The Samyang/Rokinon 12mm f2.0 for x-mount was recently announced and has arrived in the stores. Samyang is the original manufacturer and the lens is also rebranded and sold under several names, including Rokinon.  I ordered one to take a look, nice and compact and it was certainly priced right. It is manual focus, manual aperture with no EXIF data being sent to to the camera, which is something that really irritates me, but oh well. At least Fuji anticipated that people might use other brands of lenses that might not provide that information so you can at least set the focal length using the camera menu. This allows you to identify the lens when you are using it in the field, but you do not get any aperture information. I received my copy of the lens, packaged well for shipment in a plastic shell with a small manual and small cloth bag to hold the lens if needed in the camera bag. The lens shade is detachable and made from plastic. The locking mechanism  for the hood seems a bit weak and may wear after some on and off use, maybe not but I do not have a lot confidence in it. The aperture ring is smooth and has half stop detents from f2 to f22. The end of the lens barrel is threaded for 67mm filters. The focusing ring was smooth and gives a nice feel when focusing. The lens itself seems to be well built and rugged, it is not weather sealed. When inserted into the camera there is some play, it did not lock in place firmly.  I was able to twist and shift it a small amount between the stop in the lens mount, since there are no electrical contacts this should not really be a problem, although I wished it would lock in place better, this might be just manufacturing tolerances. The lens is light enough that it balances well with the camera…….

See on www.aps-photo.com

Alan P. Smallbone Rokinon 12mm f2.0