Samyang 16mm f/2.0 ED AS UMC CS Lens Review

Samyang 16mm f/2 ED AS UMC CS Handling and features

Even though this lens is keenly priced for its specification, the build quality is very good. Lightly textured high quality plastics have been used for much of the lens barrel, with a metallic red ring placed just after the aperture ring, which is a feature of Samyang's premium lenses. The lens isn't massively heavy and it balances very well with the Canon EOS 600D used for testing.

The manual focusing ring is smooth to operate and is a pleasure to use as a result, with just the right amount of damping to make fine adjustments easy to apply. This lens' excellent manual focusing action and wide aperture will make this lens ideal for those who shoot video with their DSLRs. Closest focus is 20cm, which should be ideal for shooting in cramped environments or even for the occasional close up, where the wide angle will allow more of your subject's surroundings to be included than is possible with longer focal length lenses. Focusing is performed by moving the rear group of elements, so the length of the lens doesn't change and the filter thread does not rotate, which should make this lens perfect for use with graduated and polarising filters.

No electronic coupling with the camera is provided, so metering needs to be performed via the stop down method. No hyperfocal scale has been marked on the lens either, unlike other similar Samyang lenses, so a separate hyperfocal calculator may be necessary for those who like to shoot using this method.

A lightweight plastic hood is provided with the lens, which fits via a bayonet fitting. The fitting is quite loose on the lens supplied for testing and the hood often came off when the lens was removed from a bag for shooting.

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