Rokinon / Samyang 12mm F/2.0 Review With Fujifilm X-Mount Cameras
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This article has been updated.
A Golden Hour Sunset Along The Washington Coast in Olympic Park.
Review Of The Rokinon / Samyang 12mm F/2.0 On Fujifilm X-Mount Cameras
The Rokinon / Samyang 12mm F/2.0 X- Mount lens has been around for some time now, but like with many other 3rd party lenses, there is very little information out there about use on Fujifilm cameras.
If you’re interested in using an affordable manual focus lens to create better landscape images, read this review of the Rokinon / Samyang 12mm lens.
Focus
Since almost all 3rd party lenses that fit Fujifilm cameras are manual, it shouldn't be a surprise that the Rokinon 12mm is manual focus as well. Please don't let that dissuade you from getting this lens. If you use focus peaking, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how fast and easy it is to get a perfect focus in a second or less.
Like most ultra-wide lenses, you can focus to or near infinity and everything in the frame will be nice and sharp. If your close to an object, you may need to do a two or more image focus stack if you're looking to have everything in focus. Still an easy task to do with focus peaking on your camera.
Ferns and Moss Covered Trees in the Hoh Rain Forest in Washington.
In my original posting of this article, I did not have the most interesting landscapes to include in the review. In order to provide better examples of what the Rokinon / Samyang 12mm lens could do, I have added more examples of images. On a trip to the Hoh National Rain Forest in Washington, I was able to capture some rather stunning images. As you can see in the first image in the article, the 12mm lens was perfect for capturing a wide view of the beach, sea stacks and the sunset.
In the image directly above, I captured an image of the beautiful Hoh Rain Forest in Washington. The rain forest is a very difficult place to capture an image due to the complexity of the scenes. There is so much bright green and other colors that the images can become too complicated to look at. I decided that I had about 5 images that I really like, and several of them appear here in this review of the lens.
George Washington's Gristmill and Distillery in Mount Vernon, VA
If you recognize this image from my review of the 7Artisans 7.5mm F/2.8, it's because this was one of my comparisons shots. The Rokinon has a little more than half the field of view of the 7Artisans, but also has far less distortion around the edges.
Here is a comparison between the two. The Rokinon is a two image panorama, and you can see there is less bowing in the buildings than the single image with the 7Artisans 7.5mm fisheye lens.
This is the Rokinon 12mm F/2.0 Lens Two Image Stitch
This is the single image 7Artisans 7.5mm F/2.8 Lens
Sharpness
My copy of this lens produces exceptional sharpness from corner to corner. Although other reviews I've read have stated the sharpness is merely “okay,” my experience has been better. I would like to say that maybe I'm just really good at focusing manually, but I'm not sure that's the case. Getting sharp images with these lenses just seems to be fast and easy to me.
Looking out from City of Rocks, NM with Rokinon 12mm F/2.0 Lens
Color Rendition
The color rendition on this lens had been perfect for me, especially with the Fuji system and the great color profiles.
I've not seen any odd color changes with this lens, so it seems the color comes out quite vibrant.
Some interesting stones in City of Rocks, NM
As you can see from the image above, there is some lens flare if caught at the right/wrong angle. Also, the sun burst was unintentional and probably would have been much nicer if I had thought to adjust the aperture. Still not horrible for an accident.
The Mossy Hoh Rain Forest in Washington state will absolutely knock your socks off.
Image Quality
So my final conclusions on image quality with this lens is that is an absolute must have for any landscape photography. The images produced with this lens are tack sharp and vibrant. Of course, if you prefer a much more expensive but auto-focus enabled lens, then go for it. Just remember, this lens is super easy to focus manually when using focus peaking, and the images are as sharp as a tack out of camera.
Pricing and Affordability
The Rokinon 12mm F/2.0 is very reasonably priced, but still comes in a little more expensive then a 7Artisans 12mm F/2.8 lens. Of course the Rokinon is quite a bit faster, which explains the price difference.
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