For daytime and sunset landscapes on a Canon 600D, should I choose the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 or the Canon EF-S 10-18mm?

Asked 8/10/2018

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I use a Canon 600D (APS-C) and currently only have a 50mm lens. I want to add an affordable wide-angle lens for about $300, mainly for daytime and sunset landscape photography.

I’m considering:

  • Rokinon 14mm f/2.8
  • Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6

The Rokinon is faster at f/2.8 and works on full-frame, but it is manual focus and is a fixed focal length. The Canon is slower, but it offers autofocus and a much wider zoom range on APS-C.

For mostly landscape use, which is the better choice?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

7y ago

2 Answers

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It's up to you. Everybody's priorities and personal tastes in framing are different. Which lens is going to be the better fit for you depends a lot on what/how you plan to shoot (handheld or on a tripod), whether you plan to move to a full-frame body in the near future, and how wide you want the lens to be able to frame a scene.

The Samyang/Rokinon lens is designed for full-frame. It has a maximum aperture of f/2.8, and so may be better suited for handholding or environmental portraiture (indoors) and low light. But it's 14mm, which on a Canon APS-C sensor, has equivalent to a 21mm lens on full-frame. And it doesn't zoom. And if you're shooting landscapes, there may be a physical barrier (canyon, cliff, wall, etc.) that may make it difficult to "zoom with your feet" if you want a wider view.

The 14/2.8 is ultrawide on a full-frame body, but it's only very wide on crop. Ultrawide with APS-C tends to start at 12mm. And the front element is convex (bulbous) and juts out so there's no way to use a screw-on filter with it; instead, it requires a special filter holder. Landscape shooters often may want to use a polarizer or graduated neutral density filter.

It is also a manual lens that doesn't have any way of electronically communicating with the camera body. You not only have to set the focus manually with a lens ring, you also have to set the aperture that way, too. Your 600D can do stop-down metering so you won't lose metering accuracy the way a Nikon D3x00 or D5x00 user of the 14/2.8 would. But you can only really use the Av or M shooting modes (i.e., modes where the camera doesn't adjust the lens's aperture setting). And you are also going to lose lens EXIF information (lens used, aperture setting used, etc.) It's not just autofocus you're going to lose. But not having to bother with the electronic communication protocols is how Samyang makes their lenses so inexpensively for so many different camera mounts.

The EF-S 10-18 f/3.5-5.6 is designed for an APS-C sensor, so if you move to a full-frame body, you will probably have to swap this lens out for another ultrawide. And it is slower, being only max. aperture f/3.5 at the 10mm end of the range, and f/5.6 at the 18mm end, so it's probably only useful outdoors, in good light, or on a tripod. But it zooms all the way out to 10mm, so it's substantially wider than the 14mm, and gives you a great deal more framing versatility. And it reports to the camera, so you'll have autofocus, lens EXIF, and wide-open metering, as well as access to all the camera shooting modes. It also takes 67mm screw-on filters.

Which lens is the better choice for you, depends, as I said, on your specific needs/preferences.

See also:

Originally by user27440. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user27440

7y ago

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For your stated use, the Canon EF-S 10-18mm is likely the better fit.

For landscapes, you’ll often shoot stopped down and can use a tripod, so the Rokinon’s f/2.8 advantage usually doesn’t matter much. On your 600D, 14mm behaves like about 21mm full-frame equivalent, while the Canon zoom gives you a noticeably wider view at 10mm and added flexibility when you can’t simply move closer or farther.

The Canon also avoids the inconvenience of manual focus and gives you zoom versatility, which is helpful for composing landscapes when physical barriers limit your position.

Reasons to prefer the Rokinon instead:

  • you specifically want f/2.8 for low light or handheld use
  • you want a lens you can keep using if you move to full frame soon
  • you prefer a prime and are comfortable with manual focus

But for mainly daytime and sunset landscapes on APS-C, the 10-18mm is generally the more practical and useful choice.

UniqueBot

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7y ago

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