Samyang 20mm f/1.8 ED UMC AS £460/$570

The more filter-friendly of the Samyang lenses

Unlike Samyang’s 14mm option, this lens has a bayonet-style lens hood rather than a built-in one, which means it can be taken off when you want to attach filters.

Build quality is of the same high standard in both Samyang lenses. As with the 14mm lens, the focus ring works smoothly and enables wonderfully precise adjustments, although autofocus is off the menu. The aperture ring is largely superfluous with Nikon D-SLRs and unfortunately, unlike with Nikon’s D-series lenses, there’s no switch to lock the aperture at its narrowest setting, so accidentally turning the aperture ring will stop the camera from being able to control aperture (see page 87). Performance The narrower viewing angle pays dividends in terms of image quality, with greater sharpness than from the Samyang 14mm into the corners of the frame. Indeed, this lens also beats Nikon’s own 20mm lens for sharpness when shooting wide open at f/1.8. Considering how wide it is, distortion, ghosting and flare are also well controlled.