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Samyang 12mm F2.8 ED AS NCS FISH-EYE | | | | Sharpness | | | Aberrations | | | Bokeh | | | Handling | | | Value | |
| | Reviews | Views | Date of last review | | 5 | 18,010 | Mon January 30, 2023 | |  | | Recommended By | Average Price | Average User Rating | | 100% of reviewers | $368.75 | 9.40 | | | | 
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| Author: | | Site Supporter Registered: December, 2015 Location: Leipzig Posts: 1,974 | | Review Date: January 30, 2023 | Recommended | Price: $350.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | excellent sharpness wide open, flare resistant, coma virtually absent | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-1
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The stereographic projection makes this a much more versatile lens than other fish-eyes, panos stitch extremely well. Flare resistance is excellent.
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Site Supporter Registered: February, 2012 Location: Adelaide Hills, South Australia Posts: 11,275
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 7, 2018 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp. Minimal CA. | | Cons: | | |
Four reviews of 10/10 and one of 5 - make your own judgement on that 
Build quality is excellent - miles better than the flimsy DA10-17.
Manual focus is smooth. It's quite compact excepting that huge front element. The hood and front cap are nifty.
I can't fault the IQ.
The projection is different from the DA10-17.
Until the road-mapped full frame fisheye zoom is released you'll struggle to do better.
| | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: September, 2009 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 7,594
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 14, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $375.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, not extreme curvature, small | | Cons: | None, Except for some color fringing which can be corrected in post | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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If you hold the horizon in the middle of the frame and level the fisheye curvature is almost not evident in most photos. It give an excellent wide view of interiors and landscapes, close ups are extremely fun. Edges are very good considering the nature of the lens. It makes lovely photos. You have to be crazy close to include nearby object in lens. These are just quick examples what the lens does. Mine is the Rokinon version but it is the same as the Samyang. The poster who gave a 5 clearly did not have a good lens and should not have rated it so low. My 10 is to balance that.
    | | | | | New Member Registered: November, 2013 Posts: 14 | | Review Date: March 20, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $350.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | intensively stopped down: really sharp | | Cons: | unfortunately, decentered lens and some CAs | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 7
Value: 8
Camera Used: x-e1 x-t100
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There are two versions of 12 mm - I've bought the 2.0 version with simpler optical construction 
sharpness of my item is not so dramaticaly good: I must stop down to f 8-11, in order to get sharp pictures just up to the extreme corners on the left side. 
I suppose, that my lens has been decentered still by factory. I.e. it is sharper on the right side and not so sharp on the left side, that is why it must stopped down so hard.
If I've improved my pictures by PhSh (sharpness), nice pictures
a good lens, but not 10 full points for my monday production - I regret
only 7.5 points, but nevertheless recommended
(only fuji x-t100 reduces CAs by internal program)
| | | | | | | Senior Member Registered: November, 2006 Location: Germany Posts: 127
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 23, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $400.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Nice projection, great flare resistance and sharpness | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax K-1
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The 12mm Samyang with its near stereographic projection is a versatile, very sharp and very flare resistant lens that really exceeded my expectations. It works beautifully together with the K-1 and its shake reduction - I was able to do hand held pictures with up to 1s exposure time that came out tack sharp.
The bonus of the near stereographic projection is less compression and curvature towards the corners and edges. The downside is - compared to the more common equidistant / equisolid angle projections used e.g .by the Pentax DA10-17 or the Zenitar 16 - that center elements are rendered a bit smaller, so they seem to be farther away.
Adobe Lightroom CC has a profile for that lens, and if you want to defish, it can be done easily using it. Without cropping it gives you a ridiculous large rectilinear FOV with of course some loss of corner and edge sharpness, but it's still usable IMO.
Some shots taken with it on the K-1:
Same as above, but defished using the aforementioned LR profile:
To illustrate flare resistance:
A night shot, taken wide open at f2.8:
At f3.5:
Last one taken hand held - 1s exposure:
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