Rokinon FE14M-C 14mm F2.8 Ultra Wide Lens for Canon (Black)

I love this lens! I bought the lens to supplement my UWA lens corral, having an 11-16mm for my Canon 7D and a 17-40L for my Canon 5D MkIII. My 17-40L works well for the Real Estate work I do but just not quite wide enough! 16mm is the sweet spot for me with Real Estate Photography. The 11-16mm f/2.8 Tokina won't work properly on my 5D MkIII, so I picked up one of these, liking the reviews and the price!The lens worked better than I expected! The colors was fantastic, the sharpness was amazing! Adjusting to shooting with a 100% manual lens was easy, they all used to be that way! I just focused using live view and it worked fine.Outdoor landscapes have a very special feel to them with this lens, especially when combined with a good ND Filter. The real estate shoot that I used it for indeed, also had an exceptional feel. The compliments I received on this Real Estate Shoot were some of the best I've ever received. That being said, I had issues with it. The Vertical distortion was just too much for me to resolve.Instead of the normal horizontal "mustache" distortion I was expecting, the images had a heavy vertical distortion on either side of the frame. I applied corrections in LR5 and with DXO but could not completely eliminate it. Too me it stood out like a sore thumb but after working them as much as I could, I had no choice but to submit them, as I couldn't get back to the site for another shoot, it was a once in, last chance in, type of arrangement. The images were fantastic in many respects but the curved side walls were unacceptable to me. Nevertheless, I submitted them.The compliments from the client were glowing!! In fact it led to a couple more shoots for them on some other properties. By then, I had already sent the lens back, deciding the amount of work needed to correct the images was way too much time to make it worthwhile for Real Estate imagery. And despite the glowing reviews, some of the best ever, I stand by my premise, it was way to much work in post, for the type of shoots I was using it for. Way to much...Needless to say, I ordered another one because despite not really being able to use it for Real Estate Images, the rest of options for me to use it are fantastic, I missed it and just wanted this lens to live in my bag for the landscape and other work I enjoy doing. As I mentioned before, coupled with a very good ND filter, this lens is fantastic for landscapes and gives the images a very special feel with an exceptional color rendition! It also resolves sharpness in at an exceptional level! I'm looking into adding an after market chip to add to it for AF and/or Aperture...Bottom line, if you've not shot Ultra Wide before on a full frame, it may take a little getting used too, with this lens you have to do a little work, photographer work, like "back in the day" but the results are worth it! Just don't buy it for Real Estate interiors! You'll love it!

A couple months ago, I picked up the Canon 6D. I love wide-angle photography and I'd always wanted a full-frame DSLR, but until recently they'd been priced well outside my budget. I understand the importance of good glass, and in the past I've stuck almost exclusively with Canon L lenses, seeing it as an investment as much as anything — and considering I got almost 100% of my costs when I sold all of my photography gear a few years ago, I was right. Now that I'm rebuilding my gear set, I'm trying to be pretty methodical. I just don't have the money to be frivolous.With the 6D, I got the Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS, which is a great middle-of-the-road range. Recently, I added the Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS to cover the telephoto end of things. That leaves the wide angle, and I'm happy I chose the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 for it.I was initially VERY hesitant to purchase this lens, due to the fact that it's entirely manual. No autofocus, no automatic aperture. I'd never used a manual focus lens before, and I was worried that I'd either end up with consistently out-of-focus shots... or I'd be so turned off by the hassle of manual focus, that I'd never use it.The truth is, at 14mm, focus is extremely forgiving. Sure, I could switch to live view, zoom into 10x and focus like that, but I've discovered that I'm able to eyeball it through the optical viewfinder and achieve perfect focus for landscapes pretty much every time. Focusing on something very close would require more precision, but the infinity point is reasonably close at 14mm, so it's tough to be truly out of focus.So, once my fears about manual focus were allayed, I was able to (ahem) focus on image quality. It's impressive. Center is absolutely razor shop, and the corners are as sharp as my 24-105L is in the center (and that's still really freaking good). Impressive, especially for full frame. There's pretty significant distortion in the corners, some vignetting as has been mentioned in other reviews, and I see a bit of chromatic aberration in the corners... but it's all easily correctable in post processing.I really can't speak highly enough for this lens. I would say "especially at this price," but I think it's great quality, regardless of price. Canon's 14mm offering is over six times the price and, sure, you get autofocus, but ultimately, image quality is paramount. I'm sure the Canon is a fine lens, but I'm skeptical that the resulting images are six times better.