I have a new favourite lens for my Fuji X series cameras, but I can’t explain why. It’s the Samyang 12mm. That’s right, a Samyang lens.
It’s sharp, I mean really sharp and it feels very well made. It’s manual focus only but at 12mm, there is so much depth of field you stop it down to f/8.0, focus on infinity and click away. When you shoot into the sun, as in the image above, the Samyang creates a wonderful 6-point starburst effect. Best of all, I couldn’t see any flare.
So how much did this cost me? Just £280 from Amazon would you believe (https://amzn.to/2HQoMi6).
This lens has made me want to buy more wide-angle primes. I know it’s silly because I already have the excellent Fuji 10-24, but the prime is a joy to use in the landscape.
The Friday Image
In all honesty, I’ve lost count of the number for the Friday Images so I’m just going to keep publishing an image along with updates. It’s yet another from my Scotland Trip. I couldn’t tell you the name of this bay, but I could take you there. It was a rather opportunistic shot; we were just driving past, and I asked to stop whilst I shot this. With the Samyang 12mm of course.
If you want to see other shots from the trips with a few location details, I published this video to You Tube recently. You may recognise some of the shots but there are a few new ones that I haven’t shared.
Enjoy the video and have a great weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
Rob,
Excellent lens, I have a copy, only issue I had was vignetting when using the lee 100 system with the polarizer fitted (even using the wide angle adapter) see mountain shot below. Its also excellent for astro.
All the best, John
Dr. John Arthur (CGeol FGS)
+44 (0) 784 1800 103 jarthur42@gmail.com johnarthur42 (SKYPE)
I actually bought mine because I wanted to try it for Astro but haven’t got around to it. You should try switching to a Kase Filter holder. There’s no vignetting even with the polarising filter in place.
Been thinking about kase for a while based on your comments, just got to try and sell my Lee polarizer for an acceptable price.
It’s worth thinking about. I like using a polariser but I found I stopped a lot of the time when I used the Lee filters because it vignetted on a lot of the lenses. The Kase polariser is right next to the lens so it doesn’t vignette. The only problem I have found is that I forget when I’m using it with very wide angle lenses that you can create an uneven sky.