First impression of 45 and 12-24 lenses

Yesterday I visited the Photokina at Cologne and took some time to play with the new lenses.

Both lenses are very lightweight but seem very well made. When I read the specification at first I was sceptical and expected the lenses to feel cheap and flimsy, however I was proofed wrong, the lenses have more quality feel than my 18-55 ll or my 30 pancake.
On NX20 and NX210 AF was fast.

I had my NX10 with me and AF did not work fine with the 45mm lens, or to be more precise, AF worked but I got no "green" focus confirmation. Seems we will have to wait for a firmeware update for this camera. I had no NX11 with me, so cannot comment on behaviour with this camera.
The 12-24 worked fine on NX10.

I took photos of a member of staff with my NX10 and the 45mm lens at f1.8 and found it to be very sharp wide open, nice background blur and if you zoom in on the eye it is very sharp and contrasty. I got the impression that this lens is not meant as cheapo 50mm lens and is built to deliver high quality.

The lens is not as small as the pancakes but there are no features that compromise quality to make it small.

It was not possible to put my SD card in one of their NX20 cameras when I tried the 12-24 so I had to rely on the magnification of the display to get a first impression of the performance but again it looks promising, even wide open (as this is not a fast lens it will often get used wide open I think).

I have put both lenses on my wish list.

Thomas

Thomas Wieser wrote:

..

It was not possible to put my SD card in one of their NX20 cameras when I tried the 12-24 so I had to rely on the magnification of the display to get a first impression of the performance but again it looks promising, even wide open (as this is not a fast lens it will often get used wide open I think).

I will try that 12-24mm tomorrow Thomas with my NX20 so I will respond with some further impressions and THX for the first report....

Thomas Wieser wrote:

I took photos of a member of staff with my NX10 and the 45mm lens at f1.8 and found it to be very sharp wide open, nice background blur and if you zoom in on the eye it is very sharp and contrasty. I got the impression that this lens is not meant as cheapo 50mm lens and is built to deliver high quality.

The lens is not as small as the pancakes but there are no features that compromise quality to make it small.

Thanks a lot for the feedback !

Since the new prime is neither 55mm nor pancake, it truly HAS TO deliver superior IQ. Things like the fact that the lens has 9 blades look promising, but they don't even mention it in most of their press releases (while they do say that it is a great lens for... food photography o.O). Also, they don't say a word about the choice of an unusual focal length (equivalent 69mm on full-frame) which is considered by many as a little too short for flattering portraits. IMHO their marketing division forgets way too often that we're talking about photographic equipment...

Thomas Wieser wrote:

Yesterday I visited the Photokina at Cologne and took some time to play with the new lenses.

Both lenses are very lightweight but seem very well made. When I read the specification at first I was sceptical and expected the lenses to feel cheap and flimsy, however I was proofed wrong, the lenses have more quality feel than my 18-55 ll or my 30 pancake.
On NX20 and NX210 AF was fast.

I had my NX10 with me and AF did not work fine with the 45mm lens, or to be more precise, AF worked but I got no "green" focus confirmation. Seems we will have to wait for a firmeware update for this camera. I had no NX11 with me, so cannot comment on behaviour with this camera.
The 12-24 worked fine on NX10.

I took photos of a member of staff with my NX10 and the 45mm lens at f1.8 and found it to be very sharp wide open, nice background blur and if you zoom in on the eye it is very sharp and contrasty. I got the impression that this lens is not meant as cheapo 50mm lens and is built to deliver high quality.

The lens is not as small as the pancakes but there are no features that compromise quality to make it small.

It was not possible to put my SD card in one of their NX20 cameras when I tried the 12-24 so I had to rely on the magnification of the display to get a first impression of the performance but again it looks promising, even wide open (as this is not a fast lens it will often get used wide open I think).

Thanks! I didn't realize they have working copies of the lenses already. Maybe they will be here sooner rather than later

Traditionalists might prefer 55 mm for portraits with APS-C, but 45 mm might be more useful in cramped indoors. Also, I have seen a trend to get a little closer for portraits than maybe what traditional photographers would for "flattering" portraits.

