Need Advice for Lens Rokinon 14mm F2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Lens with Automatic Chip for Nikon

[tomyi]

I want to ask my friend are planning to buy Rokinon 14mm F2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Lens with Automatic Chip for Nikon.menurut good friend Rokinon 14mm F2.8 whether Ultra Wide Angle Lens for Nikon with Automatic Chip beg the review. I look at amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004NNUN02

is the product good?
thanks

[Skirball]

Depends on what you want it for.  It's a great deal on a decent quality ultra wide angle lens for full frame cameras.  But it's full manual, and I wouldn't rely on the chip - I've heard mixed results on those.  If you're ok with a full manual lens, with some mustache distortion, then sure, you're not going to find anythng else near that price range.  It's very popular for astrophotography because of the low coma (and cheap price, and ease of manual with astro).

I have one.  I don't use it all that often, but I don't do astro all that often.   I don't use it for architectural work, it's just too much distortion.  But it's fine for what it is and at a great price.

[hsbn]

They have a flickr group that dedicated to this lens only.

https://www.flickr.com/groups/14/

You can read review here: http://dustinabbott.net/2013/10/rokinon-14mm-f2-8-wide-angle-review/

The chip only help with focus confirmation and Exif data, it is still a manual focus, manual aperture lens. I just bought because of all the good reviews. I will test it during my trip tomorrow. So far, I only took photos around my neighborhood but I like it a lot. But like Skirball said, it's not the kind of lens you'll use all the time so spend your cash wisely.

[ebiggs1]

"... is the product good?"

No, it is not, stay away. 

[TCampbell]

I have a Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L USM II -- I've never used the Rokinon.  

Rokinon is a marketing brand.  The lens is really made by Samyang and marketed under quite a number of different names.

The biggest thing you NEED to be aware of when considering the lens is that it is completely manual.  There is no auto-focus (often that's not a big deal... especially on a 14mm where the depth of field is so enormous you can hardly tell the focus is changing.)  But there's also no automatic aperture.  The aperture is manually controlled via an aperture ring on the lens.

This means you'll shoot on manual, dial in the shutter speed on the camera body, but ignore the aperture on the body and instead dial it in using the ring on the lens.

Note that the only versions of this lens that are going to fit on a Canon body are the version made for Canon mount.  There are two made for Canon mount... a normal version and a "Cine" version.  The "cine" version doesn't have "clicks" as you adjust the aperture ring (smooth aperture ring with no steps).

The Nikon version will not mate to a Canon body.  Also the chipped version for Nikon only helps with auto-focus confirm... it's still a manually focused lens (in other words... as you focus it manually... it will work with the camera so the camera will blink a focus point to tell you when it thinks the focus is correct.)    Assuming you intend to use this with a Canon camera... that's no good for you.