Wide Angles at Every Budget - Sigma 14mm ART, Irix 15mm Blackstone and Samyang 14mm f/2.8

➨ My Recommended Gear:
Sigma 14mm ART(and the other lenses) RAW images:
Buy the IRIX 15mm Lens:
Buy the SIgma 14mm Lens:
Buy the Rokinon/Samyang 14mm Lens:
Wide Angle lens recommendations for Crop (APS-C and Micro 4/3rds)
NOTE - ROKINON AND SAMYANG ARE THE SAME
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The Sigma 14mm f/1.8 is the world's first lens that is this wide 14mm and this fast f1.8. It costs $1600, is heavy at 2.5lbs, and has a bulbous front element with a fixed lens hood making it costly to use filters, though Sigma has just announced they will install a rear filter holder for thin gel filters BUt it is sharp virtually distortion free and an absolute blast to shoot the stars with. If you are serious about photographing the stars you are aware some lenses have issues with coma - this is where the stars near the edges and corners of some lenses get little wings. Wide open at f/1.8 I did see some coma on brighter stars but not enough to concern me and overall I am VERY happy with this lens. It is autofocus which doesn’t really matter for astrophotography, but having autofocus, which I found to be fast and accurate, does make this a much more versatile lens during the daytime than either the IRIX or the Rokinon. The Sigma exhibits some vignetting wide open but that quickly disappears as you stop down. Optically this is as fine a lens as you can put on your camera. Period.
The Irix Blackstone offers 15mm at f/2.4, priced at $600 and weighs just 1.5lbs this is actually the better build quality version of the IRIX firefly a $400 lens, Optically the two are identical and differ only in build quality with the firefly having a plastic exterior weighing just 1.3lbs The Blackstone features aluminum and magnesium alloy. Both are weather sealed, offer a click stop at infinity focus that I found to be dead on accurate and a focus lock AND you can use standard, filters with 95mm threads. The hood also provides a little door for manipulating circular polarizers and is removable. I was impressed - this lens is sharp, also distortion free and at f/2.4 is a 1/2 stop faster than the Rokinon. That coupled with the additional features I mentioned make this lens and the cheaper firefly an excellent value replacing the Rokinon as my budget pick - The rokinon at $340 is cheaper than the firefly but doesn’t allow screw on filters, no focus lock and a focus ring that feels less precise and lots more distortion and not as sharp. The distortion doesn’t really matter when shooting the stars or the milky way but for other uses it does matter. The Rokinon also has no electronic contacts- aperture control is on the lens and the metadata in Lightroom is lacking. The Irix lenses do provide aperture control through the camera and register properly the lens and the aperture. In testing I shot with all these lenses mounted on a Canon 6D Mark II or the 5D Mark IV and a Sony a7RII using the Sigma MC-11 adapter - I saw no issues with any of the lenses on the Sony with the adapter and the Sigma AF worked well.
I have full raw images from each of these lenses for you to inspect -link for those is below this video. In summary- The Sigma is an excellent and versatile lens if you don’t mind paying. The Irix Blackstone or Firefly are great values and the firefly is now my pick for budget wide angle work at night or during the day and the Rokinon, well it is still a decent lens, I just think it is worth it to pay a little more for the Firefly. And don’t forget about the Venus 12mm f/2.8 - I reviewed that lens in Alaska last year - a good choice if you want to go even wider that review is linked below.