Samyang 12mm F 2 8 ED AS NCS Fisheye Review | 54 Data compared

The Samyang 12 mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS Fish-eye is a manual-focus, diagonal fisheye lens designed for full-frame camera sensors. It is highly notable for utilizing a sophisticated stereographic projection mapping, a design choice that helps preserve the natural shape of objects near the frame corners and results in a more visually pleasing image with moderate line curvature compared to traditional fisheye lenses. The physical build features a solid aluminum alloy casing, a large rubberized manual focus ring that turns 120 degrees for precise adjustments, and advanced nanocrystal anti-reflective NCS layers to optimize light transmission. According to the LensTip testing data, the lens presents a distinct mix of optical strengths and weaknesses: LensTip.com Pros: It delivers sensational image quality and razor-sharp resolution in the center of the frame, even when shooting wide open. It features excellent correction of longitudinal chromatic aberration, zero visible symptoms of spherical aberration, and low astigmatism. Additionally, the lens boasts superb performance against bright light with minimal ghosting or flares, and displays negligible vignetting when mounted on APS-C/DX format bodies. YouTube · Cons: The primary drawback...

The ePHOTOzine review highly recommends the Samyang 12mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS Fisheye lens, praising its excellent build quality, robust metal mount, and smooth, precise manual focus ring. It delivers outstanding center sharpness, very good edge performance when stopped down, and excellent flare control via Nano Coating System (NCS). On the downside, this manual-only lens lacks a hard infinity focus stop, requires manual focus confirmation, shows typical wide-open corner softness, and produces, as expected, dramatic barrel distortion. Despite these, the lens is considered a high-performance, well-balanced option.

The Samyang 12mm f/2.8 Fisheye (also marketed as Rokinon) is a manual-focus, full-frame lens that offers a massive 180-degree diagonal field of view, making it a compelling tool for creative nightscape photography. In real-world astrophotography testing at Lauwersmeer National Park, the lens proved to be a solid wide-angle performer. A major benefit is its excellent build quality and its highly manageable sagittal coma aberration. The coma is barely noticeable on a full screen and gradually decreases when stopping down from f/2.8 to f/4 and f/5.6. Additionally, focusing at night is straightforward because the infinity focus marker on the barrel was perfectly accurate. For users who want a standard wide-angle view, the fisheye distortion is also notably easy to "defish" in post-processing to create an image wider than a standard 14mm lens. However, the lens has several distinct drawbacks linked to its extreme fisheye design and optical limitations. Due to a unique focus flaw across the 180-degree field of view, the corners suffer from a loss of sharpness because you must turn the focus ring past infinity to get them perfectly...

The Samyang 12mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS Fisheye is a highly specialized, ultra-wide full-frame prime lens that is distinguished by its unique stereographic image projection. This proprietary optical design allows the lens to achieve a full 180-degree field of view at a wider focal length than usual, resulting in a flatter image with less central bulging compared to traditional equisolid fisheye lenses. Built with advanced optics including two aspherical elements, three extra-low dispersion elements, and a Nano crystal coating, the lens delivers exceptional image quality with excellent sharpness in the center and corners from maximum aperture, alongside strong contrast and color rendering. The reviewer notes that despite complaints from other sources, chromatic aberration is practically unnoticeable in real-world shooting conditions. The lens offers several major advantages, notably its extremely wide coverage, affordable price point—being nearly four times cheaper than the competing Canon 8-15mm f/4L—and a fast f/2.8 maximum aperture that allows for close-up bokeh effects. Furthermore, manual focusing is incredibly straightforward due to its massive depth of field, which provides infinite focus from 2 meters away even when shot wide...

The Samyang 12mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS Fisheye lens is a robustly constructed, manual-focus full-frame lens that uniquely utilises a stereographic projection geometry rather than the standard equidistant projection. This distinct optical blueprint yields a massive 180-degree diagonal field of view with a highly appealing, less pronounced "bulging" effect at the center and less squashing at the edges compared to traditional fisheyes. Tested on a high-resolution 50MP Canon 5Ds body, the lens delivers excellent sharpness and highly clear imagery, making it surprisingly effective for representing three-dimensional architectural spaces, landscapes, and even astrophotography. Its massive depth of field ensures that focusing at f/5.6 or f/8 is exceptionally easy, effectively requiring the user to rarely adjust the smooth focus ring once set near infinity. The lens boasts several strengths, including superb control over flare, minimal vignetting that quickly disappears by f/4, a solid metal mount, and a highly pleasing stereographic projection. However, users must navigate notable drawbacks, such as prominent chromatic aberration (color fringing) at the edges that requires software correction, and a minor presence of coma in corner stars. Additionally, its...

The Samyang 12mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS Fish-Eye is a full-frame, metal-chassis manual lens praised for its 180-degree field of view, exceptional center sharpness wide open, and high-quality construction. Notably, it utilizes a stereographic projection that reduces extreme barrel distortion compared to typical fisheyes, while the Pentax version includes an "A" setting for automatic aperture control. While optically strong, the lens is entirely manual and lacks electronic communication, resulting in no EXIF data, and some users report soft extreme corners at infinity, alongside the lack of a front filter thread. The focus ring offers smooth operation but lacks a hard stop at infinity, requiring precision during adjustment.

