Thanks! Glad it was helpful to you. I don't have a lot of equipment, but there's a few I tend to use pretty heavily, so I figured I have enough to say something about it. Quality over quantity, as the saying goes.

Well I'm glad to hear it helped so much. That's awesome. Enjoy the lens!

krusher74 because the shutter speed is slower. 1/25" at f2 and 6.5" at f22

Thanks, that's very kind of you. Glad you enjoyed it.

+Daniel Trapanese Thanks for the kind words. Glad you liked it!

+MrCrotalusAtrox Thank you for your kind words. It's what I was trying to do, and I'm glad it worked.

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

That's great to hear, I'm glad you found it so helpful. Welcome to photography! And always remember that the art of photography is always more important than the gear of photography. Your wallet will thank you for it :)

I agree.. this review is a lesson actually! done very well :) thank you!!!

lol thanks. I used this thing for almost a year before I put my thoughts together on it, so I guess that amount of experience helps. On the other hand, it takes a year to review something for me...

Thank you very much, that's very kind of you.

Great! I'm happy it helped!

You're welcome and I'm glad its helped you. I may be too late with my reply, but I hope you also found one of the other highly viewed videos on this lens, which actually uses an Olympus M43 (and I think a Sony later on) in their video.

Well thank you! Yeah, it took a while to make, but it was worth it, seeing how many people it helped.

@@NearlyFromAfar 2020 :) and still helpful ! Really valuable !

You're welcome, and thank you!

I'm glad it helped. Yeah it can be confusing. Just remember that a "normal" lens is different for every sensor: its the focal length that is the closest match to your sensor's diagonal measurement. And also remember that the physical distance of the camera sensor to the subject (and not the focal length of the lens) dictates distortion, unless you're using a fisheye or something on purpose. Thanks for watching.

Thanks for the kind words, glad you enjoyed it!

As a result of watching your review I ordered this lens at B&H photo at their discounted price of $299.00. I feel it has a lot of advantages which well outweigh the drawbacks - especially at the price. I can't wait to try it out for both stills but primarily video on my Panasonic Lumix G7.

That's pretty cool - I'm sure you'll like it. It's a great value of a lens. My question is (and I ask this because I don't know anything about the G7) what about stabilization when you shoot video? If the G7 has in body stabilization, then you're all set. Otherwise, might need an external camera stabilizer.

The G7 does have in body image stabilization (but I still have to stabilize in post when I am shooting strictly handheld without a tripod or monopod).

Gotcha - very cool! Be careful with your wallet lol - video is a slippery slope. Video tripod, video head, shot gun mic, lav mic, external recorder, slider, video light, and a follow focus later, and you'll be wondering how in the world it got to this point :P Just don't forget to enjoy what you're doing.

Glad you found it helpful, thanks for watching

Thanks for watching. Glad you enjoyed it.

Congrats! Hope you're liking it. It's a great little lens.

+dsoupashis Thank you! I too am always surprised by how sharp my fuji with a 3rd party lens can be. I never had an L lens to play with, but it would definitely be interesting to try. To be fair, from what I know about the L lens pedigree, they have to work on razor edge precision in everything from a snow storm to a war zone. The Rokinons are comparable on sharpness, but let's remember that's all they were developed for, and that's perfectly fine for a lot of us.

Yeah I tried to show it in its practical uses. You're welcome and thanks for watching.

Thanks for watching, glad it was helpful.

Glad you liked it. Thank you!

You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed it!

Great! So glad it helped.

That's very kind of you! Glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you!

Thank you, and congrats on the new lens! I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

+k1ng617 Thanks, glad you enjoyed it

Thanks! I note my settings when I'm doing recreated shots over a span of time, but generally I'm too lazy to :/

Thanks for watching

+dwheresmymana Glad it helped!

+Kyle Jimenez Definitely. I think you'll be happy with this lens for those.

+Hoài Nguyễn Thank you for your kind words, I'm glad you found the video helpful. Things certainly get interesting when using this lens for street photography. I never feel close enough to the action when I use it, but then if I get too close, people get distorted. You'll have to use that fact to its best advantage. There are some people who have done great street work by using a fish eye on purpose, so it can certainly be done. Would love to hear your experiences with it.

Well...I wouldn't recommend it for portraits, but it'll do fine for environmental portraits. Awesome lens otherwise!

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you! Yeah I tried to throw in enough stuff that is universally applicable to photography too.

Thank you! Glad if helped you make a choice.

Just bought it! Looking forward to using it in landscaping (:

Nice! You'll love it!

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you!

