Happy to see you publishing videos again man. Keep them coming!

As always, I enjoy your reviews and advice regarding astrophotography. Well done.

Welcome back! Really missed your videos!

Glad to see you back! Happy new year.

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Happy New Year!

@_EDDE_

4 жыл бұрын

Yes! It is nice to see a new video from you! Welcome back & Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, happy to have you back. Your videos got me started with astrophotography, thanks much. The most recent one that I found helpful was your video on LRGB processing. I had some shots of Orion taken up at Red Rock.

Glad to see you back!!

Life just got Alot better!! You're back!!😊😊😊

Good to see you again, missed your videos Ian :)

Welcome back! Your cap has the same Lonely Speck logo!

That is just that I wanted to see!!!!

with those software updates in 2021 a can say that I am really happy with the autofocus on video, too!

AWESOME..thank you!

I never thought of using a ramp for a dog get out of a vehicle! It makes many sense. Young or old, it should be used for every dog. Not just the ramp detail but your always succinct and very rich in information videos, says how much you must be a very conscious couple. Love you guys. Have a Great new year... and now, more than ever, enjoy the most of your dog Tiger... every... day ♥️

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

Yes! The ramp was a very important purchase for the van build! Makes it much easier and safer for Tiger.

@MrPinkfloydian

4 жыл бұрын

@@LonelySpeck Yea, It's safer and doesn't contribute even more to bone problems (dog-arthrosis?). Just like the stairs, getting out of a vehicle might not be very dog-friendly either. Never thought that much about it. They struggle a little on the way down ☹️. We humans move vertically... unlike a dog. Indeed a great thing, the ramp!

Welcome back, you were missed.

Which one is better for astro, Samyang AF 18mm f/2.8 FE or Samyang AF 14mm f/2.8 FE ? Thanks

So glad you made this video! Only Astro video about the lens. I decided to go for the Samyang instead of buying a $1,000 sony lens. Also have to say that I love your website and the tips on there, keep it up!

Missed you Ian for last few years. Please review new gear (lenses, cameras, motion sliders) if possible. Happy new year!

Good, easy to understand... I use Canon but still consider your instructions and settings.

Nice review. I like the Rokinon/Samyang lenses. I have the 14mm/f2.4 for Nikon mount. It's a gem!

Amazing photos

What were your settings to get those awesome shots with the ZEISS?

I have the samyang 85mm f1.4 and the 35mm f2.8 and my favorite Astrophotography feature is the electronic focuser. It's a little harder to achieve focus but you are less likely to accidently shift the focus moving the camera and with a bhatinov mask it's easy enough anyways

Wohoo. You're not dead after all!

Other than the panorama, were those photos single exposures? Or multiple ones that you blended together in PS?

Very cool!!! Nice pictures and comparison. What are your thoughts on getting a 14mm vs 18mm for astrophotography or landscapes?

How about it compared with the Rokinon Samyang 14 2.8mm for Astrophography?

Great video. Have you heard about the new Canon EOS Ra? I got mine for Christmas and am waiting for the clouds to clear. I live in Washington state.

Got nice results with a Samyang 16mm 2.0 fully manual lens. Using a manual lens like that was kinda fun actually

great video i love my little 18mm Sammy on the A7rii and after seeing this am going to try my hand at astrophotos!

I just bought the Zeiss version, I can't wait to get out again and shoot some Aurora Borealis and Astro. Do you have more articles/videos with this lens that I should check out?

dude how did you get that movement shot at the beginning??

If you had to choose one lens for astro and landscape (preferably with autofocus) what would you go with? 🤐 I like the idea (or the price) of Samyang/Rokinon but I've read a lot about people having to return up to 7 lenses before getting a sharp one and it doesnt sound like they last very long, like if you do a lot of driving on rough roads in the mountains, like I do here in Montana. Lol. I've been leaning towards the Batis 18mm or maybe the 24mm gm (if I can find a used one for under a thousand, which doesnt seem likely). I also worry that a wider fov would be better but maybe I just need to learn how to stitch multiple photos together?..