The PCMag review of the Samyang 12mm F2.8 ED AS NC Fish-eye highlights a compact, affordable manual lens that delivers excellent sharpness and a 180-degree diagonal field of view on full-frame sensors. Its stereographic projection produces a unique, less extreme curved look compared to traditional fisheyes, while the deep depth of field simplifies focus, making it suitable for quick shooting. However, the lens is fully uncoupled, requiring manual aperture control which dims the viewfinder, and its protruding front element prevents the use of standard, circular screw-on filters. Furthermore, while software can correct the severe, non-linear barrel distortion, doing so reduces the effective field of view, according to PCMag.

The Samyang 12mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS Fisheye is an affordable, full-frame manual focus lens that retails for around USD$500, offering photographers a high-quality alternative to expensive top-brand options. Despite its budget-friendly price, the lens delivers a massive 180-degree view, turning mundane scenes into highly stylized, curved images that are particularly well-suited for astrophotography, architecture, and close-up sports tracking. Its lightweight and compact build makes it exceptionally easy to transport, comparable in size to a standard 50mm prime lens rather than a typically bulky fisheye. Additionally, users can exploit the extreme distortion strategically, as keeping elements like the horizon directly centered in the frame will effectively straighten out the lines. However, the lens comes with notable downsides, primarily that it lacks autofocus. While users can easily adapt by setting the focus ring to infinity for distant subjects, close-up shots will require precise manual adjustment. The ultra-wide field of view also poses framing challenges; users must be careful not to accidentally capture their own feet or nearby friends in the periphery. Lastly, standard landscape shots can suffer if there is no...

The Rokinon/Samyang 12mm f/2.8 is a solid, well-designed manual-focus full-frame fisheye lens that offers an expansive 180-degree horizontal field of view. Its unique stereographic optical design prevents severe compression at the edges, keeping horizontal lines only moderately curved compared to traditional circular fisheye alternatives. While the physical build reflects its budget-friendly $499 price point rather than top-tier luxury construction, it feels sturdy in hand. Optically, the lens delivers excellent sharpness and high-quality rendering at the center of the frame, utilizing a complex arrangement of 12 elements—including three low-dispersion (ED) glass elements and two aspheric elements—to capture impressive interior and architectural shots. The lens comes with notable advantages alongside a few specific performance trade-offs. On the positive side, its stereographic projection creates a highly pleasant perspective that de-fishes remarkably well when processed manually or using dedicated software plugins. It stands out as an exceptional ultra-wide option for full-frame cameras when balancing angle coverage, fast f/2.8 aperture, and overall value. However, the lens lacks electronic connections to transmit data on Sony and Canon mounts, requiring entirely manual focus and aperture control. Optically,...

The WideScenes review highlights the Samyang 12mm f2.8 ED AS NCS Fisheye lens for its robust, high-strength aluminum alloy build, delivering a 180-degree diagonal field of view suitable for travel, architecture, and cityscapes. It features a 12-element, 8-group design with ED glass to maintain high resolution, along with a detachable petal hood that reduces flare. However, the manual-only,, bulbous-front lens cannot accept traditional filters, leaving it vulnerable to damage. The review adds that its extreme, non-linear distortion makes it unsuitable for traditional landscape photography where straight horizons are required.

The Samyang 12mm f/2.8 AS NCS Fish-eye lens is a robustly constructed, manual-focus, full-frame fisheye lens featuring a durable metal barrel and sophisticated optical design, incorporating ED and aspherical elements. Suited for landscape and architectural photography, it delivers a 180-degree diagonal field of view, providing smooth, well-damped focusing control for the user. The review highlights excellent build quality, comfortable handling, and a smooth focus ring as primary advantages, while noting high-quality output in the center of the frame. Performance drawbacks, or cons, include visible softness in the corners and edge-softening, along with diffraction-related sharpness loss at smaller apertures.

The Samyang 12mm F2.8 ED AS NCS Fisheye is a compact, lightweight manual-focus lens designed for full-frame cameras. Weighing 530 grams, it features an impressive optical build of 12 elements in 8 groups, which includes three Extra-low Dispersion (ED) glass elements and two aspherical glass elements. This diagonal fisheye lens fills the entire image sensor frame and offers a 7-blade aperture capable of focusing as close as 20 centimeters. The reviewer notes that its 12mm focal length makes it uniquely wider than most other competing full-frame prime fisheye lenses on the market, while costing only a small fraction of their price. In terms of performance, the lens delivers high-quality, sharp, and crispy-contrasted images with beautiful color hues, proving highly capable in both indoor and nighttime environments. The key pros highlighted in the review include its extreme wide-angle field of view, smooth and properly ratioed manual focusing ring, lightweight build, budget-friendly price, and professional-grade image quality. Conversely, the primary con mentioned is that the lens requires manual focusing, which might pose a challenge for some users, alongside the inherent, highly distorted...