I have had this lens for less than 24hrs. I have never used a tilt/shift lens before but I read-up on them for two days before I received it. FIRST: YES THE LENS FITS BOTH A7R2 AND A7R3 (despite Amazon's confusion!). SECOND: BOTH BODIES WORK WITH THE LENS IN 'A' SETTING TO AUTOMATICALLY ADJUST EXPOSURE (the lens' instruction manual is not definitive on this topic). THIRDLY: IT IS NEARLY A THIRD OF THE PRICE OF CANON AND NIKON LABELLED TILT/SHIFT LENSES.
I acquired this lens specifically to overcome converging verticals in architecture, art display and internal church photos.
My first attempt was to use Shift to correct this distortion in wall hung art. Camera on tripod, level with wall and sensor vertical. Shift up, adjust aperture and focus, shoot Perfect. Far superior result from attempting post processing adjustment in Lightroom.
Second attempt was to use horizontal Tilt to extend in-focus oblique shot of two paintings on the same wall 2 metres apart. Piece of cake.
However I cannot imagine doing this more than once a year, if that. There are several clever stunts that you can carry out with this lens but I will consistently use it purely in correcting vertical distortion and for this the lens is worth its price.
Is the lens as good as its £1,800 Canon/Nikon labelled lenses? Probably not. Is the competition worth three times the price? I am not tempted in the slightest, even if I could find a E Fit comparative lens.
I am delighted with this lens and if I have any further comment after extended use I will amend this brief review.
I will add that this lens is an extremely complex piece of machinery and if you are heavy handed best not risk it.
One review I read remarked that after a short while one views distorted photos with an ever greater critical eye. I look forward to that time. For copyright reasons I have not included photos. May do so later.

I have had this lens for less than 24hrs. I have never used a tilt/shift lens before but I read-up on them for two days before I received it. FIRST: YES THE LENS FITS BOTH A7R2 AND A7R3 (despite Amazon's confusion!). SECOND: BOTH BODIES WORK WITH THE LENS IN 'A' SETTING TO AUTOMATICALLY ADJUST EXPOSURE (the lens' instruction manual is not definitive on this topic). THIRDLY: IT IS NEARLY A THIRD OF THE PRICE OF CANON AND NIKON LABELLED TILT/SHIFT LENSES.I acquired this lens specifically to overcome converging verticals in architecture, art display and internal church photos.My first attempt was to use Shift to correct this distortion in wall hung art. Camera on tripod, level with wall and sensor vertical. Shift up, adjust aperture and focus, shoot Perfect. Far superior result from attempting post processing adjustment in Lightroom.Second attempt was to use horizontal Tilt to extend in-focus oblique shot of two paintings on the same wall 2 metres apart. Piece of cake. However I cannot imagine doing this more than once a year, if that. There are several clever stunts that you can carry out with this lens but I will consistently use it purely in correcting vertical distortion and for this the lens is worth its price.Is the lens as good as its £1,800 Canon/Nikon labelled lenses? Probably not. Is the competition worth three times the price? I am not tempted in the slightest, even if I could find a E Fit comparative lens.I am delighted with this lens and if I have any further comment after extended use I will amend this brief review.I will add that this lens is an extremely complex piece of machinery and if you are heavy handed best not risk it.One review I read remarked that after a short while one views distorted photos with an ever greater critical eye. I look forward to that time. For copyright reasons I have not included photos. May do so later.

Great lense

I bought one of these lenses, and it arrived yesterday. I was worried, having seen some very critical reviews, but I decided to risk it. It was the only option for me, as I have a Pentax - it's all very well saying Canon or Nikon are better, but that's not much help! So this morning I took it on a test walk, as my only lens on my KP body. It's heavy and quite beefy and solid, not as fragile as I was led to expect. The knobs could be bigger, especially the locking knobs, but it's not such a big deal. They do lock fine. So I took some pictures, ones which don't really matter, street scenes and contre-jour of a stream, just to assess it. Having finished, I was walking home when an exceptionally friendly and striking cat came up to me. How I wished I had another lens, but needs must ... So I didn't use any movements as I wanted to see what the lens was like, and movements wouldn't make a bad lens into a good one, set it to between 5.6 and 8, and took some close-ups anyway. Really easy and smooth to focus, the beep tells me when it's sharp, even at small apertures, when it's also quite bright on my KP even at f16. The cat was moving a bit, but I took some shots. Back home on the computer I was dreading it. I needn't have worried, they are FANTASTIC, beautiful. Cat's eyes and whiskers pin sharp, and the body actually has a very pleasant blur. Quite a bit of money very well spent, will use with the movements tomorrow. Oh the stream turned out well, too, nice highlights, it's just a boring picture!