Great review though the Samyang copy i tested was completely silent on my A7iii during video while using autofocus. Weird

Sir, i have a question. Which one do you prefer for astrograpghy milkyway, tamron 20mm f2.8, tamron 24mm f2.8, samyang 24mm f2.8 or samyang 18mm f2.8? Thankyou

I have the Samyang 18mm f/2.8 AF FE and agree with all your findings apart from the noisy AF-C you found in video. I have the AF Drive Speed at Normal and AF Tracking Sensitivity at Standard (Menu, Cam2, Movie2, Pg 2/11 on my bodies. Mine is all but silent right by my ear. Thanks for the comparison.

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

What's its behavior when stopped down in bright light (e.g. to f/16)?

@sfayers3361

4 жыл бұрын

@@LonelySpeck f/11 is sharp, f/16 just starting to soften very slightly but is still good with a pretty good starburst of of lights, sun etc. f/22 is really effected by diffraction.

Would you choose a 18mm or 24mm lens for astrophotography and why?

i liked the Mohave night sky ...! Vid, very useful in order to get mine....

@lonelyspeck a bit curious how you managed to capture sunset and what looks like a pitch black sky with stars. Really liked the photo of the van under the stars....but that sunset...how did u do that?

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

That's not a sunset at all, it's actually light pollution from Las Vegas, lighting up the clouds.

This lens is weather sealing?

I own the Laowa 15mm F/2, Rokinon 14mm F/2.8 and now the Rokinon 18mm F/2.8. This lens has three huge selling points: Very low distortion, very low weight, and AF. The Rokinon 18mm is perfect to bring along on long hikes where weight saving and convenience is key. But if you don't care about weight and want minimal distortion, the Laowa 15mm is absolutely stunning for its price, but it's a manual focus lens. Anyway, that's my two cents. Watch out for the Tamron 20mm F/2.8 which is available for preorder these days. It is a tad more expensive than the Rokinon and weighs a little more, but it is sharper.

@skarpy24

Жыл бұрын

How would you compare Samyang 14mm 2.8 with Samyang 18 2.8? Which one to buy in 2023 considering the image quality

@snokefilmmedia

Жыл бұрын

​@@skarpy24 If you must choose between the two, then definitely the Samyang 18mm. Also consider the Tamron 20mm F/2.8, it is a bit sharper than the Samyang but has nicer colors and less optical issues. Sigma 16-28mm or Tamron 17-28mm are much better picks too.

Can you do the new Sony 35mm 1.8?

AF performance is really a non issue shooting video at 18mm (or having AF at all actually), so I've found the Rokinon/Samyang great for shooting video (especially a gimbal). With photos usually being under a bit more scrutiny, the Batis makes more sense for photography I think. They're both pretty nice, and I love that they both have filter threads as well.

@LonelySpeck

3 жыл бұрын

Hey! It's notable that since the release of my video, Samyang has released firmware updates to improve it's AF performance... It does require the use of the $60 USD Samyang lens station in order to be able to update the firmware though.

Great to see you back Ian!! Happy New year... are you using a diffusion on those images to get the width in the bright stars? Or another technique?

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

I was using the technique of... it's partly cloudy out...😆! We had lots of clouds that night and only a few hours of clearing for photos. Even when it did clear enough to see Orion, there was still a thin layer of visible moisture in the sky and that contributed to some nice diffuse glow from the brightest stars.

@delrcr05

4 жыл бұрын

@@LonelySpeck thanks for the reply! Yeah when I viewed it again I figured that it was atmospheric diffusion. It's quite a nice look though and makes me think about using diffusion filters to make the brighter stars bigger than the less bright ones to give an extra dimensionality to the image. Do you know if anyone uses them for this purpose?

