Quick Test with the Samyang 12mm f2
Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to take the Samyang 12mm f2 wide angle prime lens for a quick walk in the paddock and pitlane during the set up day for the European Le Mans Series event at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
I already have the superb 8mm f2.8 fisheye made by the Korean manufacturer and I was intrigued to see how good the Samyang 12mm f2 would be in the real world. I am happy to report that the results were just as I expected - they were excellent! The lens gives the same field of view as an 18mm f2 on a full frame camera.
Like the 8mm fisheye, the 12mm f2 is manual focus only and there is no electronic coupling with the camera so the EXIF data shows the lens to be a 50mm f1.0. You can set the data in the camera to 12mm manually but in the EXIF data the aperture will always show f1.0 - this is annoying but not a big problem in my book.
The build quality of the lens is excellent, it has a solid feel with a metal lens mount. The aperture ring moves with a fluid motion, but not too loose that you can easily knock it off the setting you have selected. The focus ring is also excellent and focusing this lens manually is very good and precise, especially if you select 'focus peaking' on the X-Series cameras to aid you.
Price and Competition
I only had 20-minutes with this lens, which isn't very long but I was suitably impressed. With a street price of just over £300 (£305 at WEX), which has to be considered a bit of a bargain for a lens of this quality.
The widest Fujinon prime is the 14mm f2.8 (21mm equivalent) and there is also the brilliant 10-24mm f4 zoom lens, which I have had in my camera bag since the lens was launched in 2014.
Zeiss make a 12mm f2.8 Touit for the Fujifilm X Series. I haven't tried this lens yet but it is a Zeiss and the quality of the lens will be in no doubt. It also has the advantage of having AF and also connects electronically with the camera so all data is available.
The Zeiss comes with a price tag of £749 at WEX and the Fujinon 10-24mm is £759, 2.5 times the price of the manual focus Samyang and the Korean lens is one stop faster than the Zeiss and 2 stops better than the Fujifilm lens.
Conclusion
If you are on a tight budget and you want an ultra wide lens for your X Series camera then I can certainly recommend you look at the Samyang 12mm f2.
The quality of the images it produces are great and as long as you don't mind using a manual focus lens and aren't bothered by the lack of exif data, then this is a great lens to consider adding to your X-Series camera bag.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE
By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALL IMAGES (UNLESS INDICATED) ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION
MacLean Photographic run Tours and Workshops in East Lothian and the Borders of Scotland. CLICK HERE for more details and availability
Jeff Carter is an Official Fujifilm X Photographer and was named as a Fujifilm brand ambassador in June 2015. In 2016 he worked with the company on the launches of the Fujifilm X-Pro2 in Tokyo and the Fujifilm X-T2 in Paris in July 2016. You can view his profile and gallery on the Fujifilm website HERE
Comments
Post a Comment