Description
Samyang 8mm F/2.8 II Black (Sony E)
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Samyang 8mm F/2.8 II Black (Sony E)
£382.00 £248.30
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Additional information
| Product code | ACE-40420 |
|---|---|
| Barcode | 8809298882044 |
| Brand | Samyang |
| Colour | Black |
| Model | Samyang 8mm F/2.8 II Black (Sony E) |
Anthony –
Id like to say that for the price, this is one of the best 8mm Fisheyes for APSC sensors out there. However, thats inaccurate. This is actually one of the best fisheyes out there, period. To my eye, the barrel distortion from this lens is one of the most pleasing and natural of all the APSC fisheyes out there. While the central image is bulged and the edges compressed, which is one of the reasons to get a fisheye the spherical edge compression of this lens has a more balanced distribution and is better implemented that any other fisheye out there. Sharpness is very good as are color and contrast. Frankly, most lenses outperform the photographer. This one is no exception. If youre looking to try out a fisheye, you need this lens and at this price and quality, its a steal.
John –
This lens really surprised me.Although not suited to every shot it does offer that special nitch for the creative photo opportunity.The day after it arrived I took it out to try it potential.I used it for 90 percent of my photos that day .I did Crop the photos to my likingSo I did not use the full potential but for the money I feel that it adds a useful tool for that creative opportunity.The lens was used on a full frame canon rs.
James –
I did my research on this one. It meets the high expectations I had. Obviously not an everyday lens, but when you need the fish eye I use it for making my tiny apt look big and fun outdoor group shots. Dont spend double or triple for autofocus, as you can just eyeball it using the distance meter on the lens. Shoot it at f5.6 or higher. Love my new lens, and thanks to other reviewers for helping mepull the trigger
deaddadsam –
I have always wanted a fisheye lens the pictures are unique, exciting and always interesting. The main barrier has always been that the OEM brands are extremely expensive and I couldnt justify making a purchase like that for what is, in effect, a novelty lens. Having the lens has been a great experience. The vendor sent it out promptly and even included a lens cleaning kit for free. I am finding that, despite the obvious limitations, the lens is a delight to use. It is very hard to focus and it does require manual exposure settings, but many of my pictures have been fantastic. I am glad I bought it and would recommend it to anyone who is visually and personally adventurous and willing to try something new.
Vinny –
First off, this is a fully MANUAL lens, this is why you are getting such a great price. There is no communication between the lens and camera. Just dont let that scare you As a Professional or Amateur its always good to get back to our roots and leave technology behind. It both helps us understand our gear better and I feel it brings us closer to our subjects. That being out of the way, I dont know what I love more about this lens. The lens itself, or the price I have always wanted a nice fisheye, I just could never justify the cost. I know I wouldnt use it enough to shell out that kind of coin, so after doing some homework on this gem I gave it a shot no pun intended. Its got a great 180 degree field of view to capture that amazing landscape or wall to wall in a small room. I havent yet, but am looking forward to a few nights to test this with some astrophotography. Cost 5 Stars Obviously a great deal. Build 5 Stars Its well built. A nice heavy weight metal barrel. The aperture ring has a bold click so you dont have to look away from the viewfinder. If you knew where you started and after some use you will know what stop youre at by the clicks. The lens hood that is included is a pedal type, when used it keeps your photosvideo from having the classic edge distortion you get with fisheye lenses. Its a little thin, but not that much of an issue. FocusAperture 4 Stars Takes some practice The focus ring is smooth, very consistent with just enough give. It does take time to get the hang of the focus on this. I had a few of my first few shot come out soft, so a little practice will do you well. The aperture was best around F810 I found I didnt have to make many adjustments, except to my exposure. Granted the first few days this would have been a 2 or 3 star rating but after some practice, it will become second nature. I had my doubts about this lens, but I havent put it down. I highly recommend it.
Vic –
If you dont know already this lens will teach you how to use the Manual setting on your camera. You need to be a good judge of distance also as the focus is manual also and not clear through your view. For some reason that is grainy Not sure why though. Bought for my first adventure into Residential architecture shoots and was worried about tight bathrooms. I shoot wide and crop out the most distorted portions but have gotten great results I did have to reshoot a few frames after forgetting to adjust both aperture and focus There is a learning curve with this one For the price awesome so far 1 monthHave to be carful with the glass if your clumsyforgetful not for you I shoot with a tripod, and change lenses while still mounted. Cover goes on immediately.
SteveH –
This lens is far exceeding my expectations. Based on previous reviews praising this lower cost APSC format fisheye, I de3cided to purchase it. Im glad I did. I got the Nikon chipped version. It works perfectly on my D3200 and my older D60. Earlier reviews said it was tight on the bayonet, but they seemed to work that out, because it fits fine. All functions work. Being manual focus is not an issue, since its a super wide in the first place, and it works with focus confirmation on my cameras. The images are super high quality. I use it for a virtual tour program and for regular ultra wide pics. Im very happy with this lens.
Architect1776 –
My wife and I use this lens a lot on trips for special shots, interiors and what ever we can imagine. It is sharp, easy to use and focus is not an issue. Just set hyperfocal point and shoot. If you do not know what this is then take a class. It is like shooting with auto focus as once set just forget focusing. Would highly recommend this lens for those wanting a fisheye and cant justify the big bucks others cost.
David –
An excellent buy for the price and a solid lens in all aspects. Very good clarity and the focusaperture adjustments are very smooth. Very nicely constructed for a lens in this price range. For a basic fisheye this is a great buy that provides excellent results and spectacular depth of field. Remember that this is a fully manual lens but still very easy to use. This is a really fun lens to experiment with and use in very tight locations.
Paul –
This lense is excellent. I cannot believe that anyone would have any issues with this lense. Just focus the lense to about 3 meters at f8 and shoot. So far, all of my images have come out tack sharp. The removable lense hood makes cleaning this lense a snap. I have to admit that I have not shot with this lens at f4. Mainly because this is a fisheye lens and it wouldnt be my choice for doing selective focusing. It is not that kind of lense in my opinion. In all if you want a inexpensive lense that can produce high quality images, look no futher. WARNING This lense is manual. The camera will not focus for you. You can not change the f stop with your camera. You can not simply point and shoot with this lens. It requires a basic understanding of how to use a manual lense and the desire to do so. If you have a problem with this spend the extra money on a canon 815 mm L series lense. It costs way more, but it at least provides what you are looking for.
Michael –
This is a very fun lens to shoot with a very different perspective. It relatively easy lens to operate. A great lens just to have in the bag.
marzuki92 –
I bought this lens because it can fit my dslr camera which is canon and it is a fisheye lens which I really wanted. It is cheaper than the real canon fisheye lens which is still better. The only differ is that this lens is using all manually while the canon lens it can be automatic. This lens really fit my camera which is great. Love the fisheye effect. This really helps me with my photography. The only thing I dislike about this lens is the focus, since it is manual. It is really hard to know or see if it is focus perfectly onto the subject. Thats the only thing but anyway, it still works. Thats all. Thank you.
chicagovideographer –
Excellent fisheye for Sony APSC and Super 35mm sensor cameras. Will vignette on a full frame Sony camera. Good low light at f3.5. For the money, its a great lens. Manual control wheels for focus and Iris. No auto focus or iris.
User –
The build of the lens is nice smooth operation, nothing sloppy. The front glass makes the lens nose heavy hardly noticeable on a 6D, but borderline awkward on a SL1. With a crop sensor, the image circle fills the frame completely. On a 6D, the image is close to a full circle, but is cropped on top and bottom sort of the worst of both worlds.Buyers should be aware this is a fully manual lens. Focusing the lens is difficult through the eyepiece I had better results using live view and max zoom. The printed focusing guide does not match my mental distance estimates, so Ive had more soft shots of close objects than I prefer. This may not be the fault of the lens. Once in focus, the lens seems fairly sharp, especially stopped down a couple of clicks. On the SL1, I have been shooting Av with a manual adjustment of 23 to 1 23 stops for proper exposure. The cameras combination of auto ISO and shutter speed can be a little dark.The distortion is in line with expectations of a fisheye lens. I might chose a longer focal length if I were to buy a wide lens again, but this lens has its uses and Im learning to understand and enjoy them.Ive had to think more to set up shots, and had to retake a few, but overall Im pleased with this lens and think it is worth the price at the time.
Sonya –
ive only taken a couple dozen pictures with this so far, but its super fun. I love the manual aperture ring, i wish all my lenses had this. The manual focus isnt an issue because of its huge field of focus. It doesnt capture super vivid colors, and im trying to figure out if its me and my settings or if its the camera because im able to bring out some colors in light room. I have a 70D. Im gonna play with this lens for a long time. its well worth the 179.00 i paid for it.
Jamie –
I purchased this kind of on a whim, I had been looking for several months but a change of plans pushed me to get one sooner than expected. The price was a definite plus and it came just as described with everything it said it would have. It seems as if it is built really well and I will be keeping this in my bag at all times. I expected the manual focus but didnt expect the setting of the aperture manually with a ring behind the focus ring. No big deal, just didnt know it would come like that. I performed very well and after very little practice I was able to get some very nice static shots.
Knightrider –
After a week of shooting with this lens have to say I love it. I was pleasantly surprised with the image quality rivaling that of my more expensive lenses. I am used to manual shooting, but still, have to take several shots to get one with the right exposure. I use this lens on both a Canon 7D and 60D. Dont know why, but when using the 7Ds built in flash I get a semicircle shadow on the bottom of the photo, even after removing the lens hood. This does not occur on my 60D. The shadow is easy to crop out, but still. If I use an external flash the shadow does not appear. So if I know for sure I will be needing flash with my 7D I will mount my external flash. Not an issue with the 60D. Oh, one last criticism Its a little tricky mounting this lens on a camera body because the space between the lenss aperture ring and the mounting surface of the lens is very narrow. So when mounting, it is way too easy to twist the aperture ring thinking you are twisting the lens to the body. Just have to get used to it I guess. The lenss 167 degree field of view on my canons is okay. I wish it had 180 degrees but it certainly is no deal breaker. This is my first fisheye and I am generally impressed. It takes a little getting used to but still gives very good image quality, it has a solid build feel, lots of fun to use and is a great value.
Anonymous –
One of the sharpest and contrastiest lenses i own, I rate it more highly than my Canon EF 85mm 1.8 Ive even shot directly into the sun and there is the bare minimum of flare. On an optical level, I can barely fault this lens Its a manual focus lens but anything over 2m67 ft you can just set focus to infinity. The fisheye effect isnt very pronounced I actually prefer this, but if youre looking for crazy distortion, this might not do it for you. I also find that I struggle to remove the lens as when I twist it, I usually turn the aperture ring and the lens doesnt move. But you get used to it… The last issue is chromatic aberration, which is pretty high on this lens. However, I can correct it very effectively in lightroom, so this doesnt bother me in the long run.
PhotoMEX –
This is a great inexpensive specialty lens lens. The image quality is suprisingly good. The correction for chromatic aberration is at least comparable if not better than in case of its much pricier peers. It is sturdily built and just feels solid. Keep in mind that this is a fully manual lens. Of course, there is no autofocus but you dont fhave to ocus at all. I just set It to the hyperfocal distance at f5.6 and shoot. Also there is no automatic aperture control which is no big deal either. I usually use Av anyway, which works fine. A quick remark about the optical construction the fisheye effect is there, but considerably less as in other lenses. You can google this if you want to dig deeper in the physics. I actually like it that way. For all the full frame shooters out there yes, you can use this lens as a circular fisheye, but you should get the version with the removable hood. Highly recommended
Victor W. –
Have been wanting to get a fisheye lens for my camera and this is one of the lenses that I have been watching. Finally pulled the trigger and been very happy with it. The lens is pretty sharp wide open f3.5…in most cases, I use around f5.6f11. Focusing through the view finder is practically impossible… most of the times, I use live view to focus. However, given the short focal length, and wide aperture, quite often, I just estimated the distance and pretty much nailed the focus given the large depth of field. Highly recommended lens given the quality and price
Terry –
I didnt purchase this from BH and for the life of me cant remember why I didnt as I get all of my stuff from them, so that I apologize for. I had always wanted to play with a fisheye but didnt want to spend the bucks so i got this one to try and am very glad I did. The build quality was good and if felt very solid, the aperture ring has definite clicks which I like and the focus ring was smooth, operation was very good overall. The removable hood is a must when shooting full frame if you want the true effect to stand out. The bad part with the Rokinon lenses is that they are all manual and if you havent used a manual lens before you might get bummed out but remember before we had auto this and auto that we used manual so for me that was kind of a nice feature. I would buy it again and I do recommend other to purchase it also, best bang for your buck. My big complaint is on me since I didnt get it from BH.
Gene –
This is my first Rokinon lens I chose this lens over other brands because it was on sale and thus far I am impressed. This definitely wont be my last Rokinon lens. I have used it for landscape, city shots and night photography. When photographing anything close you have to be careful that what you want clear is in focus because it is difficult to see in the viewfinder and if it is slightly off you can have a face out of focus and the shoulders in focus, etc. When shooting anything farther away the focus can be turned to infinity and all will be fine.
