A Jewel in the Rough
Somehow for around 150 bucks Opteka has managed to create a lens that works great. It is as sharp as any Nikon, Sigma, Tamron wide angle I have used. Tested on a Nikon D800e. Being a total nerd I test my lenses at various apertures and subject distances, this thing passed every test, even on distant subjects. This little bugger is small and accepts a 77mm filter. It's unbelievable how Opteka has a lens design a fraction of the weight and bulk of other ultra-wides that does so well. Center and MOST of the frame is awesome at all apertures. Very far edges are a little soft wide-open and do not improve greatly when closing down but still are way better on the edges than most of the lenses I've named above in this focal range. Yes there is some vignetting (fixable in post), the aperture is not in clicks and it is stiff. You have to manually set everything. It is possible I got extremely lucky with a great copy of this lens and extremely unlucky with over a dozen Nikon/Sigma/Tamron lenses that disappointed much more on the edges. Hope if you get one - it is a good one too!
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