{"id":3804,"date":"2014-08-04T19:01:12","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T00:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=3804"},"modified":"2015-03-04T16:43:15","modified_gmt":"2015-03-04T21:43:15","slug":"review-rokinon-samyang-12mm-f2-0-ncs-cs-sony-e-mount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-rokinon-samyang-12mm-f2-0-ncs-cs-sony-e-mount\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Rokinon (Samyang) 12mm f\/2.0 NCS CS (Sony E-Mount)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Samyang Optics has been around for over 40 years, but has gained\u00a0recent acclaim\u00a0in the past decade by releasing some truly outstanding lenses for SLRs and mirrorless cameras that provide high-end image quality at bargain prices, under a variety of brand names including Rokinon, Bower, Walimex and a few more. \u00a0The company has been active in the mirrorless space over the past few years, starting with excellent manual focus fisheye lenses. \u00a0While they’ve also released most\u00a0of their SLR lenses in native mirrorless camera mounts, the new 12mm f\/2.0 NCS CS is the second non-fisheye that has been specifically designed for mirrorless cameras (the other is their 300mm f\/6.3 mirror lens).<\/p>\n

The 12mm f\/2 is available for Sony E-Mount, Fujifilm X-mount, Micro 4\/3, Samsung NX and Canon EF-M mount. \u00a0On the APS-C cameras, the 12mm f\/2 has a field of view similar to an 18mm lens on full frame, and the lens is still rather wide on Micro 4\/3 (24mm equivalent). \u00a0What’s remarkable about this lens is the ultra-wide-angle focal length combined with the very fast aperture of f\/2.0. \u00a0Making an f\/2.0 ultra-wide of this width is no easy feat of optical engineering, especially given the modest price of $399.<\/p>\n

We’re looking at the Rokinon-branded Sony E-Mount version here, but the findings should hold for all the APS-C mirrorless mounts, as the optics are identical.<\/p>\n

\"Rokinon<\/a>
Rokinon 12mm f\/2.0 NCS UC on the Sony a6000<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you\u2019re not familiar with my reviews, I review from a real world shooting perspective. \u00a0You won\u2019t find lens charts or resolution numbers here. \u00a0There are plenty of other sites that cover those. \u00a0I review products on how they act for me as a photographic tool in real-world shooting.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Construction and Handling<\/h3>\n

The Rokinon 12mm f\/2 is constructed of a mix of high-quality plastic and metal. The bottom portion of the lens including the mount flanges is metal, while the remainder of the exterior is plastic. \u00a0Samyang has upgraded their plastic a bit in the past year, so the outer shell is very solid and the finish is rather durable.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Rokinon 12mm f\/2.0 with and without the included lens hood<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lens is rather small for an ultra-wide-angle, especially so when considering the f\/2.0 maximum aperture. \u00a0In length and size it’s roughly the size of the Fujifilm 14mm f\/2.8, and notably smaller than the other 12mm lens available for mirrorless cameras: the Zeiss 12mm f\/2.8. \u00a0The Rokinon 12mm has a narrow barrel that is actually slightly narrower than the outer rim of the E-mount itself, and it flares to the somewhat wide 67mm filter thread. \u00a0The front element is bulbous, almost spherical, and juts out a bit, but stays back enough so that standard screw-in filters can be used.<\/p>\n

Samyang includes a good size petal hood that is reversible, and while the plastic quality on the hood isn’t quite as nice as the lens itself, it secures firmly on the lens and provides some extra protection and shading while in use. \u00a0Having used the Zeiss 12mm f\/2.8, it was refreshing to see the more modest proportions on the Rokinon 12mm. \u00a0The Zeiss 12mm felt somewhat unwieldy due to the huge flare at the end, and the Rokinon manages to keep things small and manageable, even on a small body like the a6000. \u00a0The lens is also rather light weight considering the width and speed.<\/p>\n

The 12mm f\/2 is a fully manual lens, and as such you will need to perform stop down metering and manual focus. \u00a0Stop down metering isn’t an issue, as the EVF of mirrorless cameras can compensate in dim environments for the working aperture when stopping down. \u00a0Manual focus is also not generally an issue, especially when shooting outdoors. \u00a0The focus setting you see on the lens in the pictures above is the ideal setting for outdoor shooting. \u00a0This puts the lens extremely close to the hyperfocal distance at f\/2, allowing you to simply set your aperture and shoot. \u00a0When stopping down to f\/5.6 or f\/8, this gives you a nice sharp field of focus from around 3 feet to infinity. \u00a0 If you’re shooting at wider apertures and closer subjects, it may make more sense to focus at f\/2 while zooming the view and nail the focus, then stop down. \u00a0You will absolutely have to do this when shooting near the quite close 8 inch minimum focus distance.<\/p>\n

The aperture ring features nice solid detents every half stop and the focus ring is well damped and smooth, allowing for precise manual focus and helping to prevent accidentally knocking it out of the set focus point accidentally.<\/p>\n

Continue: Image Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Image Quality<\/h3>\n

