Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 NCS CS Wide Angle Lens for Fujifilm X – Fast Aperture, Nano Coated Optics, Manual Focus, APS-C Mirrorless, Ideal for Landscape, Architecture, Low-Light Shots (Black)

Pro's: + It does have a solid construction + It is easy to adjust + You will not knock this out of focus or F stop by holding the lens to capture a shot + The sun cover does help + It has a great depth of field + Great for video at 4k when the camera crops (M50) + Sharp details + The construction and mechanics never got loose after almost 1 year of use + Great for real estate photography Cons: It can suffer from chromatic aberration if left wide open and you are taking shots of a tree with a strong source of light breaking through (Fix is to bump the F stop to 4 - 8 depending on the situation, and bring the ISO to 200-400 if you truly need to) - It is slightly larger than the Canon options - It does not have autofocus Tips: Make sure to use edge detect and other focus tools are enabled to make sure you are in focus + Get Filters to help with tricky shots + Keep focus in infinite and bring slowly into focus to walk it back towards your subject if shooting between 3-11 feet

I love this lens! I got this for use with my a6000 and it doesn't disappoint. It's about 18mm f/2 equivalent and it's actually pretty nice wide open - which isn't an easy task. It's small, light and produces great images considering the price. Images need some correction in post if you need straightness throughout, but big whoop. Look forward to finally taking a true wide to Africa this summer. The locking fit isn't perfect on the Sony E mount (tad bit of play). The focus ring is smooth, but a little tight. Having recently purchased the Rokinon 135mm f/2 Cine DS, I wish I had done the same with this one, though the price would have been slightly higher. The focus ring is a bit smoother, but the 0.8mm pitch of the teeth on the Cine make for easier gripping and if I do want to use it with follow focus later, it would be easier. If you like a grippier focus ring (this is not rubber coated, rather plastic), you might want to consider the Cine as well, though the aperture ring can be shifted MUCH easier accidentally on the Cine. Pros: - Wide - Fast - Sharp (even wide IMO at the price) - Very good lens hood and locks well into place, both ways - Excellent value Cons: - MF only (duh) - Focus ring is snug and not grippy - No electronic chip, so the aperture value doesn't report to the EXIF data, so use the cell phone app/note pad if that's important to you - Mount doesn't lock quite as securely as a native lens, leaving a slight bit of play so when you focus, the lens moves with it ever so slightly If you have an APS-C E-mount camera and can't afford the 10-15mm f/4 Sony, this is a great option. The Sony has AF, OSS, is wider and can give you some reach, but is almost triple the cost and a stop slower. Up to you. Some random samples below. The two of the dogs are around f/4 I think (again, no EXIF data) and the scapes in the 11+ range I think. NOTE: The two underexposed sun star images were loaded to help a buyer who asked. They were NOT taken with the Sony mount version of this lens like the other images I posted. The sun stars were taken with the CINE version for the Fuji X system and I've yet to add a review of that lens for that mount. Cheers

I was looking for a manual focus fast wide angle lens for night photography and this is a great option if you can’t justify buying a $1k+ first party zoom. I shoot with an Olympus omd m4/3 camera so I’m somewhat limited on the kind of low light photography I can do. That said I’ve been very impressed with this lens at night, especially for the price point. Shooting with a micro 4/3 camera, if you have some moonlight, you can get away with f2.8, iso800, around a 10 sec exposure and end up with low grain sharp images. Shooting during daylight, you are fine to set the lens at f8+ and focused almost at infinity and leave it there if you’re wanting quick snaps. The 24mm equivalent field of view means everything in the image should be acceptably sharp without worrying about the focus. You do get a some noticeable vignette wide open but stopping down to f2.8 makes a noticeable difference in what is seen in the image. There is also the issue of flair which I’ve seen some of when shooting into direct light sources. You may just need to work with the camera position until you get it to go away unless flair is what you’re looking for in the image. The images produced by this lens are very sharp, especially at and above f5.6. The focus ring has a good weighted feel. The overall construction of the lens feels solid, its metal and does feel like quality. If you’re a hobbiest looking for a manual focus prime landscape or nightscape lens but don’t want to break the bank, this is a fantastic option.

This lens really stands out as a high quality and inexpensive lens in comparison to the competition in this focal length. Your other options are the Zeiss lens with slightly better optical quality for a lot more money or the Sony zoom that is lower optical quality and still expensive. This one is the obvious answer is you can deal with manual focus and manual aperture. If you shoot landscape or astro, you're likely focused at infinity all the time, so manual focus is not a big issue. However, it seems that Rokinon has poor quality control resulting in some lenses in the market that are not meeting the expectation of high optical quality. If you get a good copy, I highly recommend this lens. The first one I purchased felt like the infinity stop on the focus ring was not quite at the right location, resulting in shots that were passable but not quite sharp enough. I got it replaced for free through Amazon in two days. The replacement was sharp edge to edge but noticeably about one stop darker in only one corner, which is not acceptable to me. Pros: - A steal in comparison to other ultrawide lenses in the market - Good build quality will likely survive a few drops - Relatively small and lightweight - F/2.0 for this price, great for astrophotagraphy but not important for other disciplines like landscape - Focus ring feels great, not squishy or hard to get very precise focus - Can use screw on filters unlike some other Rokinon wide angle lens In the middle: - Manual focus, you're probably parked at infinity anyway, but with focus peaking I can nail the focus fast - Manual aperture, I was shooting in A or M anyway, I actually prefer an aperture ring - No image stabilization, with such a wide and fast lens, image stabilization is not really needed, so why bother designing in an expensive feature? Cons: - No exif data because it's fully manual. It would be nice to have, but not absolutely necessary - Poor quality control!!! Make sure you get a good copy If you're interested, here is cheap lens case that fits well (size small) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075LRNW8Q/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

As others have said, it's a great lens at this price point! Yes, it's manual focus, so takes a little testing but when you hit the spot, it's tack sharp! I've only used it for landscapes so far, but hope to try some astrophotography soon. I'm very pleased with the results on my first test. Didn't want to spend a fortune on another fast lens that had auto focus, so I read alot of reviews on this lens and the glowing feedback is totally deserved!

