Samsung NX 10mm - fun fish

After a lot of consideration I purchased 10mm fisheye. I was debating buying Samyang 12mm f/2 or 8mm fisheye, but in the end I am so glad I went for Samsung 10mm.

First and foremost - this little thing is so fun to use - traditional fisheyes are huge and cumbersome, this is small and easy. Just make sure your fingers are not in the photo

Image quality - wide open excellent up to 2/3rds, at f/5.6 corner to corner sharp (my copy). F/8 is the same, after that you start to notice diffraction.

Auto focus (yeah, I know) is fast when you need it (shooting 4k due to crop makes AF useful).

At f/3.5 it's not a low light monster, especially without stabilization, but guven enough light it produces fantastic images.

This lens and 30/2 are, for me, now the two things that make me lose any idea to leave the NX system.

Hey Otto,

Good to hear... Do post some shots.

I am thinking about this one as well. How much you paid for it?

Hi, I have bad experience posting images to public spaces, but I can make some test shots for others to evaluate thr IQ?

I paid the equivalent of ~200 USD, but this is this first one for sale in quite a long time. There are some 16-50pz, 16/2.4 and 30mm for sale, but anything more exotic is very hard to find.

First crops from the left side (border slightly under the center)

Crops from the right side (border slightly under the center)

OK, conclusions:

1. Best at f/5.6 and f/8, sharp in the corners as well
2. Wide open sharp in the center, up to ~70% wide, suffers from CA and purple fringing.
3. F stops and T stops do not correspond. At f/3.5 I had to lower the exposure by 2/3 of a stop in order to have the same exposure as with f/8 (with SS adjusted purely in relation to A). Lowering exposure also creates a better image at f/3.5.
4. Have to very careful about bright lights in photos as they lower the contrast - and this is super wide so take care with photos with bright sky in them
5. f/11 is also sharp
6. f/16 acceptable for me
7. f/22 - worse than f/3.5

Tried some video - not as bad barrel as I feared - it's in line with some kit lenses I have used previously If anything - people on the edges do not get their faces distorted as much - people seem to be used to GoPro and the like and don't mind some distortion. Also, due to crop all of the image is sharp even wide open.

Undistorting produces FoV much wider than 12mm, will have to experiment with this more.

Thanks Otto - interesting results. Stopped down it's very usable. I think you got a great deal on this lens!

thatfour wrote:

Sad that nx does not have 35mm equivalent prime...only 30 and normal mid zoom 45 (with 45 & 67mm equivalent) fortunately having the 85mm (rarely used but the envy of many apsc systems) makes me stick with nx system...for now

That's wrong, Samsung has the 20mm f2.8 prime witch is 35mm FF equivalent.

Dimitri D
https://www.flickr.com/photos/135820506@N02/ My Flickr Photostream

Nice lens Otto, I'm sure that's a fun lens. I commit that I look after it a lot but used prices kept me for buying it. For me, just for landscapes, Samyang 12mm f2 is one way lens because it can used filters, despite Samsung NX 10mm fisheye that doesn't. The best choice is to have them both.

Dimitri D
https://www.flickr.com/photos/135820506@N02/ My Flickr Photostream

CyberDEL wrote:

thatfour wrote:

Sad that nx does not have 35mm equivalent prime...only 30 and normal mid zoom 45 (with 45 & 67mm equivalent) fortunately having the 85mm (rarely used but the envy of many apsc systems) makes me stick with nx system...for now

That's wrong, Samsung has the 20mm f2.8 prime witch is 35mm FF equivalent.

Dimitri D
https://www.flickr.com/photos/135820506@N02/ My Flickr Photostream

Sorry I was on the smartphone... Samsung NX 20mm f2.8 is the only lens that is closer to FF 35mm and is equivalent to FF 30mm.

Dimitri D
https://www.flickr.com/photos/135820506@N02/ My Flickr Photostream

flip 21 wrote:

Hi Otto, how much did it cost you? Do you have any 4K video, where I can see the lens in action? Thanks

200usd he said in an earlier post. 4k footage on the NX1 is excellent and paired with the nx500 it's also great with the crop I find.

flip 21 wrote:

markyboy81 wrote:

flip 21 wrote:

Hi Otto, how much did it cost you? Do you have any 4K video, where I can see the lens in action? Thanks

200usd he said in an earlier post. 4k footage on the NX1 is excellent and paired with the nx500 it's also great with the crop I find.

Thanks Marky, I also had a kind of hatred towards fish eye lenses. I don't know why. Do you know of any video, where we can see it in action in 4K? Thanks

I have some footage but it's of family so I'm not really comfortable posting it here. All I can say is that it is a very sharp lens so produces great results, but mainly in decent light given it's f3.5 wide open.

flip 21 wrote:

do you think it is a better buy than the 12-24? What about defishing, have you tried it?

I've got both and it depends on your usage. If you're shooting mainly landscapes I'd say the 12-24mm was better but it's a slow lens and fairly bulky compared to the 10mm.

What would you be using them for?

Earlier thread, not my samples
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3966314

Edit
Another one useful thread
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3560177

flip 21 wrote:

markyboy81 wrote:

flip 21 wrote:

do you think it is a better buy than the 12-24? What about defishing, have you tried it?

I've got both and it depends on your usage. If you're shooting mainly landscapes I'd say the 12-24mm was better but it's a slow lens and fairly bulky compared to the 10mm.

What would you be using them for?

videoclips... Lord of the Rings landscapes What about AF? What does bulky means?

Bulky just means big. It's not really that big, just in comparison to the 10mm.