Lens review

Samyang 14 mm f/2.8 IF ED MC Aspherical

8. Vignetting

As long as we work on a small sensor, vignetting is not a large aberration. It’s true that at the maximum aperture we won’t have any problems with seeing it, as it equals 31% (-1.05 EV), but after stopping down to f/4.0 the problem practically disappears, as the level reaches 13%. At f/5.6 the light falloff in the corners of the frame is basically unnoticeable (10%).

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When we move to a full frame, the problem- no real surprise here- increases dramatically. However, we need to maintain the scale of this phenomenon. Zeiss 16-35 mm, at the most difficult combination of 16 mm focal length and f/2.8 aperture, lost 65% of light in the corners. In this perspective, the result of 59% (-2.58 EV) recorded by Samyang at the maximum aperture doesn’t look so bad. Stopping down on a full frame doesn’t solve the problem as fast as on a small sensor. At f/4.0 the light falloff in the corners of the frame equals 40%, and at f/5.6 still 29%. What’s more, further stopping down makes vignetting decrease very slowly, about 2 % for each aperture value at most.