What Opinions Do We Have On Cheaper UWA?

Over the years I've owned and eventually sold off UWA lenses within the Canon system. Usually, I find I have limited, occasional use for UWA an d it is hard to justify owning a very expensive lens for this use.

There are some cheap to moderately expensive options for UWA with the e-mount. I guess I'm tempted by the cost of the lowest price option, but wish each option had some of the other lenses features. What do you all think about:

Rokinon 14/2.8 manual focus - Bad distortion, and this thing looks like some kind of Frankenstein's monster with the grafted on E-mount adaptor. Cheap enough to maybe not care at about $300 price point.

Rokinon 14/2.8 AF - Waaaaay sexier lens, looks like it was designed by a human. But not actually all that much smaller and lighter than the MF lens. Distortion is much better. All this for about $600 - huge jump from the monster in cost.

Rokinon 20/1.8 - Probably more in line with what I need in focal length (14mm is so wide, I dunno). But now we have a MF lens where the focal length is long enough that autofocus might actually be of use sometimes. Also splits the cost difference at $450 between the above two.

Everything else is >$1000 and simply not on my radar as UWA is not a priority.

The voigtlander 15mm e-mount lens is around $800 new. Wonderful super wide angle.

Hogloff wrote in post #18588090
The voigtlander 15mm e-mount lens is around $800 new. Wonderful super wide angle.

Attractive as far as size, cost and performance. My only hesitation there is that one thing I often do with UWA lenses is star field photography, and f/4.5 is pretty slow for that.

I'm really hoping that someone, perhaps Tamron or Sigma makes a high quality, light, UWA zoom with a short range. Something like a 16-28, 18-30, or a 20-35, you get the gist. High IQ and 300g or so

Someone clued me in to the Irix offerings. They don't make an E-mount lens, but I have an MC-11 adaptor anyway. For around $500 for a 15mm f/2.4 it looks like a nice option.

Tokina Firin 20mm f/2

If you want wide and fast there's also the Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/2. A little pricey at $850, but below your $1000 threshold

How wide do you need for your Astro? Whilst not a uwa I use a canon mount rokinon 24 1.4 adapted with a dumb adaptor. Incredible coma performance and really sharp across the frame at landscape apertures. It’s cheap too, think I paid £300

I also own the CV15 which is an amazing lens although slower as mentioned above

I figured I'd give an update. I did ultimately decide to get the Irix 15mm f/2.4 lens in EF mount, which I use with an MC-11 adaptor on my Sony. I also use it direct on my 5D Mark III.

The pluses are, the lens is well made and is generally a pleasure to use. The lens works well with both Sony and Canon. The combination of infinity detent, nice focus range marks, and a focus lock is a nice layout. The lens is sharp and generally what I would consider a good performer in this price range, and this wide of an AOV. The aperture control with the MC-11 is fine. Overall I'd recommend it if something this wide and manual focus fits your needs.

There are a few negatives however, so I want to point these out:
1) My lens arrived incorrectly adjusted for infinity focus. This would be a niggle on an AF lens, but this thing is MF and specifically marked and setup with a detent to allow the use of the focus scale. Enjoying astro-photography, I looked forward to being able to use and count on the infinity detent.
1) Continued - The good news about point 1 is that the lens is set up to allow adjustment for infinity focus. I did this, it worked. So on the one hand, not a huge deal and correctable. On the other hand, this is pretty inexcusable quality control. It's like they gave us the adjustment because they knew their quality was going to terrible. Do they even calibrate infinity?
2) The lens is kind of big, but I'd have to say not much bigger than I'd expect for 15mm and f/2.4.
3) The focus ring is a little too stiff IMO.