Build Quality: The lens is well constructed and relatively small. The lens mount is metal and the front of the barrel and the focus ring is plastic. It has a 67mm filter thread; my UV filter fits nicely and looks good. The aperture ring is a little small, but provides nice clicks with half stop adjustments. The aperture and focus rings are well-dampened, needing both fingers to turn. Close focus is a little less than .66m and it focuses a little past infinity, but there is a mark for infinity. The lens hood is a little cheap and also has a little play when mounted. Overall, the build quality is good and it would handle rough usage. Performance: The lens performed very well for my uses. Im only going to shoot landscapes and nightscapes with this lens. The center is sharp at F/2.0, peaking at about F/5.6. The corners are a bit soft wide open, but sharpen up dramatically at F/4.0. When focused to infinity at the stars, the corners were surprisingly good wide open. The coma was well controlled too. It can do up to a 25 second exposure without getting star trails. There is little distortion, and there shouldnt be a problem fixing it in post. It has strong vignetting at F/2.0, but improves at F/2.8. Overall, it has excellent performance for a $400 lens. Other Thoughts: I set the C2 button on my A6000 to magnify so that its easy to focus. It feels well balanced and is only a little heavier than the Sony E 50mm F/1.8. This lens is very aesthetic and looks even better on a black camera. Update March 2016: I use it primarily to photograph seascapes and for night timelapses. Its been splashed by ocean waves many times and its still going strong. Compared to other wide angle lenses, this one is very small and light. Its perfect to take hiking if you want to bring the minimal amount of gear. I use a Tiffen 3-stop ND filter for shooting waterfalls and the ocean.
Curtis
5
Comment
A super cheap, super fast, super wide angle lens, what more could you want? This lens shines in any landscape environment, especially a dark night sky, and is also just a great all around lens once you get used to the manual focusing. It completely changed the way I use my a6000. Get this lens and leave it in your bag, you wont be disappointed.
Zack Nicol
5
Comment
This has been a powerhouse of a lens for me, being incredible versatile in everything from landscape to portrait to astrophotography. I highly recommend this lens to anyone who is just starting photography and needs a great all-around lens to practice with. This lens is super wide-angle and is superb in low light. Its simple to pick up on. Ideally. once you start using it, you can set infinity focus and use it to point-and-shoot. Rokinon makes an excellent line of lenses and Im happy this was the one I started with.
Aaron Johnson
5
Comment
If you are looking for a wide-angle lens for your Sony E-mount camera, this is a great option. The sweet spot of this lens after a few test photos is definitely f/8, where the image is the sharpest. Using this lens all the way closed at f/22 is not recommended as it is noticeably soft, although it is not unbearable. It does make a decent sunstar effect for point-sources of light when shot all the way closed. This lens is usable all the way open at f/2, which is what probably what draws most people to this lens in the first place. Those of you looking for a great Astrophotography lens, this is the best choice for e-mount because of its wide aperture and relatively low distortion. While shooting wide open, images are slightly soft around the edges, along with a tiny bit of chromatic aberration, but nothing that isnt correctable with post-processing software, such as Affinity Photo for you Mac users out there. Overall, Im very pleased with using this lens for Landscape photography and Astrophotography. This is an excellent wide angle lens for e-mount cameras. UPDATE: PHOTOS ADDED Miami Skyline - shot at f/22 Jamaica Waterfall - shot at f/8 Milky Way and ISS - shot at f/2
M. Santos
5
Comment
Aloha first off a little about myself for reference, Im an enthusiast shooter that loves landscapes, cityscapes, and surfphotography. I also do model and animal photos too occasionally. Ive shot with canon xt/xsi, 7D, 5D, and 5D mrk iii, and now the a6000. I primarily bought the a6000 for its very small size and great image quality for quick short trips. This Rokinon is the perfect landscape lens for this camera. Not only that, but its close focus and super shallow depth of field make it an interesting and quite good portrait or product lens, also it excels at low light night photography being an f2 lens. The focus ring is a bit stiff but I really like that, it wont accidentally move if bumped or rubbed. The Apeture ring has detents which is nice also. This lens is always with me and wouldnt replace it with any other wide. Mike Santos
jim
5
Comment
The 12mm rokinon is my favorite lens for landscape or nightscape shots with my sony a6000. It is a great value, makes great images, and has stood up to a decent amount of abuse. Pros: - large aperture … great fast wide angle lens for low light and astrophotography. - Definetly a massive upgrade from the sony 16-55mm kit lens in terms of sharpness and lowlight performance. - Manual aperture selection is great for doing holy grail time lapses. Get the declicked cine version if you want to use for video - Manual focus ring is smooth with just the right amount of resistance IMO. - comes with lens hood and small bag. Cons: - lacks autofocus or optical image stabilization (not a big deal if you have sony w/ focus magnification) - no electronic communication with camera also means that you dont get metadata. This is frustrating when you want to remember what aperature you used to get a shot or when trying to process raw files with LR time lapse. - large front element on lens sticks out enough that you really really need to be careful not to scratch it when putting cap or ND filter on
Jason
5
Comment
Im still loving this lens, definitely in my top three most used lens. Especially for traveling, hiking, and outdoors. Its seen some accidental rough abuse and still looks and works perfectly. I only have a small collection of humble legacy lenses so I cant compare to the top of the line wide angles out there, but using focus magnifier on my a6000 I can get nice sharp photos consistently.
