Samyang 18mm f/2.8 FE Lens for Sony E

2023-03-22T11:21:32

I grabbed this lens for the low price. Before I decided on it, I watched plenty of youtube reviews, and they all seemed pretty positive. This is a nice light and very sharp lens. I use it for astrophotography and landscape photography. This lens really shines for astro, I couple it with my A7rII and A7III. Mounting it on a MSM tracker produces pinpoint stars even into the corners. No coma or aberation if you stop it down to f3.2. Even without a tracker coma and bberations are non-existent. The vignetting is not terrible and can easily be removed in Lightroom.

Dustin H.

2022-03-01T17:42:58

Not the best autofocus but super affordable.

JONATHAN G.

2020-10-12T12:07:34

great lens, sold the loxia 21 which is considered one of the best, after i got this one

Neil V.

2020-09-08T09:56:31

This 400 watt- second strobe is an outstanding value. It is powerful enough for just about any use and the control features are all that is needed. It works great in concert with the radio-frequency remote controls. I have only one complaint regarding this strobe and that is it should be able to shoot at 1/64 power. This is necessary when for example you are doing portraits with the lens aperture wide open and the distance to the subject is less than 10 feet. One simple solution would be to place an additional layer of diffusion material onto the front of the softbox (I use an octa-box) however I have not found that product marketed by any seller. I wish someone would offer something like that. I suppose I could use a diffusion disk attached to a light stand and place the dish directly in front of the softbox.

Allen R.

2020-09-08T09:44:45

Of the series of Samyang ultra-light and compact lenses I now own the 18mm f2.8, the 24mm f2.8, the 35mm f2.8 and the 75mm f1.8 lens. I have critically tested all 4 lenses and while they are all an outstanding value at their price there are 2 of them that stand out, the 18mm and the 35mm. I own numerous large and very expensive Sony G master and Carl Zeiss lenses so that is my point of comparison. All 4 have great central sharpness by F/4 and very respectible sharpness wide open. The 75mm f1.8 has softness in the corners but since its intended use is for portraits the softness is not an issue. The 18mm is very sharp centrally and has minimal softness in the corners. When an image is taken at 12 inches it is extremely sharp. Chromatic aberration is minimal to none thoughout the image. The spherical aberration of this ultra-wide angle lens is a very interesting feature. When the lens is positioned with the horizon in dead center of the image there is no problem with spherical aberration making this lens great for architecture. However when the lens is positioned above or below the horizon there is notable spherical aberration, most notably 'pincushion' aberration. Normally ultra-wide angle lenses have barrel distortion rather than pincushion. I suspect that in the design of the lens there was an attempt to completely eliminate spherical distortion when the lens is centered on the horizon and this lens design resulted in 'pincushion' distortion. There are 3 other scenarios for using this ultra-wide angle lens and include street photography and night photography (Milky Way). With street photography it is again important to keep the horizon dead center in the image so that buildings in the image are not distorted. Lastly, the extreme sharpness at 12-16 inches is great for taking a hyper-focal landscape shot with the lens in portrait orientation and focused on some flowers in the bottom of the image that are 12-16 inches from the lens and mountains in the distance at the top of the image. At any price this is an excellant lens.

Allen R.

2020-03-06T07:17:15

Very sharp lens. Great focal length on both full-frame and aps-c. Size and weight are dope

Paul F.

2020-02-16T05:51:42

Tiny wide angle lens. Highly recommended if you want a small kit. Build quality is not the best but you can not beat the price.

Ezequiel M.

2019-12-05T09:05:29

Overall excellent lens that performs much better its indicated price. Other than minor corner vignetting, which is expected at this focal length, it's sharp and produced good color output. It's a great step up for those who want to move up to wider angle lens beyond standard wide, e.g., 24 mm.

ucho808

2019-11-13T05:24:25

The lens is very compact. Close up sharpness at 2.8 is excellent but sharpness is only good at longer distances. At 4.0 sharpness is very good to excellent at all distances. This lens may not be the best choice for landscapes wide open at 2.8.

DANIEL D.

2019-10-16T19:49:41

Great lens! I think people have high expectations for this lens, but if you take into account it's size, price and performance all in a compact package, it's a very compelling lens. Great for travel, street and/or general photography! I'd highly recommend this lens who want to have the smallest native wide angle lens for Sony full frame!

Matt F.

2019-10-03T12:25:48

very small and portable and the price matches the built and quality of the image. not super sharp. and feel very light and all plastic but for its size, it’s great for traveling

Jessie Y.

2019-09-23T17:48:44

The main reason why I chose this lens over the Sigma 16mm 1.4 is mainly because of it's size and weight. I've been primarily shooting with the Sigma 30mm 1.4 which is a beast of a lens but I needed something wider and not as heavy and unfortunately before this came out, there weren't very many options that had good image quality and decent low light capability. I primarily shoot video and a major draw back is that you have to carry around with a gimbal to get smooth shots and to carry the Sigma 30mm 1.4 and Sony A6400 you had to use larger sized gimbals like the Moza Aircross which I have been using. This gets very cumbersome especially when traveling. With the Samyang 18mm weighing only 145 grams it makes it easier to pair with much smaller gimbals like the Zhiyun Crane M2 or the Feiyutech G6 Plus. As far as image quality goes I can honestly say that it is more then adequate for video and the pictures I am getting from this nothing short of amazing. The only downside I see from this lens is the body is not as robust as the sigma lens. I feel that for $ they should have made it in metal instead of plastic but I'm sure that would have added a lot more weight. Other then that I honestly have no regrets.

Project J.

2019-09-23T16:11:01

Received this lens last week to be used for landscapes and astro work. The lens is incredibly soft throughout the entirety of the frame and exhibits a lot of chromatic aberration no matter the F-stop. When comparing it to the Samyang 35mm f2.8 and the older manual 14mm f2.8, the sharpness is laughable. Hoping I got a bad early version of this lens and can get a better copy down the road, but for now am returning.

Robert H.

2019-09-18T17:29:30

I've wanted something wider than 24mm for quite a while, but couldn't justify the cost, size, or weight of what was available in a native lens for my Sony A7rII. Then I saw this new lens was going to be available soon, and it seemed to tick all the boxes. AF, small, light weight, and promises of good image quality, so I signed up for the pre-order. When it arrived, I was happy to see that it even included a nicely made, small, semi-hard case, a nice touch. The lens, although light, feels very nicely made. Nothing rattling or loose, and the lens hood (which reverses for carry), goes on securely with a nice, solid click. I was even more impressed after my first session of photos. The AF was quick and precise, and the images turned out sharp with excellent color and contrast. Wow. What's the downside? Well, I found my copy to be a little soft at f2.8, especially toward the edges, and it can lose contrast shooting directly into the sun. However, I found it sharpens up nicely from f3.5 on up, and it's quite possible to minimize the contrast loss when shooting into the sun by adjusting the composition just a bit. By the way, even though I don't think I'll need to use it much, I found the manual focus ring to be perfectly damped, to the point that it doesn't really feel like focus-by-wire. Very nice indeed. Will this replace somebody's Batis 18mm. Probably not, but for my uses, even if I could afford the Batis, I'd probably opt for this lens for the size and weight savings. It's a definite keeper for me.

DEREK D.