Samyang 12mm 2.0 vs 8mm 3.5 FE or Both?

BeardedManMatt · Jun 10, 2015

Hey, I have a Samyang 12mm on backorder (two month wait) but a used 8mm fish-eye (Mark I) in excellent condition has just come up for sale at a pretty decent price. Not being able to test them both for comparison I'm hoping to get some suggestions.

Apart from the fish-eye effect, are the two lenses different enough to have them both? From what I've seen they are both crazy sharp pretty much to infinity and they both cover very wide angles. I definitely want the 12mm for astrophotography but it's a long wait to get it. And could always use Lightroom to add or remove the fish-eye effect on either lens. The 12mm seems to suffer from pretty bad flares and ghosting during the day whilst I see very good things about the 8mm.

What would you do in this situation? Keep both? Spend the money elsewhere? Have you owned both but only ever used one of them? I know I could always sell it on but it would be 2 months before I could even compare them for myself. If I don't go for the 8mm I would be putting that money towards the Samsung 45mm 1.8, anybody think that would just be the better option?

Thanks, I would like to know other peoples thoughts on this.

joebat · Jun 10, 2015

Go for the 14 mm : no coma and sharp from 2.8.

J.

MarkvandeVen · Jun 16, 2015

joebat said:
Go for the 14 mm : no coma and sharp from 2.8.

J.

I thought the 12mm had excellent reviews too with regards to Coma. The 14mm is designed for full-frame, whereas the 12mm is designed for mirrorless afaik.

I'm having basically the same doubt: I need a UWA/fisheye but the 12mm is very nice too in terms of specs. Question is whether it is 'wide enough' for my use..

joebat · Jun 17, 2015

You can use an adapter with the 14 mm for mirrorless.

J.

SteveY80 · Jun 18, 2015

joebat said:
You can use an adapter with the 14 mm for mirrorless.

J.

I'm curious why you'd want to use the larger 14mm on an adapter when the wider angle/aperture 12mm is available as a native lens?

I use the 12mm on Fuji and it's a really good lens, as well as being nice and compact for a small camera body.

epozar · Jun 18, 2015

Perhaps you meant Samyang 12/2.8 fisheye?

PSCL1 · Jun 18, 2015

I use the Rokinon-badged version of the 12 f2 on Fuji XA-1 and it is one of the great buys I've made in 45 years of amateur photography. Keep it. If the 8mm fisheye calls to you, go into debt for it. I don't think the 2 lenses are really as comparable as you regard them.

MarkvandeVen · Jun 18, 2015

PSCL1 said:
I use the Rokinon-badged version of the 12 f2 on Fuji XA-1 and it is one of the great buys I've made in 45 years of amateur photography. Keep it. If the 8mm fisheye calls to you, go into debt for it. I don't think the 2 lenses are really as comparable as you regard them.

Haha, I was afraid I would end up with 2 lenses instead of one.

I'm on Samsung NX so waiting for the announced Samsung S 11-24mm f/2.8 ED OIS would be an alternative, but only God knows when that will be released and I guess the price would be so high that I might as well get a 8mm and 12mm instead. For these wide angles AF isn't that interesting anyway.

I would still be interested to see some FOV comparisons of the current Samyang lenses on mirrorless camera's...

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Samyang 12mm 2.0 vs 8mm 3.5 FE or Both?

BeardedManMatt

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joebat

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MarkvandeVen

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joebat

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SteveY80

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epozar

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PSCL1

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MarkvandeVen

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