Sebastian
5
Comment
Excellent prime lens! The quality of the lens is immediately apparent as soon as you open the box. It has a weighty feel to it and smooth focus and aperture rings. I took it outside attached to my Sony a6000 and took a few sample shots with this on manual focus. Super easy and quick to handle and focus (use focus peaking - helps a lot!). I can see why reviews all over the internet rave about this lens! Make sure to first enable the Release w/o Lens option in camera settings or you will get an error message on the display when pressing the shutter button. I took the same shots with my 16-50 mm kit lens to compare, and when viewing them side by side on my computer monitor, there is an obvious sharper and crisper image with this Rokinon lens. Great lens for landscape/cityscape or anything that requires a wide angle view. Very pleased! Especially with the $260 price that I got here on amazon! Never seen it that low before! (Typically $300-$400). Must have lens as part of your collection for the Sony E-mount series!
Ventura D
5
Comment
This lens has excellent build and image quality. This lens is excellent for night photography and landscapes. The larger apertures still yield sharp images. My lens focuses at infinity very close to the markings on the lens barrel, with only a tad of over-focus (necessary for me to dial in the focus precisely). I have been using this on a Sony a6000 and have been extremely pleased--just note that you have to set the camera mode to M rather than S to access the Bulb setting for time exposures. Otherwise, you can set to S and select a shutter speed to match your manual setting of focus and aperture. I was particularly surprised at the reliable performance of this lens for making panoramas. With my Zeiss 16-70 mm zoom lens I have trouble panning at an acceptable rate, but this lens seems not to be so sensitive to this. Generally, with the a6000 you will need to use the Focus Magnifier and Peaking Levels to help with focusing. Highly recommended.
Mariel
5
Comment
Last year my a6000 with my lenses was stolen from my car. I was an "affordable photographer" with lots of clients who thought I should charge more for my work. In all honesty looking back I was sort of a lazy photographer as I relied a LOT on auto focus. I decided with buying another a6000 before I allow myself to buy another auto-focusing lens I wanted to master the whole manual focus bit especially when it comes to bokeh and DOF. I took a photography class and I majored in Multimedia so I know how to do it if I just put the time into it. This is my favorite of the 3 lenses I ordered off of Amazon. I ordered this, the neewer 35mm, and the Opteka 85mm. I cant choose which between the neewer and the Opteka, but this one is my favorite simply because it is sharper then the other two. It is not a great portrait lens though sadly, except for full body. It is great for group shots though! If you love landscape this is for you, or if you need to get a lot into one picture. I havent yet tried any real action pictures with this as it is manual focus so its really hit or miss unless you are a pro with manual focus - I however am still learning. Only the first image and the second from last are edited. The fourth picture is in extreme low light with very little covered window light of my sleeping princess.
Make sure this fitsby entering your model number. Sagittal lines (thick lines) represent the contrast This lens is compatible with all APS-C Sony E Mount interchangeable lens cameras Nano Crystal Coating System (NCS) for increased light transmission and reduced internal reflections Aperture range f2.0-22, Ultra Wide 12mm Fixed Focal Length, minimum focusing distance of 7.9 inches Optimized for excellent optical quality and true ultra-wide 110 degree edge to edge coverage with APS-C sensor digital cameras Utilizes 3 high precision (2 Aspherical + 1 ED) lens elements for superior image quality Built for Mirrorless cameras, takes a 67mm filter size. Focus type : Manual Focus
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