Gary Wolstenholme reviews the Samyang 12mm f/2.0 NCS CS lens in Micro Four Thirds mount.
| Samyang 12mm f/2.0 NCS CS MFT in Interchangeable Lenses
This 12mm wide-angle lens is available to fit a wide range of mirrorless system cameras, including Canon M, Fujifilm X, Samsung NX, Micro Four Thirds, and Sony E mount compatible cameras. On a Micro Four Thirds camera, as tested here, it offers an angle of view equivalent to a 24mm lens on a 35mm camera (or 18mm on APS-C cameras). This wide-angle, coupled with the fast f/2 maximum aperture and low price of £330, should make it a very interesting lens for many. In this review, we’ll take a look at how it performs.
Samyang 12mm f/2.0 NCS CS Handling and Features
The build quality of this lens is excellent. It feels very solid, despite weighing only 245g. The lens mount is metal and the lens is also compact for a lens with a bright f/2 maximum aperture. This makes the lens a perfect companion for more compact Micro Four Thirds bodies and it balances well with the Panasonic Lumix GX7 used for testing.
Aperture control and focusing are both completely manual, as the lens has no electronic interface with the camera. The aperture ring is divided into half stop intervals, and clicks firmly into place for each. The focusing ring is well damped, and smooth to operate, which makes focusing a pleasure. Focus distances from infinity to the closest focus distance of 20cm are marked on the ring, but no hyperfocal scale is provided.
Taking images of anything over a metre or two away is straightforward, as the lens can simply be left set to infinity. For closer distances it is recommended to use the magnification or focus peaking features of your camera to ensure sharp focus.
Comments
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3 Dec 2014 12:37AMWould be interested to see if it performs as well on an APS-C sensor as I would guess that m43 uses the 'best' central part of the image circle?
For me this lens is more interesting on APS-C like Sony or Fuji as it gives an ultra wide fov (18mm equivalent in ff/35mm film terms) whereas the 24mm fov is a more common wide angle and a few m43 zoom lenses offer this already.
Would love to see a m43 prime lens between 7 and 9mm and f.28 or faster for a reasonable price. MF is fine with me especially if it brings cots down(I already own the excellent 7.5mm fisheye) - but the only real advantage of this Samyang 12mm is the f2.0 aperture. I am sure the Panasonic 12-32 is near enough as good at 12mm and offers autofocus too plus it costs slightly less.
Am almost tempted to pick up this lens in Fuji or Sony mount and a cheap used Nex or Fuji XA-1 to mount it on, as the wider fov combined with f2.0 makes it more interesting than the m43 version. Don't really want to buy (yet another) camera though!
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4 Dec 2014 8:12AMYou can watch two video tests with the Samyang Rokinon 12mm F/2.0 MFT.
• http://vimeo.com/111931493
• http://vimeo.com/111886761
Enjoy,
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4 Dec 2014 1:57PMhttp://admiringlight.com/blog/review-rokinon-samyang-12mm-f2-0-ncs-cs-sony-e-mount/
http://petapixel.com/2014/06/04/review-rokinon-12mm-f2-0-great-option-astrophotogs-budget/
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17 Dec 2014 4:01PMhttp://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3706847
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