arn's reviews

  • Sigma 10mm f/2.8 EX DC Fisheye HSM

    10 out of 10 points and recommended
    surprisingly sharp, HSM, VERY close focus, 3 year warranty
    moderate CA, which can be corrected

    I'm going to rate this lens a full 10 and not just because there's nothing else quite like this available. It is quite sharp wide open, but at it's best stopped down to f4.5 or further. The peculiarly named reviewer dpreview (?) should do well to try AF microadjustment. My lens needs +10 AF adjustment to focus properly and give sharp results (and some of my Canon lenses have need even more adjustment).

    This is a fun lens because of such a wide angle, sharpness, pretty good AF and close focusing combined.

    Do note, that there are excellent programs like Rectfish and Fisheye Hemi available, which can be used very effectively to remove the fisheye distortion but preserve most of the image area.

    reviewed January 21st, 2010 (purchased for $770)

  • Samsung 12-24mm f/4-5.6 ED NX

    10 out of 10 points and recommended
    size and weight, quite sharp
    could be a bit wider (but I wonder how much bigger that would make it)

    A very nice lens. Provides comparable performance to for example the Canon EF-S 10-22 (possibly the Samsung is a bit sharper), though not quite as wide as the Canon. Size and weight of the lens is great. I wish the lens was a bit wider (10mm at wide end), but perhaps it couldn't be as small then. An essential lens for the NX-system.

    reviewed December 22nd, 2013

  • Samsung 10mm f/3.5 Fisheye NX i-Function

    10 out of 10 points and recommended
    the smallest fisheye available for APS-C by a margin. Optically very good.
    none

    The size of the lens is simply amazing. This fisheye weighs 71 grams! There is no APS-C fish that gets even close to that and I don't think there's as small fisheye lens even for Micro43. The Samsung 10mm/3.5 is so small (short), you have to be careful not to get your own fingers into the frame. I just love this lens. I compared it to the excellent Sigma 10/2.8 HSM and optically they were pretty alike. The Samsungs AF was more accurate than the Sigma on a 7D with phase detection AF (and of course due to the 1.5 crop factor, the Samsung is wider). The f/3.5 aperture is more thab acceptable considering the size.

    reviewed December 22nd, 2013

  • Samsung 45mm f/1.8 NX

    10 out of 10 points and recommended
    sharp, great bokéh, light
    can't think of any

    Sharp, great bokéh due to the rounded aperture blades. AF is accurate. Better than the Canon /1.8II in sharpness and (especially) AF accuracy.

    reviewed December 22nd, 2013