napilopez
Contributing Editor
So I received the Rokinon variant of this lens a few hours ago (Samyang and Rokinon are basically the same thing, for those who don't know), thought I might as well get this thread started so I can share a few images while I work on my first impressions post and comaprison with the Olympus 12mm f/2
Just took one shot today, nothing too special but giving the lens a go. Hanheld at 1/1.6! Not representative of sharpness though--center is sharp but edges have some motion blur. And, obviously, it's edited. I'll likely be posting some images here as I play around with the review unit.
Very preliminary impressions based on playing with it for like a cummulative 20-30 minutes.
Size is hard to describe because it has such an odd shape. It's larger than the 12mm for sure, but I don't think it's too big. Because of the huge hood-like filter thread, for storage purposes, it's slightly larger than the 25mm F1.4. The diameter of the barrel is narrower than the 25mm f1.4, yet it ends up using a 67mm filter thread around the optic
Build feels quite good, though worse than the the Olympus; it's a mixture of metal and plastic. Focus ring is not my favorite. Very strong damping with relatively short throw; I prefer a longer throw and less damping, but YMMV. I suppose this makes it harder to accidentally knock focus out of place for landscape shooters.
And regarding image quality, there's still way more to test, but my first impression is that performance is at least very comparable to the Olympus. Don't know how much better or worse it is, but I there's certainly no obvious dfiference from the get go. Not bad for a lens that only costs $399.
Just took one shot today, nothing too special but giving the lens a go. Hanheld at 1/1.6! Not representative of sharpness though--center is sharp but edges have some motion blur. And, obviously, it's edited. I'll likely be posting some images here as I play around with the review unit.
Very preliminary impressions based on playing with it for like a cummulative 20-30 minutes.
Size is hard to describe because it has such an odd shape. It's larger than the 12mm for sure, but I don't think it's too big. Because of the huge hood-like filter thread, for storage purposes, it's slightly larger than the 25mm F1.4. The diameter of the barrel is narrower than the 25mm f1.4, yet it ends up using a 67mm filter thread around the optic
Build feels quite good, though worse than the the Olympus; it's a mixture of metal and plastic. Focus ring is not my favorite. Very strong damping with relatively short throw; I prefer a longer throw and less damping, but YMMV. I suppose this makes it harder to accidentally knock focus out of place for landscape shooters.
And regarding image quality, there's still way more to test, but my first impression is that performance is at least very comparable to the Olympus. Don't know how much better or worse it is, but I there's certainly no obvious dfiference from the get go. Not bad for a lens that only costs $399.
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