Avotius
Some guy
The urge to go wide is strong. Even on my little walk around Fuji X-E1 I feel the need to go wide wide wide. I was lucky to find a Rokinon 12mm f2 in Fuji X mount for just 250 dollars lightly used so I had it, I mean 250 dollars, what could possibly go wrong?
Well I won't keep you in suspense. The Rokinon 12mm f2 is shockingly good. I would dare say, optically speaking, it is one of the best ultra wide lenses I have ever used. These photos won't be my normal China street photos as I am in America right now.
Compared to other ultra wides I have used quite a lot such as the Canon 17-40 and 16-35 II, I can easily say this lens blows them away in terms of resolution and distortion. Viewing the raw photos it's easy to see the lens can out resolve the sensor on the X-E1 with ease, and it trips up on the Fuji's weakness of small fine detail in repetitive places, like sand, grass, trees in the distance, which end up looking like mush, but that said when these things are not in the way the lens is easily ready for higher resolution cameras.
Those who use lenses this wide know that the closer you get to the corners of the frame the more bendy things start to get until the distortion owns perspective. I am pleased to find this 12mm lens has excellent distortion correction all the way out to the very corners where yes you get some characteristic ultra wide bending but it's so well tamed. As an added plus, resolution does not fall apart in the extreme corners where you might expect to find nothing but smudges.
The center to the mid field is very sharp from f2, incredible, and only gets better as you move towards f8, beyond that you expect the laws of physics to stick its nose in things but I would call the results still very usable. If you were looking for an ultra wide fast lens for night photography this might be a good choice.
Close focus ability to 20cm means you can get personal with your subject and even have some decent DOF separation effect. The out of focus areas are a bit busy but workable. Going towards the other end you notice the focus distance marks on the lens are useless. You think you can set it to 1m and f8 and shoot most things...wrong. 1m seems to be more like .5m and you will miss a lot of shots. Best to stick it on what it says is infinity and seems to work as infinity is actually a bit beyond and it will continue to focus beyond that as well. No DOF markings is a big drawback here, sure you can make your own on the red ring but frankly the focus scale is so wrong it doesn't matter and when you go this wide it doesn't hurt to remember the DOF scale by heart because it's pretty simple this wide.
Where flare is concerned I would say yes there is some as you can see in the shot with the sun. Not terrible and could be removed in post, but there are several spots here and there, look at the bush in the right third, flare not in line with the other blobs.
Mostly the build feels fine but this is where we see some problems and the cut rate price starts to show. The lens mount is sloppy. It wiggles around when you focus like a so so third party adapter. The lens hood also wiggles, though I think a couple drops of nail polish will fix this. The lens body is mostly plastic but it all feels like good quality plastic, I have no complaints about it. One odd thing is in front of the mount is sort of a raw metal spacer that is quite long and is covered in clear plastic and looks rather much like an afterthought to cover the different mounts that can be put on this in the factory for different systems. This looks much different than the promotional photos you see online.
This lens can take 67mm filters which is a nice plus. The lens cap is also pretty competent. You might think that's a weird thing to comment on, but because you have to stick your hand into the hood often without really looking hard at it you don't want to be fiddling around with it and accidently pull off a fiddly cap that fiddles its way out of your grasp and clatters against the surface of the lens.
So in conclusion even new around $320 this lens is a fantastic value. If you want to go wide but can't justify the Fuji 10-24 which is currently $799 then I think you will be very pleased. But 2mm on the wide end is huge, and autofocus is nice if you are shooting interiors and focus is critical even when so wide and doing it quickly can be important, not to mention OIS. While I like this lens quite a bit, I can see myself moving into a 10-24 if I stay with the Fuji system but would need to see some fundamental improvements in some areas before I would buy another Fuji body.
Well I won't keep you in suspense. The Rokinon 12mm f2 is shockingly good. I would dare say, optically speaking, it is one of the best ultra wide lenses I have ever used. These photos won't be my normal China street photos as I am in America right now.
Compared to other ultra wides I have used quite a lot such as the Canon 17-40 and 16-35 II, I can easily say this lens blows them away in terms of resolution and distortion. Viewing the raw photos it's easy to see the lens can out resolve the sensor on the X-E1 with ease, and it trips up on the Fuji's weakness of small fine detail in repetitive places, like sand, grass, trees in the distance, which end up looking like mush, but that said when these things are not in the way the lens is easily ready for higher resolution cameras.
Those who use lenses this wide know that the closer you get to the corners of the frame the more bendy things start to get until the distortion owns perspective. I am pleased to find this 12mm lens has excellent distortion correction all the way out to the very corners where yes you get some characteristic ultra wide bending but it's so well tamed. As an added plus, resolution does not fall apart in the extreme corners where you might expect to find nothing but smudges.
The center to the mid field is very sharp from f2, incredible, and only gets better as you move towards f8, beyond that you expect the laws of physics to stick its nose in things but I would call the results still very usable. If you were looking for an ultra wide fast lens for night photography this might be a good choice.
Close focus ability to 20cm means you can get personal with your subject and even have some decent DOF separation effect. The out of focus areas are a bit busy but workable. Going towards the other end you notice the focus distance marks on the lens are useless. You think you can set it to 1m and f8 and shoot most things...wrong. 1m seems to be more like .5m and you will miss a lot of shots. Best to stick it on what it says is infinity and seems to work as infinity is actually a bit beyond and it will continue to focus beyond that as well. No DOF markings is a big drawback here, sure you can make your own on the red ring but frankly the focus scale is so wrong it doesn't matter and when you go this wide it doesn't hurt to remember the DOF scale by heart because it's pretty simple this wide.
Where flare is concerned I would say yes there is some as you can see in the shot with the sun. Not terrible and could be removed in post, but there are several spots here and there, look at the bush in the right third, flare not in line with the other blobs.
Mostly the build feels fine but this is where we see some problems and the cut rate price starts to show. The lens mount is sloppy. It wiggles around when you focus like a so so third party adapter. The lens hood also wiggles, though I think a couple drops of nail polish will fix this. The lens body is mostly plastic but it all feels like good quality plastic, I have no complaints about it. One odd thing is in front of the mount is sort of a raw metal spacer that is quite long and is covered in clear plastic and looks rather much like an afterthought to cover the different mounts that can be put on this in the factory for different systems. This looks much different than the promotional photos you see online.
This lens can take 67mm filters which is a nice plus. The lens cap is also pretty competent. You might think that's a weird thing to comment on, but because you have to stick your hand into the hood often without really looking hard at it you don't want to be fiddling around with it and accidently pull off a fiddly cap that fiddles its way out of your grasp and clatters against the surface of the lens.
So in conclusion even new around $320 this lens is a fantastic value. If you want to go wide but can't justify the Fuji 10-24 which is currently $799 then I think you will be very pleased. But 2mm on the wide end is huge, and autofocus is nice if you are shooting interiors and focus is critical even when so wide and doing it quickly can be important, not to mention OIS. While I like this lens quite a bit, I can see myself moving into a 10-24 if I stay with the Fuji system but would need to see some fundamental improvements in some areas before I would buy another Fuji body.
squirrel$$$bandit
Veteran
Thanks a lot, Colin! I agree, this lens is a great value.
Avotius
Some guy
I shot this early last night before the moon came out and illuminated the sky. I was curious if the Rokinon would make a good night sky photo lens because it seems to have all the bases covered. Fast f2, wide, very sharp at f2, decent corner performance at f2. I was not disappointed. Unfortunately Flickr compressed the hell out of this picture so you will have to take my word for it but the performance is excellent.
willie_901
Veteran
Quite a nice lens for that price.