Bill –
I cant remember the last time I had so much fun with a new gear purchase. This lens is very well made with a solid feel and a metal mount more than I can say for most of the Canon lenses I own. Im surprised so many people are making a big deal about this being an all manual lens. Avoid F3.5 and focus pretty much takes care of itself. At F8 you can rack the focus from one side to the other with no noticable blur through the viewfinder. Unless I have something in the very near foreground, I leave the focus dial backed off just a hair from infinity. Exposure Leave it on F5.6 or F8, put the camera in Aperture Priority mode and fire away. Too dark Put your camera on autoiso and let your sensor do the work. Need to avoid high iso Throw it on a tripod. I like where they made tradeoffs to get the price of this lens down. The optics and build quality are excellent but you need to focus yourself and you need a decent amount of light. Just a few things this lens is great at Whole room interiors Car Interiors Some exterior architecture shots Pets Kids Big sky startrails etc A fantastic vacation lens This is exactly what you want to take the typical people standing in front of monumentscenerybuilding etc. Its big and fairly heavy but is well balanced on my T2i. How big The lens cap is just about the same size and shape as a tunafish can. The cap fits nicely over the lens hood. Very happy with this lens. Would buy it again. Would consider other Samyang lenses. Would recomment to anyone.
lancpric6 –
What a great lens. As I read in reviews I shoot with this lens in 5.6, but with my dinosaur monster D2x, this awesome find works well in 3.5. I have pulled some really good color out of this glass as well as some sharp black and white. Rokinon glass is rapidly becoming part of my arsenal.
Jerry –
Sometimes youre just looking for a fun experience with your camera. One way is to put this lens on your DSLR body and start taking images. This lens is really useful when you just cant back far enough to capture the scene with a standard wide angle lens and you dont want to stitch a number of images together. Not used often but great when its needed. This lens is inexpensive, fast enough and sharp.
DAVID F. –
If you want an inexpensive fisheye ultrawide angle lens, this is as cheap as it gets, but there are some issues and limitations. The lens fills the frame of an APSC cropped sensor camera, but leaves an odd curve shaped black vignette on a full frame camera. This does NOT create a circular image on a full frame camera. The lens is manual focus and manual aperture. Manual focus is generally not a huge issue on super wide angles unless you need to get very close, as the depth of field is going to be pretty wide anyway. The manual aperture means that you can only use your camera in M or Av modes. Also, as you stop down the lens, the image gets darker because the iris is stopped down in real time. You may not be able to focus when this is set beyond f8, so youll need to set focus first, then stop down the aperture afterwards. Because of the large bulbous front elements, you cant put any filters on the lens, so be careful not to scratch the front element this is true of all super wide angle lenses. There is a permanently mounted lens hood which shows up in images taken on a full frame sensor camera, but not on an APSC camera. It also comes with a special lens cap that clips to the lens hood. The difference in the field of view of this vs. a 17mm lens is huge and Im looking forward to using it when I am in very tight spaces. Other autofocus fisheyes cost 35 times, so this is definitely a good value, especially if you will only use it occasionally.
Rodeohog –
I was wanting this specialty lens because there are times when getting in a larger picture scene is worth the distortion of a fisheye lens and in some cases enhances the photo. I really realized this when I took a trio to New York City recently and wished then that I had this lens. There were numerous instances when this would have been perfect as a lens choice. In fact, it was there that I visited BHP and bought this lens just before leaving NYC. It does not have autofocus and in this price range you would not expect that, but that doesnt seem to be a real problem as most photos will be taken at a range that the focus is pretty much fixed at infinity. I am very satisfied with the quality and price that I paid.
Bouj –
This is an amazing lens. I cant even describe how much I love it. At under its the best on the market. A very solid metal mount and barrel with a well protective hard plastic hood and smooth focus ring, what more could you ask for besides automation But who likes automation anyway The full manual feel of the lens is a wonderful throwback to the old days of shooting. I had a great experience with this lens over a weekend. It was a friends graduation party and I was climbing up a steep gravel path with camera in hand stupid I know. Well I slipped and basically dug the lens into the gravel but the hood stopped all damage to the lens itself and only left a few scuff marks on the hood. Two hours later I was taking amazing long exposures of fireworks, the lake, and the remains of a sunset without issue. Essentially what Im saying is that this lens is unbelievably solid and definitely worth the small amount of cash needed tp buy it.
Luis –
This is what I call a fun lens. I got the Canon version, which is totally manual. This is really not an issue. Once you get the hand of it, its very easy to use and the pictures look great On the Canon it covers a field of vision of around 167 degrees. You can get a whole room on one shot. This is a lens to experiment and, as I said, have fun. It allows you to be really creative. The image quality is really good. I did have to calibrate mine which basically means adjusting the distance scale to match the real number. There are some articles on the Internet google rokinon 8mm calibration. It is a simple procedure but might be intimidating to some. Make sure you read about it before pulling the trigger. Once done if needed everything works smoothly.
Jose –
I read a lot of good reviews and they seemed to be too good to be true, then I took the risk and ordered this lens to find out that everything what was said was true. If you used to shoot by the time years ago, you will remember the old times as this lens is completely manual, no auto focus, no auto diaphragm. Set the maximum aperture, focus, set the diaphragm and press the shutter. If you use f8 or more, everything becomes in focus, so, who need autofocus. Its tack sharp Brilliant. Works very well in my 7D and 40D. If you prefer autofocus and autodiaphragm, please look some other alternatives but be prepared for the big bucks.
Joey P –
After receiving this lens, I was excited to shoot with it. Let me just say, this lens wasnt for me, and I boxed it up and sent it back. While its a great lens for landscape, having an aperture of 3.5 is pretty useless with this lens. In order to get your shot in focus, you have to stop down to at least f8. I thought I could do some cool experimental shots with portraits, but I was wrong I couldnt get the focus where I wanted. Im sure it great for landscape, but I dont do too much landscape, so I returned the lens. Great product, just not for me.
Edward A. –
This is a fun lense and offers lots of ways to create interesting shots. What I have noticed over time is that when I am switching between this and say my Canon 2070 or 70200 F2.8 lenses, you can really see how much difference in optical quality there is from shot to shot. The contrast and colors do not come through well. So, yes, its fun and good value, but if you want really vibrant rich images then you might have to trade up to something more costly.
LINDA –
Always wanted a fisheye lens for fun. All my lenses are Canon L series but I could not fathom paying out for a Canon fisheye that would not give me the return and I wouldnt use enough to make it worth while. This is the perfect lens to pull out for fun with the effects. Totally manual which I prefer anyway. Seems reasonably sturdy with a removable lens hood and cap. Fits very smoothly on my 6D, 7D 5D Marklll and for the money it suits my need for one just perfectly Other sites offer this lens without a removable hood and no lens cap while others complained about the fit not being good on their camera. This one from Adorama seems to have non of those issues. I would recommend this for an affordable fun lens to have in your bag
Uncle Mike –
The Nikon mount version of this lens works great. This is the newer version and reviews from over 2 yrs ago may be an earlier lens. In a nut shell, if you have a D7100 Nikon or one that can adjust aperture, This lens is a breeze to shoot. Put the lens on F22 and the camera will adjust the F stop. The focus chip works to show you if the focus is correct if you place the camera body selector on Manual. The focus is smooth and accurate. It seems imprecise but thats due to the huge DOF. The chip communicates with the camera and you can see if youre in focus. You cant tell through the viewfinder as everything seems in focus. This lens has a lot of uses and the price is impossible to beat. Its a great addition to the camera bag. The mount was solid and didnt bind as some have stated.
KY –
This is the widest lens I own and Im glad I picked this up. Of course, I wanted to play around with the exaggerated perspective with this lens. It didnt disappoint. I recently took photos at a small museum where there was a dome overhead and I was able to grab the whole scene above. I think I will have to fight not using this lens 100 of the time because its fun to use. The manual focusing is not an issue. I played around with it before the museum trip so that I can get the results needed. I found some images a little soft, however Im still getting used to it so its definitely user error. I do not believe it is the lens, other than the obvious with it being a fisheye. This is a solid lens and not flimsy, definitely not light, however it isnt your most heaviest lens out there. The perspectives are neat and you almost forget to not get your shoes or arm in the frame. I didnt pay attention and told my husband to get out of the frame but still managed to get him in it. Oops. I can imaging how useful it would be for those who like Astrophotography or landscapes. I have a niftyfifty, and a 35200, as well as a stock zoom for my Canon 60D. But I plan to have some extra fun with this lens.
When you mustache a professional –
I picked this up as a Deal Zone offer a while back. Coincidentally I had been looking for a fisheye lens for a particular project. This is actually my second Rokinon lens and I must say Im impressed with their lenses so far. The images are crisp and you get that delicious distortion from the fisheye. Even with the cropped sensor on my camera, which effectively turns this into a 15mm for me, I still get a really nice effect. No, this is not comparable to a Canon L series or anything with a Zeiss badge on it. However, it has the same build and quality as many of Canons midrange products hard plastic components wrapped around decent glass.
dwosullivan –
At least as good as the more expensive offerings from canon and sigma. I got this one as not only was it on sale but also has the removable hood so i can use it on my FF camera to get an almost circular fisheye. on the apsc it of course fills the frame. manual focus is fine in liveveiw, and it is so wide anyway depth of field is very forgiving. like my 14mm i have no trouble without contacts on the lens, just select the lens profile you want manually in LR.
drwang84 –
I was looking for fisheye lenses and had zeroed down on the Sigmas and Tammys since I had pretty decent response from either. Nikon was out of question due to the price range. Thats when my friend suggested the rokinon 8mm since its cheap too. A little more research and I found that Rokinon, Bower, Vivitar etc where all the Samyang product. When the lens arrived, I was impressed by the packaging provided by Bower, with the moulded plastic enclosure for protection and arresting movement. The second part is the compactness of the lens. Its small and hence its easy to maneuver the whole camera and lens for some overhead shots. Long exposure shots in a moving car at traffic signals give awesome results. Canons a little less but 167 degrees is good too. Great for panorama shots and perfect for star trails with beautiful patterns. For recent cameras, you would want to setup the noncpu lens data to get some feedback from the lens to the camera. Overall a good purchase for this kind of price.
Deedubb62 –
I love this lens. It definitely causes that fisheye effect. I often go to museums here in Southern California, and there have been 2 big items that I couldnt really show the true size of how big these items were in my photos with a regular wide angle lens.The first item was the Space Shuttle that is on display. That thing is huge and it is inside a hangar specifically built to house it. I am more than confident that when I go back to photograph the space shuttle I wont get just half the spacecraft in my pix. I want the entire spacecraft up close.The other item that I wanted to photograph up close to show American ingenuity is the USS Iowa. Another huge vessel that I was only able to photograph a portion up close. With the fisheye lens I can photograph close and include the entire vessel in my pix. The USS Iowa is about the length of a football field. Of course this vessel is displayed outdoors and is a big museum in and of itself.I forgot about one other item that is enclosed at the Reagan Library and museum. The retired Air force 1 that Mr. Reagan flew on is inside the museum. That 747 I think it is a 747 is huge and there is no other lens that can capture the entire plan except, perhaps the fisheye lens. I will let you know if I can frame and capture all of this big ticket items in their giant entirety.Overall, I am satisfied with the lens and especially the price. I cant get a Canon lens cap at this price. Of course I am being facetious.
customquarters –
I bought this lens because I was looking for a wide angle lens on my 7D that would not break the bank. This lens goes by a few names Rokinon, Samyang, maybe a few more, but from what I have read, they are all produced by the same manufacturer. Overall it is an excellent lens and Id buy it again in a heartbeat. The first thing I noticed about the lens when I received it is the weight. This is not a light lens basically all of the components are metal and it has a nice solid build to it. The second thing I noticed about the lens was that not only did the focus scale seem way off, I just couldnt get anything in focus. Everything was blurry and soft. I was devastated. Before throwing in the towel and sending it back, I did a little bit of poking around on the internet not only is this a common problem, it is easily fixed Using the LiveView and digital zoom on your camera, find a distance you can get a crisp focus at whether that is at 2 feet or 20 feet, then look at the focus scale and see what this reads 0.3m to infinity. Next, roll back the wide rubber grip and youll see 4 screws the size youd find in a pair of glasses. Dont touch the 1 Phillips head screw, but loosen the 3 flat minus head screws you may have to carefully scrape off a little bit of glue that is suppose to keep the screws from coming loose. This will allow you to spin the focus ring freely. So, if the object you focused at a few minutes ago was 3 feet away, move the focus ring so that it reads 3 feet, then snug the screws back down. It may take a couple of times to do this, but it is dead easy, it fixes the problem and all you need is a razor blade or tiny screw driver to loosen the screws. Once you are sure you have the focus right, tighten the screws, and a dab or clear nail polish tot he heads if you are afraid theyll come loose, and then roll the rubber grip back over. For using the lens, everything is a bit soft at f3.5, but turn it to f5 or f8 and everything is crystal clear. Until you get used to the focus scale or adjust it as I talked about above, you may have issues focusing it just because it is such a very wide angle. I use the LiveVeiw and 10x zoom on my 7D to tweak the focus and then I am ready for shooting. This lens obviously has a bit of the fisheye distortion, but the color and focus is surprisingly sharp even at the corners of the picture. The lens handles lens flare from, say, having the sun in a shot remarkably well and does not seem to lose contrast or have the sun drown out your colors. This lens may not have all of the automatic features focus, fstop, etc from other lenses, but it also doesnt have the huge price tag those lenses have. The picture quality is second to none it performs well for night photography, star trails, daylight landscapes and everything in between. On my 7D, viewing angle seems to be about 160170 degrees not quite a full 180, which is just amazing. Except for the initial focus scalering issues easily adjusted with those screws and now fixed, I have no complaints about this lens, I only wished I had bought it months ago.
