1 Canon lens vs. 3 non Canon lenses?

Hey again,

I am saving to buy glasses as usual, and as usual, confused about which one to go, so i planned to save enough budget to buy the glass i want.

The Canon glass i am planning to buy is TS 24mm II, and you know how much it costs, then i looked at another brands, and found i can buy 3 different lenses at almost same price of just 1 Canon TS one, so if you are in my place, which option you will go with?

The 3 lenses i saw that are almost closer to 1 Canon TS24mm II price are:

- Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM
- Rokinon Tilt-Shift 24mm f/3.5 ED AS UMC
- Rokinon 14mm Ultra Wide-Angle f/2.8 IF ED UMC

So, i am not sure if the quality of Rokinon is not that bad or if it will be just fine on my Canon DSLRs?

Opinions please?

There is very little that will have as much effect on your image quality as will the quality of the lens you use. Good quality hardly ever comes cheap. Make sure you are going to get quality that will be equivalent to the "expensive" lens. I cannot remember a single time with ANY type of product where I regretted buying quality, even if it was more expensive. I can remember several times where I regretted buying on the basis of cost alone (especially while I was later buying the more expensive product that I should have bought in the first place). The longer you own quality, the cheaper it starts to look.

I assume you bought a DSLR because you want quality photos. Don't give away that quality to "save" money.

rral22 wrote in post #16352589
There is very little that will have as much effect on your image quality as will the quality of the lens you use. Good quality hardly ever comes cheap. Make sure you are going to get quality that will be equivalent to the "expensive" lens. I cannot remember a single time with ANY type of product where I regretted buying quality, even if it was more expensive. I can remember several times where I regretted buying on the basis of cost alone (especially while I was later buying the more expensive product that I should have bought in the first place). The longer you own quality, the cheaper it starts to look.

I assume you bought a DSLR because you want quality photos. Don't give away that quality to "save" money.

Well, not talking about Canon quality, but that second option is including Sigma 35mm the new one, and from what i hear its quality is same as or even better than Canon same equivalent FL, so i was left with only Rokinon glasses, so if they are good enough or say about 80-90% of Canon quality then it will be no brainier, but i can't find many reviews about Rokinon or even Samyang glasses of those above FLs.

I can vouch for the Rokinon 14mm. It's a pretty awesome lens and is very sharp. There is a mustache distortion that needs to be fixed with a lens profile. The only problem is that the quality control is poor, so you might get a bad one. I got a good one on the first try. At least it seems fine to me. I would purchase it somewhere that will allow you to return it for another copy. B&H and Amazon comes to mind.

HiepBuiPhotography wrote in post #16352664
I can vouch for the Rokinon 14mm. It's a pretty awesome lens and is very sharp. There is a mustache distortion that needs to be fixed with a lens profile. The only problem is that the quality control is poor, so you might get a bad one. I got a good one on the first try. At least it seems fine to me. I would purchase it somewhere that will allow you to return it for another copy. B&H and Amazon comes to mind.

I will purchase it from B&H, but i order only online overseas, i don't know if it will cost me a lot to return it back for another copy, or is that return policy apply even for overseas/international orders?

Still not in rush, Sigma and Canon are confirmed as quality, just waiting for Rokinon reviews.

That's what I did back when the TSE 24 II was new. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Easily my most used lens.

Then again, take my experience with a grain of salt - I tend to travel lightly and never carry more than two lenses with me (always primes).

Have you ever used a TS-E lens? Do you know what they do and need a lens that does what TS-E do?

If you have never used one, you might consider renting and taking for a test drive, before buying.

The Sigma 35mm and Rokinon 14mm are radically different types of lenses.

I have the bower 14, and it's pretty damn sharp and unique. like amfoto suggests, the sig35 and roki 14 are radically different lenses, so kinda hard to make that call.

