Samyang 10mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS CS
£379/$399 A rare ultra-wide prime for DX bodies
ltra-wide prime lenses for DX format cameras are thin on the ground, and Nikon itself doesn’t make one at all. The best option is this 10mm manual-focus lens from Samyang, which combines a short 10mm focal length with a wide f/2.8 aperture rating. This enables aperture control from the camera, and unrestricted use of all shooting modes. It also empowers the focus assist and confirmation lamps in the viewfinder.
Quality glass includes two aspherical elements and one ED (Extra-low Dispersion) element, plus nanostructure coatings. The focus distance scale has depth of field markers for apertures of f/2.8, f/4 and f/5.6. Build feels solid, although the lens lacks any weather-seals and its integral hood precludes a filter attachment thread.
UPerformance
Centre-sharpness is good rather than great throughout the aperture range, with the sweet spot being at f/5.6. Levels of sharpness are very consistent across the whole image frame, with fairly little drop-off even in the extreme corners of the frame.
Sharpness
Sharpness is pretty average overall, but at least it’s highly consistent across the entire image frame.
Fringing Distortion
You’ll often find that distortion is lower in primes compared with zooms, but not here.