Eric
--
I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object
be what it may - light, shade, and perspective will always make it
beautiful. - John Constable (quote)

See my Blog at: http://www.erphotoreview.com/ (bi-weekly)
Flickr Photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28177041@N03/ (updated daily)

did they say when they will be available ?

tjobbe wrote:

Thomas Wieser wrote:

..

It was not possible to put my SD card in one of their NX20 cameras when I tried the 12-24 so I had to rely on the magnification of the display to get a first impression of the performance but again it looks promising, even wide open (as this is not a fast lens it will often get used wide open I think).

I will try that 12-24mm tomorrow Thomas with my NX20 so I will respond with some further impressions and THX for the first report....

I am looking forward to learn your opinion about this lens on the NX20.

Thomas

I'm totally uninterested in the wide zoom, while I could have been in the 45 if it were a pancake. This size and this focal lenght is not enough to imterest me, since I already have the 60 macro and the 30 which are great for all the pics I could take with the 45mm.

Ariston wrote:

thank you for the update! is the 45mm's size the same as the 20-50? the 20-50 looks to be compact enough for me, so if the 45mm is identical, it would be nice. is there a way you can show some images of the background blur and dof of the 45mm? I'm interested on it's wide open performance. thanks.

45mm:
62 x 44,5 mm, 115 g
20-50:
64 x 39,8 mm, 119 g

Unfortunately I only have taken photos of the Samsung staff when I tried this lens and so I cannot post the photos here. But as it was possible to take pictures with this lens and they had some of them I think we soon will see (p)reviews of this lens with sample photos.

Thomas
--
http://nxaustria.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the mini-review! Personally I don't much care about the 45mm but the 12-24 sounds very interesting! Maybe by Christmas it will be reasonably widely available....

Back from the PK2012 with some thoughts on the two lenses.

my personal verdict on the 12-24 is a "must have it", as its light, compact, mechanically well build (the zoomring is very smooth) and the AF with the NX20 is really fast (obviously the lens benefits from the short focal length).

The lensware version is V1.00 so it should be production ready if not already a production release so I see no issues why it should not show up in stores next month.

Compared to the 12-24 the 45mm is showing a beta lensware release V0.60 so i would not see that as final. Compared to the zoom lens the AF here is more on the level of the 60&85mm so fast enough but not really quick yet (but as said.. its beta still, so it can get better until final release)

The bokeh wide open is nice and did not see any optical issues with it while trying it on a NX1000.

The size is similar to the 20-50mm as already indicated but mechanically its well build despite the low weight on matches nicely with the NX bodies.

I asked for release dates and Samsung was not really willing to confirm one, but they internally target for an earlier release for the 45mm then indicated on the press releases....I guess they are keen to get onto the shelf prior to year end.

Ariston wrote:
..

thank you, I can only speculate that the 45mm has an SSA autofocus system. is the 45mm mechanically coupled as well? if it does, I speculate that it may share the same dof quality that both 60mm and 85mm possess. the lightweight is already a huge + imo. metal build and similar size as the 20-50 makes it even better.

hearing how the 12-24 looks and feels like seems to make the lens very interesting. how is the IQ on this lens btw?

there was no indication for the 45 on which kind of motor drives the AF while for the 12-24 they indicate that to be step motor as on most of the new Canon or Sony lenses (hearing the Phase AF ringing).

I believe it to be a good lens however it does see to be giving me a WOW factor different to the 12-24.

I was able to take some shots that I send to myself via eMail (in 2MBit reduced resulation nevertheless) directly from their NX20 (so in case you ask what would be the benefit of WiFi in a camera... proof attached)

Ariston wrote:

... is the 45mm mechanically coupled as well?

overlooked that part:

I cannot answer that question but I believe it is by-wire. The reason is simply that the way they fix the lens with a security belt is fixed at the blue ring so that this is a mechanical coupling .. I was not able to peel that away from the lens to test exactly that but I have the impression that is similar to the standard pancakes

Ariston wrote:

the samples that you shown on the 12-24 looks good imo. lens look compact and small for a such a wide zoom lens.

here one at 24mm stopped down to f8

I just picked up an NX 100. At the prices now, it's not much of a gamble. I figured I would keep a small street shooting kit, but these new lens may cause me to get in a little deeper.