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I am interested in landscape and have a 40mm f/2.8 pancake lens but finding it does not capture enough and would like to purchase a Wide Angle lens.

I am find ing the prices for the Canons too much and have started looking at 3rd party (Samyang, Tokina, Sigma etc)

Can someone recommend a decent lens

the ones I have started looking at are

Rokinon 14mm Ultra Wide-Angle f/2.8 IF ED UMC

Samyang 14mm Ultra Wide-Angle f/2.8 IF ED UMC

Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X 116 Pro DX

I know Rokinon and Samyang come out of the same factory but are they identical lenses?

If anyone has any sample images of landscapes taken with a cropped sensor and any 3rd party wide angle lens I would love to see them

I am at some stage planning to go to a full frame camera and would like lenses that are compatible with both

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    You really are wasting money(and more) if you try to buy full frame lenses for APS-C. Buy for today not a possible future or you will really be limiting yourself from some great options(17-55mm f2.8 IS for example). – dpollitt Jan 19 '15 at 2:18
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    @dpollitt That depends. For wide angle lenses I would tend to agree. For telephoto lenses I would not. The Tokina lens is an APS-C lens, by the way. The Rokinon/Samyang is not. – Michael C Jan 19 '15 at 3:40
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There is actually an OEM Canon ultrawide zoom lens that costs less than all the lenses you're looking at. That is the EF-S 10-18 f/4.5-5.6 IS STM, which is the low-price alternative to the Canon 10-22.

Yes, the Samyang and Rokinon (and Vivitar, Pro-Optic, Opteka, Bower, Phoenix, Walimex, etc. etc.) are the same lens, and are optically identical, although not identical in outward appearance. However, Samyang's lenses are manual-only and do not perform electronic communication with the camera body. You have to manually focus, and manually set the aperture with the lens's aperture ring. You can only use M/Av modes because the camera body can't control the aperture. You have to use stop-down metering (i.e., the view through the viewfinder goes darker the more you stop down). The EXIF won't have any lens information (aperture used, lens name, etc.) in it. What you save in dollars, you will pay back in inconvenience vs. a lens that can communicate with your camera body.

You also won't have much luck in getting a lens that's ultrawide on both crop and full-frame because of the crop factor. While 14mm is ultrawide on full frame, it's the full-frame equivalent of a 21mm lens on a crop body. This is the single category of lenses where you would probably be much better off getting a crop lens, and then reselling it when you move to full-frame, because none of the ultrawide offerings for full frame are ultrawide on a crop (ok, maybe the Sigma 12-24), none of the crop ultrawides cover a full-frame sensor even if they still mount, and the crop versions cost quite a bit less.

The Tokina 11-16, btw, is a crop lens and will vignette on full frame up to about 15mm. That's why Tokina also makes the 16-28/2.8 for full frame.

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  • what do you think of the Tamron AF 10-24mm F/3.5-4.5 or the Sigma 10-20mm? – kurasa Jan 19 '15 at 4:42
  • Pretty much all of the 10-something ultrawide zooms are equivalent with each other, optically. The only real standout is the 11-16/2.8 because of the large max. aperture. And the new Canon EF-S 10-18 is half the price (~US$300) of the other APS-C ultrawide zooms. – inkista Jan 19 '15 at 19:38
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I know its starting to be an old post, but ive had the 10mm 2.8 Samyang lens. I will recommend it. Its just an amazing lens. Ive used it with my canon 70d.

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  • Welcome to Stack Exchange. It's totally okay to respond to old questions without apology, as this is a Q&A site, not a discussion forum. However, on its own, this isn't very helpful. Could you explain a little more why you feel this lens is amazing and how it compares to other options? – mattdm Mar 14 '15 at 12:25
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Rokinon et.al. also have an 8mm lens that is ultra-wide on crop or full frame bodies. These all require post-processing to mitigate geometric distortion; while their 14mm is sharp wide open, 8mm is NOT sharp until stopped down. Unfortunately, the 8mm is also very liable to flare; facing away from the sun results in tripod and/or photographer shadows being included in many images. Otherwise avoiding flare outdoors requires overcast, twilight or pre-dawn, when also stopping down for sharpness severely limits light available for low-noise images.

Depth of focus increases for a shorter focal length lens, but auto focus remains useful (and unavailable from Rokinon).

These days, many prefer using stitching software to owning and carrying a dedicated ultra-wide angle lens. Consider practicing both manual focus and stitching 40mm images before committing to manual-focus ultra-wide lens ownership.

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    Um... the Samyang 8mm is a crop diagonal fisheye, not a rectilinear ultrawide, and not full-frame. And the rectilinear Samyang 10mm f/2.8 is crop as well. Maybe you're thinking of the 14/2.8? – inkista Jan 19 '15 at 23:36
  • I forgot that the Rokinon HD8M-C was indeed designed for APS-C sensors; removing its hood yields vertically-cropped circular fisheye images with my Canon 6D. Warping to rectilinear requires post-processing. – blekenbleu Feb 9 '15 at 13:21

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