Ben –
I had been wanting a fisheye lens for some time but I didnt want to pay a hefty price for a specialty lens like this. This price was perfect and allowed me to experiment to my hearts content. It was strange getting used to using it. It basically has an infinity focus point in which whatever you shoot is always in focus. And it actually works. So I dont have to worry about blurry pictures any longer. It comes with a lens hood which is wonderful but you do have to adjust the hood or it will appear in your pictures because of the nature of the lens. Also It does not create a black ring around the picture which some people prefer, at least not on a cropped sensor camera. But if you are looking for a nice wide angle lens, this might fit the bill.
OstkUser972827 –
We bought this lens specifically for our trip out west. We wanted to get the entire sky and the rising Milky Way neither the sky nor this lens disappointed My husband said it paired easily with our Nikon camera body and we havent had any issues with it. The Nikon fisheye wasnt within our budget, so based on the reviews, we decided to hive this a try. Granted, we are amateurs, but are very satisfied with the results we are getting with this lens.
Nate –
My Rokinon 14mm, f2.8 is one of my favorite lenses on a Canon 5DIII. I bought this 8mm to use on a Canon EOS M since it is an APSC sensor, but the camera shutter will not release when mounting this lens using an adaptor. I returned it. It is probably a great lens, but not if you want to use it on a Canon EOS M.
Cameron –
It said that this lens would give a circular image, which i have seen with other 8mm lenses on full frame bodies. I use them all the time for work. This did no such thing, First of all you can see the lens hood which is not detachable, and second it produces a fairly squashed square.I tried it on my apsc body to see if that would give me the effect, but it was just a cropped in version of that. Not really an 8mm lens more like a 12mm lens.In summary, it doesnt perform as an 8mm lens on either full frame or crop sensor bodies.Asking for a refund.
Steven –
When I first read the other reviews, I was a little hesitant. Some said that it was good if you got a good one, implying that I might receive a lemon. I am glad to say that the product I received was packed better than any lens I have ever bought, constructed very well, deceptively simple to use, and gives very good results. Some reviews said it was bulky or heavy. I do not see where they get that. I have only used it around home, and intend to take it on a trip in October, but the sample shots that I have taken have me excited to try many new things. For the dirt cheap price …, this is a steal It is hard to get used to not focusing, since if you set it to f8 and 2 feet, as many suggested in the reviews, everything is in focus already. I need to experiment more with various apertures, but I tried most of them with very nice results. It is not a great very close focusing lens, so I would not recommend trying to get very sharp images at a few inches, but this lens will give you the ulitmate nearfar shots, which is what I was looking for. I am not looking for strangelooking images, though this lens really brings out the urge to try anything. A lot of fun
twostory –
This Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens is way different than any normal lens youve used. Its really wide angle of view allows you to capture everything in front of you. You can get creative by moving up close, down low or up high to obtain unusual photos. Its a fun lens. The photos I took are extremely sharp. Although its a manual focus, using the distance dial indicator on the lens is easy. It is also very forgiving and setting it at infinity gets everything farther than 5 feet in focus. The model I bought had the Aperture chip which provides exposure feedback to the camera allowing for quick and accurate exposure on my camera Nikon D5300. This is a great a lens for the money.
lofloum7va5hu9mf –
Great fish eye lens. The manual part is very easy to adjust to. Clarity and sharpness are great. One of the best deals ever.
Peter –
I am completely satisfied with the capabilities of this lens. It brings very sharp image with very good color. The lens is Made in Korea of metal, which makes it very durable and solid. I am using it to make effective architecture pictures. I am planing to use for night pictures with my Canon EOS T3 i because of the very wide perspective it brings. I was looking for affordable fish eye lens and that it just .
Big DS –
I got this lens as a BH Deal of the Day for a remarkable price. Shipping was fast, as usual. Tried the lens out at the beach the next day and I got some amazing shots. Obviously I cant use this lens for most work related things. In fact, even though my Sony cameras are cropped to close to apsc, they wont work with this lens after fitted at the Metabones adapter. You end up seeing some of the tube around the edges. But for fun, I love this lens Im taking shots of things I could never have dreamed of. Build quality is great Even if I paid double what I did, I would have been ecstatic.
Brent –
Pros Meters well on Nikon D300, Price is right, Decent Build QualityCons Manual focusOther thoughts Overall this is a great lens, especially considering that the Nikkor brand is over twice the cost. This is not a lens I would use every day, but for the few occaisions I use it, it more than does the job well. It meters properly on a Nikon D300, Ive also tried it with manual settings on a D70 and it also performed well. It is also very sharp with great projection. The build quality is good and I expect it to last for many years. This is actually my second copy. I originally purchased this lens from another retailer with the name Bower as the manufacturer and returned it. The Bower which is the exact same lens sold for 100 more and I returned it to that retailer once I found this out. The Rokinon, ProOptic, Samyang, and Bower are all exactly the same lens. Beach Camera had the best price from a retailer I trust. The only real draw back I see with this lens is that it is a manual focus. But fisheyes arent as critical with the focus since they have a wide depth of field. I would buy this lens again if I lost it. Theres a glowing review of this lens on Ken Rockwells site.
William –
The lens gives a distinctive look to the images. It can produce a standard landscape image as well as the classic top and bottom bends associated with a fisheye lens. The sun when caught at the right angle or when piercing through a tree appears as a radiating star. Even without a polarizing filter blue skies are the norm. You really need to get up close to your main subject, that is to say within inches. Holding the camera low to the ground or elevated above your head is an approach you might try. Overall I have been very satisfied with the quality of the images the lens produces and btw its fun to experiment with the lens on all kinds of subjects.
ROBERT –
Excellent value. Nice lens to play around. You have to use it to get used to it. Took it out to the barn to get unusual pics of my goats. Got a little to close and she licked the unprotected lens. Cleaned up ok. Its fun to see what you can do with it. Nice addition to my lens collection.
Anonymous –
This is a fantastic bang for your buck. I am a freelance cinematographer photographer and have been looking for a wide angle fisheye lens for my Canon 60D for a while now. When I saw the price of this lens, and that it was fully manual, I couldnt say no. And Im very glad I didnt. Its great for stills and video. The metal body of the lens is durable and weighted very nicely. The glass is nice and the focus wheel is grippy and it turns smoothly. I love using this lens to take photos at family gatherings, as well as on trips to shoot beautiful landscapes. I cant wait to shoot some sports like skateboarding. Ive really had no problems at all with it, other than the lens cap can be tricky to put on. I find it easiest to put on, tilting the camera vertically and putting the lens on from the top.
CJam Photography –
This fisheye lense is a really great product not only because of its price but also because of its quality. Pros of this lense cheap price, being its a steal i guarentee that you will not be able to find a lense like this with the same quality and price. Easy to use, this lense being all manual, I thought it would be a little difficult to use, but it took no time to figure out and i mastered it in under an hour. Video, the fisheye effect is great for stills but amazing for videos. 8mm, you get very wide shots with this lense in my opinion it great. Cons of this product, time, its not for the run and gun shooter it takes a little time to set your aperature, and focus so that could mean loosing your shot. No zoom, i wish rokinon could have made this lense an 824mm or anything greater, i dislike that there isnt any zoom, again just personal opinion. 1 tip if you were to buy this lense would be if you really want crisp and sharp photos is to go into live view mode, digitally zoom in all you can on your screen then focus, trying to focus on the view finder and getting really sharp images isnt always the easiest thing to do. I would recommend this lense to anyone, whethere you are a professional or amature. Its a great lense with a great price.
Fat Rick –
The Rokinon 8mm f3.5 fisheye is worth every penny. I took this lens with me to the 2012 MLB World Series and got some incredible pictures. The only downside is the awkwardness that comes with coming extremely close up to a person if you want to take a picture of them, but the quality comes out great. Night use of this camera is pretty stellar. If you dont want to spend the big bucks, highly recommend getting this lens. BE FORE WARNED This is a manual lens so dont plan on using autofocus. It takes like 5 seconds to get used to it so dont let that scare you off. Its worth it
Steve from CT –
I was looking for a fisheye lens for my APSC Canon. I started with the Rokinon based on the positive reviews and price, however I quickly discovered that the overall image was soft and nowhere near the clarity of my other lenses mostly Canon and some Sigma. In some cases the colors were very off, especially when slightly overexposed. This lens is respectable if you do not want superclear images. If youre shooting landscapes or things at a distance where you can get away with a little soft focus then this is a great lens for the price. If you need clarity, especially close up say 5 or less then move on to a higher quality lens. I returned this lens and looked at the more expensive Sigma lenses, which also had their issues. Although I never intended to spend big s there was no other fisheye that had the clarity of the Canon 815mm F4.0. If razorsharp focus is not a high priority then this lens will likely do the trick.
E –
I got this lens on sale from Adorama. I do some architectural and Real Estate work I was shooting images of an architectural showcase home I added a few images from the fisheye and I was greatly impressed, as was my client. Really a great value. Its fully manual make sure that youre comfortable with that. Its not something that youll use everyday, but when you want the image, its a perfect reasonably priced compliment to your lens collection.
H SCOTT –
This is such a fun lens to use. I paid over 300 for it and think it is worth every penny. Its not so tough to use just set the aperture to f8 and focus around 58 feet. From then on, everything is in focus and just adjust the shutter speed for exposure adjustment. Its huge field of view puts all your subjects in a different perspective. Moving vertical objects walls, trees, etc. toward the edge of the frame really shows off the circular effect. I dont use it for all or even the majority of my shots, but those times I have draws oohs ahhs from my friends. This is not a replacement for any standard lenses, but if you have the basics covered, give this a shot
Aaron –
It feels pretty solid and the images are pretty good too. I was going to buy the Sigma 2.8, but decided on this one because of the price. I dont regret it, but Im sure the Sigma is twice as nice, yet twice the price.Its great for portraits, skateboarding and landscapes. Its super wide. So wide Ive bumped objects in close up.CON I cant seem to change the focus at all. It seems to always remain in focus. Its a good thing when Im filming skating or taking super quick photos. But, you cant rack from one object to the other. Its not good for macro. Remember no auto focus or any type of image stabilization IS would be cool. And only being a 3.5, its not great in low light unless you really bump up your ISO.Overall, its a really good deal and Im really enjoying it. Im also using the Canon 24105 L and a 50mm prime so its getting along nicely with my other lenses. Cool product and glad its not too expensive.
Louise B. –
I am not a professional photographer, so I dont want to spend thousands on a single lens. Before purchasing, I had read the previous reviews, so I knew what to expect all manual. I use this lens on my Canon Rebel T3i. I set my exposure by shooting and adjusting according to what I see on the LCD screen checking the histogram also helps. I make sure not to overexpose shooting raw, I can easily recuperate the shadows in Lightroom. Focussing is a bit more complicated. It is hard to focus through the viewfinder. I miss the good old split target or pixelation system of 30 years ago. Something like that would help tremendously. I try to evaluate the distance and set my lens accordingly. I take a frame and check for sharpness in camera by zooming in on my subject. Once this is set, youre good to go. This lens is great for kid and pet portraits the distortion is very amusing. Sometimes, I dont even look in the viewfinder with a large depth of field you can just aim and fire. Here are two examples of the photos I took of my grandkids. At this price, one cannot expect as sharp a lens as its highend counterparts, but its pretty good. Bottom line Im having lots of fun with this lens.
JASON –
This is my first unique lens. I read and watched many reviews before deciding to purchase this one. The reviews I saw described this lens spot on, no surprises from using it. Is it sharp at 3.5 No. Does it improve when you step it down Yes. It appears and feels like a more expensive lens. It is fun experiencing a new perspective, my kids love seeing the pictures of themselves taken with this lens. For the money I cant imagine more fun in photography than using this lens. I am using it on a 7D Mark ii and highly recommend purchasing it.
Graham –
I love this lens, i use it for shooting sports mostly bmx. The lens is not super sharp but its good. The lack of auto focus sucks because it is very hard to tell if youre in focus or not when looking through the view finder. The biggest downside to this lens is that its useless wide open at f3.5. The quality is terrible. However at 5.6 it cleans up enough to be usuable. I can really only use it in the daylight when shooting bmx because i have to have the shutter set at 15000 or higher and the aperture at 5.6. Using this lens on a fullframe isnt great either because the lens hood is in the photo. However for the price you pay, i like the lens.
Alessandro –
This is a full manual lens that delivers very sharp pictures. I mounted on my old Canon EOS XSi and shoot in Av mode. Best to focus in live view at 10x using a tripod on objects at less than onemeter distance. Sharpest pictures were at f11f16 apertures on the entire field of view. At f22 I noticed some blurring at 50x. Despite the quite low hyper focal distances at lower f3.5 and 5.6 there are still some defocused areas. Infinite focusing appears to be worse on the whole picture than focusing to a near object. Pictures also require little work in digital processing to bring out more vivid colors. If you do not mind to shoot in manual mode, this is a nice lens at this price 200
Wales –
I purchased this lens for my IR converted Nikon D7000. Works great for that purpose because its sharp and doesnt produce hot spots. Some of my much more expensive lenses are useless for infrared photography. The Rokinon 8 also works well with my D800 in DX mode. Combined with Photoshops Adaptive Wide Angle distortion feature, theres a lot of fun and creativity potential with this moderately priced lens. And, its very gratifying for an old film guy to have an aperture ring to turn again.