First it's a manual lens, so setting up your camera (in my case x-t30 FujiFilm camera) for focus assist is a must. (ALSO another note: at least in FujiFilm cameras, you need to set a setting that makes camera take photo without lens, because there is no electronic communication the camera assumes there is no lens and wont take a photo unless you turn off that setting) However, after that you get into the groove of working with this lens you will get amazing views. This lens being 12mm with a 2.0f stop means you get a wide field of view and with the low f-stop (2.0) your open to astrophotography even in the lowest of lights (without the noise of a high ISO). I haven't tried astrophotography yet however f2.8 was amazing for night photos and because of the low f-stop you always have that flexibility to get more light in before going to your last option of bumping up ISO to crazy noise levels. General purpose, this is indeed a prime lens (fixed to 12mm) so you will get a lens curve in image however in post you can crop or correct for it, and since you get a lot more of the scene you actually have to consider subject matter on taking the photo, but its more of a mindset change than anything else and its definitely a good trade-off to be able to have the capability to do good low light photos as well. I pretty much take landscape, nature (will be trying more on night and low light now I got this lens) definitely a good lens to at least have in your bag, although I am a heavy budget guy so this manual lens with its ultra-wide 12mm and low light capabilities of f2.0 is definitely my main lens for now and worth it for people who want a budget way to get into astrophotography, and low light photos besides the standard day time photos.

I don't think this is 100% distortion free, but I've never felt the need to fix it in post, and the edges do look pretty straight right up to the edge of the screen. There is no discernible fisheye affect, and while you can tell it's a wide angle, the image doesn't really look like a wide-angle in my opinion. It doesn't hae that gopro view feel. Stretching at the corners is present but not as bad as my rokinon 14 mm full frame. I'm using this for real estate videos and it's working out great on my a6500. Even wide open, you can get enough in focus that you don't need to worry about adjusting focus during the shoot. It is very light so my older gimbal does not vibrate the whole time like it did with my full frame wide-angle lens. The Lauwa 9m no distortion lens was tempting me, and I almost thought about sending this back to get that just to go that one step wider, but this one has been super usable, and when you move around with that other one, it's looks too disorienting for Video. This one doesn't draw any unwanted attention to itself for how wide it is, and it is great image quality. For about $250, this was a great purchase. I'm not sure even for a lot money I could've found something that I like more in this 12 mm range. If I lost this one, I would buy this same one again.

Summary: This lens is an excellent budget option. An 18mm equiv is super versatile when you need wide angle, but not so wide that things get crazy. I carry it everywhere with my camera now, along with the 35/1.8 and 55-210. Good: Price: Obviously. For wide angle E-mount lens, under $300 is amazing; the Sony 10-18 would set you back $750, and it can't shoot at f/2. I haven't tried other Rokinon lenses yet, but it doesn't seem like this price can be beat. Build Quality: Is plasticky, but very durable. Mine has taken quite a few knocks with no visible dents or scratches. It feels solid. It's also surprisingly compact for a wide-angle. Physically it is about the same size as the 35/1.8 only the front bulges outward. The lens cap and hood fit very tightly. Image Quality: Is superb at the price point, with one drawback (chromatic aberration: see below). It is sharp and performs extremely well in low-light. I couldn't see any distortion in the images whatsoever. The ability to shoot at f/2 is obviously great, especially at night. I feel comfortable shooting at f/2, but the sharpness really peaks around f/4-5.6. The manual focusing doesn't get in the way, either. In most cases (if you're more than 3 feet away from your subject), you can set it to infinity and forget about it. Bad: Chromatic Aberrration: This is my major complaint about the lens. At night C.A. becomes quite noticeable even without pixel peeping. At f/2 it's at its worse, but it's still visible down to f/8 and beyond. It's probably correctable in Photoshop, but still an annoyance. Focusing Ring: Is uncomfortably stiff. I feel like I'm straining the mount whenever I rapidly change focus. The focus at infinity is also not all the way to the right, but very slightly left of that. This is easy to get used to, though. Manual: It's a completely manual lens, like all other Rokinons. That means you won't get any EXIF data on your photos. For example, I have to take my best guess from memory for aperture I used for the photos below (although it's usually f/2). Let's look at some photos. (Note: I am not a very good photographer) The first shows the worst of the C.A. Without even zooming I can see purple edges on the rafters. I could have made conditions better for myself by lowering the ISO or stopping it down but isn't the whole point to be able to shoot wide open? (ISO 2000, 1/80 sec, f/2) The second shows what a close up shot looks like. It is difficult to get bokeh from a wide-angle lens and this is about the best I could do. In this picture the lens is about 12 inches away from the drum! (ISO 1600, 1/80 sec, f/2) The third displays some flare coming in from an extremely bright sun. If I had used a filter, or just rotated left, it wouldn't be nearly as visible. (ISO 100, 1/500 sec, f/8) The last is just a photo I thought was nice, and confirmed that I had made a good choice in purchasing this lens. (ISO 1600, 1/200 sec, f/2) Conclusion: get it.