This is a great lens if you are prepared to live with the compromises made to get it to this price point. It will need stopping down a little (F8 / F11) to sharpen up the corners. Flare resistance is OK. It is predominantly plastic, but a good glass-filled engineering plastic with a tight fit. The tilt and shift movements are not very well damped, but who cares, this isn't a point-and-shoot lens (although, after some practice and using the artificial horizon on my camera, I can use it perfectly hand-held). Focussing is not very smooth as it is by cam-and-slot like most modern lenses, but then again my reference point here are my Minolta lenses from the 70's / 80's so maybe my expectations are too high... In order to be able to work with a single lens mount across all my lenses, I have modified the Nikon version of this to a native Minolta SR mount. This can be done in a totally non-destructive and reversible manner by replacing the screwed-on Nikon mount with a 55mm Minolta Reverse Ring II (need to drill 4 holes in the latter and find 4 appropriate screws). As luck would have it no shimming was required and infinity focus is spot on on my Minolta SRT / XD / X700 cameras and SONY A7s.

Haven't used the Nikon PC-E 24mm and probably will never try it as this Samyang lens is already giving me everything I need.

I have been shooting with this lens for a few weeks and use it as a general walk around lens. This may not be what it is intended for but I do find one of the most mentioned disadvantages of this lens on the internet - shift movement too loose is indeed in my favour using it in such way. As a general walk around lens, everything needs to be adjusted quickly and conveniently. With this 'design flaw', I can loosen the knob with two fingers on my right hand, adjust the shift with two fingers on my left hand by directly moving the lens, without using the adjustment knob, and use the right hand to tighten the lock knob. Or sometimes even without using the lock knob at all, just hold the shift in place with my hand. Maybe this will damage the lens somehow as you are supposed to lock the knob. But since there is nothing but glass and metal in it, I don't think there is much to damage.

Image quality, as everyone who has bought this lens should had already known before buying, it needs to be stopped down to F11 to get sharp images. In daylight, this won't be a problem at all. Indoor, definitely need a tripod to do some proper live view focus and enough exposure to get decent non-shaky images. When in focus, it is surprisingly sharp. It does take some practice to get accurate manual focus especially on distant objects at such wide angle but it's not that difficult. Green dot method doesn't quite work as I find the image always slightly out of focus if relying on the green dot. Auto metering is fine on D3s using P mode, unless using filters. As everyone has different eyes and standards for image quality, please have a look at the two test images I uploaded for reference, no PP, so this is what you would get straight out of the camera.

Flare could be an issue, depending on personal preferences. I don't like flares. When facing the sun, even when the sun is not in the frame, you wo

Haven't used the Nikon PC-E 24mm and probably will never try it as this Samyang lens is already giving me everything I need.I have been shooting with this lens for a few weeks and use it as a general walk around lens. This may not be what it is intended for but I do find one of the most mentioned disadvantages of this lens on the internet - shift movement too loose is indeed in my favour using it in such way. As a general walk around lens, everything needs to be adjusted quickly and conveniently. With this 'design flaw', I can loosen the knob with two fingers on my right hand, adjust the shift with two fingers on my left hand by directly moving the lens, without using the adjustment knob, and use the right hand to tighten the lock knob. Or sometimes even without using the lock knob at all, just hold the shift in place with my hand. Maybe this will damage the lens somehow as you are supposed to lock the knob. But since there is nothing but glass and metal in it, I don't think there is much to damage.Image quality, as everyone who has bought this lens should had already known before buying, it needs to be stopped down to F11 to get sharp images. In daylight, this won't be a problem at all. Indoor, definitely need a tripod to do some proper live view focus and enough exposure to get decent non-shaky images. When in focus, it is surprisingly sharp. It does take some practice to get accurate manual focus especially on distant objects at such wide angle but it's not that difficult. Green dot method doesn't quite work as I find the image always slightly out of focus if relying on the green dot. Auto metering is fine on D3s using P mode, unless using filters. As everyone has different eyes and standards for image quality, please have a look at the two test images I uploaded for reference, no PP, so this is what you would get straight out of the camera.Flare could be an issue, depending on personal preferences. I don't like flares. When facing the sun, even when the sun is not in the frame, you would get loads of flares.

had to return this lens incredibly soft, i thoght Samyang had sorted there QC issues out, such a pity

Great lens! 5 star

DSLR Gear UK provided me with a clear response to the Sony mount offered, they confirmed that in this instance it is an A series type. I can now make an informed decision and their help is greatly appreciated.

A top quality product that allows the photographerto include some real improvements to landscapesand close-ups. Expensive but treat yourself!