Samyang XP 10mm F 3 5 Review | 54 Data compared

The Samyang XP 10mm f/3.5 (marketed as the Rokinon SP 10mm f/3.5 in the US) is a premium, manual-focus prime lens designed for Canon EOS full-frame DSLRs. Built to handle demanding 50-megapixel sensors and 8K video, it delivers an astonishing 130-degree diagonal viewing angle, making it the widest rectilinear (non-fisheye) lens available. The lens boasts impressive real-world performance, offering sharp images from the center out to the extreme corners, high contrast, excellent color accuracy, and virtually no visible distortion. Furthermore, its immense depth of field enables front-to-back sharpness from infinity down to its 0.26m minimum focusing distance, making it highly effective for dramatic landscape and perspective photography. In terms of build and design, the lens features a robust, full-metal jacket and a silky smooth, tactile rubberized focus ring as its primary pros. Although it is a manual-focus lens, it includes built-in electronics that allow the camera body to control the aperture across all PASM modes and provide a focus confirmation indicator in the viewfinder. However, the review highlights several cons, including a total lack of weather-seals, which are surprisingly present...

The B&H Explora hands-on review of the Samyang XP 10mm f/3.5 lens for Canon EF highlights its performance as a premium, distortion-free prime designed for architecture and landscapes, featuring advanced optics with 18 elements to control aberrations. The lens is praised for producing exceptionally straight lines and high contrast, while the main drawbacks include a lack of front filter compatibility due to a fixed hood and mandatory manual focusing.

The Samyang XP 10mm F/3.5 is a highly specialized ultra-wide-angle lens designed for full-frame Canon EF mount cameras, suitable for architecture, interior, and landscape photography. It boasts an impressive 130-degree field of view with exceptionally low distortion (around 2% barrel-shaped) and high build quality featuring a metal body and a precise manual focus ring. In terms of performance, the center sharpness is good even wide open at f/3.5, and chromatic aberration remains minimal. Compared to its direct competitors like the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L or alternative manual lenses for Sony, this lens is notably more compact, lightweight, and reasonably priced while offering a wider focal length. However, the lens has several distinct limitations, most notably the complete lack of autofocus, a depth of field scale, and image stabilization. Corner sharpness drops significantly at full aperture, requiring photographers to stop down to f/5.6 or f/8 to achieve sharp corners across the frame. Heavy vignetting is also a prominent drawback, measuring at 1.8 stops at f/3.5 and persisting at over 1 stop even when stopped down to f/8. Additionally, because of the...

The Samyang XP 10mm F3.5 is a premium manual-focus ultra-wide-angle prime lens designed for full-frame cameras, offering an expansive 130° angle of view (104° on APS-C sensors). Built to support sensors up to 50 megapixels and 8K cinematography, it features a robust, nicely sized brushed metal body, smooth manual focus rubber ring, and electronic coupling for Exif data and aperture control. Reviewers highlight its incredible sharpness from edge to edge and its ability to render straight lines beautifully without barrel distortion, making it an excellent tool for detailed landscape, cityscape, and indoor architectural photography. Additionally, it delivers fantastic, vivid color and contrast levels that provide deep, high-resolution imagery. However, the lens comes with notable design trade-offs. Because of its rectilinear ultra-wide nature, it naturally suffers from perspective distortion, though this can be mitigated with precise image composition. Its massive, exposed front glass element remains vulnerable to elements like rain, sleet, and snow despite the protection of the built-in plastic petal hood. This exposed design also makes the lens prone to ghosting and lens flare when shooting into direct sunlight or...

The Samyang XP 10mm F3.5 is a professional-grade, manual-focus rectilinear ultra-wide-angle lens designed for high-resolution cameras. Priced at €1,149, it targets professionals and serious enthusiasts specializing in landscape, architecture, interior design, and real-estate photography who require an immense 130° field of view. Built with a premium, durable full-metal body, the lens remains remarkably compact and lightweight, making it highly portable and easy to fit into standard camera bags. During field testing on a Nikon D500 crop-sensor body, it proved to be a highly creative tool that demands careful attention to lines, symmetry, and perspective due to how it magnifies foreground objects and stretches peripheral subjects. The lens's primary strengths lie in its exceptional optical performance, highlighted by spectacular center-to-corner sharpness starting from f/5.6 and an almost complete lack of barrel distortion—a major engineering milestone for a 10mm rectilinear lens. It also delivers excellent color rendition, smooth mechanical handling via its sturdy focus ring, and a generous five-year manufacturer warranty. On the downside, the lens is highly susceptible to lens flare, particularly from LED streetlights during nighttime photography. It completely lacks...

The Samyang XP 10mm F3.5 ultra-wide-angle lens offers photographers a unique perspective distinct from fisheye lenses, producing extraordinary results for architecture, interior, and landscape photography. A key benefit is its compact and lightweight design, especially when compared to the XP 14mm model, which enhances its portability for normal, daily usage. The lens features a premium metal lens cap that fits securely and matches the body aesthetic. Mechanically, the lens excels in controlling optical distortion; it keeps lines perfectly straight without any barrel distortion, delivering an impressive sense of space when the camera is properly levelled. However, the lens presents several design and optical challenges that limit its versatility. The massive meniscus front lens element is poorly protected by the built-in lens hood, making it highly susceptible to rain and snow droplets, as well as flares and ghosting from bright light sources or sunshine. Optically, noticeable vignetting occurs at the corners when shooting wide open at f/3.5, requiring photographers to stop down the aperture or rely on post-processing to achieve sharper, evenly lit images. Additionally, due to intense perspective distortion caused...

The Samyang XP 10mm f/3.5 is a premium manual-focus, ultra-wide-angle rectilinear lens that provides an expansive field of view for full-frame cameras. Its main advantages include a high-quality build and manual focus feel comparable to Zeiss lenses, as well as an electronic interface that transmits full EXIF data and allows aperture adjustments directly through the camera. Optically, when stopped down to its best aperture of f/11, the lens delivers excellent sharpness across the entire frame, including the extreme corners, along with well-controlled barrel distortion and very pleasing, vibrant color rendering. However, the lens has notable drawbacks, particularly its very poor flare resistance due to a bulbous front element, strong vignetting when shot wide-open at f/3.5, and mediocre, unremarkable sun stars even when stopped down to f/22. Additionally, finding a usable filter solution is incredibly difficult; custom front holders like the Nisi vignette severely, and using rear/adapter ND filters introduces noticeable focus shifts, reduced contrast, and worsened field curvature. Quality control also appears inconsistent, as the reviewer's first production unit suffered from an incorrect infinity hard stop that could not focus...