XF lens deals
The XF lenses price is normal again at every store but not at AmazonUS. You can still find some lenses, as the 27mm and 14mm nicely rebated. Also the 55-200 is cheaper than normal. But check them all out at AmazonUS.
Samyang 12mm (BHphoto)
FR-readers Sunwook: “Hi Patrick. Samyang’s new lens released on last Thursday in Korea and I bought 12mm immediatly. Here’s some images taken with my Fuji X-E2 and Samyang 12mm. Mounted / Night shot at each aperture step(due to wind, long exposure looks blurred) / Random shots.”
Here are my thoughts..
The 12mm can be pre-ordered at BHphoto.
The newly announced Samyang lenses:
– 8mm f/2.8 UMC Fish-Eye II lens in Fujifilm X mount (Click here).
– 10mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS CS lens in Fujifilm X mount (Click here).
– 12mm f/2.0 NCS CS lens in Fujifilm X mount (Click here).
– 8mm T3.1 Cine UMC Fish-Eye II lens in Fujfilm X mount (Click here).
11 Responses
I think Samyang makes to excellent products and certainly for the price 399.99 it is probably well worth it.
However, the Fuji x series cameras are retro looking but in reality are modern autofocus cameras with manual capability. I do all my macro work with manual.
But while the Zeiss 12mm is about 500.00 more, and I understand that many people do not want to spend that money, aren’t we giving up one of the main benefits of a modern system which is accurate AF?
Also, the size look gigantic.
I feel sorry for the people who need AF on a 12mm lens.
Can you explain this? (just for my understanding; to learn from your experience).
Zone focusing is quite easy with a lens as wide as this. The depth of field will be very large on a 12mm lens, thus almost everything will be in focus almost all the time, except when doing close up shots or maybe using f/2.0. For example, at f/5.6 you can have everything between about 65 cm to eternity covered by the depth of field. (http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html). This is much faster than autofocus 🙂
Ultra wide angle lenses, when coupled with AF, are prone to a very nasty hunting in low light / low contrast situations. When manufacturer tries to add “macro” capabilities to such AF lens, it makes matters even worse.
So, if you use MF lens, you pre-focus (or zone focus), and just snap the photo when the moment is right. You can do the same (in MF mode) with most AF lenses, despite the fact that most of them have a very rudimentary distance scale and (in most cases) no DOF scale.
…but if you rely on AF, oftentimes you’ll just miss the moment (in focus priority) or get a totally blurry image (in release priority). Eventually you’ll learn to turn off AF in low light / low contrast situations (or start using AF lock regularly). At this point most people realize that there’s even less need for AF on UWA than in macro…
PS: One of the biggest photographic mysteries for me is autofocus fisheye lenses.
The lens is small and light, is the hood that is big.
The quality in my opinion is very very high, center resolution is outstanding and also corner sharpness is good, the only problem is some chromatic aberration that could easily be solved in post production.
Think also that original lens are probably corrected on camera for CA, what we see from the samyang is the real performance of the lens.
In a 12mm I’m not interested in AF.
Does anyone know when Adorama, or any store really, will start to get the X-T1 body in stock? Are we talking weeks, months, or what? I got screwed by Adorama and may need to cancel that backorder and order from somewhere that has it in stock before I leave the country next month. Any suggestions? Anyone know anywhere that has it in stock?
Hey, I got mine a couple of weeks ago from Adorama. It was backordered and took a few weeks to get, but I have it in hand and it is beautiful.
In regards to the “Black hood with silver lens Con”. Why would you want a silver hood that would reflect light back on the lens?
I’m planning on using this lens with a Panasonic GH2. That color aberration at the sides: is it likely to be any different on my camera?
CA is very easy to fix in post and on M43 you’d essentially use a center crop with less distortion.