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it

+mikeonthemarne Thanks for your thoughtful words. My goal was to provide a holistic review of this lens. I know what its like when getting interested in a new bit of kit. I'll spend so much time searching for every detail I can about it, because as you pointed out, every dollar counts when it's just a hobby. I've benefited from others' work so often that I figured it was time to give back to the community too.

+Luca Giordano Thanks

You're welcome, glad you liked it!

Oh man sorry taking so long to answer your question, since I see you're in the middle of a debate between lenses. This isn't my first wide angle - I've shot with a Tokina 11-16 on a 1.6x Canon Rebel for a while beforehand, and found I was on the 11mm end most often. I quite like the wide view, because it shows space. Based on all that you wrote, yes, I would definitely recommend this 12mm for journalistic/street shooting. Sounds like it would fit into your style very well. I honestly don't use it wide open that often - mostly around f4 or below, to have good dof on purpose. In the run and gun segment of this vid, I was around 5.6 to 8, depending on light / shadow of the city. I was using that range again for dof. Let me know what you think of it if you get it.

You're very welcome. Thanks for watching!

Awesome, that's just the kind of info I was hoping people would use. Glad it was useful to you.

Thank you!

Thanks! Gotten yours yet? How have you liked it?

Well thanks for the kind words! I'm always happy when someone gets some benefit out of these videos. Honestly, based on what you have already, I can't really see what value this 12mm would add for you. The only things this lens would do better than what you have is...astrophotography. And maybe time lapses, depending on how well your camera and auto lenses handle aperture flicker. I applaud you for trying to reign in the gear acquisition - that stuff can really get away from us quickly. I've acquired a bunch of mid-grade stuff over the years, and what got me to slow down was realizing this: history's most influential and impactful photos were taken by photographers with cameras that were only 10% as capable as the cheapest dslr today. They spent more time finding stories and content, and didn't worry about the gear. Of course, if someone's thing is multi exposure composites of distance galaxies, that's a niche that only a large check can address, but thankfully that's on the fringes of the photographic bell curve. Thanks for watching and writing.

Thanks for the good advice. Have never tried astrophotography (other than some horrible attempts at the moon, and not the recent phenomenon) but I suppose if I had bought (or do buy) the 2/12 Rokinon/Samyang I would/will try it at least. I think the draw was the light gathering - though my Oly 12-40 is only a stop behind. I am a bit of a sucker for "subject isolation" which on a small m4/3 sensor is probably most difficult amongst the mirrorless/DSLR group. Have seen some photos with superb colour rendition (which was not on a Fuji and so can't be put down to that line's agility with this) and lovely contrasts. I confess a certain amount of "toy fix". Was in a depression for over 2 years (now lifting through use of the cameras and lenses bought in the last couple of months) and so my spending was next to nil. However, my mental illness is severe enough to prevent me from working (last 12 years) and though I do get support for my disability, I have to not to be too foolish as well. Earlier this year I had my two-year "capability for work assessment" and I was bumped up a notch on the severity scale, but also it was determined that I should have been at this level in the past and so I got £4500 in "back pay" as well. I've managed to hold onto most of that, but I downplayed my camera splurge in the earlier comment ... Total damage: Pana GX80 w/12-32mm kit + Pana/Leica 25mm f/1.4 + Pana 42.5 f/1.7, Oly E-M1 w/12-40 Pro, M.Zuiko 9-18mm. Plus a few other peripheral bits and bobs. I did get some special deals on the cameras, but ... a LOT of change!!! (Been able to save about half of it back.) So what I mean to say is that your caution is a timely and appropriate one. Your point about standout photos being taken with less agile gear is of course an excellent one and my friend who was teaching me photography long distance (also an academic :-) ) would show me some great photos of his own with throw away 35mm cameras and such. I think what I lack in talent and gifting I try and make up for with learning the tech and trying to apply it!!! (Engineer by training.) Anyway, thanks again for the feedback. I'll hold off the Samyang for the immediate future at least!!! Had anyway promised myself I would experiment with taking 12mm photos with my other gear as well. Rama