Well, i am not much interested in 35mm focal length, i only want a tilt/shift lens, i didn't use one before, but i exactly know what they do or used for, i have a large format with movements, so TS is there to be used for something, and many here knows that my main photography type is landscape and architecture [mostly indoors if i can access to such places], so i know that movements can help here.

and i added that 14mm because if i will go with second option with a budget of one Canon TS L lens then i can have more for joy, 14mm is great for landscapes as well, mostly i may use it for star and astronomy photography, and it is almost cheap, TS is expensive even with Rokinon/Samyang/Bower, but Canon TS 24mm is almost 3 times of those 3rd party TS lenses, and i bought lots of filters, so i want to have more outdoors of landscapes/waterscapes shots, and i know that primes giving me better sharpness than zooms.

Again, i am not in rush, i can buy that Canon TS, but then i can't buy any another lens for long time, and saving money is not always happening because i know i save now to buy later even if i go with cheap lenses to save.

A TS is also something I've been looking at as a future lens purchase. At first I was having a hard time deciding if I should go 17mm or 24mm(since you can use TCs on these menses). I ultimately decided to go 24mm since my current filters can be used on it and 24mm is what I'd use more often. Even though I really like shooting the types of things a TS would be great for I don't shoot them as often as other types of things so I'm still strongly considering the Rokinon.

I still feel like that even with the current rebate the Rokinon still doesn't give enough savings for it's short comings(maybe at $600). Unfortunately it's not sharp like their other offerings unless you stop down quite a bit which kind of negates one of the things the tilt brings(giving deep depth of field w/o having to stop down so much-diffraction).

If plan on shooting stopped down mostly f11(it's basically usable at f5.6 and starts being pretty good at f8) or more then this lens will perform quite well while giving substantial saving.

Tareq wrote in post #16352529
Hey again,

I am saving to buy glasses as usual, and as usual, confused about which one to go, so i planned to save enough budget to buy the glass i want.

The Canon glass i am planning to buy is TS 24mm II, and you know how much it costs, then i looked at another brands, and found i can buy 3 different lenses at almost same price of just 1 Canon TS one, so if you are in my place, which option you will go with?

The 3 lenses i saw that are almost closer to 1 Canon TS24mm II price are:

- Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM
- Rokinon Tilt-Shift 24mm f/3.5 ED AS UMC
- Rokinon 14mm Ultra Wide-Angle f/2.8 IF ED UMC

So, i am not sure if the quality of Rokinon is not that bad or if it will be just fine on my Canon DSLRs?

Opinions please?

Probably be OK with either direction unless you are publishing photos in Nat Geo or something No one is going to know what brand of lens you used. For example, I have the Rokinon fisheye lens. It provides pretty good resolution. I've received a lot of compliments on the photos I've posted. But most of that feedback is due to my compositions, not how sharp the photos are. Heck I also have an S100 with underwater housing. Again lots of compliments on those photos even though the (camera) lens is inexpensive.

Obviously a lot depends on one's skill as a photographer. In the case of this fisheye it costs *much* less than the Canon equivalent, that sealed my decision. However, I own five other EF lenses -- all are Canons including a couple Ls. Sticking with Canon is just my personal preference.

BTW it took me many years to assemble my collection. Started with an EF 50mm which was my sole lens for my first year. Bottom line: it's just a hobby for me, I stay on a budget.

Looking at your gear list it looks like you could afford all 4 of them

Looking at my gear list, it look like i don't want to get much more, say 1-2 glasses every 2 years, i can go with 3 glasses if the budget is allowed.

rral22 wrote in post #16352589
There is very little that will have as much effect on your image quality as will the quality of the lens you use. Good quality hardly ever comes cheap. Make sure you are going to get quality that will be equivalent to the "expensive" lens. I cannot remember a single time with ANY type of product where I regretted buying quality, even if it was more expensive. I can remember several times where I regretted buying on the basis of cost alone (especially while I was later buying the more expensive product that I should have bought in the first place). The longer you own quality, the cheaper it starts to look.

I assume you bought a DSLR because you want quality photos. Don't give away that quality to "save" money.

There is very little "quality" difference from the top tear glass to the next tear, but quite often there is a large price difference. Many people equate quality and price, and quite often they go hand in hand...but in the end given 5 photos hanging on the wall, can you tell which lens shot which photo. If not, then you are wasting money chasing the hyped quality of expenses lens.

I dont know about the rokinon tilt shift but the other 2 are excellent lenses for the price