Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 Review

The Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 compared to the Canon EF24mm f/1.4 on the right ($550 vs. $1750)

The Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC Wide-Angle Lens is hybrid aspherical that is particularly suitable for astro-landscape photography because of its excellent correction for coma aberration, even when used wide open.

Although I have long recommended this and two other lenses made by the Samyang Optics, I have recently received several email messages from prospective buyers, worried about negative reviews they have seen about this lens. This lens is not for general use. It is a totally manual lens —no electronic linkage to the camera, whatsoever. Despite this, it is well suited for astro photography.

Advantages of a f/1.4 Aperture: I have several lenses that I use for astro-landscapes. All but the Rokinon 24mm lens have f/2.8 as their widest aperture. The Rokinon 24mm's f/1.4 provides several nice options.

• Using f/1.4 allows you to lower your ISO, or...
• Shorten your exposure time (to reduce star trailing), or...
• Do both: reduce ISO and shorten your exposure time, or you can...
• Stop down to f/2.0 to increase sharpness and reduce lens vignetting

A typical exposure with the an ultra wide angle lens is f/2.8 for 25 to 30 seconds @ ISO 6400. With the 24mm f/1.4 you could go f/1.4 @ for 25 to 30 seconds @ ISO 1600. However, because of it's longer focal length, you'll get less star movement by going 13 to 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. And if you've got a good low-noise camera sensor, you won't mind going to ISO 6400 and closing down to f/2.0 for the increase in depth of field (for close foreground objects) and significantly reducing the lens' vignetting (see "My Personal Preferences", below).

Comparison: Let me share a comparison I did with my $1,750 Canon EF24mm f/1.4L II USM and the $550 Rokinon 24mm f/1.4. (The Rokinon is also branded as a Samyang or Bower. They are all the same lens, made by Samyang Optics.) The following test photos were taken about 15 miles away from Salt Lake City, at the Brighton Ski Resort. Being this close to SLC, the skies are still polluted with light from the valley below, but for a 30-minute drive, it still allows one to record the medium to bright stars.

Night Ski above Brighton Ski Resort ~ Taken with the Canon EF24mm f/1.4 @ f/2.8
(This lens must be stopped down to at least f/2.8 in order to correct its coma aberration.)
At f/2.8, the Canon performed slightly better than the Rokinon, but at f/1.4 and f/2.0,
the Rokinon out-performed the Canon in sharpness and coma correction.

The following images are directly from the camera JPEGs with no post-processing correction for white balance, noise, or lens vignetting:

Full-Frame comparisons: The color rendition of the Rokinon is slightly different from the Canon,
but the most significant difference is lens vignetting. For the extra $1,200 you pay for the
Canon lens, you get about one-stop less lens vignetting in the corners. However, this
can easily be corrected in the Adobe Raw Converter software. (Click to enlarge)

Center enlargements @ 100%: Neither lens exhibits coma in the center, but the Canon is slightly
less sharp and has a touch more color fringing (click to enlarge).

Edge enlargements @ 100%: The Rokinon exhibits about 1/2-stop fall-off on the edges, and about
1-stop fall-off in the corners compared to the Canon. Sharpness is about the same.  However,
the big difference is coma. Canon's coma in the edges and corners is so bad, it's off the chart;
whereas the Rokinon exhibits only minor coma aberration, albeit some color fringing.
(Click to enlarge. Note: the "stick" in the sky is a snow marker for snow plows.)

Manual Focus: the Rokinon is manual everything, including focus —which is not a problem, since auto
focus doesn't work in the dark, anyway! As with any lens used for starry night photography, I find it
a good idea to focus on an "infinity" object (i.e. a tree on the horizon, about 200+ feet away) during
the daytime. I use the camera's "live view" function and magnify my image 10X on the LCD
screen. I've marked that position with a green dot on the lens focusing ring (green turns
black under red headlamp light). The red dot is this lens' 50 feet mark.

Angle of view: About half of my NightScapes are taken with a 14mm (114º angle of view), and the other
half with the 24mm's 84º angle of view. You can capture more of the sky with the 14mm, but when
I want to emphasis the beauty and drama of the Milky Way's Central Bulge, the 24mm is a
perfect fit!  ~ Alabama Hills with the 24mm Rokinon, @ f/2.0, 13", ISO 6400.

My personal Preferences: About 80% of my Rokinon 24mm shooting is done at f/2.0. I prefer to stop down for a little extra sharpness, better depth of field for foreground objects, and a significant reduction in lens vignetting (even though this can be corrected in software, you do run the risk of color cross-overs in your corners, which can also be corrected, but it is an extra post-processing hassle that I'll discuss in another blog post, someday). My typical exposure with my Canon 5D Mark III is f2.0, for 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. This short exposure produces extremely sharp and almost perfectly round stars. Even a two second increase to 15 seconds can sometime produce elliptical-shaped stars, and a 20-seconds exposure is almost sure to have some significant star movement. Mind you, this movement is only noticeable in large prints of 20x30 inches or larger —but that's the kind of quality I'm shooting for.

Conclusion: I find the Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens offers great performance, especially when one considers the price. The advantage of having an f/1.4 aperture in your arsenal of lenses provides many options that other lenses don't offer.