Anonymous –
I am a rather advanced amateur in photography, and I have been shooting with a D5100 for two years now. This lens is so much fun It fits my buying philosophy really well buy clever. I was looking to buy an ultra wide angle, but I dont want to throw my money in the gutter buying cheap in this category it means 400, and I dont want to invest 600 and upwards right now. And I dont like waiting to make a purchase either, I feel that the worst it can happen in photography is to lose photographic opportunities. This fisheye lens has a great pricequality ratio, and with it you can explore otherwise unattainable creative routes. It creates a nice familiar distortion, but in a rectangular format. Note that this lens will not autofocus, but I found it really simple to focus, and I can say I enjoyed this retro feeling of manual focusing. It looks to me that it shoots almost 180o field view. It is well built, reasonably sharp, and it shows some chromatic noise on darker surfaces. The quality of the pictures when used wide open is unacceptable, but I think this does not affect the usability of the lens, since what you really will be doing with this glass is playing around with the composition in low light, you have to use a tripod. It means medium aperture sizes are ok. Bottom line and most important for this product great pricevalue ratio, will greatly increase your creative freedom. I consider it one of my best buys in photographic equipment.
Toxic Tabasco –
This is not just a skateboard BMX video lens. I use this lens to do street photos, landscape, night, indoors, low light, and creative shooting. The huge field of depth starts at about 5ft., and anything longer is infinity so auto focus is not an issue. Also, I like the manual dial aperture which is easy and fast to adjust. All this makes the full on manual mode fast and easy to use. The images are pretty good and the lens fits tight and feels solid and balanced on my crop sensor Nikon. The only issues are 1 the lack of a exposure meter, and 2 the nonremovable lens hood. If I had to get a fisheye, I would go with the newer model with exposure meter and detachable lens hood. But thats just my preference. Nevertheless, I still use this lens a lot, and it is always fun to get creative with it.
Jeffrey –
This lens is a good value, which produces pretty high quality images, and perhaps less distortion than you might expect. Depending on how an image is composed, the distortion effect can be exaggerated or hidden. Keeping the horizon or straight lines in the center makes it a very useful ultrawide lens. Tilting the lens a different way creates a sometimes very useful distorted perspective. Either way, this lens offers a fun new composition challenge to ones kit. Sometimes its possible to create instant panoramas with a single shot. Construction seems solid, and the focus and aperture rings are smooth. Flare resistance is really good for such a wide angle lens.
dwic526466 –
I use this lens more for fun than anything else. I was impressed with the build quality. Of course it is a manual lens so accept that but on my k5 it does work well in av or manual modes. I have been keeping it on f8 and set about three feet. Its generous depth makes most everything focused or adjust if need be. It is a rectangular fisheye not the circular but it grabs the scene pretty much in one eighty and very sharp if you do your part. Happy I bought it, well worth the money for me.
Brian –
Rokinon, Bower, Pro Optic, et al. are all actually rebranded Samyang lenses. This seems to be the only fisheye designed for APSC sensor, which means you get the full 167 degree angle of view. Also, this lens uses a different projection which makes for less distortion at the edges of the frame. To my eye, the results are more pleasing and natural than other fisheyes. This lens is built like a tank. Everything is metal, except for the aperture ring. The focus ring is big and nicely damped. I do wish there was more room on the barrel to grip the lens when mounting and unmounting. Exposure metering works fine in Av, P, and, M modes. No chip means no AF confirm and no lens data in EXIF. The depth of field is so great that the focus ring is almost unnecessary. Everything is either sharp or slightly less sharp. Careful use of the focus ring will give you good results at f3.5. Under f5.6, just leave the focus at 1 and youll have focus from 1 to infinity. This is a great lens, especially at the price.
Jockomojo –
Ever since getting a hold of my 5D MKIII, my 40D unfortunately hasnt seen much use sitting in its case, until now that is. If youre reading this Im sure you already know its fully manual, 14mm on 1.6x crop and with a detachable hood can be used on a FF. The only concern Ive come across on the net was the focus being a little off neccesitating peeling back the rubber, taking out 3 screws and readjusting. My preliminary tests so far reveal either they have rectified this at the factory or I just got a good copy. My intention was to use this lens primarily for Night and Timelapse photography and based on my first shots taken at night in the city the day it arrived I cant wait to take it on my next trip to Joshua Tree. The price is right, the build quality impressive and focus at F8 and above looks tack sharp. Another great purchase from BH.
Scott –
With my first outing with this lens, I have captured some incredible shots with amazing clarity. I took a shot of an old railroad steam engine, standing within 5 feet of the front. It appears that I was standing about twice that distance away capturing the entire front of the engine. Amazing clarity. Set the focus at infinity, fixed the shutter speed at 1250th, f22. Got real sharp pictures. The lens is well made, feels stout with some weight behind it but not heavy. The lens is manual, so back to basics for those that were brought up on that. I would suggest this lens to anyone looking for a great image at an affordable price.
George –
Ive been eyeing up fisheye lens for many years. But I could never justify the cost of a Canon or Sigma option. Time and time again, I would just glance over the Rokinon lens and never think twice. One day I broke down and read the reviews and found myself quite intrigued. So I took a chance and ordered one of these highly affordable lenses. WOW Im glad I did.First and foremost, it is totally manual. This takes some getting used to but if you simply set the aperture at f8 and focus ring at 1.5ft, youre set up for hyperfocal distance. Everything from 1.5 ft to infinity is in focus. Just adjust your shutter speed accordingly and go So once you get over the manual aspect of this lens, its nothing but fun. This lens produces some amazing points of view and opens up a whole new world of creativity. The only downside is that this lens creates a good amount of chromatic aberration along the edges and corners. However, I feel that this is to be expected from such a wide lens. So I compared to the widest lens that I had on hand… my Canon 1735mm f2.8L lens. This lens cost me 5 times what the Rokinon cost and guess what The CA on the Canon lens was worse then the Rokinon WHAT You heard me… Canon L lens had worse chromatic aberration at 17mm then the Rokinon 8mm fisheye. With that said, I had to try out the Rokinon 14mm and compare it. ill write a review on that lens shortly.Lastly, this thing is built like a tank Rock solid… no issues there.The long and short of is that for … This Rokinon 8mm fisheye is worth EVERY penny
Robert –
This is a lens to use only occasionally the fisheye effect can get on ones nerves if overused. I use it on an FX camera and so get the trimmed circle view on a DX camera it provides 180 degree coverage as measured cornertoopposingcorner which has its moments.I have used the Sigma 8MM fish, and while it gives a truly circular image on the film or CCD the Rokinon actually cuts off a little at the top and bottom not sure why that is since they are both supposedly the same focal length. But given this is 13 the cost its not a big deal.Build quality is decent not overly robust but, again, not the kind of lens one would use all that often. A nice touch is that the lens cap grips the petaltype lens hood I wish some other superwide lens caps would do that and that the lens hood it self is removable which is necessary for FX use, to give that circular full image.As with any ultrashort focal length lens, the depth of field is so deep at virtually any aperture that bokeh is pretty much a nonissue.This is the kind of lens, like a Lensbaby, that is fun to take on a trip if you have the extra space to use a few times.
jeffery –
My level Commercial pro for 40 years. Nikon full frame and apsc cameras. The lens covers apsc to the edges and makes a circular image on full frame. Its all good. Very minimal and attractive flair in bright sun, but some soft yellow flair occurs indoors. The bigger the light source, the bigger the flair. Too complicated to explain optical theory here. Just be sure to shade the lens whenever possible.I bought this second lens as a gift for my son in law after he enjoyed shooting with mine. Its a really fun lens if you have kids because you can keep them in frame, enjoy lots of depth of field, and get great odd angles with exaggerated perspective.I also use this lens for high angle shots at wedding receptions to show great action up close and the whole room behind. Also very good for editorial shots to show a huge face in the foreground. Get close to your subject to get the most out of this lens. Have fun
JOE –
Got this cool not really little paperweight sitting on my desk and an extra lens hood for my new Rokinon 8mm Fisheye. Forget trying to get the lens repaired for its just not worth it. That said, without hesitation I bought the new one on sale from BH and considered myself fortunate it wasnt one of my Canon L series lenses that took a dive. The 8mm is the Bomb . . . the images it produces are in a word are . . . amazing or so Im told. Fully manual, no AE chip, solid metal barrel and a removable hood and comes with a pouch. TIP set the focal length to 3 feet and the f stop to f8.0 and everything is tack sharp edge to edge with no vignette. The 5D MKIII stays in the studio and my 8mm is on an old Canon 40D and these are the images it produces. Now along with my bread and butter Event and Portrait work a little side business has cropped up by request for Car Shows all from a little Fun lens I picked up at BH . . . . Who knew . . . . Thank you BH, Thank you indeed . . . .
Marisa –
This is a great value if you want to be able to take fun every day photos or stunning landscapes, especially sky night shots. The caveat is that you have to be experienced in fully manual photography including focus and metering.
JAMES –
I have in the past made full circle fisheye lenses, but they always where kludges. This lens works well and is nice an compact. If you use it in DX mode it is full frame, but if you make your camera remain in FX you get the fishes circular effect. While this isnt something you need al the time it is a very playful lens for a lot of scenes. Images will need a bit of work to remove the color fringing at the circumference of the image, where there is a blue color fringe between the image and the black unexposed portion of the frame. I am always impressed with the build quality of the Rokinon lenses. For the price they are nicely constructed and function smoothly. The focus confirmation chip on the Nikon models work well and enhances the usability of these lenses.
JohnnyGee –
I purchased this item for my trip to Europe. I could not afford the high end EF Canon 14mm fish eye lens so I researched this one. I saw this lens was compatible with my Canon Rebel and after I read the reviews, I took my chance. I Understood that this was compatible to Canon SLR cameras such as my digital Rebel and this is NOT fully compatible with Canons electrical circuitry in Automatic modes. This lens works well in manual mode and aperature modes only After playing with the lens and getting to know the different angles that I composed, I found it very impressive and interesting to see what it can do on my trip. If you want to take a highly good picture of your subject and it is too large, get up close to your subject and take the composition until you get the results you want. I took some impressive pictures and my family was impressed to see how professional looking the pictures came out when opening your aperture to the widest, it is recommended that you are on Manual mode and then open it up some more using the cameras aperature function so that you can view it electronically in your cameras view screen for the best and widest angle and correct exposure setting. I was not unhappy with my purchase as I am VERY glad I found this lens and will surely use over and over for future trips. This lens was not only useful but primarily very inexpensive as other websites was trying to sell this lens for 100 Dollars more than BH Thank you BH for your reputation and customer satisfaction
Anonymous –
What a great, inexpensive way to capture ULTRA wide angle Even though it is manual focus, all you do is focus at infinity, set it to f5.6, and youre good to go Honestly, I have used this a whole lot more than I thought I would, partly because of the extreme perspective, partly because of its looks who said full frame guys had the only COOL lenses I dont mind having to shoot in manual mode and guess the exposure… thats where all the fun begins…. This is Old School, Baby this lens aint for sissies In addition, I have found my Rokinon VERY suitable for DSLR video work. In very confined places such as an aircraft cockpit or a high ropes course platform it has given me fantastic results. Just dont get too close to a person you care about because they will look grotesquely funny Solid as a rock and heavy as one too, this Rokinon does show some CA in high contrast situations, but not enough to worry about IMO. This lens perhaps more than any other that Ive owned has broadened my creativity and forced me to think outside the box in things like composition, content, and lighting. See for yourself. Considering the other fisheyes out there, for a crazy low price you can have an extreme and versatile tool… and one that looks killer too Be creative, do something different… if nothing else, walk around with it on your camera and look like you know what youre doing. D
Anonymous –
I use this for those ceative, special shots. The glass is crystal clear, beautifully sharp. Its an extreme fisheye lens so you cant use it for everyday shooting. Remember, its a manual lens, so if youre new to shooting dont rely on it to focus or set your aperature. The attached lens hood is good protection for the lens, too. Ive also used the 14mm from this same maker and it too is a great lens. Surprisingly great value for the low cost.
meccadom –
I have wanted a fisheye lens for a long time, but because of its specialty use I did not want to pay for either the Nikon or Sigma lenses and could not justify the expense to the resident chief accountant. When I received the newsletter from BH mentioning this lens, I decided that perhaps it was time to invest in this lens. I use it on my D7000 with the camera mode and mode wheel set to manual, and have no issues with it. I have not used it in video mode as yet. It is strictly a manual focus lens. I leave my focus at infinity and have no beef with the sharpness at all distances. The amount of light registered on the sensor is controlled by selecting the aperture from f3.5 to f22. I have used it indoors with the onboard flash and an f3.5 setting and get useable images before I even think of correction in a software program. If you are not put off by the manual focus aspect, and are looking to develop new photography skills, this is a real gem and at less than 300 I think you will be pleased. I know I am for what I use it for in selected situations.
MICHAEL –
Rokinon 8mm f3.5 HD Fisheye.This lens was purchased to give me a wider view of coverage, for some of our cropped sensor cameras, but also to shoot some artistic images with our full frame cameras. The lens has a solid build, and for the size of the lens, it very good feel to it. Attachment to the various camera bodies worked with no problems, and the aperture ring was very solid, reminding me of lenses before the day of digital. Focus was smooth. Keep in mind, that since it is an 8mm lens, your subject may appear sharp no matter where you focus, so my recommendation is to use live view to focus the image.Color and exposure seemed spot on with no real vignetting of the edges. Image shapes seemed best at f5.6 f8.The lens we purchased has a detachable hood, which is a great feature when shooting with a full frame camera. You will not get a full 180 file, but its pretty close with the hood removed. The model with the mounted hood, does vignette most of the image when shooting with a full frame camera, so we chose the removable hood.The real only downside to this lens was the hood. It seems a bit loose when installed on the lens, not having a very secure feel to it. That is the only reason we did not give this 5 stars.As for price point, its a great value Having been in the business as a professional since 1978, we never really had a need for a fisheye lens, so the price made this very attractive to purchase, figuring we will only use this on rare occasions when we need that super wide lens.All in all, we highly recommend this product.
bobzimlich –
I have rented this lens on several occasions, and loved it so much, I had to purchase. I like that its not fishy for an 8mm lens. While it not recommended for a fullframe camera, it works well on my Canon 1D MKIII 1.3 crop. Shooting with my Canon 70D 1.6 crop, the images are equal or better than any 8mm fisheye lens made. As long as you shoot level, the only bowing is limited to the edges. Crop the edges, and theres no way to tell its a fisheye lens. As a bonus, the red ring looks like my Canon L lens
mossbloom –
Its a fisheye, so you have to use it as such. This lens works really well inside big buildings, like churches. There is imagecorrecting software for this lens, which helps, but not more than barely. You might not think a Korean lens is quality if so, be prepared for a surprise.
Bruce –
I use mainly use this lens on FX, D800, and its really quite remarkable. The resolution is easily as good as anything from the Nikon recommended for D800 list. The lens feels very solid, smooth and robust not much to go wrong. As mentioned elsewhere, on FX you get to see lots of lens shade in the image, so Id recommend using the manual DX crop setting, which saves manual cropping later on. You do lose some of the image, so if you need every degree of fisheye goodness, stay in FX and crop manually. Cant quite bring myself to chop off the petals, but that would buy you meaningfully more wideangleness. Depth of field is so great that if youre on f8 and go hyperfocal, theres little likelyhood of every seeing anything out of focus. Bokeh Probably okay, but who knows or cares. This lens is so fisheye, theres a substantial gap between it and my next widest, the Nikkor 1635. Something about 12mm in a nonfisheye would be great, but it wont come for anything like the price of this beauty.
Randal –
The lens is fun to use. But dos not record the lens values in the imageproperties. It is the hardest lens to stop down with and thats sad wen you cant adapt use of a ND or polarizing filter. But for the fun use and odd imagining it can produce, its a keeper in my bag
HumDoug –
I first got this lens 1 12 years ago for use during an Alaskan cruise, and have fallen in love with it. It takes a little effort to get used to the manual aperture, short focal length and wide field of view how many times did I accidentally get my camera bag or feet in a shot, but its been well worth it. My camera has had no trouble using this in AV aperture priority mode. Its great for landscapes, extended vertical shots such as shooting up a flagpole or light post, or capturing a dramatic exaggerated street scene and Ive had a blast using the distortion for creative and fun images. Depth of field on this lens is phenomenal, and Ive gotten a number of excellent images with it. All in all, highly recommended for the creative photographer.
Hiking Rabbit –
When I opened the box and mounted the lens into my D90 camera, I could not press down the shutter button because I set the camera mode in A Aperture Priority, which I normally use. Later I switched the mode to M Manual and I was able to press down the shutter button. But the output photo is not in a proper exposure. After doing some research, I realized this lens is totally a manual one it has no electric contacts to communication with my camera. Manual focus is not a problem, because this lens focal length is very short Everything will be in focus from 0.29 m to infinity if I set the aperture as F8 and the focus as 1 meter. Manual metering could be a challenge I have to guess exposure. After some test shoots, I found that manual metering is not difficult. I just tried a couple of shoots and quickly found out a proper combination settings of ISO, aperture and shutter speed. Besides, Ive just installed a free application called Light Meter in my iPhone and it helps. The best thing about this lens is its high quality of image produced. Very sharp The thing that is not so good is its coupling with my D90 camera. Its too tight Very difficult to screw it in and out. All in all, I am happy with this lens so far.
Sebastian –
I bought this lens for my Canon T3i and I love it Its great for both photos an video. It is an awesome lens with a very wide angle of view and fisheye distortioneffect. The lens is built well and feels very solid when it is attached to the camera body. The only thing I dont care for on this lens is that the red dot that aligns with the the other dot on the camera body is on the actual mount of the lens instead of being visible on the outside. Sometimes it is frustrating trying to line up the dots when you cant see one of them. However, this can easily be dealt with and shouldnt be a huge factor in making a decision to get this lens. Again, this is a fantastic lens, especially for its price, and I would highly recommend it.
Sarrrrrraa –
I orignially bought the lens to use as a creative look for travel photography. Being able to catch a unique portraite of a city was my goal. However, I have loved experimenting it with people. When you are far away from the person, in a goregous landscape, it can really be quite captivating. Its fun addition. It is really sharp and eluminates colors. The only thing that I dont like which buying it I knew was that it doesnt have autofocus cabaility on my Nikon. Other than that its great
Scott –
Good value, provides a creative alternative that can make for some really nice scenes see my uploaded example photos taken with Pentax K5 II, includes squeezetorelease lens cap that secures nicely to grooves in top bottom petals of lens hood plus a good faux leather drawstring pouch. Instructions seem a bit terse and cover multiple versions for other cameras such as Nikon, et al but do provide enough specific Pentax info to make it work correctly set aperture ring to red Adot indicator just to left of F22 by holding small chrome plated button depressed while turning ring set mode dial to Av Aperture priority and set focusing lever to MF Manual focus… input 8mm focal length when prompted by the camera. Focusing ring has nice ribbing and is easy to use, but for most shots this lens will be set to Infinity focusing can be used for subject distances of about 5 feet or less.
Joseph W. –
I have not had this lens long, but really enjoy it. The good build quality is solid with smooth action on the focus and aperture rings close focus capability allows you to get in very close to a subject perspective is fantastic good color and contrast rendition lens flare reasonably well controlledoutstanding value for the price. The not so good heavy chromatic aberration at the edges not sharp throughout the frame. I have found myself mounting this lens every time I go out. A lot of emphasis on fisheye lens use goes toward capturing the entire scene or wide angle for that landscape. I however, love to use the lens in close and capture those crazy perspectives you can achieve with a fisheye. I also have a 10mm lens that i have left in my bag since I have had this lens. As for the issues I mentioned above, the chromatic aberration is not so noticeable unless you are pixel peeping or heavily cropping. The flare shows up only when I shoot high contrast bright scenes directly at the light source. Actually for a lens of this type the flare is fairly well controlled. It is at least as good as my Tamron 1024 zoom if not a little better. To sum it up you cannot get a better lens anywhere for the money.
jackofall –
At anywhere near this price there isnt any other lens that can do what this lens does. Keep in mind that this is a full manual lens and all settings must be made by you. A manual lens isnt that hard to use especially a fish eye lens because the focus isnt critical. Just set your camera to aperture preferred compose your shot set the focususe the distance scale as there is no viable difference in the viewfinder while focusing then stop down to the f stop you want to usethis lens is sharpest around f8 and take a great picture. On my wifes Canon T2i this method works perfectly and the pictures are beautiful. We looked at several other more expensive lenses but knowing how seldom a fish eye lens is used we couldnt justify the cost. There are situations or times when the perspective distortion of a fish eye lens is great so we really wanted one. After reading other reviews on this lens we decided to give it a try. We have not been disappointed at all. If you have plus for a fish eye lens you can buy a full automatic lens from several manufacturers but a fish eye is most likely used in less than 1 out of a 100 pictures so having a manual lens isnt really that much trouble.Overall its pretty obvious I highly recommend this lens.
Tom –
On a DX camera, this is a diagonal fisheye, meaning that the entire frame is filled with 180 degrees diagonally across the frame. There is no circle that some might expect from a fisheye. On a full frame camera WITH the lens hood the image is rectangular with some dark space on the leftright sides. Without the lens hood, the image does have curved edges on the leftright sides.I have the model marked with CS II on the lens. This does have a chip which means that the metering will work correctly on D7000, D7200, D800e, and D4 cameras tested. This also means you can control the aperture using the command dial on the camera. It should work on any Nikon camera that allows you to set through the menu a nonCPU lens. For a D3XXX or D5XXX camera youll have to check the manual.The focus acquisition light in the viewfinder also works on those cameras, although the depth of field is so great that the lens will not snap in and out of focus. Its very difficult, but possible, to take an out of focus image.Wide open, at f3.5, the center is reasonably sharp, but the edges tend to be very soft. Closing it down to f5.6 sharpens up everything very nicely. I would have no issue using it at f5.6 or f8. Smaller apertures did not affect sharpness.At the edges it does have substantial lateral chromatic aberration, but this can be easily removed using Lightroom, ACR, or other RAW processing software. My sample had more aberration on one side than the other offcenter element but not enough that I worried about exchanging the lens for a good copy.Build quality appears to be good, far better than I expected from the price.This does have the distortion youd expect from a fisheye, so it is not a replacement for an ultrawide angle lens. You could defish the imagecorrect the extreme barrel distortionbut I think youd be better off with a rectilinear wide angle instead. This lens is best used knowing that there will be distortion.I do not shoot video, but I have seen some clips shot with this lens. It offers an interesting effect, although it could be easily overdone.I have been very pleased with this lens, especially after I took time to learn how it sees the world.
David G. –
As others have pointed out, this is a manual focus, manual exposure or aperture priority lens. But at this focal length, depth of field is excellent so the focus is not critical. With digital, if need be you can do several pictures until you get the right exposure. Pictures seem very sharp corner to corner and this is a great value for money. I will use it mostly for landscapes and I love the super wide effect. It is much wider than the Canon 1018 mm zoom. With buildings, there is quite a bit of fisheye distortion at this focal length, especially near the corners. The lens is great for photographing interiors if you dont mind the distortion. Overall, very happy with the lens.
Anonymous –
What impressed me the most about this lens is just how solid it feels. Owning 3 other Canon lenses, I am not used to other metal construction. It reminds me of the lenses I used on my old film SLR camera from the 1980s. The image itself is indeed very wide. This will take some getting used to as youre composing, as what you see with your eyes is vastly different then what you see through the viewfinder. There have been a few shots where I think this lens would work great, only to be disappointed when I attached it and looked at how much extra stuff appeared in the frame. Thats not the fault of the lens, just my own inexperience with using a lens that was this wide. Youll need to be careful that you dont accidentally include items that you never had to worry about before. If using a tripod, watch where that front leg ends up… it could get into the shot I still have more experiments to do, but so far I like it. I primarily use it for indoor architecture or for tunnels or hallways, to make them seem larger than reality. The only reason I gave 4 stars instead of 5 is that the lens cap can be a little tricky to attach when youre in a hurry, so you need to be careful with that and ensure that it is firmly attached on both clips. It can trick you into thinking its attached and I had the cap fall off once when I thought I had put it in place. You just need to double check it after you attach it, but I wish the method of securing it was a little easier and gave a more positive indication that it was indeed attached and locked.
Dennis –
Combination of price and build quality is unbeatable. At first, i was little uneasy on lack of AF but this lens is so wide and crisp, you dont even have to worry about focusing, especially on landscape shots. Until get used to it, I found myself little over exposed since shape of the glass brings so much light into camera. Now I use stop or two lower than I would normally use and everything comes up spectacular. Excellent for video, still or moving images. Build quality is exceptional for the price point.
Tthomson53 –
I have always wanted a fisheye for my Nikons but was put off by the high prices, especially for a specialpurpose lens such as this. The price of this lens from BH immediately attracted my attention, and I ordered it after reading a few reviews on the Internet. The manual operation naturally requires a bit of adjustment, but focusing is a breeze with the huge depth of field, and the diaphragm ring does sync with my D300, so manual metering is a cinch. Just remember to set autofocus on manual. I got good results using aperturepreferred metering. The pictures have been terrific, and whatever aberration or lack of sharp focus there may be at the edges certainly not noticeable to me is more than compensated for by the wonderful and unusual framefilling images.
herbert –
I have only used this lens one time. I have a Canon Eos 7d and set the camera for shutter priority. I live near Lake Meade and the sunrise over the desert, lake and mountains can be spectacular especially when there are clouds. I went down to water level and took about 80 images as the dawn burst with incredible blues, reds illuminating clouds and streaming through openings reflected off the surface of the water. The extreme viewing angle enriched the images. I have a 10mm wide angle and this was measures better. I am planning to take this lens along during my travels as the perspective is worth the xtra weight. Well worth the and a great bargain
Anonymous –
The image from this lens is incredible Besides the fish eye effect, the colors seem more saturated than with other lenses. Love the fish eye effect. I took a group photo with 35 people lined up in 3 rows, was standing less than 5 from the front row, got everyone in the shot with room to spare. Only drawback I could find is my feet in the picture if not careful. All manual slows things down a little, but is easy to work with. Lens has solid feel, not cheap. Some care needed with front lens element since skylight filters not an option for protection.
Sven –
I have other Rokinon lens. Its good glass. The manual focus rings work smoothly. I started on film so the manual does not bother me. Ive only been out with twice. I love shooting cityscapes with it. It really fits my style of being able to get everything in. The removable hood is good it takes a tad less space in my bag. It takes great images. Im very happy with it.
Tuan –
Bought this right before my trip to Yosemite and was blown away by its performance and quality. Feels quite heavy and sturdy, well built. Its scary as st that the front glass bubbles out so far I was afraid of hitting it on any hardpointy surfaces. I left it on infinity and shot primarily at f8 or lower and the images came out focused and sharp. Probably not the sharpest lens, but for its price Id say its pretty freaking good for social media photos. If youre doing large print, I cant comment on that as I dont do that and my images are usually viewed on a computer screen or a phone. The colors were quite good, there was chromatic aberration as I expected, but it wasnt too difficult to correct with Lightroom. The best part is the cool angle you can shoot at, this thing is freaking wide as hell and will capture everything almost directly to your left or right shoulder. I swear it feels like you can shoot people standing behind you, lol. Anyways, its all manual, so no auto focusing and no computer chip to communicate with your camera as far as aperture goes and metering. Even with that being the case, its a simple lens and anything one foot away with the zoom at infinity and aperture at f8 or lower will be quite focusedsharp.
Anonymous –
Great fisheye lens for a great price. I mostly use this lens outside, as the 3.5 aperture is not great in lowlight situations. With enough light this lens performs quite well. While not as sharp as some of RokinonSamyangs other offerings, this lens is still quite sharp, especially for a fisheye. Build quality is great, like other Rokinon lenses I own. Lens is heavy and feels very sturdy in hand. The distortion on this lens is hard to ignore, but that is true with most fisheye lenses. I find this lens to be most useful for photos or timelapses where Im trying to capture a large area. In smaller areas, the distortion tends to be very distracting unless you use it to your advantage in a creative shot. My only real complaint about this lens is the chromatic aberration that is present toward the edges of the frame and especially in the corners. I found this to be an issue even with the lens stopped down to f11 or lower. Overall I think that any shooter who likes to shoot landscapes and especially outdoor timelapses will find this to be a valuable edition to their kit. Compared to other fisheyes that were available to a Canon EF mount, there is nothing that even comes close to this lens in terms of the value for your dollar.
Sib –
The 8mm f3.5 Fisheye Lens is everything as stated. Provides for clear, responsive output and is of a solid construction. I used it for test shots in my room, horizon shots on a dock, and on a hike, during which I took wide angle landscape shots and timelapse shots for running water. I was satisfied with the lens performancemy performance was a bit lacking though haha. Now, I did return the lens but that was only because the rounded fisheye finish of the shots just arent my personal taste. BUT, it is a fisheye lens and it gave a solid and consistent effect throughout. SO, if this is your taste in photography, I highly recommend it.
Colout –
I picked up this lens for a paid shoot at a skate park in Queens, NY. I needed a sharp fisheye, and I didnt want to spend a lot of money. From the BH stock, this is the clear winner. For twice the price, Sigma or Canon with autofocus and autoaperture hardly seems worth it. With the right settings, its a sharp lens for the price. DOF on this lens is unreal. This lens doesnt know the meaning of the word bokeh. The lens feels very solid and looks professional. The plastic is hard, and the focus ring is smooth and rubberized. The components that feel cheap are the aperture ring its not THAT bad and the lens hood also not THAT bad. Here are some notes on how I use the fisheye For landscapes, cityscapes, and any shot where the closest object is further than 5ft from the camera, I set the focus ring between 10ft3m and infinite. This keeps everything in frame quite sharp. For close up objects, I set the focus ring to 1ft.3m. The background will be less sharp if you look at the image with a magnifying glass, but your subject will maintain some more detail. Never use this lens at f3.5 or f22 if you are shooting for highres. I found the sweet spot to be between f8 and f11. Wide open and fully closed, the lens is soft to say the least okay for Facebook profile pic, not good for prints Keep in mind that you can get pretty sharp handheld shots up to 12 18 second at 8mm depending on the steadiness of your hands and stillness of the subject. To frame a shot, I temporarily set my fstop to 3.5, then click back to my shooting aperture usually around f8. Be careful how you frame people with this lens. Shoot too close, and their face will look cartoonish rarely in a flattering way. To get the least distorted image, I suggest keeping the subjects face close to the center of the frame and at least a meter back from the front of the lens. Be careful that extremities arent close to the corners to avoid infinitely long spaghetti arms. Be careful with flash. On camera flash is pretty useless when the FOV is just shy of 180 degrees. I can see my softbox in frame when the flash is attached to the camera. Its easy not to notice that your feet or fingers in the frame until its too late. Youre closer to the subject than it might appear in the viewfinder. Be careful not to scratch the lens on a wall.
JinSC –
Occasionally I have use for a fisheye lens, but not so frequently as to justify the 1400 for Canons Lseries fisheye. So I was attracted by reports on the subject Rokinon 8mm fisheye. I did know that this is a fully manual lens, but still somewhat in the dark as to how this lens would be usable on the Canon body, even after speaking with BHs consultant. I have been pleasantly surprised with this lens and thus share my findings. a. Mechanical. The lens is sturdy and well built. Focus and aperture rings are precise with no slop. The camera fitting is well machined metal, and mounts smoothly without fuss on the Canon. In the hand it has a substantial feel to it. The lens cap is large and well fitted. b. Metering . I am pleased to report that on my EOS 7D, the lens works quite well in aperture priority AV mode i.e. I set the aperture by hand to the desired, shooting value, and the Canon handles metering and exposure. Exposure compensation works in the usual manner also. There is , of course no focus or beep confirming exposure lock, but otherwise , it is a smooth transaction. It does seem that the metering is fairly accurate at larger apertures, and becomes less accurate for small apertures. Contrariwise, on an EOS 20D, the lens is fully manual with no metering support. I add that on this DSLR, it is not all that hard to dial in the exposure using the histogram on the camera replay and a few test shots. c. Focus. The focus is , of course, manual only. It is very difficult to focus the lens in visually looking through the finder. One must then use the distance scale on the focus ring. The focus ring is calibrated in feet and meters. Others have reported that the ring is not calibrated accurately and needed to be manually dialed in. I found the length scale to be well calibrated with the particular lens I purchased. I remark that when the subject is separated from the lens by several feet or more, this lens has enough depth of field to make the distance setting very forgiving. In summary, the focus length scale is accurate as indicated, with significant depth of field. d. Sharpness. Several users have reported that this lens is sharp in the middle range of aperture sizes. I am able to confirm that for the lens I purchased. Testing the lens with a subject located 4 feet from the sensor focal plane on the camera, I shot test cases for aperture values of f3.5, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, and 22 respectively. Using the following criteria system 1. Excellent sharpness, 2. Good sharpness, 3 Acceptable sharpness, 4. Blurry, I found the following resultsf3.5 4. f5.6 2. f8 1. f11 2. f16 3. and f22 4.. I will be using the lens at f5.6 , f8, and f11 based on this data. Conclusions. This is an excellent quality lens both mechanically and optically. It is an incredible buy at just over at BH. Although the lens is manual without electrical contacts, it is quite easily managed with a minimum of fuss on the EOS 7D body set in AV , aperture priority mode. With the older EOS 20D , it is strictly manual without metering support.
JUSTIN –
On a full frame, it cuts off the top and bottom of the circle, but otherwise the quality is great. Its a manual focus only lens, but who cares Set it to f5.68.0 and pretty much everything is in focus if you understand hyperfocal.It gets 4 out of 5 stars because the mounting feels a little rough. I hope its not damaging the camera but it certainly doesnt attach as smoothly as ALL of my Canon OEM lenses do.
Scott –
I did a lot of research about this lens before buying it, and it lives up to my expectations following that research, so Im giving it 4 stars. It is indeed a nice sharp lens if stopped down a little. Close it to F5.6 or smaller and it will perform very well. Note that it is very soft wide open, and its almost unusable if stopped down all the way although I never shoot that way anyhow. My copy appears to have the issue of an incorrectly calibrated focus distance ring. This hasnt been an issue for me yet, but I suppose I may eventually decide to go through the process of resetting it. Definitely not a deal breaker for me at this point. The lens does give a dark image in the viewfinder if stopped down at all stopping it down makes the viewfinder progressively darker. The viewfinder is essentially unusable in a semidark or dark environment, making live view almost a musthave. Also, as many others have pointed out elsewhere, unless you have a split prism viewfinder, it will be difficult to obtain critical focus without live view anyhow. Build quality is adequate, and its aesthetically just fine. I will note that I shot with a Sigma 10mm F2.8 for few days last year, and it is a far superior lens to the Rokinon. Still, given the price comparisons, I have no complaints with this lens. Image quality rules, for me, and this lens will deliver under the right conditions. You just need to understand its limitations before going into a shoot, and it shouldnt disappoint.
Keith –
I got this lens as a BH Deal of the Day for a remarkable price. Shipping was fast, as usual. I have a Canon 7D Mkii camera. Obviously, this is not a lens to use for most images, but it is fun to experiment. Because it is a manual focus lens, I experimented with its depth of field at various aperture settings. I have decided to only use this lens at f8 for outdoor use and f5.6 for indoor use. I use the camera in Manual M mode with Auto ISO. I have used black electrical tape to hold the focal distance on my lens at a setting which gives sharp focus from infinity to 12 inches. This makes the use of this lens much faster and easier for me.
DannyS –
Got this to do some timelapse stuff and to play around with some action stuff. It is manual focus with no confirmation from the camera. No blinking focus points or beeps. The aperture stays locked to what ever you select as if you have DOF preview locked down all the time. Focus at 3.5 then set aperture for exposure. Great for timelapse since the aperture doesnt move you will not have to deal with flicker. You have to think with this lens or your images will be out of focus. With in an hour of getting the lens I got the hang of it and was having a blast.
Anonymous –
There are pros and cons to the ROKINON 8mm fisheye. The lense does not have a sensor so your camera doesnt know theres a lense attached, its basically a piece of glass in front of your camera. However, this fisheye produces an amazing image. The lense is all manual, which I actually prefer. This lense is great for skateboard filming, but I have gotten some good pictures with it as well. Overall, this is a great fisheye, especially if youre on a budget.
ProPhotog –
I had high hopes for this lens based upon reviews, but I can only say that I have never used a worse lens than this one. At apertures wider than f8 there is SEVERE ghosting almost to the point of it looking like an image where the shutter speed was too slow to freeze the subjects movement yet my tests were of a stationary object and shot on a tripod.Perhaps I just got a defective lens, but if this in indicative of its performance then it is almost worthless.Guess Ill bite the bullet and buy a Nikon or Sigma even though my work rarely requires a lens this wide. Test were shot with a Nikon D810.
Pete the Pete –
For what it isa budget, manual focus fisheyeit is excellent. Its build quality is solid and it is pretty sharp. The manual focus can be difficult to gauge through an optical viewfinder, but if you have enough light to stop down to f11 or so you should be fine. Focus can be tricky when wider apertures are required. The distortion encourages creativity and the wide angle permits a feeling of being there. My family loves looking at pictures I take of family events using this lens because they feel like they are back there at the events with their loved ones.
DP –
General Knowing the purpose of getting this lens and understand its limitations, I find this lens exceptional in terms of its value and capabilities.The good1 The lens is well packaged and it includes a soft drawstring pouch for general protection.2 The lens cap securely protects the front element when not in use.3 The removable hood is a great option.4 The focus ring is smooth and with the right amount of friction for accurate adjustment.5 The clicks from the aperture ring when rotating gives positive feedback on its position.6 The image quality is good overall.7 Do not notice any loose parts inside the lens body.The unknown1 Dont know how the entire unit holds up with time.
Bruce –
I always wanted a fisheye lens because of the unique perspective it gives. When B H had their recent sale. I decided to order it. Ive only had it about a week, but Im amazed at the quality of my shots. Since it is a manual lens it took several shots to understand how to best set it. With its 167 degree view it is amazing on my Canon 60D. I also tried it on my full frame 6D, but as indicated, it doesnt give full coverage, however, I still think it has possibilities for some great art type shots with a full frame camera. Depending on how you crop it, you can eliminate most of the distortion and have a super wide angle view. Its already one of my favorite lenses, so I will continue to be on the lookout for new ways to use it since it is so much fun to see what I can create with it.
Anonymous –
Hey, uh, so I have this here lens called the Rokinon 8mm fisheye for my Canon 60D, and just so happened to be filming my buddy skiing the Keystone terrain park from the lift he was hitting a jump, I was riding the chairlift while filming with a different lens. So Im filming and all, and just as hes about to hit the jump my backpack with this beauteous lens inside it falls from the chair and slams about 30 feet down. My friend lands the jump, notices the bright red backpack of mine on the ground, picks it up, I go down to meet him, and the lens is fine. And this is on top of the fact that its a sick lens anyway, the quality of the build is really good, the focus ring is nice and smooth with just the right balance of friction and smoothness, just feels so good. Its really easy to put on and take off the camera, and the quality of the shots are just sick. the colors youll get on a sunny day with this guy are rad, not to mention the sickest sun glares youll see out in the park or wherever you happen to be. Totally recommend.
Anonymous –
I bought this lens to play with on a visit to New York. My first fish eye … it was fun, I found going back to my days of manual exposure and focusing fun. Setting the lent to infinity focus achieve what I really wanted. It was interesting to discover how to compose pictures with a fisheye. And the manual exposure gave me some additional disoveries with regards to effects and composition. Need to watch the settings on the lens as the focue and apature settings were a bit loose and changes easy. Next lens for me will be a 10 to 30 zoom. I found the fixed focal length to restrictive. Over all it was a fun lense to play with … but noticebly not as sharp or vibrant as my L series lens.
