, liking the reviews and the price! The lens worked better than I expected! The colors was fantastic, the sharpness was amazing! Adjusting to shooting with a 100% manual lens was easy, they all used to be that way! I just focused using live view and it worked fine. Outdoor landscapes have a very special feel to them with this lens, especially when combined with a good ND Filter. The real estate shoot that I used it for indeed, also had an exceptional feel. The compliments I received on this Real Estate Shoot were some of the best Ive ever received. That being said, I had issues with it. The Vertical distortion was just too much for me to resolve. Instead of the normal horizontal "mustache" distortion I was expecting, the images had a heavy vertical distortion on either side of the frame. I applied corrections in LR5 and with DXO but could not completely eliminate it. Too me it stood out like a sore thumb but after working them as much as I could, I had no choice but to submit them, as I couldnt get back to the site for another shoot, it was a once in, last chance in, type of arrangement. The images were fantastic in many respects but the curved side walls were unacceptable to me. Nevertheless, I submitted them. The compliments from the client were glowing!! In fact it led to a couple more shoots for them on some other properties. By then, I had already sent the lens back, deciding the amount of work needed to correct the images was way too much time to make it worthwhile for Real Estate imagery. And despite the glowing reviews, some of the best ever, I stand by my premise, it was way to much work in post, for the type of shoots I was using it for. Way to much... Needless to say, I ordered another one because despite not really being able to use it for Real Estate Images, the rest of options for me to use it are fantastic, I missed it and just wanted this lens to live in my bag for the landscape and other work I enjoy doing. As I mentioned before, coupled with a very good ND filter, this lens is fantastic for landscapes and gives the images a very special feel with an exceptional color rendition! It also resolves sharpness in at an exceptional level! Im looking into adding an after market chip to add to it for AF and/or Aperture... Bottom line, if youve not shot Ultra Wide before on a full frame, it may take a little getting used too, with this lens you have to do a little work, photographer work, like "back in the day" but the results are worth it! Just dont buy it for Real Estate interiors! Youll love it!

Show more