I absolutely love this lens and so glad I got it. The funny thing is, I wasn’t expecting to buy a super wide angle (figured I’d be super happy with JUST the beastly 25-75 midrange workhorse because I’m so impressed with that lens) but this lens kept calling me for a few reasons.
1. It’s compact compared to the other zooms in the lineup. I needed a walk around, vlog-capable lens and this fits that bill incredibly well especially since I’m on an S35 sensor on the Red Komodo. It balances incredibly well handheld and all the rings (zoom, focus, aperture) are dampened the way you’d expect. The focus ring is the smoothest so you can quickly change focus, the zoom ring is tighter (but still smooth) so you don’t lose your focal length by carrying it about, and the aperture ring is smooth too, and consistently sits at the right T stop (it’s de-clicked) so there’s no bump that will knock it about.
The focal length lets me capture the majority of my environment with minimal (if any distortion) among the edges. I don’t feel like limbs or faces are too elongated at all, especially at close focusing distances which is just around 12-13” inches. There slight chromatic aberration (but beautiful purple flaring) on the wide end when incredibly bright sources of light are behind your subject or in the distance when you’re wide open at T/2.8. It hasn’t posed any issues and I love the character of the lens. It’s sharp and contrasts, but can definitely give some character when light hits it a certain way.
Beyond being able to capture the entire environment, I can zoom in without any disturbance to the focus point and have a standard 20mm (30mm FF equivalent) lens for when I need a tighter shot.
2. It has an incredibly close focusing distance compared to the other zooms and this is particularly helpful when you want to get close to the action and still retain your environment. While there’s not really any distortion, focusing closely on faces can change the magnification just a bit on the wide end, but it’s nothing to be worried about. It’s artistic any way lol.
3. This focal length lets you capture slow motion in the red Komodo (since there’s a crop) without being too tight on a shot as is with other lenses already in the normal focal ranges.
All in all, this lens hasn’t really been taken off my Komodo because I just love how the aesthetics, functionality, and image it produces all blend together for a great set up.
To see some YouTube content I created with this lens, please check out YouTube.com/timdagraca.
If you decide to buy this lens you won’t be disappointed. It’s stellar!
