Compelling Imaging - Photography

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Affordable, Sharp, and Wide Professional Lens (Rokinon 12mm revisited)

This lens is a perfect pair for your micro four-thirds camera system for shooting wide photos. The Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 is great for the landscape, architecture, and environmental photographers that need professional performance on a budget. It is compact for the travelers or mobile photographers while keeping the images sharp and almost distortion-free at an unmatched value. 

 

Real World Use

 

    Traveling with this lens is wonderful as it is a very small wide lens. The front element is bulbous, but the use of filters is still possible, as it does not protrude. I traveled around Italy with the Rokinon for a summer mounting an inexpensive ND filter with no problems.

 

Performance

 

    The images from the lens are incredibly sharp. You do have to focus manually as well as control the aperture, but once you learn how to do that the photos you take on the Rokinon will outshine many comparable systems at this focal length. Some chromatic abortions are also visible with the Rokinon in high contrast, but this is an issue with all wide-angle lenses. Any of these problems are a fast fix in post production using Adobe Lightroom or other editing programs.

 

Quality

 

A professional lens should have the performance as well as the durability to be able to rely on it. Metal construction with dense plastics on the lens hood make for a solid feel. Most other lenses in its category are plastic feeling, cheap, and don’t come with a lens hood. The Rokinon performed beyond all expectations with the quality of materials used, feel, and results. 

 

Value

 

The 12mm Rokinon lens is a professional lens that is unmatched at the price point. You get the lens, lens hood, and a case to put it in all in one package. This means you can have the lens, and still be able to go on a trip to a cool location with it.


Conclusion


    The Rokinon is definitely worth having in your camera bag as an unmatched tool at its focal length. You will appreciate the professional results that you will be able to pull out of its optics without breaking the bank. Attached are some photos from the summer taken with the Rokinon showing what is possible to get out of it.