I have been a long time Canon camera and Samyang lens user, using the MF 14mm f2.8 for Nightscapes and Aurora photography well before writing my first lens review and have been using the Samyang XP 14mm f2.4 for most of my Nightscapes since it’s release.
So when Samyang contacted me to see if I was interested in reviewing a pre-release copy of their latest Canon mount lens the AF 12mm F2 RF-S and creating some content for the global release I was more than happy to, pretty excited actually. Finally some more third party, auto focus RF glass, something Canon users have been screaming out for!
Some quick details and thoughts on build quality.
At time of writing I didn’t have any spec or technical info, just a copy of the lens, but the Samyang AF 12mm F2 RF-S is Samyang’s latest fast F2, 12mm auto focus lens designed for Canon’s APS-C, RF, RF-S mount cameras, it is small, compact, lightweight and pairs really well with cameras like the Canon R10.
My copy came with a plastic lens hood, I believe this will be standard as my copy was sent in retail packaging, unfortunately you can’t flip this backwards out of the way and create a smaller package when in your bag but it’s nice to have a lens hood supplied. The lens comes with a 62mm front pinch type lens cap, little details like a pinch type cap make for really easy removal/replacement. The lens accepts 62mm filters via a front filter thread and close focus is 0.2m.
It has a metal lens mount with a weather seal around the edge, rubber grip around the focus ring, a manual/auto focus switch and the body is of strong, solid construction.
Overall the build quality feels solid, not a lot else to say, let’s have a look at the lens.
Sharpness/Vignetting.
If you want lens charts and lab conditions you have come to the wrong review. I’m sure there will be plenty of those type of reviews but I prefer to test lenses in real world environments taking images outside.
Let’s first take a look at sharpness and general performance wide open at f2. I know this can get a little boring but I want to give you and my other readers the best information I can when it comes to a lens review, however we will stick to just examples at f2 and f5.6 as generally wide open is where lenses have trouble and they just get better as you stop down to their sweet spot.
We will get to Nightscape and auto focus performance later in the review, scroll down if you want to jump straight there.
Overall wide open at f2 we are seeing some vignetting and a tiny bit of sharpness drop off in the extreme corners, probably due to distortion, but you have to look hard to notice.
Ok now let’s look at f5.6
At f5.6 the lens does look sharper than wide open and also has less vignette, this is expected and is pretty normal for most wide angle lenses.
Distortion.
Here’s a brick wall test to get a feel for the distortion and how the lens handles straight lines. When I say straight out of camera I mean with no distortion or perspective control. Images are still edited for colour etc.
So overall there is some distortion straight out of camera, this is fairly normal for most affordable wide angle lenses but it’s very easily corrected on the images from the Samyang AF 12mm f2 RF-S in post processing.
I’m pretty happy to say that the lens performs well in both my sharpness and distortion tests. I haven’t noticed anything here that would put me off owning the lens.
Shooting Stars.
Let’s have a look at how this lens handles stars, this is a Nightscape photography review after all! Unfortunately we are outside the “Milky Way season” here in Australia so no epic Milkyway shots, but we can still look at how the Samyang AF 12mm f2 RF-S handles stars.
So looking at the above examples we are seeing a bit of coma and distortion in the extreme corners at f2 when cropped in at 100%, hardly a problem when looking at the full image but it is there. Another thing to note, at f2 is I found it hard to get everything sharp from foreground to stars, this is because although the AF 12mm f2 RF-S is a 12mm lens, it is equivalent to around 19mm on full frame, this and the f2 aperture doesn’t help to achieve a huge depth of field, so close objects aren’t going to be perfectly sharp and in focus when focusing on the stars.
At f2.8 we see coma and distortion improve quite a bit, the depth of field also “improves”. I found myself using f2.8 out in the field, this is the aperture I would be using for most of my Nightscapes with this lens as it performs really well at f2.8. Having said that if my foreground was a little further away I would have no problem using f2 as it still performs fine and would allow for use of a lower iso, really useful for noise control on a crop sensor body.
Auto focus performance.
So this is where I was really impressed by the Samyang AF 12mm f2 RF-S, (and the Canon EOS R10 for that matter, I will be reviewing the R10 at a later date).
I love sports photography and have probably shot more of it than any other type of photography, the auto focus on this lens just didn’t miss. We tested the Auto Focus with rider coming straight towards the camera, panning, low light, Cooper hit jumps until it was almost dark on already dark pine forest trails, the lens just held focus with no issues at all, impressive.
As you can see above the Samyang AF 12mm F2 RF-S has no problem focusing in various conditions, sure it’s a wide small lens so it should perform pretty well here but I found it very hard to miss focus, I maybe missed half a dozen out of hundreds of shots and the misses were all my fault, not the lens.
I also tested this lens using eye focus on both my Canon R10 and R6ii and it had no problems locking onto eyes and holding focus, both human and animal. You will have to take my word for it as I did this test at home with my wife and dog so no pics to share sorry.
Another thing to note is I also found the lens to be very quiet while focussing, so this lens should be good for video, vlogging etc, I found some of the older Samyang Auto focus lenses to be a bit loud, so this is great.
A few pics before we wrap up with overall thoughts.
As I was taking this shot I heard something ripping across the paddock towards me and this tiny kangaroo that didn’t even come up to my knee goes flying past within a metre.
But then comes mum! By this time I’ve grabbed my torch to see what else is coming and mum is just a few metres away, as I lit her with the torch light, she stops, turns and starts coming straight at me! Doing my best scary animal impersonation, she gets within touching distance and turns sharply bouncing straight through my camera, tripod and the Samyang 12mm lens…..The new Canon R10 camera and Samyang 12mm lens goes this way and tripod goes that way, mum kangaroo hit it all so hard the ball head completely separated from the tripod still attached to the brand new camera and pre-release Samyang 12mm f2 RF-S!
I guess at least we know the little Canon EOS R10 and Samyang AF 12mm f2 RF-S combo is tough enough to survive a direct Kangaroo strike, nice!!!
Disclaimer- Mum Kangaroo kept hurtling off into the distance chasing baby Roo and no harm was done to wildlife in taking these photos.
Conclusion.
The Samyang AF 12mm f2 RF-S is a nice, compact and light weight option for Canon RF APS-C camera users. It’s auto focus is super fast, accurate and in my opinion this lens’s strong point. The build quality is solid and so far, for me at least, has been able to take a bit of a beating. It’s performance all round is decent and it handles shooting Nightscapes and stars well. I would have no hesitation taking this lens mountain bike riding or travelling and look forward to using it for this in the future.
If you are after a fast, light weight, wide angle for your Canon RF APS-C camera that is really versatile, the Samyang 12mm f2 RF-S is a lens you should be considering.
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