Samyang 24mm f/3.5 ED AS UMC Tilt-Shift Lens for Nikon

I use this lens as my preferred option for landscapes. As such I make use of the tilt and shift functions for a majority of the images I make with the lens. Between f8 and f16 the sharpness is quite comparable to the Nikon version when movements are used and the ability to adjust the shift axis in or out of plane with tilt makes it more versatile for landscape use. Construction is good although not as robust as the Nikon and as noted elsewhere this is strictly an all manual lens.

Be prepared for old time memories to flood into your brain. I have not used a so non-automatic lens for so long it is a relearning, and my standard form of camera operation is manual. That aside, pleased with sharpness, and with the quality of construction. Could it be better? Yes, and I could be driving a Ferrari. It would be an absolute bonus to have the aperture setting visible in camera. As noted with others, hang on to the lens during adjustments. Expect it do its' job, not what you might dream. Very specialized in performance & usage, but I am determined to push its' niche towards my goal which includes my niche, people. Expect to use a tripod virtually all the time.

I haven't had the chance to use this lens for a real shoot yet, only to test it out in a couple of different settings. Here is a quick synopsis. Good: - it is fairly sharp and DOF / contrast appear good at middle apertures (f5.6 - f11). - vignette appears well controlled (I think I'm seeing just a touch), and at f8 - f11 the corner sharpness looks pretty good. - the tilt and shift range is good. - the focus ring is smooth with not too much / not too little resistance. Bad: - the locking knobs are a bit small. - when shifting, there is little to no friction so when the lock is loose the front of the lens just drops. - build quality doesn't seem bad, but certainly not as good as Nikon or Canon equivalents. The vast majority of the lens body is plastic with just hints of metal. Eh: - f3.5 is usable with the understanding that wide open has trade offs. All of this review is based on observations, not scientific measurements or test charts. I did a couple of interior shots of my office (shifted and not shifted) and some exterior shots of a couple of buildings (shifted, not shifted, and one with tilt). Focus on the shots was at or near infinity on the lens, and some of the viewpoints include very near objects (walls) while others most everything was at a distance. I shot at a few different apertures as well to see how the lens fared wide open and stopped down. Wide open is decent but not great. I will have a little more about that below. Stopping down to f5.6 increased the DOF and contrast noticeably and sharpness a bit, f8 increased the DOF and sharpness a bit more, and f11 increased both some over f8. Past f11 things started to go backwards, the DOF at f16 is a little greater but the sharpness and contrast dropped noticeably, which took away from any gains in DOF. f22 saw even more sharpness loss and I didn't notice any increase in DOF (it actually looks shallower, but could be due to the loss of sharpness). So the sweet spot for this lens (at least at infinity focus) appears to be f11 - with the caveat that I was shooting whole stops so technically the real sweet spot might be f9.5 or f13. A little more on f3.5. My initial thoughts on the photos at f3.5 were that they didn't look so good, but I think that was mostly because I was seeing the extreme lack of DOF which in the type of shots I was doing wasn't a good thing. Stopping down to just f5.6 increased DOF considerably (more than I expected) which made everything look sharper. But in looking more closely at the point of focus in the f3.5 and f5.6 shots, there is a difference in sharpness but the f3.5 shot is still pretty good. There is also a difference in contrast but again the f3.5 shot is not too bad. I didn't buy this lens to use wide open (I'm sure most others won't as well) so it isn't really a concern for me, and for those times I might want a shallow DOF detail shot or more artistic shots using this lens I think it would still deliver good images at f3.5. Only time will tell but I think this lens is a good alternative to the more expensive name brand options. Would I rather have one of those name brands? Sure I would, but at half the price I'm so far satisfied with the Samyang. The shift mechanism having some resistance so that it could be unlocked yet remain in place would be nice, though I don't think that is too big of a deal. The main concern I have is with the build quality and how well it will stand up to real world use.

Aunque su control es totalmente manual (enfoque, apertura), en seguida aprend a manejarlo. Buen contraste y hermoso color, su desenfoque de forma artstica es fantstico. Para un buen enfoque puedes usar el modo Live View de tu cmara y acercar la imagen. Encantado con la compra.