Rama, I commend you for persevering through what you've been dealing with - that sounds like a tough situation, and I'm glad to hear you're doing a little better now than before. Still sounds like you've got a long battle ahead, so keep up the fight. As far as photography goes, I think it's a great way to connect or reconnect with life. And don't worry too much about any lack of talent or such. Cameras are a very technical subject, so it takes some time to digest. It's like an instrument in a way, in that its hard to learn, and all you do is copy others at the beginning, but eventually your own style and identity comes through. A camera gives everyone their own voice, and in a way I think that's therapeutic. There’s definitely a motivating effect after buying new gear, but that’s an expensive way to sustain a hobby. If you’re just starting out, I’d advocate more for buying photo books, like LIFE’s 100 Photographs That Changed the World or any number of such books with similar titles. Those books cost like $8 used, and most of their pictures could’ve been taken with today’s iphones, which serves as a reality check to keep me grounded. I’d imagine a huge strong point for micro 4/3rd cameras are how small they are, and can be taken almost anywhere and not attract undue attention. People are so nervous about looking bad in photos that I think the smaller the camera, the more at ease they are about being in a picture. As far as subject isolation goes, big apertures help, there’s a lot you can do to “cheat” the effect. 3 distances are involved - the lens length, the distance from the camera to subject, and the distance from the subject to background. Let’s say you had something like an 80mm equivalent telephoto; by bringing the subject as close as possible to the camera, and by having a lot of distance behind the subject, you can completely blow out the background even at f8 or 10. Adjust those 3 parameters inversely (use a wider lens, lengthen the distance from camera to subject, shorten the distance from subject to background), and the isolation effect decreases.

Thanks. I've taken to putting more of my pics on Facebook than Flickr this year ... That has resulted in my posting more "personal" photos rather than ones I feel I need to "showcase". Am much happier as a result! Eric, my "photography tutor" used to challenge me very aggressively whenever I thought about buying new kit - but he did so honestly to reveal to me that I didn't really need x/y/z! However, he is now a senior professor at University College London and doesn't have as much time to engage in email back and forth. His last message said he tends mainly to use his mobile phone (but which he said has a good camera) and his old G1 (which was my first foray into m4/3 as my basic EOS cameras plus couple of lenses were so heavy!) I still really like my G1 - it is really IBIS and a pocketable body that makes my GX80 more appealing. He has a few M42 legacy lenses adapted to m4/3 and other than that uses his 20mm pancake on the G1 (and I've lost my similar pancake lens but chose to buy the 25mm f/1.4 instead of replacing). Regarding my disability ... Well, I've known about it since 1989 when I had my first breakdown in Boston while writing up my PhD thesis. Nearly three decades has given me some resilience but also an understanding and awareness of bipolarity. Been in hospital 35 times all round the world! Do take care, and once again thanks for reigning me in! As for cameras being a technical subject, I find every time I wax eloquent about what I think I've learnt I find that I'm speaking to a well-versed film devotee more often than not which is quite humbling ... But in a nice way. I had fun watching your clip on the Samyang and look forward to other videos as well even if not directly related to something I'm considering buying.

Sounds like you've got a good friend and mentor in Eric the professor. Yeah its definitely a big step to post personal subjects than just showcase photos. Some people like to keep their online persona separate from their personal lives, and others lay their whole lives before the camera. Everyone has to find their own balance with it. At the end of the day, it should still always be enjoyable, and not a source of stress or anxiety. At that point, things have gone too far. I wish you the best on your dealings with bipolar. I can't fathom what that's like to live with. But I'm glad you got something out of the video. Take care!

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you! It's so cool people all around over the world watch this.

+yacine lahcene You're welcome

sigh...not yet lol . Not sure when I will, but there are lots of other vids already done that demonstrate it well.

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks, that was from using Lightroom's lens distortion correction feature. It tries to "fix" any distortion caused by a lens from pre-made (and downloadable) algorithms for all sorts of different lenses. Not sure what image editing software you use, but search for something like "lens distortion correction" in relation to your software. For example, searching those terms into google or youtube for Lightroom will bring up a ton of tutorials on how to use it.

+Marco Sartoretto Thank you, I'm glad the video was easy to understand. I've never used any speed booster before, but from a quick search, the Zhongyi gives a 0.726x crop. Is that right? If so, then it will turn the 14mm 2.8 into almost a 10mm, which makes a big difference vs a 12mm when talking about wide angle lenses (remember to add the 1.5x crop factor back in from the camera itself). My personal opinion is: wide is necessary when you need it, but I wouldn't have a super wide lens be my only lens. Great for interiors, but not great for everything outside, as you saw in the video. Also, the 12mm is very compact. The 14mm 2.8 is big, and with a speedbooster it will be even bigger. If you have plans on buying a full frame camera in the future, then it might be worth going with the 14mm 2.8 now for the full frame mount you want, and get a speed booster that fits Fuji + whatever FF mount you plan on. Just some things to think about.

You're welcome. I think you'll like it!

+Viktor Gabyshev I unfortunately don't have your camera or the 17mm you're looking at, so I can't give you first hand opinions. I just checked DxOMark, and looks like they haven't tested the Rokinon 12mm yet. What you can do is compare them on ephotozine's site. They've tested both. I can tell you though that if your night landscapes ever include astrophotography, just go straight for the 12mm. Their apertures are very close anyways, so you want the shorter focal length to be able to run longer exposure times. Good luck on your search.