Joseph –
I have been waiting to purchase this lens as I already have a 16mm Nikkor fisheye, however that will not work with an APS camera. In an effort to travel lighter, I have been using mostly APS and leaving D800 at home. After researching and not wanting to buy Nikkor or Sigma for , I took a chance on this lens and it delivers. Really dont need auto focus for a fisheye. Love it. Small thing to consider, it does not focus as close as costlier lenses.
VERONICA –
The lens is basic, great for a beginner but not what I need and not a good fit for my camera.I know, I was trying to get by with a lower end camera saving but sometimes you have to pay more to get what you need or works for you.I use a Nikon D750 and the mayor problem for me was that it will ONLY work on A S setting, which I dont use regularly unless you are using additional lighting and support, so horrible if you are trying to shot indoors with poor light built in flash will not work The hood is NOT removable so if you want more freedom, you are stuck with the shadow of it.
Photo Bob –
Only had this lens for about a week now, but took it out of the box, put it on my Canon 7D and was lucky enough to catch a good sunset, that night on the Gulf of Mexico. I will tell you, there is a learning curve, since you have to focus. I set the cameras speed…it set the aperture. Its appears very sharp. I have ordered some 24 length photos and will know more later. One of the photos that Ive atached is a pano, that I took with it. It consists of about 6 images and stitched together with a free, cheap software. It stills looks ok. Im looking forward to using this as a plaything at first, then…it goes into my professional arsenal
tomlangton –
As seldom as a fisheye is called for I didnt have the to justify a brand name lens.It is a manual focus manual aperture lens so you have to fiddle with the exposure before shooting critically.The lens does not project a circular image on the sensor. It fills up the frame with image which is usably sharp to the edges. Doesnt project a circle on a nonC camera either.Focus is a matter of guessing the distance to the subject and setting it on the lens barrel. With such a deep depth of field if you stop down to f8 almost everything is in focus anyway.Heavy solid feel lens. Acceptable results. Because of the comparitvly low cost I am a bit more daring with this lens get right up in someones face where distortion is unique.Since the projected beam from a single flash doesnt come close to covering what the lens sees multiple flashes bounced preferred to approximate even lighting. Just a warning.If someone else is buying get the Name brand lens. If youre buying and only shoot occasionally with this lens it is a bargain. And you should only shoot occasionally with a fisheye anyway.
mjkshots –
I am using this lens mostly to film and shoot stills of skateboarding. Though It will come in handy in many occasions . It is a manual focus lens and has manual aperture adjustment both are fine with me, about 7 out of 10 times I use my other fisheyes in manual focus modes and many times with EF lenses attached I have bumped the wheel on the back of the camera CANON EOS 7d mark II setting my aperture at the wrong fstop throwing off my lighting, so the lens controlling the aperture is cool with me as long as long as I dont bump my lens The build quality is good, solid, the glass is decent, not as nice as the canon ef 15mm f2.8 or 815mm lenses. For around 200 it is affordable for most and makes images with a true fisheye feel. Images have been sharp at f5.6f11 I have not taken too many other shots at different f stops. PS built in lens hood is a bit loose and can easily come off in a backpack or if bumped around a lot, maybe a good idea for the company to add a set screw or two to hold the hood on better. Also lens flare is extreme in some situations. but some people like that look so thats cool.
CB –
I so wanted to keep this lens. I love playing around with a fisheye lens. However, I boought, and immediately returned this particular model. Why It is better suited for a crop sensor camera, and I have a full frame. There would be way too much black in the frame. And the petal shaped lens hood is not removeable thus visible in the frame. I will probably get the one with the removeable lens hood and crop some of the black frame.
VERONICA –
I first ordered same brand but slight different model. It was a bit cheaper but it was so basic that it has a non removable hood and did not have a chip so it only worked on M and S modes, which was too limited for what I needed.This has worked great so far. The lens has a good built quality and it is definitely worth to pay extra to have the removable hood and the chip to use all the camera modes.
Danielle –
Ive wanted a fisheye for a very long time now but couldnt justify spending the Nikon equivalent at I use this on my Nikon D7000 and it works great The all manual part is not that big a deal and only takes a minute to get used to. The only downside to this lens it the manual focus. Its probably the most smoothest focus ring ive ever used, however, its nearly impossible to tell if youre in focus or not. This is simply because the field of view is so wide. Since this is a party lens and creative lens anyways, i dont think thats a big a deal. Very solid build and nice and weighty as i like to say. Doesnt feel cheap and its good quality glass. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND if youre wanting a fisheye and you wanna save some mula
Anonymous –
This lens is very sharp and allows for some very creative compositions. The only drawbacks are that you need to focus it manually, you cant put a filter on the front of the lensI use a polarizer for most outdoor shots and indoors on cars and other reflective subjects. I also dont like that you set the aperture ring on the lensnot in the camera as you would for your other lenses. This takes a bit of getting used to. Seems to be great quality, though.
Richard S –
This is one of those lenses that is just fun to use. Provides super wideangle shots with much less distortion than one would anticipate with a fisheye lens. Well worth the price at BH Photo.
Richard –
This is a very good fisheye lens for the asking price. It is reasonably sharp from center to the corners when stopped down to f8 or f11. The focus ring turns smoothly and the aperture adjusts with click stops every half stop from f5.6 to f22. Handle it carefully as I doubt that the mechanical components will tolerate rough treatment.This lens is 100 manual, there is no autofocus or camera control of the aperture. To properly use this lens, the camera must be set to manual mode and all lens adjustments must be made by hand, just like it was done prior to the mid1980s.Take care with exposure and your photos will look pretty good. This lens is worth the money. To get a better lens, be prepared to buy a fisheye from the camera manufacturer and pay 1000 dollars or more.
Galen –
Main use of this lens is landscape, architecture, etc. photos. I received mine the day before the town I live in has their annual festival The Defeat of Jesse James Days in Northfield, MN. I took it down to the carnival with all the fair food and took pictures of the food stands and lights. Although it took a bit to learn how to use the manual focus, in reality the depth of field with this lens is so big when stopped down a bit. That almost all my photos were in focus, or at least sharp enough to view on a phone. I could also do some reasonable longer exposures without too much blur. The only negative was that I purchased this lens with a camera bag. The original confirmation showed that would receive both items on September 1st. BH actually shipped the two items separate and the bag showed up on the 1st while the lens didnt arrive until 6 days later.
JeffW –
Im sure its in the details, but I didnt see it. When I first put the lens on my full frame 5D Mark II, I snapped some shots and instantly thought, Oh no, it added a HUGE black border around the picture. I then grabbed my 7D nonfull frame, shot some pics, and instantly felt better. No more black border. Surprisingly SHARP pictures. We used it for a wedding this past weekend, and out of our 7 or so favorite pictures out of 1112 pictures, mind you this produced 2 of them. Very happy once I got over the regret of not being able to use it on my 5D.
ZK –
I got this lens for fun and I am having a blast with it. It is an okay lens for indoor low light situations. If you are thinking about using it for video be ready distorted edges. All manual is a bit tricky for starters and if you experiment with it, soon you will love it and get used to adjust both your camera and the iris on the lens. It is great for architecture, real state pictures. It gives it a bigger than life look. Well, you get what you paid for. Good lens for the money.
Anonymous –
This is the first fisheye lens I have ever had. I found it very interesting viewing subjects in a hole different way. Had to be careful that I didnt get my feet showing if I tipped it down slightly. I had to set my mode dial to M and my shutter and lens opening manually on my D90. Estimated the distance by eye, and then turned to right spot on lens barrel. For the price I dont think you can go wrong, and could possibly have as much fun as I am having.
Matt –
Packaging is cheezy, but the lens feels and works great so far. The focus is smooth and well dampened. And the focus confirm chip works well and was a nice surprise since I didnt see it mentioned in the description. Focusing is still tuff since you cant see any detail through the viewfinder to distinguish if you are in focus or not. So I rely on the confirm chip heavily. This is my first 3rd party lens and I was hesitant at first. But since this is a novelty lens and distortion just enhances the look, I figured I couldnt go wrong. Id buy this again and recommend it to a friend.
Anonymous –
I wanted to buy a lens to play around with and try something new basically. I made a great choice. I have the standard lens, the zoom stuff and some fast lens, but I liked the artistic approach of the wide fisheye type lenses. Canon makes some great wide lenses, but the money for those can be pricey. With the Rokinon, you dont get all the bells and whistles, but you get a solid producing lens that is manually controlled. You can get some really cool shots, interesing perspectives and with the F8 can get some truly sharp shots. I look forward to trying the video too…that is going to be fun. If you have some spare money to play with, buy this lens…it is a blast.
toxictabasco –
This is an update for my last review. This lens works with the D7100 in full manual. Although it does not have the chip for exposure, it will allow you to get exposure meter, aperture readings, ISO readings, and focus rangefinder. All on the D7100. This is not the case with D3200. Thus, no need to get the chipped version if you have a D7100. Also, it records the EXIF data to the file. On the D7100 all you do is go to NonCPU lens option, and enter in f3.5, and 8mm. The camera stores the data and applies the adjustments whenever you attach the lens. Great lens for a good price.
Mr. Youngblood –
I bought this lens just for fun when hanging out with friends, parties, and to just give a new fun perspective to my bag. nothing professional but I was honesty amazed at how well built the lens is. Right out of the box the first thing I noticed was the weight. I happen to enjoy a lens with some good weight to it I hate the newer lenses that are light metalsplastic. The only things on the lens I didnt like was the plastic pedals and the very cheap plastic lens cap. Both arent a deal breaker but still. Not only is it built very well but optically when stopped down to 5.6 and 8 it shines. I was actually surprised at how sharp this thing was. Its so simple set your aperture to 5.6 and focus to infinity and shoot away. Simple and fun The only draw back is having to reset the focus ring to the proper distance. If you just do a quick search on google you can find walk throughs on how to fix it just make sure you have a flat head screw driver that is small enough and bring some patience with you.
Adam –
For the money, this is a great lens Im using it on my Canon T3i with a crop sensor. If you have a full frame camera, dont get it. It has manual adjustments on the lens for both aperture and focus which are fairly easy to use. I tend to keep the f at 5.6, and the focus close to infinity and most pictures turn out fine. My favorite pictures Ive taken with it are 1. Indoors with a large group of people. Its nice to capture the whole group. 2. Nighttime shots with long exposure. I took some great shots recently at f 3.5, shutter speed 20 seconds, 1600 ISO. A few people stood close to the camera to give some perspective, stayed still, and the background of sky and stars was stunning.
Jarrett H. –
This lens is darn near perfect. I carry three bodies in my pack and this lens is always used on my shoots. The colors are amazing Zone focusing is easy as well and when stopped down, you can pretty much know for sure everything in is focus. With a little tweaking in post, this lens produces beautiful straight ultra wide angle shots as well as warped and twisted fisheye shots. One of my best lens choices I have ever made. the only thing I do not like about this lens is the stupid lens cap. it will not stay still, but with such a large lens, I imagine it has to be hard to cover.
John –
I usually rent the Canon 815mm fisheye but needed to buy my own, this was on sale so thought Id give it a try. I mostly use it for video filming action sports. So far it works great, footage quality is good…takes a min to get used to the aperture ring as the camera in my case 60D doesnt read it electronically. My only complaint is it has a very soft focus, it does not have sharp detail like the Canonhigher end lenses. Fortunately it doesnt show up in the video as long as your focus is close enough. Ive yet to take photos with it though, but you cant go wrong for 2as opposed to the 1k plus lenses.
Ken –
I been using the Canon 1022 with my 7D and wanted something wider. This lens fits the bill. Any wider and it would not be usable. The build quality looks to be pretty good. The only issue that I see is that its not real smooth when you mount the lens on the body. My Canon lenses glide effortlessly into place. This lens feels like it binds a little bit. Since its a manual lens, you have to focus and adjust the aperture by hand, but if you are using to shooting on manual settings, its no big deal. The image quality is really pretty good for an inexpensive lens. Obviously the depth of field is quite large, so the need to manually focus is not a big deal. It seems to be durable, but I just the lens recently and havent used it much in the field.
Architect1776 –
I use this on a 7D and get excellent results.Is very sharp across the full field of view and stopped down to f meets L lens quality. Very easy to use, meters in Program, Av and Manual modes. I generally set the lens to f8 and set hyperfocal distance and just shoot not worrying about focusing. The 4 stars are because there is no focus confirmation chip which would be nice to have. But if you want a limited use fisheye and dont want to break the bank I say you cannot beat the build and optical quality of this lens.
Dennis –
Ive been looking for a lens that would give me curvature effect of a Fish Eye for my Canon 7D MKII camera. This lens passed the test without a problem, and I got it on sale same tons of money Ive only taken a few pictures and getting use to using the lens in different situations. So, far Ill pleasantly please with the results. It youre looking for a Fish Eye lens for a APSC Sensor camera, this is your baby Its well constructed and comes with remove lens hood. I highly recommend it Dennis
Greg –
Sharp as a tack. Too much fun. Have used in on both my D500 and D850. Fills the sensor on the 500, but not the full frame 850. Cant use the supplied lens shade on the full frame camera. A steal for the .
