Samyang 8mm

[@imagesBV]

Does anyone have advice on this fisheye lens please....looks like good value...?

[El Sid]

Re: Samyang 8mm

I have one and it's actually quite good. Probably best around the f8-f11 mark where pretty much the whole universe is in focus due to the enormous depth of field. Wide open the edges are a bit soft and there is some aberration - inevitable to some extent in a fisheye - which is reduced as you stop down but the outermost limits of the image are never perfect even stopped down, that said they aren't glaringly bad either.

Manual focus is simultaneously tricky and a doddle... Tricky because the DOF is so great that everything looks sharp in the finder and a doddle because the DOF means that to all intents and purposes beyond f5.6 everything is more or less in focus. Generally I find that setting it between 3m and infinity covers all but the most close up subjects. For really accurate focusing on a subject I suspect that using live view would be better option if available.

Here's one I took earlier...

Evening St Thomas by Nigel Hayes, on Flickr

This is another (despite the lack of obvious distortion) as is this and not forgetting this one...

My particular version is in Nikon fit, largely because it was a good price used and I have a Nikon or two plus I have an F to EF mount adapter as well... I would fully expect the Canon version to give the same results.

I keep hoping that one day they release a fully circular fisheye for a similarly reasonable price - the quality would have to be better than the cheapie adapter I otherwise use...

[KarlDM]

Re: Samyang 8mm

I have a Canon fit one and would agree with all that was said above. It would be great if it had auto focus, but at the price I can cope without considering how infrequently I need this focal length.