Disclaimer: All photos were taken pre-pandemic

Samyang 12mm f2.0 Review

The Rokinon/Samyang 12mm f2 (which I will plainly name the Samyang 12mm f2 from hereon), was my first Samyang lens I bought. In my ownership it has an extremely contrasting job description because of its ultra wide angle focal length.

Initially I bought this lens as I needed something wider for my real estate photography here in Cork city. Using an 18mm lens was just not wide enough to capture all rooms in an apartment or house. The broom cupboards and bathrooms always proved troublesome. Especially here in Ireland where houses always seem to be smaller, rather than larger. Here are some real estate sample photos of the Samyang 12mm f2 in action, but importantly, this is probably the least interesting part of this lens review. Hence why I am rushing this part, because I figured out a really cool way on how to use this Samyang lens, and exploit it’s ultra wide focal length to the utmost. I’m sure this will interest you more than real estate photography in Cork city.

Business over, this is the ultimate party lens! And it’s all down to the characteristics of an ultra wide angle lens. And this Samyang 12mm f2 absolutely nails them.

So what are the characteristics of an ultra wide angle lens?

The most obvious answer is that it’s primary function is that it has an ultra wide focal length. That means, you basically have to just vaguely point at the subject in question and take the photo. Looking at the screen or through the viewfinder becomes an afterthought and yet, I can almost guarantee you that your subject will be in frame.

The secondary characteristic is that it has a much wider depth of field than, say, a Fujifilm 35mm f1.4 lens, or the bokehlicious Fujifilm 56mm f1.2 lens. This means focusing is not very difficult, even more so when stopped down, where it isn’t even a necessity.

Let’s put those two characteristics together and boom - we have a perfect party photography combo! Add a flash on the camera, stop down the lens to f5.6-8, focus to about 0.5m, set the manual exposure and importantly, zoom the flash to 28-35mm (full frame equivalent) focal length to get some delicious, natural vignetting.

I personally love this look.

With this set up, the camera works instantly and becomes a speed demon. After all, there is no auto focus, or any other automatic process slowing it down. This is especially noticeable on older Fujifilm cameras, like the X-E1 or X-Pro1. This is a handy side effect if you don’t want to take your newest and best Fujifilm camera to a party, especially after a couple of drinks.

I use the Yongnuo 560 IV flashes, which don’t cost a lot either, and this Samyang 12mm f2 lens is very affordable too. So feel free to pass this camera around to friends as the party continues. Just blindly aim, you don’t even need to hold still, use the flash and slow shutter speeds to get some nice light streaks running through your photo. Every shot will look cool!

I think this lens was intended for astrophotography, so Samyang made the focus ring quite stiff to prevent accidental shifts caused by bumps or nudges of the focus ring. Even better for this situation! It’s another positive.

This is the smallest lens I own. Always good to have in my pocket.

This is why it’s such a contrasting lens for me. On one end I use it for professional work, and on the other it’s my ultimate Friday night lens.

I think this lens is common enough with numerous existing reviews that I do not need to cover the basics, like the slightly stronger distortion (which I actually like for my personal photography but is a little annoying for my real estate photography, yet fixable in Lightroom), vignetting, CA, sharpness etc.

Maybe one thing that I would like to mention is that it does seem to have warmer colours than all of my other lenses. I often find myself editing the white balance in Lightroom to be cooler in comparison, to get the same results in colour. It’s not an issue really, just a slight annoyance sometimes.

Make sure to have your UV filter and lens hood on at night! It might not be an expensive lens, but there’s no need to be reckless either!

Otherwise I’m delighted with the quality (both build and image quality), price and size of it. The colours and contrast also are typically Samyang, and that’s a massive compliment in my eyes. There’s a reason why I also own the Samyang 21mm f1.4 (incidently my favourite lens) and the Samyang 35mm f1.2 (which I personally think is better quality than the Fujifilm 35mm f1.4). Although these lenses have been around for a while, they are part of the newer ranges which are much better than the SLR range they had originally (like the famous 85mm f1.4 which I was very disappointed with).

The two negatives for me are basically all the same ones I mentioned in my other review on the Samyang 21mm f1.4.
I did wish that the Samyang lenses would have an electronic chip that would store the lens name in the metadata. I know you can set it in the camera, but I often forget to change it or don’t have the time to change it. Being able to check the metadata is not vital but would be really helpful sometimes.
With this 12mm lens I also had the issue that infinity focus wasn’t perfect. I managed to open the lens and correct it but I did wish it came correctly calibrated from the factory.
Those really are the only annoyances I have with this lens. But having an f2 lens at this focal length and price and quality is phenomenal, so I’m not too upset. Using this lens at f2 also offers more bokeh than expected. Definitely more so than the Fujifilm equivalent, the 10-24mm that would struggle, being just f4. Yes, Fujifilm makes the more expensive 8-16mm f2.8 that would only be one stop off this lens, but with the price difference you can hardly compare the two lenses.

I really like wide angle portraits, although I must admit, this one is a bit extreme. But having this one photo in a set of portraits that I shot around the Cork city harbour, might help your model or you yourself, the photographer, stand out.

The next time you’re deciding which lens to use for a certain event or situation, it doesn’t hurt to think a bit laterally on how you can achieve the most “keepers”. In certain environments you are forced to use the most light sensitive lens you own (like the time I was a MMA photographer and was forced to use my Fujifilm 56mm f1.2 as my primary lens, because those arenas are surprisingly dark).

Other times, like when I went to the Nurburgring Nordschleife for a Touristenfahrt, I had my partner take photos with the Samyang 12mm f2 attached, as a quasi high end GoPro. It was a good decision because my partner was concentrating too hard on not vomiting. Focusing or doing anything more than “spraying and praying” would have been impossible.

And to end it off, here are some MMA photos as well. These were taken in Sweden at a Cage Warriors event. When all other photographers were always photographing with telephoto lenses, I liked to whip out this alternative lens every now and then to get shots that no one else would have. And honestly, they’re some of my favourite MMA photos of all time.

Conclusion

I would really recommend this lens to most photographers. Not everyone needs such an extreme focal length, but for the price, it really is fun to just have in your camera bag and use it every now and then. Unlike other cheaper, or more affordable, lenses, this one won’t stand out negatively in comparison to your other, higher quality and more expensive lenses either (looking at you Fujifilm 18mm f2 here! - half a joke).

I also recommend checking out other Samyang lenses too. A lot of photographers are put off by the manual focus, which I get, but it’s way easier than a lot of people think. I’m not sponsored by them just by the way. I just really like them and find it odd that they’re often overlooked.

Feel free to check out my Samyang 21mm f1.4 review here or go completely left field and go back to the old medium format years here (what is a TLR??).