Samyang MF 14mm f/2.8 Z

£359/$379 A fully manual Z-mount lens

Unlike the majority of high-tech lenses for Nikon’s Z-mount mirrorless cameras, this Samyang is a manual affair. As such, you need to set the aperture and focus distance using the lens’s onboard control rings, and there’s no electronic comms with the camera body. A drawback of this is that no lens-related EXIF info can be captured and stored within image files.

On the plus side, the 14mm focal length and f/2.8 aperture make the lens a prime candidate for astrophotography. Handling is good, with a silky-smooth action to the long-throw focus ring. The construction feels solid and includes weather-seals. High-quality glass includes aspherical, hybrid-aspherical, ED (Extra-low Dispersion) and HR (High Refractive index) elements.

Performance

Sharpness is great across the image frame, even when shooting wide open at f/2.8, along with minimal coma and astigmatism. Barrel distortion can look pronounced when shooting architectural subjects, but it’s less of a problem in astrophotography.

N-photo verdict

There’s a retro charm to this manual lens. It’s nicely made, works well for astrophotography, and is a bargain.

Sharpness

Sharpness is highly impressive at apertures between f/4 and f/11 and remains very good wide open.

Fringing

There’s very little colour fringing, even towards the extreme corners of the image frame.

Distortion

Barrel distortion is rather heavy and irregular, making it tricky to correct when it comes to editing.