Samyang AF 14mm f/2.8 EF Review

Samyang AF 14mm f/2.8 EF Handling and Features

The lens weighs in at a reasonable 485g, without caps, and feels well balanced with the 5DS R camera body. It feels solid without feeling over heavy. The finish is excellent and it looks the part with its huge domed front element all but filling the diameter of the built-in petal lens hood. There is no filter thread, so the hood offers physical protection as well as flare reduction. Peering into the front element we might glimpse the 7 bladed diaphragm, which is controlled from the camera body, there being no aperture ring on the lens.

The wide electronic manual focusing ring lies behind the petal hood. Its fine ribbing affords a good grip and the actual tension of the ring is a perfect balance between being smooth in operation and yet not so easy to turn that it can be operated accidentally. This is important because the manual focusing continues to operate in AF mode. This is a great feature for making slight final tweaks to the focus position after AF has locked on. Focusing is down to 0.20m (0.65 feet), representing a maximum magnification of 0.15x. The grip of the hand on the lens is such that there is no tendency to move the focusing ring accidentally. Obviously, this may vary from user to user depending on the size of their hands, but the arrangement does seem well thought out in this respect.

The only other adornment on the lens is the AF/MF switch. As the lens is internal focus, it remains the same length regardless of focus position and the grip remains stable on the lens barrel. There is no distance scale provided, and hence no depth of field scale. This is a pity as with an ultra wide prime it could have assisted in finding the hyperfocal distance in landscape work.

The lens mount is well engineered and bayonets slickly onto the Canon body. There is no rotational play and the lock is positive and secure. There are the usual electronic contacts that afford communication between lens and body.

Lens construction is 15 elements in 10 groups, similar to but not identical with the other 14mm lenses in the Samyang range. There are 2 Aspherical, 4 HR (High Refractive Index) and 1 ED (Extra Low Dispersion) elements to control aberrations. By contrast, Samyang's AF 14mm f/2.8 ED for Sony FE has 14 elements in 10 groups and the manual focus Samyang 14mm f/2.8 ED AS IF UMC has 14 elements in 12 groups. It is interesting that there are these design differences between essentially similar lenses from the same manufacturer.

In use, it is hard to fault such a simple and efficient lens. It handles well, focuses swiftly and accurately and produces superb results, all in a compact, weather sealed body. Definitely, a pleasure to use.

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