CF: Samyang AF 12mm f/2 Review

The Samyang AF 12mm f/2 X is their first AF lens to be released for X mount and it is based on their very popular Samyang 12mm f/2 design which was manual focus. Below is a summary of the above review by Christopher Frost:

  • The lens is quite compact and has a weather-sealing gasket
  • There is only one adjustment on the lens the focus ring
  • The lens suffers from focus breathing
  • AF is reasonably fast, accurate, silent
  • 62mm filter thread
  • Very simple plastic hood that mounts well, but you cant reverse it for storage
  • Optically as good as the old 12mm, but they improved the coatings
  • “Brilliantly sharp” wide open at f/2, but it gets soft towards the edges with some chromatic aberration
  • Corners get better up to f/8 where they peak
  • The optics are an older design that is always razor-sharp in the center, but only ok in the corners
  • Moderate barrel distortion and vignetting with corrections turned off, but the camera will correct this fine
  • Focus as close as 20cm
  • Close-up image quality is pretty sharp
  • Flaring performance is decent which is an improvement over the original
  • Very little chroma smearing at night but there is a little color fringing up until f/8
  • If you want sun stars stop down to f/11 and they get impressive at f/16
  • Bokeh is quite smooth for an ultra-wide lens
  • Samyang has fixed the weaknesses of the old manual focus lens with the exception of chromatic aberration which can be fixed in post
  • Pretty much everyone should enjoy this lens and it is at great price point

Samyang AF 12mm F2 X: B&H Photo / Amazon

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