Samyang lens and Nikon focus confirm?

dissent

Recently received a Samyang 16mm f/2 lens. Should I be annoyed that the Nikon focus confirm does not seem to be accurate wide open? Initially I was concerned that I got a lemon that would not give sharp focus at f/2, but it seems I can get to to work just fine when focusing in Live View; just that the correct focus is not the same as that shown by the viewfinder focus indicator. Wondering if I should send it back for another sample. What say you?

spraynpray

Good timing Ian. I'm just looking at the 14/2.8 or 24/1.4. I heard from somebody here that Rokinon/Samyang/someother are very variable so it may be worth it but then 16mm has such a huge dof, so what's the real problem?

spraynpray

Maybe if you are happy with its sharpness etc, fergetaboutit.

NSXTypeR

Since the lens isn't made by Nikon, I'm not sure if it's reasonable to expect things to work like an OEM Nikkor lens.

Samyang makes decent lenses, but I don't know if they're equivalent in quality as Tamron or Sigma.

I guess you could look into the warranty info and see what their policy is.

Ironheart

Have you done a AF fine-tune on the lens? Once you do that the focus confirm should be aligned to the true focus of the lens

dissent

@ Ironheart - Nope haven't tried to fine tune. I'll check it out.

@ spraynpray - yeah, I agree at smaller apertures, the dof will overwhelm the focus confirm. I further agree that if I've got a sharp copy, I may want to just run with it.

Pistnbroke

My 14mm was fine just unhappy when I found it was a grey import with poor warrantee so I sent it back for a refund .The warrantee is 3 years here in the uk (from SRS ) and I think the variable quality dates to early examples from a few years ago.

FlowtographyBerlin

@dissent: You will have to do Fine Tune fiddling with MF lenses as well if you want focus confirm. Just like with other lenses, the issue is focus shift (when stopping down), so you always have to compromise, you can't set it correctly for all apertures. Then again, with a 16mm lens, this is of course less of a concern than with higher focal lengths.

spraynpray

Take a look at Krock Renwells review of a Samyang Ian - it may change your mind.

FlowtographyBerlin

Which one do you mean? He didn't test the 16, and his verdict on the 14mm is not very good, while he's raving about the 35mm.

spraynpray

I read them both Flow. His opinion of the 14 is overtly that it is poor but the 35 is still not good enough for a lot of people I suspect. Here is a section from his test copied and pasted:

"Usage:
Focus calibration is this lens' downfall. These Korean lenses have sloppy quality control for focus adjustment, but if you know how to work around this, you can score a bargain.

The infinity stop isn't. On my sample, I had to turn it to a slightly closer distance for perfect focus at infinity. Astronomers beware.

On my Nikons, the electronic focus confirmation dot was off. This is as expected for a third-party lens; Nikon plays a lot of tricks to keep spherical-aberration induced focus shift to a minimum.

With this sample, I need to pull-in focus manually such that the left and center focus-confirmation dots (the "> 0" indicators) flicker on and off at about a 50/50 ratio. This let me pull-in the focus just the right amount manually for perfect focus every time.

With a simpler camera with only one big focus confirmation dot, focus the lens just a little closer until the dot just starts to turn off — but that's for my sample of lens; yours may be different.

Nikon' AF fine tune won't help you: it only adjusts AF, but since this is manual focus, sadly it doesn't apply.

Your sample of lens and sample of camera will probably vary; be sure to test it before you go off shooting.

There is no aperture lock at f/22, so with AF and digital SLRs, be sure to leave it at f/22, otherwise you'll get an "fEE" error

Since f/22 is a stop smaller than any of Nikon's other f/1.4 lenses provide, you may have to set it to f/16 or larger to clear the aperture-ring feeler pin on most Nikon SLRs when mounting it to a camera."

Pistnbroke

Rockwell is testing an old early version from years ago ..look what DXO have to say ..Mine was fantastic but I dont like foot zooming,, Buy it try it send it back (SRS)

theothercannon

@spraynpray: Thanks for the hints on the review.

theothercannon

What I'm asking myself is: Is it not normal, that the infinity stop is not correct? I do not a lot of astronomy fotography, but I remember from earlier times :-) that I always have to turn the focus ring back a bit from the infinity stop because it was exaggerated.

Pistnbroke

The 14mm is one of the top wide angles recomended for the D8!! series and its certainly the cheapest.
You would use this at F5.6 and just tape it up at 8ft me thinks.

spraynpray

@Pistnbroke: I am liking what I'm hearing that the lens may be better than it's being painted because I could really use one for my night shots. I understand that the Samyang is one of the only lenses around which are coma corrected - I am not a real lens geek or optical engineer so I cannot shed any light on whether that it true but since I got chronic coma using my Tokina at 16mm on my FX, I am loathe to buy anything that isn't going to be fast and coma corrected. I read here they are very variable though.

Anybody know anything more about those points?

Pistnbroke

Spray...I think part of the problem when you read reviews it that people who have used a 28 mm and then go to 14mm dont realize that the image they got on the 28mm is now spread over 1/4 of the sensor pixels ...so if they have a D700 its equi;valent to a 3 mp camera. Which of course is why landscapers go for the D810 series. If they come from a 50mm prime about a 1.5 mp camera !!!
Also in testing many may be using JPEG and still have the camera at factory +2 sharpening .
Back focus is also difficult to set with a 14mm lens.
Adding these together thay are not happy and blame it on the lens.
UK digital are the UK importers (supplying SRS) and they are very helpfull if you give them a call and ask your questions. or SRS below
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SAMYANG-14mm-f2-8-ED-AS-IF-UMC-NIKON-FIT-BRAND-NEW-UK-DEALER-STOCK-/361149107981?pt=UK_Lenses_Filters_Lenses&hash=item54162a0f0d

spraynpray

Went out last night because it was crisp and clear. I have come to think that the f1.4 part is going to be more important than the 14mm part so it could be the 24mm f1.4 for me.

I'll give SRS a call to discuss.