Pro: Low price. Good sharpness. Excellent coma corrections. Fast, f/1.4 aperture. Good construction. Cons: Significant lens vignetting, but this can be mostly corrected with software. Many non-critical (low-tolerance) components are made of plastic to reduce cost. This does not affect performance, but can affect long-term durability in rough environments and handling. Manual everything: Manual focus, manual aperture, and no electronic coupling to your camera body (no EXIF info can be transmitted to the image file).

The Rokinon 24mm is available through B&H in the Canon mount, Nikon mount, and Sony mount. Note: The Nikon mount includes an electronic focus confirmation and auto aperture chip that adds about $50 to the price.

David Kingham's 'NightScape' eBook

An eBook Review: "Nightscape - A Complete Guide to Photographing Under the Night Sky" by David Kingham, published by Craft and Vision, 120 pages in electronic format. $12.00

Unique and Narrow Scope. At last, someone got it right! This was my first impression, after a quick review of David's "Nightscape" ebook. Although there are multiple definitions of the word "nightcape", David and I share many similar feelings about this term. This is the first book to adequately cover the style of starry night photography that many of my peers and I are currently doing.

In my opinion, the sub-title, "A Complete Guide to Photographing Under the Night Sky" is a bit misleading. This is not a broad guide to all types of night photography, but it is the best guide to a unique type of astro-landscape photography that is rapidly becoming very popular.

Preparation is the key. David and I also share a basic approach to nightscape photography, and that is that preparation is paramount to one's success in this type of nocturnal photography. Much of his book is devoted to familiarizing you with the cycles of the night sky, scouting techniques, and selecting the proper gear, before illustrating the how-to of actual shooting.

Guiding Principles. Nightscape is not just a book of pretty pictures. David is not trying to showcase his photography, nor is his goal to to help you make pretty pictures. His goal is to "inspire you, to reconnect you to the world around you and the sky above, so that ...your day-to-day worries and fears disappear, and you stop thinking about the past and the future, and you are one with the present." David's approach is to teach just enough of the technical aspects of night photography in order for you "…to reach the point where your camera does not get in the way of realizing your vision. Once you do not think about the technical aspects, you can truly focus on your vision."

Pg. 37: Light painted Double Arch and Milky Way ~ © David Kingham / Craft & Vision
(Out of 120 pages, I counted only 27 that were just "pretty pictures" —and these
still had purpose, because they were used to illustrate a technique in that section.)

Pg. 70: Milky Way over Oxbox Bend - Grand Teton N.P. (9-image panorama)
© David Kingham / Craft & Vision

Table of Contents. Nightscape is divided into six main sections:

1. Understanding the Night Sky (20 pages) - i.e., the Milky Way, Meteor Showers, Moon Phases, Constellations, Galaxies, Comets, and the Aurora
2. Scouting (19 pages) - i.e., The Milky Way’s Cycle, Meteor Showers, Finding Dark Skies, Finding A Foreground Subject, and [predicting the] Weather
3. Gear (9 pages) - i.e., Selecting A Camera, Selecting A Lens, Panoramic Gear, Intervalometer, Lighting, and Tracking Mount
4. In the Field (7 pages) - i.e., [dealing with] Fear, Cold, Darkness, and Composing In The Dark
5. Shooting Techniques (26 pages) - Basic and Advanced
6. Post Processing (33 pages) - Lightroom Effects and Special Effects

Sample Pages from each section:

Pg. 22: Describing "Airglow" in the Understanding the Night Sky section
of Nightscape ~ © David Kingham / Craft & Vision

Pg. 26: Charting the Milky Way's cycles from the Scouting section of Nightscape ~ © Craft & Vision

Pg. 48: Sample page from the Gear section of Nightscape ~ © Craft & Vision

Pg. 58: Sample page (cropped) from the In the Field section of Nightscape
© David Kingham / Craft & Vision

Pg. 75: Illustrating how to lower noise in the foreground exposure, from the Shooting Techniques
section of Nightscape ~ © David Kingham / Craft & Vision

Pg. 96: Before & after Lightroom adjustment examples, from from the Post Processing
section of Nightscape ~ © David Kingham / Craft & Vision

Resources Page. Nightscape ends with an excellent Resources page that includes 51 hot links to charts, tools, software, and workshops.

Conclusion. Pros: No other ebook currently comes close to providing the depth and focus that Nightscape provides for the starry night astro-landscape photographer. The book is well organized, and beautifully designed, which is typical of Craft and Vision books. Cons: Although the Lightroom post processing techniques are plentiful and well illustrated, there are no Photoshop techniques in the book. The light painting equipment discussion is adequate, but is lacking in how-to examples.

Availability: As of May 19, Nightscape is available for online purchase directly from Craft and Vision for $12.00, and includes a download link to 22 of David's Lightroom presets. Special Discount: This ebook will be on sale (20% off) for $9.60 through May 26.

COMPARISON to other night photography ebooks: Last November I did a review on the Shooting Stars ebook. Although I recommend both of these books, they are quite different in their scope. Shooting Stars covers a broader range of night photography, whereas Kingham's Nightscape has a narrower focus, with a greater depth of information in his area of expertise.

Royce's 2014 Workshop, Lecture & Video Conference Schedule: NightScapeEvents.com