In this article I’m going to go over the Rokinon 14mm Ultra Wide-Angle f/2.8 IF ED UMC Lens by providing some sample photos and first impressions. I used my Nex-6 and the LA-EA1 lens adapter to mount the Rokinon A-Mount lens, and it did the job well overall.
The 14mm Rokinon lens is fully manual, so I needed to set the aperture and focus the old-fashioned way. I really don’t mind working with the manual focus as long as my subjects are not moving. Once you get into moving targets, manual focus becomes much less fun, as the sharp shot hit rate dwindles down fast! The optical quality on this lens is superb, considering the $349 US price tag. No electronics equals better optics and build quality for an affordable price in the end. You start adding image stabilization, autofocus, ect.. The price goes up quick, or the optical quality goes down. One or the other is inevitable in the end as you don’t get something for nothing 😉
Nex-6, LA-EA1, Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 Lens
Here’s what the gear looks like as I’m using it 🙂
Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 Lens – Sample Photos
Here’s a few sample photos using my Nex-6 in RAW quality mode, using various apertures, scenes, and compositions. I used Lightroom 4 to develop the raw files and as always, did not do anything other than very mild exposure adjustments, and possible wb, and or slight crop. I will explain in more detail if necessary on a per image bases, but it’s safe to assume these are straight off the camera raw files with a little contrast added and no sharpening or any other lens correction was done.
Be sure to click on the photos for the high res versions!!
In this first sample photo from the Basha-Kill Wildlife preservation, you will notice some barrel distortion on the horizon. This is normal for lens like this in this situation, but still worth noting as corrections will be needed if you must have perfect verticals and horizontals corner to corner.
Another sample of how the distortion is when so close to a horizontal/ vertical structure. The further away you go the less the distortion will be noticed.
Really Sharp @ f/8!!
Nice depth of field when using the f/2.8 aperture close to the minimum focus distance!!
Chubs at f/2.8 was not an easy photo to get, but in the end worth the effort 🙂 This is where AF would have been extremely helpful!!
A pretty awesome sculpture with lots of detail to check the sharpness!!
HDR Sample Photos
Two quick HDR Photos with mild editing applied using the Nik filters, photomatix and Lightroom. Three exposure’s included for each so you have an idea of what the originals look like 😉
Be sure to click on the photos for the high res versions!!
I really went quick with this edit, but I will polish it up in Photoshop for the full review. As it stands now the image is flat and the colors could use some pop, a better vignette could be applied ect.. Still a pretty cool photo of my Brother on his Harley!!
Closing Remarks
That is it for now, but stay tuned for the full Rokinon lens reviews and a 14mm vs 35mm vs 85mm comparison article I’m working on! All three lenses from the same location www.sweetbonanzaoyna.org compared 😉
Have a great day and thanks again for checking in and your support with the affiliate links!!
Jay
