Samyang 24mm ED AS IF UMC F1.4 Lens
Review: Landscape Astrophotography
Samyang lenses are made in Korea and are mostly manual focus
primes. They have developed a reputation for good value and edge sharpness. I
have a little Samyang 12mm F2 which is a very sweet wide-angle prime,
outstanding for astrophotography.
The 24mm F1.4 lens on review here is highly regarded amongst
landscape astrophotographers and I was keen to try it – both on my full-frame Canon
and Fuji X-trans CSC (via an adapter). I was even contemplating replacing my
Fuji XF 23mm lens with it: the XF lens is great during the day, but flawed by
lots of coma/astigmatism at the edge for astrophotography.
Note: All the example images below are
straight from the camera. Apart from cropping I have done no post-processing of
any kind.
At A Glance
|
Lens |
Samyang
24mm F1.4 |
|
Type |
Prime |
|
Mount |
Canon (Fuji
X-mount with adapter) |
|
Aperture
range |
F22 – F1.4 |
|
Size |
87.5 mm x
83 mm |
|
Weight |
565g |
|
Focus |
Manual
focus only |
|
Max
exposure time for landscape astrophotography |
~ 13-20s
full-frame, 8-15s APS-C |
Data from Samyang/Me
What’s In the box?
Samyang
include end caps, a lens shade and a storage pouch.
Design and Build
Like other Samyangs I have seen,
build quality is excellent. It doesn’t have the premium look and feel of Fuji
XF or a Zeiss or Leica lens, but the plastic is solid and built on a metal
chassis. Those highly curved front lens elements do take quite a while to cool
down, though, and I wonder if the extreme curves explain why so many reviews
report faults with these lenses.
The controls are all-manual, but work well enough. The focus
could be smoother and have more travel and the aperture ring is a bit stiff and
lacks intermediate detents (it goes straight from F1.4 to F2.0). Fully manual
controls don’t bother me – I almost always focus landscapes and posed portraits
on manual anyhow and I like the fact that there is less to go wrong.
In Use – Daytime
On the little camera screen, results looked good. But as soon
as I got them home it was clear all was not well. The Samyang’s images are
seriously unsharp across the frame. Getting perfect
focus is impossible, even using live view – a sure sign of dodgy optics.
Stopping the Samyang down does progressively improve the
image quality until by F5.6 it is reasonable, but that defeats the purpose –
you can get a slow lens anywhere.
Quite a number of reviews have mentioned de-centring with the
Samyang 24mm, but defocusing on a test pattern I didn’t find a problem, so it
seems as if the fault with this lens lies elsewhere and my expertise falls
short of diagnosing it.
100% crop of the left hand edge with Samyang 24mm at F1.4: very
unsharp
Samyang 24mm at F5.6: not perfect, but better
Fuji XF 23mm at F1.4 for comparison: reasonably sharp
Fuji XF 23mm at F5.6 for comparison: clear and sharp
In Use – The Night Sky
Confusingly and unusually, night time results are actually
better in some ways. Careful examination of the frame at 100% shows stars have
a strange comma shape and are slightly bloated, but this lens controls coma and
astigmatism very well right to the edge – much better than my Fuji XF 23mm and
ideal for astrophotography. Night shots actually look pretty good, until Venus
gets into the frame and produces a lot of flare.
Once again, pixel peeping suggests things are much better
when stopping down, even by F4, but that’s hardly the point.
15s at ISO
1600 with Canon EOS 5D – mist and light pollution, but looks reasonable apart from
massive flare on Venus and house lights
Samyang 24mm wide-open at F1.4. This lens is
faulty (note strange star shapes), but even so coma/astigmatism is much less
than the Fuji’s below.
For comparison, a 100% crop of the Betelgeuse in the frame
corner with Fuji XF 23mm at F1.4: a lot of coma/astigmatism on Betelgeuse
in the top left of frame
Summary
The Samyang 24mm F1.4 has great potential for
astrophotography, thanks to excellent coma and astigmatism control at the edges
– much better than any other lens of this focal length I have tested, even wide
open. External build quality looks good and the controls work quite smoothly
too. It is good value at under £500 when compared to other fast primes.
Sadly, this one was faulty (many apparently are); at least I
would hope they are not all like this. Certainly, my Samyang 12mm F2 shows
neither the softness nor the flare that this 24mm F1.4 does. I’m sure those
large and highly curved lenses are a challenge to fabricate and mount
accurately, but Samyang needs to get its quality control in order. Some have
persevered with returns and replacements, but I have neither the time nor the
inclination.
The Samyang 24mm has great astrophotography potential due to
unusually good edge sharpness, but this example (bought new from a major
photography outlet) appears faulty or fundamentally flawed. I can’t recommend
it, but if you are prepared to persevere with returns, you might get an
excellent landscape astrophotography lens in the end!
Buy Samyang 24mm F1.4 for Canon Here:
