I’ve been using the Samyang 24mm F1.4 ED AS IF UMC prime wide-angle lens for a few years now, it has been my main workhorse when shooting Astro and has helped me create some amazing images. I’ve found 24mm on full frame to be the perfect focal length for the Milkyway, as it helps fill the frame. I have the Nikon version of this lens, so all specs are relevant to this version.

This lens is particularly popular with both Astro and Landscape photographers due to its wide angle of view and super fast aperture, but most of all, because of its great value for money. This is not a fancy lens, in fact, it is a fully manual lens, meaning it has an aperture ring and can only be focussed manually, but this is not a problem for either Astro or Landscape Photography. However, the feature that matters most for most wide-angle photography, image sharpness, is there and the very affordable price makes this lens a very attractive option for landscape and Astro photographers.

Specs:

• Aperture Range: F1.4 - F22

• Construction: 13 Elements in 12 Groups (2 Aspherical Lens Elements)

• Coating: UMC

• Minimum Focussing Distance: 0.82 Feet (0.25 Meters)

• Filter Size: 77mm

• Diaphragm Blades: 8

• Angle of View (Nikon FX): 84.1˚

• Angle of View (Nikon DX): 61.8˚

• Maximum Diameter: 83.0mm

• Length: 95.0mm

• Weight: 565 Grams

Features:

• Wide-Angle Lens (84.1˚)

• Wide maximum Aperture (F2.8)

• Small and compact size

• Aperture Ring Clicks

• Smooth focus ring

• UMC coating

• Manual Focus Lens

Focal Length

This lens is a prime lens, meaning it has a fixed focal length. The focal length is 24mm, which equates to an angle of view of an impressive 84.1˚, allowing the user to include a significant amount in their frame. 

The Samyang 24mm F1.4 is great for landscapes and astrophotography. 

The 24mm focal length gives an interesting perspective as it is similar to the field of view of the human eye (Which is estimated to be roughly 22mm). 

Aperture

The maximum aperture of this lens is F1.4, this is one of the fastest wide angle prime lenses on the market and is significantly cheaper than similar lenses from other manufacturers.

An F1.4 aperture is ideal for astrophotography, where allowing as much light as possible to hit the camera sensor is a priority. An Aperture of F1.4 compared to F4 means that a lower ISO setting can be used, helping reduce noise in the resulting image (Example – If at F4 an ISO of 6400 is required to get the correct exposure, then at F1.4, an ISO of just 800 would give the same exposure, but at a lower ISO and therefore with less noise in the image). 

Due to the lack of electronics and communication with the camera, this lens is best used in manual mode in the camera, as using aperture or shutter speed priority does not give accurate results.

Aperture Ring

This is a manual aperture lens, meaning the aperture is controlled by rotating the aperture ring at the base of the lens (Near the flange). The aperture cannot be changed in camera, and this is another reason why this lens is so affordable, as there is no complex electronic aperture control mechanism built into the lens. The aperture ring is also marked with each stop from F1.4 upto to F22. The ring has deep grooves which make it easy to rotate, even whilst wearing gloves or in cold weather.

Focus Ring

As mentioned above, this is a manual focus lens, helping keep the price down and making it more compact. Choosing to make this lens a manual focus only lens means the design and construction of the lens are simplified significantly. Some people may struggle to adjust to a manual focus lens, however I have always used manual focus when shooting landscapes and astrophotography, even with my autofocus Nikon lenses, to ensure I nail critical focus, so this is second nature to me. 

Zooming-in on the screen on Live View is the best way to focus this lens, both at night, by finding a bright star or distant light source, or during the day, finding an area of high contrast / detail in the frame. 

The focus ring has a long throw, roughly 135 degrees of rotation from nearest focus (0.25M) to infinity, this makes it easy to smoothly find the exact point of focus. 

The focus ring’s rotation is smooth like all other Samyang lenses I have used. The focus ring is very nicely damped and has no play, there are hard stops at both the minimum focus distance and at infinity. Focus distance markers are printed in bold on the focus ring in feet (Yellow) and meters (White). 

Build Quality & Features

The Samyang 24mm F1.4 lens is well built, it is solid and doesn’t feel cheap. There are no strange noises when operating the aperture or focus rings and the lens is made out of both aluminium and high quality plastic. 

The lens is pretty small and is well balanced on my Nikon Z7II, it also feels great in the hand.

The focus ring is made of plastic and covers about a third of the barrel of the lens, it has a soft rubber grip making it easy to use, even whilst wearing gloves. 

The alignment mark for mounting this lens to Nikon bodies is the thick white line which is also used to show the aperture setting and the focus distance, this is really handy when changing lenses at night. 

The Samyang 24mm F1.4 has a relatively small front element and a 77mm filter thread. The filter thread is smooth and I frequently mount my filter holder to this lens to use the ‘Focus on Stars’ filter or the Haida Soft diffusion filter. 

Image Quality

One of the most important parameters for any lens is it’s sharpness, the term commonly used to describe how much detail / contrast a lens can resolve. Admittedly, this lens is slightly soft across the frame at F1.4, especially in the corners. The sharpness and contrast improve significantly as you stop down to F2 and F2.8. Between F8 and F11 the lens is incredibly sharp across the frame, making it great for landscapes. 

By F18, diffraction starts to have an impact and reduces the crispness of the image. When shooting landscapes, I am most interested in the sharpness in the corners of the frame, as this tends to be a weak spot for most lenses. For this reason, when shooting landscapes, I stop down to F8 or F11. At these apertures, this lens performs brilliantly across the entire frame.

All lenses / optics have some form of distortion and aberrations, these tend to be most pronounced when a lens is shot wide open (In this case, at F1.4) and in the corners of the frame. The Samyang 24mm F1.4 displays some coma and astigmatism when wide open. This is an issue when shooting astrophotography, where stars need to be pin point and round, but less of an issue when shooting landscapes. I have found the best results for astro photography are achieved when using a tracker and shooting with this lens as F4 or F5.6.

The Samyang 24mm F1.4 does have some vignetting when shot wide open, but this is nothing that can’t be fixed in post processing.

Price and Value

The factors which makes the Samyang 24mm F/1.4 lens so popular with photographers are its price and value. From recently checking prices online, you can easily buy 3 or 4 of these lenses for the price of just one Nikon 24mm F1.4. The bottom line is that the Samyang 24mm F1.4 is a great value lens for anyone not willing to spend the premium price of more expensive lenses from other manufacturers.

The Samyang 24mm f/1.4 Lens is available for most major mounts, including Nikon, Sony, Canon and Pentax. 

Pros

• Wide-angle lens

• Smooth Focus and aperture Ring

• Focus Lock function

• Aperture click function

• Great build quality

• Great sharpness when stopped down

• Very good value for the price

Cons

• Not weather sealed meaning it is not usable in inclement weather

• Some coma and astigmatism at F1.4

• Slightly soft at F1.4 (Much sharper better by F2)

Summary

I bought this lens specifically for Astrophotography, although I have taken a few landscape shots with it, this was more to test the sharpness of the lens at F8 and F11 than anything else. That being said, I have thoroughly enjoyed using this lens as it has produced some fantastic images, especially when stopped down and used on my star tracker at F4 or F5.6. This lens is much cheaper than other similar lenses and in all honesty, I never expected it to outperform more expensive lenses in terms of image quality. 

The slight softness at F1.4 is not great for Astro Photography (Which is what most people will buy this lens for), however it is definitely still usable, and unless you plan to print your photos in massive sizes, this lens will certainly get the job done. This lens continues to have a permanent place in my camera bag whenever I go out to shoot Astrophotography.

Disclaimer

I bought this lens in 2018 prior to becoming a Brand Ambassador for Samyang Optics. I am not being paid by Samyang to write this review, and therefore this review is purely based on my experience using the lens over the past 3 years. When reviewing products I always aim to be objective and honest. Through use and testing, I will provide my feedback to Samyang on how I believe they can improve their future products.

I have tried my best to be impartial and unbiased in this review.

I review gear as impartially as I can – When looking to buy a new product, I do loads of research and look at reviews. It is vital that the reviews are genuine and impartial, the last thing I would want is for someone to waste their hard-earned cash on something which will not give them the best value in return

The brands I partner with are the brands that I would spend my money on – I would never recommend a product for the sake of it, if I don’t find it suitable to my workflow or it doesn’t perform as I expected, I would not recommend it.