Samyang 16mm f/2.0 ED AS UMC CS, Manual Focus Lens for Pentax

2016-05-03T05:21:53

There are two minor quibbles with this lens. First of all it focuses beyond infinity, so with landscape shots you have to remember that and pull the focus back a bit when you are more than 15'/3M from your subject. Secondly, is that I find focusing at apertures of 2.8 and wider very difficult. I have a professionally installed split focus ring but this lens seems to back focus a bit at the very wide apertures. All of my other manual focus lenses (of which I have many) don't have this problem. However I can say that when I do nail the focus, the lens is sharp even wide open and very very sharp stopped down to f/2.8 or more. I own several prime and zoom lenses that are 16mm or wider and this lens has the best bokeh of them all. It's really nice to have a UWA lens that has bokeh as good as this one. I also find the close focusing qualities of the lens very good. It's minimum close focus distance is listed as 20cm but it seems to be actually closer to 18 or 17mm than 20. Of course it's impossible for me to measure this, but I do have several lenses that focus in the 18-16mm range and this lens seem to do as well as those lenses do. Color rendition is also excellent. There is some very minor CA in high contrast areas but it's not pronounced and easily fixed in PP. pros: Sharp, very very sharp at f/2.8 and above; great bokeh; close focus; and good color rendition. cons: focuses past infinity; and difficulty nailing focus at f/2.8 and wider.

Peter M.