Review on Samyang 12mm F2.8 Ultra Wide Fisheye Lens for Nikon DSLR Cameras - Optimized for Full Frame Compatibility by Jeffery Pricinoc

12mm fisheye gives a very specific look. If you like the look, you will love this lens. I'll leave it to others to debate its technical merits, but for me it produced very good images. I tried the $1350 Canon 8-15 f4L lens but found I usually shoot in the 12-15mm range because it looks very useless at 8mm ultra wide. So I sent the Canon back and got it for about 1/3 the price. I am very happy with it. I haven't done any benchmark tests, but I'm happy with the images I get with the Samyang, as well as with a Canon lens at around 12mm. This is a manual focus lens, but there are no focusing problems. Basically I leave it focused at about 3 feet on the range scale and shoot far away. At f5.6 almost everything in the frame is in focus, and at f8 and above you'll have sharp focus from your feet out to at least 60 feet. I've successfully shot street scenes with it by hanging the camera around my neck and using my thumb to release the shutter from my waist as I walked. No one knows I photograph them the way they do when I hold my big SLR to my eye. When you do this, everything in front of you is in frame and in focus, allowing you to compose your shot pretty well without looking at the camera. (Well, you probably need to crop the edges.) I like the way the images I get with this lens on my full-frame Canon 5DII look, but I don't care what I do with the Canon 7D Crop get sensor. , where the lens behaves like a 19mm. There's nothing wrong with the image quality, it's just a matter of taste. This lens is by no means cheap. At least it looks well made. If you like the fisheye look, this is a good way to get one for a not-too-exorbitant price.