The "New Gear/Willy Waving" thread

jonneymendoza said:
But it will take wide shots at f2.8 for you with fantastic iq? Not wide enough?
Click to expand...

16mm is too small a difference, not wide enough vs my 17-40L, barrel distortion is high at 16mm vs little or no distortion on the 14mm. To be expected with UWA zooms.

Eventually I want an all prime lens configuration anyway. Maximum edge to edge sharpness and maximum creativity :p
 
Last edited:
Samyang's 14mm offering is stunningly sharp and once corrected in Lightroom the distortion isn't a problem. Manual focussing isn't really an issue on a lons that wide as even at f2.8 depth of field is pretty massive.

But if you want AF there really is no competition for the canon L, Sigma use to make one but it didn't review well and is pretty expensive for what it is!
 
£1400 on digirev :S

The Samyang, AF isn't 100% essential but I know when I do use it on the 17-40 I am glad that it's there and accurate, having manual focus means adding an additional step to the shooting when out there, up there or down there.

Maybe I should try one out from somewhere offering no quibble money back.
 
mrk said:
£1400 on digirev :S

The Samyang, AF isn't 100% essential but I know when I do use it on the 17-40 I am glad that it's there and accurate, having manual focus means adding an additional step to the shooting when out there, up there or down there.

Maybe I should try one out from somewhere offering no quibble money back.
Click to expand...

If you buy one from OneStop you can sell it on for a £10 loss a few weeks later without any hassle. I got one for a trip to Iceland recently took a couple of hundred shots of the Northern lights and then sold it on much cheaper than renting and let me get used to the lens before I went.
 
lLO9RZ5l.jpg


Although its still in florida at the moment
 
mrk said:
16mm is too small a difference, not wide enough vs my 17-40L, barrel distortion is high at 16mm vs little or no distortion on the 14mm. To be expected with UWA zooms.

Eventually I want an all prime lens configuration anyway. Maximum edge to edge sharpness and maximum creativity :p
Click to expand...

You can play with the Sigma 12-24. I've got the mkI version and FF @ 12mm you can almost see your ears :D Pretty soft until you stop it down a fair amount though. Didn't notice it much on crop, but could easily see it was soft in the corners and on FF as you'd imagine it really shows up. I've seen some front mounted Lee/Hoya filter mount kits for it too. I forget where as I didn't have filters at the time and rarely use the lens now. Oddly it seems out of stock in most places recently (the mkII version).
 
Ken Rockwell (lolol) has slated the Samyang for optical quality and barrel distortion quite a bit. I have to say even at the price it's at I'm not feeling it. I'll top up the lens tin over the coming months and see how much is in there and decide from there I think :p
 
mrk said:
Ken Rockwell (lolol) has slated the Samyang for optical quality and barrel distortion quite a bit. I have to say even at the price it's at I'm not feeling it. I'll top up the lens tin over the coming months and see how much is in there and decide from there I think :p
Click to expand...

It's odd because Ken's kit reviews are normally about right if you read bettween the lines but on this lens he is the only person that I've found with anything bad to say about the optical quality everyone else will tell you it's sharper wide open than the canon and cuts like a knife stepped down. The barrell distortion is pretty bad especially if you take pictures of test charts, or brick walls but it is nothing like so prevalent in the real world and their are plenty of lightroom setting out there that do a great job of correcting it.

I guess a lot depends on what you wanted to shoot with it for astro it's a bit of a no brainer as locked at infinity focus and wide open it is as good as anything on the market and a fraction of the cost. I sold mine after my trip to Iceland and the northern lights as I could never see myself using it in the UK, I'm not a fan of astro stuff and for me it was just to wide for landscapes you have to work really hard to get an interesting frame from it foreground interest for example needs to be MASSIVE or touching the lens!
 
Last edited:
Oh the wider the better for the stuff I use UWA for. Most of the shots others post online of the same scenes are either fisheye or standard UWA (17mm) - The extra 3mm gives a perspective advantage in a single shot - Saves time and effort as well as stitching distortion if doing a panorama.

I'm sure I will adapt to manual focusing with something like the Samyang but will it make me properly happy in all situations I do use it it? I don't think it will in the long run. I'll also be using it for environmental portraits, with subjects in the middle/lower sections they are less distorted on the 17-40, even less (none) on the 14mm L going by samples I've seen online. Not having to run a distortion fix pass one each shot in LR later is appealing if there are a lot of shots from a session I guess as well.

Pros and Cons, need to weigh everything up!
 
The new toy (600mm F4 L IS II) arrived yesterday but a bit late in the day for anything other than a quick test after spending probably an hour getting it out of the packaging and putting the lens coat on. The weight saving they've done is amazing, 50g heavier than the 500 though obviously there's the extra bulk.

Going to spend the day at Martin Mere to test it out and help the missus get used to the 500 as her previous kit was a 300mm F4 and she's never had to use a tripod/gimbal for that.
 
And said:
The new toy (600mm F4 L IS II) arrived yesterday but a bit late in the day for anything other than a quick test after spending probably an hour getting it out of the packaging and putting the lens coat on. The weight saving they've done is amazing, 50g heavier than the 500 though obviously there's the extra bulk.

Going to spend the day at Martin Mere to test it out and help the missus get used to the 500 as her previous kit was a 300mm F4 and she's never had to use a tripod/gimbal for that.
Click to expand...

Looking forward to some pics!
 
I've no web space (for linking) any more so no pics. That aside my initial impressions are:
Weight more balanced to the body end but because of the size it's tougher to flip over and mount on the tripod/monopod.
IS improvement seems noticeable. Not tried the new mode 3 yet. IS a lot quieter.
AF speed seems a tad quicker than the 500 mk1 (camera is 1Dmk4) but Yesterday everything was nice and close and I could better control positioning to take advantage of the light. Will be doing hen harriers, backlit, against a marsh today (lots of shades of brown) which is always a tough test as the birds are anything up to 100m away. It's also a good workout for how well the lens resolves and the TC 1.4 will probably be out, light permitting.
 
Got a ST-E3-RT yesterday. Well, ordered it, it's on it's way with a hand strap for me to try something different :D (that sounds rude :D)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom