PRODUCT REVIEW
Samyang XP 10mm F3.5
Samyang's amazing Ultra-wide-angle prime lens offers a new view of the world with no distortion.
Simon White
2019-03-12
Samyang XP 10mm F3.5
Samyang's amazing Ultra-wide-angle prime lens offers a new view of the world with no distortion.
The XP 10mm f/3.5 is Samyang's new premium lens in which they say is the WORLD’S WIDEST PRIME LENS- (except a fish-eye lens).This Premium XP series lens has been designed to work perfectly for cameras which have up to 50 megapixel sensors and 8K cinematography. This lens provides an ultra-wide-angle coverage up to 130° angle of view with a full-frame camera and 104° on a APS-C sensor. This particular lens is for Canon EF mount with manual focus and I was using it on a Canon 6D mk1 (full-frame) and a Canon M3 (APS-C mirrorless full spectrum conversion).
It was designed to be a rectilinear distortion-free lens providing a great wide angle of view without barrel distortion. However with this type of lens it does suffer from perspective distortion (common on this type of lens) but can easily be overcome by carefully composing their images. This means that it is perfect for capturing a wide landscape, architecture or indoor shots
in high resolution and distortion-free.
Samyang XP 10mm f/3.5 with metal lens cap and Soft pouch
The first thing I notice is the typical XP great build quality, with the brushed metal body that is very nicely sized to fit the hand when holding on a camera. It comes with a brushed black metal lens cap that fits snugly on the front lens hood and a soft grey pouch. The manual focus rubber ring on the outside is very smooth and easy to focus through the optical view-finder or on the back screen. It has a metal lens hood along with electronic coupling to provide Exif data and aperture control via your camera. The lens also has a very wide frontal lens glass which even with the hard plastic petal lens hood edge it is still exposed to the elements such as rain, sleet, snow and bright strong direct light, but this again is a typical problem that you soon begin to get used to when using any wide lens by choosing when to take the photo or not usually by selective composition. And because of this design the lens does suffer a bit with lens flare and ghosting especially when in direct sunlight or very strong bright light sources.
ISO100, F/8, 1/160sec. Full-frame
This is a perfect lens for very detailed landscape or complex architectural images especially if you compose your image/shot with care. If you notice with the image below, all of the straight edges are without distortions.
ISO1250, f/4, 1/50sec. Full-frame
The detail from this lens is incredible along with the sharpness from edge to edge, as seen in the slightly longer exposure at Night Bridge shot below. Notice the detail in the bottom corners!
ISO640, f/9, 1.6sec. Full-frame
I thought I would be nice to see how it worked on my Mirrorless APS-C Canon M3 camera which has had a Full-spectrum conversion to be able to capture Infrared Images. Again it works well giving a 16mm equivalent full-frame image.
Infrared Image at ISO100, f/11, 1/100sec. APS-c mirrorless full spectrum Canon M3
In conclusion the Samyang XP 10mm f/3.5 due to the nature of the design of the lens and if used well will be a fantastic addition for anyone requiring a very Ultra-wide-angle with no distortions such as cityscapes/landscapes/indoor architecture etc with good leading lines within the composition. The colours and contrast levels are fantastic with your resulting images looking vivid, vibrant and have good depth. Couple this with a well-built body design and a weight of 731g it feels nice and solid to hold.
Samyang have again made a wonderful lens to add to any collection.