Sharpness<\/h4>\n
\"Cedar<\/a>
Cedar Falls – Sony a6000 with Rokinon 12mm f\/2.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You’d be forgiven for thinking a lens with an extremely ambitious maximum aperture and a very wide 99 degree field of view\u00a0would require some optical compromises. \u00a0If you looked at the $399 price tag, which is very low for an ultra-wide lens, you’d think those compromises would likely be huge. \u00a0There are some compromises with this design, but for the most part, I’m impressed by how small they seem to be. \u00a0One of the compromises is NOT image sharpness. \u00a0The Rokinon 12mm f\/2.0 sports impressive central image sharpness even at f\/2.0. \u00a0The edges and corners are fairly soft at this wide aperture, but even the edges have enough resolution to provide for some quality shots as long as you aren’t enlarging too much. \u00a0Stopping the lens down to f\/4 or, even better, f\/5.6, allows the lens to sharpen up considerably.<\/p>\n

At the smaller apertures that are going to be used more often for a lens such as this, the Rokinon 12mm truly sings. \u00a0The center is blisteringly sharp, and even the edges produce excellent resolution when stopped down. \u00a0The corners stay just a bit soft, but they do still retain some resolution. \u00a0While it falls a bit short of the excellent cross-frame resolution of a lens like the Zeiss 12mm Touit, it is actually a bit sharper than that lens in the central part of the frame, while falling a bit behind it at the edges.<\/p>\n

In all, though, the Rokinon 12mm provides excellent sharpness for even large landscape prints. \u00a0Click on the image above to open a large\u00a0size version of the image, then click the green arrow at the bottom to view\u00a0large\u00a0to see the impressive detail that this lens can deliver.<\/p>\n

\"Buckeye<\/a>
Buckeye Sidewalk – Sony a6000 with Rokinon 12mm f\/2.0 @ f\/2.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bokeh<\/h4>\n

While you don’t normally think of an ultra-wide lens as something that can produce a lot of blur, the Rokinon 12mm’s fast f\/2.0 aperture and good close focusing ability does allow you to blur the background a fair bit if you so desire. \u00a0While the lens won’t allow you to shoot macro shots or anything close to it, the wide-angle of view combined with close focusing ability can produce some unique perspectives.<\/p>\n

The Rokinon 12mm actually produces fairly nice bokeh. \u00a0It’s not going to win the award for creamiest backgrounds, but the lens manages to do a good job keeping specular highlights predominantly evenly lit. \u00a0There can be a small bright ring around them as they near the edge of the frame, but even that is somewhat subtle. \u00a0On the down side,\u00a0the high contrast does make it a somewhat ‘lumpier’ rendering than some other lenses. \u00a0Still, I think the bokeh is fairly good\u00a0for a lens such as this.<\/p>\n

Contrast, Color and Chromatic Aberration<\/h4>\n

The Rokinon 12mm produces images with high contrast and rich color at most apertures, which is great for landscape and city shooting. \u00a0While there is a dip in image contrast at the widest apertures, you won’t be disappointed by the bite that this lens produces.<\/p>\n

However, If you’ll remember at the beginning of this section, I mentioned there were a few optical compromises that had to be made in order to keep this lens small, inexpensive and fast, and now we come to the first of those: chromatic aberration. \u00a0Lateral chromatic aberration is one of the weak spots of the lens, with rather pronounced cyan\/magenta CA visible at all apertures, particularly at the edge of the frame. \u00a0While this can be easily corrected with most current RAW converters, it is still definitely worth noting. \u00a0In the same vein, the 12mm f\/2 can also produce a fair bit of purple fringing on high contrast edges. \u00a0While this too can be corrected in many cases, it’s a bit more difficult to remove, especially if there are blues and purples elsewhere in the image.<\/p>\n

Distortion, Flare, and Vignetting<\/h4>\n

The Rokinon 12mm f\/2 does show some distortion, but it’s at a level that is fairly typical of ultra-wide lenses. \u00a0The distortion is a moderate barrel-type, and can mostly be corrected by a simple adjustment in any photo editing software. \u00a0There is a small complex ‘moustache’ signature to the distortion, but it’s very minor. \u00a0I’ve noticed that a +7 in the Lightroom distortion correction tool eliminates essentially all visible distortion from\u00a0images. \u00a0Most pictures won’t need that correction, but if you have a lot of straight lines, it will be visible without correction.<\/p>\n

The 12mm f\/2 features Samyang’s new ‘Nano Coating System’ of optical coatings designed to minimize flare. \u00a0While an improvement on some of their previous lenses, the 12mm can still show visible flare in the right circumstances. \u00a0Occasional multi-element ghosts are visible if the sun is in the right position in the frame, though I find that the lens does a fairly good job here. \u00a0Most of the time, the flare will be minimal or non-existent.<\/p>\n

Vignetting, however, is another of the weak points of this lens, and unfortunately it is present even when stopping down. \u00a0Very visible corner darkening is present at f\/2.0 and while the situation does improve a bit when stopping down, even at f\/11 there is visible shading. \u00a0This can be corrected in post, but you will have to deal with noisier corners when actively compensating for the vignetting.<\/p>\n

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

\"rokinon_wide\"<\/a>Pros<\/h4>\n