The BEST Third Party Lens for Fujifilm? Now with AF | Samyang 12mm F2

[@fabienb]

And it's not the first time I show you how I used an ultra wide angle lens from Samyang in the streets of London: watch my "crazy" video with the fisheye lens here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jafCfYqKpLSHi7s

[@ParisChicStyle]

Wow 😍this is by far the best Samyang 12mm Af2 Fuji review I have seen. I love all your natural photography skills, the composition, and the lighting was all natural and even the photos taken directly from the camera were the best. It gives me an idea of how good the lens is without being heavily edited with so many presets or filters like most people use these days. LOL, I also love the videos you showed here. I am deciding whether to buy the Samyang 12mm or the Viltrox af 13mm to go with Fujifilm xe4. I think the Samyang would be a better match as it's much lighter and smaller as compared to Viltrox 13mm af. Fujifilm xe4 is very compact so I can't use heavy lenses. I'll only be using one lens for my next travel for photos, videos, and vlogging, and I always pack light so it seems like you've just convinced me to get the Samyang 12mm af instead. Any thoughts? Thanks!

[@fabienb]

Merciiii!!! 😁 I always try my best and I'm glad this has been so helpful to you. I'm sure there are many examples of how good is the Viltrox, but I used the Samyang for so many years now that I know it inside out and love it. And the autofocus version is just as good, with all the added benefits on top. I agree that you will be better off with a lighter lens on the XE4 (nice little one ☺️) so yeah go for it 👌🏻 As a single lens for travel it may be limiting though, because you only have 1 option for everything. You can shoot everything with a 12mm of course, but if you want to get closer to a subject you have to move your body very close to it and it's not always possible. The Fujifilm 23, 35 and 50 f2 are great options that are also light. The kit lens 18-55 is versatile and not as bad as other brands' kit lenses (it's pretty good actually, still on my camera a lot). But if wide angle is your thing, by all means get this 👍🏻

[@ParisChicStyle]

@@fabienb Thank you for your reply. Does the Samyang 12mm create a face and body distortion when shooting a portrait or whole-body shots? I'm also thinking about getting the fuji 16mm f2.8 or the 14mm.

[@fabienb]

I shoot close-up portraits with this lens and I like its character (see about the end of the video for a selfie 😁). And this lens in particular doesn't have barrel distortion, which is something that works well for architecture but also portraits. It's still an ultra wide angle though, so you need to position yourself and your subjects carefully for optimal results. As a personal preference, if I can only buy one lens I rather go with the camera brand. And the 16mm is beautiful but of course it's not as wide as a 12mm, so it depends on what you need most. The 14mm I haven't tried it, but it's not weather sealed so I wouldn't recommend it as a main travel lens.

[@niklas7215]

Great review man! Thank you! Keep it up!

[@fabienb]

Thanks a lot Niklas! I'm glad you found me and appreciated the review. Hope it helped you :)

[@DEKarting]

Thanks for the review Fabian. One of the reasons I didn’t get the MF version was no XFIF data, a minor thing but I like having that detail on my shots and as far as I can tell from your review the AF version gives that?

[@fabienb]

Thank you for taking the time to comment. You are correct, no MF lens can communicate with the camera to provide EXIF data. I personally have solved this with a paid app called Exif Editor (exifeditor.com, no affiliation whatsoever): I have inserted the data for my manual lenses and process the files with this app before importing the images to Lightroom. It still can't display Aperture info because frankly I can't possibly remember all the different conditions of each photo, but at least it doesn't show me a generic 50mm anymore. The third party AF lenses I have used so far, all save the EXIF data so this problem doesn't arise. ☺️

[@DEKarting]

@@fabienb thank you Fabian! I ordered the AF version and it arrives today! I’m excited to use it in place of my Fuji 16mm F2.8. Tbh I was a bit underwhelmed with how wide my 16 was for landscape and architecture, but I’m going to do some back to back shots with them both to make sure I’m happy and if I am will likely sell my 16mm

[@fabienb]

@@DEKarting amazing! Hands down this is my top recommendation for a third party lens for the Fuji X-mount (if you shoot wide, of course) and I'm confident you will have no regrets. My favourite subjects with it are landscapes/cityscapes at golden/blue hour and night because I feel it's when it even beats the Fuji wide lenses for colour rendition. Oh man, you're in for a treat 😊