Great review. Are you also going to test the new f2.8 zooms Tamron 17-28mm and Sigma 14-24 against the Batis? They seem to be pretty good in daylight... Cheers, Jo

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

We would love to review both those lenses. They're high on the list.

I was just at Kelso Dunes on the 1st. I've never seen so many cars. There was even a line at the outhouse.

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

We've noticed the same when we visited... way more people. Likely also an effect of the Holidays.

I would love to see how a Nikon Z6 with the new 24mm F1.8 S Lens does in the Astro world.

Bro, I recently bought a Samyang 18mm lens for my Sony A7C II, but unfortunately, the autofocus is really bad. While vlogging, it doesn't detect my face most of the time. I checked the firmware of the lens, and it's on version 3; I think the latest version is 8. I don't have a lens dock to update the lens. Could you please advise me? Would it be better to return the lens, or will updating the firmware make a difference?

Im debating the zeiss vs the Laowa 15mm zero D???

I have a Nikon D5500 and want to give this a try. I don’t have a wide lens and don’t know what equipment I’d need. It’d be soo cool to take photos of the sky

Thanks for the video. Interestingly, I am not seeing that Zeiss is "obviously" sharper wide open. I started hard at my 4k Benq SW271C while playing your video at 4K and it's not obvious to me at all. It might be, but I'm not seeing it from your comparison shot. Do you have RAW files you could share? Or maybe zoom in on the parts of the image. I actually bought the Samyang lens specifically for the video and upgraded it to firmware version 6 (yes, I had to buy the lens station), and I'm pretty happy with it so far. Based on your comparison, there is no reason whatsoever to pay more for Zeiss Batis. Nice shots at a great location though!

this or tamron 20mm?

honest review..

Try the tamrom 17-28 pleeeeeeeze!

Have you compared Samyang 18mm 2.8 with Samyang 14mm 2.8?

long time no see

They must have new firmware for the lens. I just got mine a few days ago and it preforms great for video. Really happy with it overall.

@LonelySpeck

3 жыл бұрын

Interesting, can you report back about how it performs in AF-C on video when stopped down heavily (e.g. f/16+)

@alfoutdoors9660

Жыл бұрын

Samyang are very good with releasing lens updates that address issues raised in reviews such as this (remember you must buy and use the Samyang lens station to install lens updates). This video is 2 years old now so I'm pretty sure the video AF issue mentioned would have been cured with an lens update in the meantime.

Do you have any preference regarding Mojave vs Joshua Tree?

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

I think it depends on what you want to shoot and how much you want to work for it. Overall, we prefer Mojave. Mojave National Preserve is much more secluded and that means you pretty much need to be willing to drive down some rough roads and hike to really get to see some of the best of what it has to offer. Kelso Dunes is arguably our favorite dune field in California. Mojave is twice the size of Joshua Tree and offers way more overall diversity in landscape but with very limited ways to access any of it. It also has darker skies... Joshua Tree is the opposite: plenty of roads and pullover spots, parking lots and facilities to make access easy. The huge number of joshua trees also make finding compositions easier pretty much anywhere in the park. But with that, and its status as a National Park, Joshua Tree is always more crowded. It being adjacent to Palm Springs and Twentynine Palms also cheapens the feel of the park in a way... something that's kind of hard to explain. Personally, the whole experience of Mojave National Preserve feels more special if you're willing to put a little more effort into the visit.

@mangoldm

4 жыл бұрын

Lonely Speck great perspective, thanks. We’ve been to Joshua Tree many times and love it but have wondered whether the farther trip to Mojave would be much different. Sounds like it’s worth the extra time and effort.

Wish it was f1.8 but I might still buy it.

