Advice on a wide angle lens

Hello,

I received the Samyang 12mm f2.0 a few days ago. Not enough time for a solid opinion, but up to now I like some pictures with it, and also its close focus distance is interesting. Looking at the camera screen the images look sharp. It is a promising lens, and you get used to manual focusing.

I have second thoughts on the XF 16-55mm f2.8mm because it overlaps with the focal lengths of my other lenses (23/35/56), and it reinforces my preference for the 16mm f1.4, but I wonder if it would be necessary having the 12mm.

When traveling in winter, I will have to reduce lens swapping if taking only primes, but that is OK.

The 8-16mm sounds very good, but I am not that into wide angle, neither am I a professional. Although I could afford it, as a hobbyist, I can’t justify it.

I have now two primes in the wide angle range: 12mm and 23mm. Would it be too much of a gap between these?

Best regards, and thank you all for your comments.

I highly recommend the Fujifilm 14mm f2.8. Note the vertical wall on the right side of the first photo. It has no barrel distortion. Two other favorable things is that it is small and light. This is one lens that I bet that I will never sell.

For what it’s worth, my view about wide angles is that they’re not just to include more stuff but to give a startling and dramatic perspective on otherwise familiar scenes.

My next purchases in this system are likely to be the well-reviewed 14mm and the Samyang  8mm semi-fisheye which, with software such as Fisheye Hemi can be ‘defished’ to give a convincing rectilinear image.