[@susaschweder6685]

Thanks for the review. I use the manual samyang 12 mm mainly for Astro Photography and love it. Now that viltrox has a 13 mm lens I thought about buying that mainly for daytime Photography and the autofocus. Would be nice if you could do a review or compare the samyang 12 mm to the viltrox 13 mm 😉

[@fabienb]

Hello Susa and thanks to you for the comment. To this day, Viltrox never approached me so it would be hard for me to make the review you ask (their lenses are not for rent either). I only tried a Viltrox lens once a couple years ago thanks to a friend of mine and found it too soft at the edges but I know that many actually like them, particularly that 13mm. I am now keeping this Samyang 12mm AF so maybe one day I'll be able to make this other comparison. But if you already have and love the MF like I do, you can't go wrong: it's the same lens with the addition of a linear motor.

[@navinadv]

@@fabienb I haven’t tried any Samyang lenses but am told that Viltrox has done a very good job especially with AF on their 75mm, 13mm, and 23mm lenses.

[@Elements795]

Fabian, I like your personality, content and style. My attitude is, “If the content is good and I’m left feeling good at the end of the video, why not subscribe”? That’s how I feel right now…Sub’d☺️ By the way, I had a Samyang 12mm F2 manual lens on my eBay watchlist before watching this video…I paused it part way through and “pulled the trigger”! Hopefully this will be a good pairing for my X-T1🤞 Peace✌️

[@fabienb]

You are an absolute legend, thank you so much. The manual 12mm was the first lens I ever bought for the X-T1, after the kit lens, and I still use it to this day. I find it a phenomenal lens so I'm sure you will have a great time with it ☺️ I hope my future videos will live up to your expectations 😅🤗

[@stephanweiskorn6760]

Excellent video 😊

[@fabienb]

Thanks a lot Stephan! If there's any question you may still have on the lens, feel free to ask here ☺️

[@Patrick.Fontana]

Thank you for this test rich in photos. Do you think this lens takes full advantage of the new 40-megapixel sensors?

[@fabienb]

Hey Patrick! Thank you and Happy New Year! I haven't been able to try the new sensor yet. My educated guess would be positive: this is a recent lens and Samyang develop a range of good lenses for Sony cameras with more megapixels so it shouldn't be an issue. I will eventually try the new cameras but I'm not upgrading just yet

[@david_keating]

Very interesting looking lens Fabien and a good price also. I use a 35mm lens and the 18-55mm kit lens but I generally only use the kit lens for wide shots so only ever on 18mm. I am looking to buy an 18mm or a 16mm prime but now you've thrown the 12mm into my thoughts I'm not sure what to do now🙂. I think the 12 may be a little wide for me. Im also waiting for the XT-5. I decided to stick with my XT30 for 2 years to learn my way around and skipped the XT4 but I think I'm ready now for an upgrade. Great vlogs and reviews Fabien and I hope to bump into you in town again sometime. 👍👌

[@fabienb]

Thanks a lot David! And yeah we shall meet again ☺️ The 12mm is wide, no doubt about it. But if's such a good lens. And Samyang actually manages to produce great colours as well, in line with Fuji, which is a struggle with other third party lenses. Think about it 😁

[@david_keating]

@@fabienb for that price I am well tempted. 🙂

[@fabienb]

@@david_keating yeah I didn't mention the price because it changes based on the distributors but it's well priced ☺️

[@OutingJournal]

Buy Samyang Lens Station docking firmware update

[@fabienb]

Thanks! I was just looking at that 👍🏻

[@evtimstefanov8377]

Very low level of sound mate...

[@fabienb]

Yeah I know, I wrote it in the comments or description too. Sorry for that. It's happened somehow while exporting the video 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@thortele]

the shirt.... where do i find that!?

[@fabienb]

Haha, that's one of my many Threadless t-shirts ☺️ They used to be very good some years ago but now the quality of print and fabric is a tad worse. This is one of my favourites, glad you like it ☺️

[@thortele]

@@fabienb With that faded print it is probably better! But still.... i can't get it somewhere? Arrived late to the party... again.

[@fabienb]

You can try checking threadless.com if that is still available ☺️👍🏻