Thank you for the review. Coma is higher on rokinon when I see the pictures side by side ! Also there is heavy noise on both with 12800iso, is that the settings you are usually using ? By stacking multiple pictures do you think you can remove all this noise ? By the way I don’t own any of them but the laowa 15mm f2.0 for astro and I really happy with it but I watched your review by curiously 😉 Thanks you

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

Yes, the Rokinon has a little more aberration than the Zeiss for sure. I lifted the exposures on for the video to make everything apparent... And they're just single exposures.... so noise is pretty typical. I'm using ISO 12800 with picture profile 7 on the a7S just because that's a sweet spot of performance for that particular camera.

Would be great to hear your opinion on the Samyang 24mm f/1.8. The lens has been praised a lot and Samyang labels it as a astrophotography lens. Going to NZ in 10 days with to the Samyang 18mm. Fingers crossed I'll get a few clear nights too :)

@alfoutdoors9660

Жыл бұрын

The Samyang AF 24mm f1.8 FE is fantastic...Up till they released their phenomenal AF 135mm f1.8 it was almost certainly the best lens Samyang has released to date. Wide open it has identical centre sharpness to the Sony FE 24mm f1.4 GM, but it has better corner sharpness, less CA, especially at the edges of frame, and it has less coma at the edges of frame than the GM too. It also has much better close up performance wide open and better flare resistance, all this yet it's only half the weight and a massive three times cheaper! It really is a no brainer!! The only advantage the GM has vs the Samyang is slightly less distortion, but if you have a camera with lens corrections built in this is a non issue, and of course lightroom has a distortion correction slider as one of it's features, which makes distortion corrections very fast and easy. This review tells you everything you need to know: kzread.info/dash/bejne/mIh9trGIfNitZqw.html

Great video! How do you create those big blue stars?

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

In this case, we got a little bit lucky because there was a lot of moisture in the air from the clouds and so that made the stars more diffuse.

@051Cyril

4 жыл бұрын

@@LonelySpeck thank you. I tought it was a filter, have you ever heard of something like that? To make diffuse stars like this but with a filter?

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

@@051Cyril yes, a fog filter will create a similar effect.

@051Cyril

4 жыл бұрын

@@LonelySpeck thanks! Take care :)

Thx a lot for making gud review. Samyang is cost effective than Zeiss. :)

Great comparison. Sold off my Batis last year to get the Sony 24, but really do miss the ultra wide field of view. Have been considering the Sigma 14, but that lens is brutally big.

@BrianIrwin

4 жыл бұрын

@matthew how do you find the Sony 24 compared to the Battis? I am really happy with the Sony 24mm f1.4, but likewise I miss some of the width (also some cloudless skies would be nice). Am wondering if at some point I should 'treat' myself to a Zeiss, but they are hella expensive. My copy of the Sigma 14mm is in Canon mount, so I don't really take it out much anymore. I am a big guy, so don't mind carrying it, but I am so paranoid about the tripod head slipping when I do long exposures that I am going to do damage to the screw or my hand :) Last warning on the Sigma, that front element is just begging for scratches, so if you are not more careful than I, you will end up with some war wounds on the front element. It is a stunning lens to hold and if you can avoid doing panos, then you have room to do a lot of image stacking to remove noise.

@alma175w

4 жыл бұрын

Brian Irwin I’m very, very happy with the GM. It’s such a versatile lens, from street to candid portrait to astrophotography, it’s just about perfect to me. I feel that it shoots sharper in the corners than the Batis. That said, the Batis is a beautiful lens, I don’t think you’d go wrong with either. For me, I also own the 1634 GM, and didn’t see the need for such redundancy.

@BrianIrwin

4 жыл бұрын

@@alma175w Thanks for the response, agreed that 24GM is great. I am guilty of only using it when I need all the light it can mustre, I should get it out more. Wild that it seems sharper in the corners than the Batis, for a relatively small lens it really does pack a wallop. I had read great stuff about that 16-35, but I almost never used my Canon 16-35 so I have some more GAS to take care of before I get to it :)

@alma175w

4 жыл бұрын

Brian Irwin Yeah, these are two lenses I don’t ever want to not have, but if you tend to shoot longer, go with your strengths and ignore the symptoms and just go out and shoot😆

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

I'd actually love to try the Sony 24 GM soon. I think it would be real easy to emulate the 18mm FOV by just making a small panorama on the 24/1.4. The results would be better too.

