Samyang AF 12mm F2.0 Autofocus Lens for Sony E

Product Information

Vignetting is the light falloff, or dark corners, found in an image. The vignetting on the Rokinon 12mm is strongest at f/2.0, but falls off considerable as I approach f/8. You can look at the corners at some of the photos in this review to see the vignetting on the 12mm. Most of the time when I’m shooting at f/2.0 I’m composing a shot in low light so the dark corners are hardly noticeable. This is another exposure issue that is very easy to correct for in post processing. Distortion 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. Thanks for reviewing this lens, have been interested in it for a while and it sounds like a good performer. The lens has so far only been announced in a version for Sony cameras. An uncoupled mount is easily interchangeable, but that doesn’t apply to the algorithms for the autofocus. The addition of autofocus makes this lens highly versatile. The mechanical version was already very good for landscape photography and astrophotography. The latter is due to the high brightness, which in astrophotography means the shutter speeds can remain short and the sensitivity of the camera low. I’m very impressed that the majority of the frame has excellent sharpness even wide open at f/2. There is some loss in edge sharpness when shooting wide open but it’s easily corrected by stopping down to f/4.

Samyang AF 12mm f/2 E Review | ePHOTOzine Samyang AF 12mm f/2 E Review | ePHOTOzine

Lab-test results for ultra-wide-angle lenses never tell the whole story, as the physical size of the test charts requires that images are shot from very close range. In our real-world tests, we found sharpness to be excellent in the central region of the frame even when shooting wide-open at f/2, and edge/corner-sharpness to be generally very good, rising to highly impressive levels at apertures between f/2.8 and f/8. For still images, keeping a distance equal to the diagonal length of the full image surface is recommended. The full frame sensor of a digital camera is 36 x 24mm and the diagonal length is 43.26mm so any distance close to this number is nearer to the ideal than the currently accepted industry standard of 50mm.

This Samyang / Rokinon ultra-wide autofocus prime lens for Sony and Fujifilm APS-C cameras is great by day, or by night

Optical construction is 12 elements in 10 groups, including 1 Hybrid Aspherical, 1 aspherical and 3 ED (Extra Low Dispersion). The diaphragm comprises 7 blades. Flare resistance is enhanced by the use of Samyang's well-proven UMC multi-layer coating techniques. While shooting outside, I haven’t had too much of an issue with flares. The Rokinon 12mm comes with a lens hood that I don’t use due to the constraints of my hiking camera bag. You can see what the flares look like in the image below. They are very easy to remove in post processing. Marshall Canyon Bokeh Vignetting on this lens is visible but it is nicely graduated which makes it much more pleasing to the eye and can even be beneficial to some images. For me, the most important thing to see in a camera or lens review is the ‘real life’ image quality. In this section I’ll talk about and show pictures to demonstrate the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0’s abilities in low light, flare, bokeh, vignetting, distortion, it’s ability to ‘get close’, and it’s performance while hiking outside. Low Light I’ve also been using the Sony 16mm prime lately. It’s super soft and not good for high quality prints, but very serviceable for ‘web use only’ photos on my hiking trip reports.

Samyang 1220506101 12 mm F2.0 Manual Focus Lens for Sony-E Samyang 1220506101 12 mm F2.0 Manual Focus Lens for Sony-E

The MTF chart shows a good sharpness in the center, with – at full aperture – a decent gradient at the corners, especially for the fine details. Of course, this can be expected at full aperture for an extreme wide angle. What the MTF curve does not show and what we are of course very curious about is how fast and how much the corners tighten when we stop down one or more stops. As soon as we have a copy of the Samyang AF 12mm F2 E in our test lab, we will of course test it and publish a full review. With the improved coatings and quality on this lens, almost all the complaints about chromatic aberration and coma have been solved when comparing it to the older manual focus design. The best standpoint from which to appreciate the full view of a subject is the distance of the diagonal length of the subject frame. This wider angle is superior to standing closer at a 50 degree angle to get a more detailed view. Slowly turn the zoom ring to the left (towards the wide-angle end) while using your upper body and arms to move the camera toward your subject. Note that the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 can also be found listed as the Samyang 12mm f/2.0. There is no difference with these two lenses as they are exactly the same and differ in name only. **

Customer reviews

I shoot with my Sony 10-18mm most of the time for ease of use with autofocus and auto aperture. When I look at my EXIF data, I’m almost always in the 10-14mm range. If I want to get closer to an object, I tend to do so with my feet since I’m so used to shooting with primes. This isn’t always possible when in the mountains, so I occasionally shoot at 18mm. The problem is that 18mm is still very wide and not ideal for getting close to things that are far away. I use polarizing filters quite a bit. On days in the mountains when I encounter lots of granite and snow, they do a great job of minimize my post processing work. Reply It’s a mostly plastic design with a metal mount. It comes with a nice compact case that will certainly keep it protected as well.