Samyang 12mm T3 1 VDSLR ED AS NCS Fisheye Review | 54 Data compared

The ePHOTOzine review highly commends the Samyang 12mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS Fisheye as a robust, lightweight, and cost-effective lens, highlighting outstanding central sharpness, excellent build quality, and effective resistance to flare, even when shooting directly into light. While delivering high-quality imaging, the lens operates fully manually with no autofocus or electronic communication, and requires navigating a steep learning curve due to the extreme 180-degree stereographic distortion.

The primary pros highlighted in the comprehensive evaluation include sensational image quality in the frame centre and excellent control of ghosting and flares due to advanced nanocrystal NCS coatings. Additionally, it provides great value given its low price and robust build quality, featuring a smooth, wide manual focus ring and effective longitudinal chromatic aberration correction. On the downside, the cons focus heavily on weak image quality and unimpressive resolution on the frame edges, which can appear soft at wider apertures like f/2.8 and f/4.0. The lens also suffers from a high level of lateral chromatic aberration at the borders, lacks autofocus, has noticeable slack in its manual focus ring mechanism, and its bulbous front element makes it impossible to attach standard filters.

The Rokinon 12mm f/2.8 Full-Frame Fisheye lens is an exceptionally sharp ultra-wide manual focus option designed for niche fields like urban exploration, astrophotography, extreme sports, and interior architecture. Priced around $499, this full-frame lens provides an incredibly wide field of view that outclasses standard 14mm and 16mm lenses, managing to capture more vertical and horizontal space than competing fisheyes. The review highlights its elite optical performance, specifically noting its near-perfect flat field curvature all the way to the extreme corners, extremely low coma, low vignetting, and well-controlled flare. It is highly recommended for budget-conscious or risk-tolerant photographers because it delivers high-end sharpness at a fraction of the cost of premium alternatives. However, the lens does come with notable design and build compromises. Its primary physical flaw is a removable hood configuration that effectively turns the entire lens body into a spinning component, making it difficult and frustrating to mount or unmount on certain camera bodies like Nikons. Additionally, the build construction relies heavily on plastic rather than robust metal, and it lacks autofocus capabilities entirely, which may deter casual or...

The Samyang 12mm F2.8 ED AS NCS Fisheye is a compact, full-frame lens retailing for around USD $500 that injects a fun, unique perspective into a photographer's kit. Its standout features include a massive 180-degree field of view that fills the entire frame with striking distortion, making it an excellent budget-friendly choice for astrophotographers, aurora hunters, and architectural or sports photographers looking to capture expansive scenes. Its physical design is surprisingly small—comparable to a standard 50mm lens—making it exceptionally easy to carry around, while its fast f/2.8 aperture offers great low-light performance relative to its affordable price point. However, the lens comes with distinct usability trade-offs, most notably being a completely manual focus lens, which requires users to adapt to manual control or rely on setting the focus ring to infinity for distant subjects. The ultra-wide 180-degree view also presents composition challenges, as it can easily capture unwanted background distractions, camera gear, or even the photographer's own feet if the camera is angled too low. Furthermore, while the distinct curving distortion is a stylistic advantage for creative architectural shots, it...

The Samyang 12mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS Fisheye is an exceptionally wide full-frame diagonal prime lens that stands out due to its unique stereographic image projection. This patented design enables a full 180-degree field of view at a shorter focal length than typical fisheyes, resulting in flatter images with less central bulging and a significantly wider horizontal and vertical frame. Optically, the lens delivers high-quality results, featuring advanced construction with two aspherical and three extra-low dispersion elements that provide crisp contrast and impressive sharpness from the center to the corners, even when shot wide open at f/2.8. Additionally, its highly compact build (77x70mm) and lightweight frame (515g) make it highly portable, while its short focal length allows users to easily achieve infinite depth of field—such as at f/11 with a 0.5m focus setting—rendering precise manual focusing unnecessary for most landscapes. However, the lens has several physical and practical limitations, most notably its completely manual operation. It completely lacks autofocus, automatic aperture controls, or an electronic AF-confirmation chip to communicate with the camera body. While it works seamlessly on Canon EOS...