I scrolled through your video library and couldn't find any tutorials on multi row panoramas. Perhaps you might consider showing your techniques and methods in video?

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

This one's coming eventually!

...and, are the same quality ?...tamron 24mm 2.8 vs samyang 24mm 2.8 for astrophotography..?

@LonelySpeck

3 жыл бұрын

Both are great choices for astrophotography as they have very little aberration. That said, the Tamron 24mm/2.8 Di III OSD M is a bit sharper than the Samyang AF 24mm f/2.8 FE.

@PabloFuentesDiazPsicologo

3 жыл бұрын

@@LonelySpeck Thank you for the quick response, I congratulate you for your great knowledge and dissemination of this beautiful hobby, I thank you because I have learned a lot from your astrophotography teachings, many greetings from the Atacama desert, Chile.

@LonelySpeck

3 жыл бұрын

@@PabloFuentesDiazPsicologo Atacama! Hopefully we can visit there someday!

Thanks, did you test the auto focus on the a7iii ?

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

Yes, the AF was fine on the a7III for stills, but video AF only worked OK when wide open. Upon stopping down, it would still jitter, just like on the a7S.

@chosenideahandle

4 жыл бұрын

​@@LonelySpeck I'm not sure if many would use AF for video when stopped down with an ultra-wide. I haven't yet with my copy. Probably why I haven't run into your problem.

This is better than Samyang 14mm F2.8 manual lens?

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

Yes, we think that its performance with aberration is better, it's also smaller, lighter and has autofocus, but is also a little more expensive than the Rokinon/Samyang 14mm/2.8

@JorgeMorenoCGArtist

4 жыл бұрын

@@LonelySpeck Is possible make a panorama with the 14mm even if it comes with aberration at corners?

@LonelySpeck

4 жыл бұрын

@@JorgeMorenoCGArtist Absolutely. If you're worried about aberration, you can use more overlap to help reduce problems. 14mm is pretty wide, so expect lots of curving lines in the final projection.

@JorgeMorenoCGArtist

4 жыл бұрын

@@LonelySpeck thanks a lot for your tips

@GRJOHN360

4 жыл бұрын

@@LonelySpeck Can you please explain to me what is overlap? How can it help with 14mm?

Wow

Samyang made several AF lenses in the late 1980's.

@LonelySpeck

3 жыл бұрын

Interesting!

No longer 1/3 the price of the Batis. Now it's 1/5th the price! Zeiss living on that blue badge, lol!

Bro can you please consistent on YT please i love your videos whether its a review , tutorials or anything ♥️

I whished they'd make this lens as f/2

I like small, compact and light weight Lenses, but I do not like the build quality, nor the optical image quality of the Rokinon/Samyang AF 18mm 2.8, I would get the Zeiss Batis Distagon 18mm 2.8 T*

thank you for your sharing... let me know that it isn't good at video...

@LonelySpeck

3 жыл бұрын

Hey! It's notable that since the release of my video, Samyang has released firmware updates to improve it's AF performance... It does require the use of the $60 USD Samyang lens station in order to be able to update the firmware though.

pretty noisey though

Autofocus for video using Samyang AF 18mm is completed silent and and very fast, you know nothing.

@LonelySpeck

3 жыл бұрын

It isn't silent when using any form of CDAF continuous focus mode such as in the case of stopping down to a high f/number like f/16-f/22 while shooting video in AF-C or on a body like an a7S. In those cases, the AF motor buzzes. It's fine in AF-S.

First!

You are banned from using the word camping......you are in a 30k + van lmao

This lens is weather sealed?

@LonelySpeck

3 жыл бұрын

The Rokinon/Samyang 18mm is not. The Zeiss 18mm is sealed.