Samyang/Rokinon vs. straight lines.

[martti]

Once upon a time we metered TTL (Through The Lens) exposure while diapragh was stopped down. Of sourse, we focused manually before stopping down, otherwise the focus was very difficult to judge. Then came F TTL, then came automatic exposure, then autofocus and now the cameras go 'click' if somebody smiles and they also crop the portrait for you...
Well, Rokinon is from the old school. I have the 14mm f/2.8 on my 5DIII. It is not the handiest lens to use. You bracket a lot and look at the histogram. Then you come home and look at the wave formed distortion and take care of it with the dedicated lens profile on LR.
You get a nice result finally and it came cheap.

Does anyone here have experience of the 12 mm f/2.0 on the APS-C sensor? What would be your recommendation? Is it as quirky as the FF 14mm?

Here is a shot from today in the mountains just before the rain came.
Canon 5DIII, Rokinon 14mm at f/16 for the DOF.

 

[Random Orbits]

Take a look at Dustin's review. He likes it.

http://dustinabbott.net/2014/10/rokinon-12mm-f2-ncs-review/

 

[martti]

Thank you Random. From Dustin:
"The truth of the matter is that this little lens is in most ways a better, more complete version of the big brother 14mm f/2.8. It has far less distortion (which means that the extreme corners are useful), similar sharpness, and (this is a biggie) can use traditional filters in a common (and relatively inexpensive) size.