Retouch.ca –
Bought this lens on sale so I cant really complain. Things I like about it Cool effect, solid, seems well made. My understanding is that this lens is made by Samyang and branded under many names so they are all basically the same. Didnt think Id like the manual focus, but I actually dont mind it. Set it and forget Very useful in darker situations as autofocus could struggle in low light. Expect to use a tripod in darker situations, just not fast enough and with the lens wide open not all that sharp. I use it with a Canon T2i Things I dont like. I think the focus ring could be off. Setting to 1.5 metres looks sharper than infinity. 1.2 ft looks shaper at 1 ft than the 1ft setting. I think the best setting for this lens is f8 1.5m You can leave it an forget. Anything closer than arms length will have to adjust. Some slight chromatic aberration. My Canon 1022 is a better performer, but for the price this lens is worth it. Fun to play with.
Masroor –
BH Photos shopping was a great experienceWhat a great lens. Yes a manual one, but not difficult to master or use.Focus on 5 feet and open at f8 and that is it. Get great photos. An aperture of f811 should do it. Use f16 if the light is great. f5.6 should be tried as well. Lower f values may give a soft focus that may be helpful for portraits.Very well made. Feels solid.I got it about a week ago, but I have already taken 8 photos and 7 are super good. The first one was a user error.Good focus. WIDE angle of view about 170 degrees.I got this lens for my self to take fun photos, but I will use it for much more.It cant be beat for a photo in a confined space. Yes, it is a fisheye lens and hence the object distortion. But I knew that. I took indoor photos that I was unable to take with my Canon 1022 mm lens.I am glad I bought this lens and not the Canon one that sells for .I would suggest this lens for anyone who is looking for a fisheye lens.
Douglas W. –
Ive shot video using fisheye adapters with cameras like the Panasonic DVXHVX cameras, but never with a dedicated fisheye lens. I was nervous for many reasons Will I use this lens for photography and video enough to make it worth it Should I drop the extra cash for a nicer lens Is 8mm too wide Is 8mm wide enough I finally pulled the trigger and bought this lens. WOW I immediately fell in love I chased my cats around the house, got really close to some drooling babies, and even went crazy at a party in the middle of a game of Catch Phrase Great glass, really comfortable focus and aperture rings, and the barrel distortion is perfect I think Ill have trouble convincing myself to ever put another lens on my camera Hahahaha I LOVE THIS LENS
TJ S. –
I loved it because it is designed to give you a full power of a fisheye i.e. 180 degrees on a cropped sensor. I use Canon EOS 7D. Make sure though you check it out carefully and if you really need it because this lens has no Autofocus function. Well, maybe its not that important in such class of lenses, but just to tell. Might be important for some people out there. It is a great lens to take one shots of some place go ahead if you have creative venture of course. Recently though, Ive been trying to fit it into my panoramamaking workflow, but despite its greatness in the field of view, which lessens the number of required shots drastically from 41 shots to merely 23 shots with this lens, yet it might prove a problem depending on the VRhead you are using. Parts of the tripod and the VRhead might be pronounced more often. The scales on the lens make it easy to achieve a hyperfocal settings if you are going to work with one. However, because it is completely manual, you might have to compose with the aperture opened wide at f3.5 and then fix with the appropriate aperture you need and the focal depth you require increasing the fnumber will give you a dark scene. Because of this you might, just might, face problems with metering within the camera. Metering works, but at times you might want to meter using a high fnumber to give a rough estimation for the shutter speed requirements. Sharpness to me seems OK, but again problems with the field depth might occur in case you work with panoramas. Trials and errors still in progress as Im writing this. The weight is light. I dont think you need muscles to carry it on. The cap, however, is light and its easy to lose. Its better to always keep it in the pouch that comes with it. The lens, unlike the Canon 15mm fisheye, does not have a filter slot at the back. I dont know if you can fix one to it, but it seems flat to me and nothing can be fit at the back for any type of gel filters.
Anonymous –
Takes fantastic pictures. The most interesting pictures were made when I took to a mall. It could actually reveal the intention of the architect. Our eyes only can see a portion of the interior, but it was able to capture a big picture of the vision of the architect. In my knowledge, it provides the best projection among any fish eye lens regardless prices. Simply amazing lens By the way, initially, I thought that it would difficult to use because it is a manual lens. It was not the case. Due to the short focal length, and being a fisheye lens, it virtually not require a focusing. It also sees the whole scene. Thus, metering is not as picky as nonfisheye regular lenses such as a telephoto lens. For an interior picture of a big building, such as a mall, it does not require to change any setting. For outdoor scene, the exposure seeting should be set by a human not by a machine. There is no camera that can take the entire range of the light conditions. This is the reason why Ansel Adams invented Zone system, in my humble opinion. In short, IMHO, it is the best fisheye lens at any price for APSC size sensor DSRLs.
Rob –
It really is the best value fisheye, especially for people not looking to spend a ton on a nikkor. The thing that is interesting about this lens is that it is a manual focus up to 1 meter but Im not entirely sure howif it works. That said, its almost as if everything is in focus. When testing different focus settings at the same distance it did appear in the product of the picture that there might have been some difference, but it was impossible to tell through the viewfinder. I mean this really doesnt matter to me, but just a curious observation. All in all a wonderful lens.
Jane C. –
Fun so far. Even in low light. Tried it on some Christmas decorations. Seemed fine. Bought it as an extra lens for experimentation. Good for certain circumstances. Build is great. Saw lots of online info as to settings. I used f8 at Infinity and all seemed to be in focus.
gibbs1125 –
I must admit to being a bit skeptical about this lens at first. After reading a few online reviews and seeing some image samples, I took the plunge. I am so glad I did. The build quality is exceptional. It feels solid and tight in your hands. Camera fit is perfect, and lack of autofocus is not noticeable at all. Just set it to f8 and shoot away. I shoot mainly manual exposure, so lack of auto exposure is not an issue. Just stop it down, adjust the shutter speed or iso and shoot away. A great value for the person who needs an ultrawide lens occasionally.
Sterling –
As with all RokinonSamyang lenses, it depends on how good your copy is. Unfortunately the copy I received was bad. It could not focus to infinity. I even did some tests where I started at 1 ft. on the focus ring and gradually increased the focus distance on the scale. I then compared all the images to see if any of them were focused at infinity. They were not. The closest was actually rotated to the infinity stop. It appeared that the actual infinity would be past the stop.I returned the lens. As always, check the lens thoroughly.
Paul –
Works great with my Z50 and FTZ adapter. I love the manual vintage style. Im getting some amazing pictures of the monsoons in Phoenix. Ill admit that I was a snob for Nikon lenses, and I still am really. But I bought this lens based on the reviews and Im so glad I did. Im a big fan of Rokinon and Samyang now same company. I will be looking at more lenses from them soon.
Trilby Man –
This is an outstanding lens for its price. Please understand that it IS a highdistortion fisheye lens that introduces curvature into each image. I use it on my APSC Nikon 7000 and Nikon 5100 as a supplemental lens on all assignments and landscapes. It is as sharp as expected, mates well with the cameras, does not require manual overrides for most photos, and is fun. The key word is supplemental. Always have your normal lenses, but learn how to use this and you will literally broaden your vistas. I am thankful that I can have a real, quality, useful specialized lens for just a little more than the silly cheap plastic toys that create fuzzed photos. This is an expansion of your skills, not allowing you to hide behind intended bad focus. smile
Adrian photo enthuasist –
Its lovely going back to everything being manual, from exposure, to focus. Every since the Nikon 10.5 was out.. I have been tempted to get an FE lens, however the compressed edges of the Nikon version wasnt really pleasing, as well as the price. For an occasional lens used for landscapes and street shooting, the price too was not very compelling. In comes the RokinonSamyang 8mm. Very nice and fine details, awfully sharp and the edges are well balanced across the image. A problem that I would expect with any FE, would be its nearly impossible to manual focus. Other than this minor set back, this is one of the best lenses I have used in the WA range.
John –
Stepping up to full frame camera sensor has ment I have gone out looking for replacements for some of my most used gear. I own an older Sigma 8mm fisheye used on APSC Nikon bodies for QT virtual tours and 360 panoramas. The larger image circle of the Rokinon gives a similar image on a Full Frame camera compared to the Sigma on the crop sensor. It is clearly sharper away from the center and has less CA, compared to the Sigma, and its distortion seems to be a bit different. It does however have a larger blue circle at the edge of the image circle. The Rokinon doesnt have DOF scales like the Sigma, Nor does it have the Autofocus or built quite as well.
Luis –
This is a great lens for creative photos Yes, you will need to learn to use this lens and its applications within a certain situation. It is not a walkaround lens. I like it very much. Note This is a manual focus lens. Nothing wrong with that but if you are a beginner you may need to get used it that. I use it with a Canon T2i and a T3 it will work with any EOS camera, no matter if APSC, APSH or Full Frame sensor. Flash photography with this lens Your onboard flash will not be able to handle the ultrawide range of the lens and the hood will interrupt part of the flashs light coverage.
nick –
I used this with my Canon T3i for both film and pictures including astrophotography. This lens gives a near 180 degree viewing angle and gives a fisheye appearance. Positives Great price considering the alternatives. Beautiful fisheye images. Given the lens wide angle nature, its perfect for long exposures such as with astrophotography. Cons At f3.5 will only focus on near images. Not an automatic focusing lens. Over all I would recommend this lens to anyone looking for an semiinexpensive solution for a wide angle fisheye lens.
Graham –
I bought this lens because it is a fairly cheap fisheye lens. Im not afraid to put in in harms way when a bmx comes flying over top of it or have the tires come inches away from the lens. However, if youre using for action sports. Be sure to make sure you have enough light. At f3.5 the lens is so soft, its not usuable. Put it to f5.6 and its better but not great. Being use to the sigma art lenses, this lens is incredibly soft compared to what Im use to. Also, not having a removable lens hood kind of sucks because when using this with a full frame camera. Its not a perfect circle because the lens hood is taking up most of the shot. However, like i said before, you get what you pay for with this.
Tim –
Before I got this lens, I read a lot of reviews, watched videos, and for the price point at the time I purchased, which was 199, I went for it. The fisheye lens is the only lens that you can really get close up on a subject, especially in portrait mode, and capture the odd look, which I have always loved, like a tree or tall floor lamp, it just gives you a totally different perspective. I really would love to have the Canon EF 815mm F2.8L lens but at 1249 thats hard to justify the purchase for a hobby. I love photography and getting different perspectives with different types of lens. I had high hopes for this lens but to be honest it was disappointing. The images just didnt give the sharpness that I was looking for and no matter how close or far away I was from the subject, the manual focus just didnt focus. Why have manual focus if it doesnt work I tried different aperture settings, but no matter the image results always looked the same, soft. I set the focus ring to 1 for 1 foot away, and I would be 1 foot away from what I was taking a picture of and the image was always soft, not sharp likes I was hoping. I would change the focus ring to infinity and at 1 foot away the image was no different. The focus ring did nothing to make the image more sharp and clear whether in Liveview or Optical View on a Canon 90D. Tried as many settings I could to get the image to look sharp but it was a worthless effort. Tried Auto, Program, Manual, Aperture Priority, trying all the aperture settings on the lens, and the only noticeable changes were with the lens aperture set at F5.6 or F8 but the images still werent sharp. Even with the ISO set at 100 and taking what I thought to be a perfect shot, plenty of light, but when I would looked at the images and zoom in there was a lot of graininess showing and just no sharpness to the pictures, overall just a soft appearance. Perhaps I got a bad lens or maybe there is just a different build quality with Rokinon than Samyang even though technically they are the same lens made by the same company. The build quality seems fine, the lens hood moves too easily and doesnt lock on or at least mine didnt, it just had too much looseness. If the manual focus had worked I would have kept the lens but I sent it back to BH for a refund and they have always been great to do business with. For the cost of this lens, its a hit or miss. You might get a good one that works and then one that doesnt, which was my case. I didnt want to take a chance to try another Rokinon 8mm Fisheye lens and then have the same results, and of course, wasting time. If lack of focus and having a soft image is okay with you, then you would be okay with this lens. I like pictures that pop, are sharp, and I know that the edges or corners of a picture taken with a fisheye lens will likely be soft and of course with this lens there was the green and purple fringing showing. Most of that can be fixed in Lightroom but to get that sharpness of an image it first has to be focused correctly. You can make a sharp image soft but its impossible to get a soft image to look sharp without adding pixelation. So, I will continue my search to find a fisheye lens that produces very good image quality and still be reasonably priced. I only posted this review to share what I experienced. Your experience may be much different with a positive outcome but mine however, was not a good experience. If I ever win that 1000 gift card from BH, then I believe I will buy that Canon EF 815mm f4L Fisheye USM Lens because then I would only have to kick in the other 245 and now thats reasonable
Bert –
The Rokinon 8mm lens is pretty decent for the price. It doesnt have that pro feel made mostly of plastic. It fills the frame on an APSC camera, but produces a circular image on a fullframe camera. On a Nikon fullframe camera, it works well when the camera is set to shoot in DX format, otherwise significant cropping is necessary. I found significant purple fringing in the extreme corners, but its easily cropped. Manual focus isnt an issue just focus at 1.5 feet and shoot at f8 depth of field will be about 1 foot to infinity. For the money, its an excellent lens for the limited times youll be using it.
DUMHEAD –
What can I say, it works. Using with Sony a6000 for property documentation property inventory. Also, because of current atmospheric conditions, was able to document severity of wild fire smoke in the Spokane Metropolitan Area in vivid detail. Both before after views. For all Sony E Mount cameras you must remember to use the no lens setting for the lens to be accepted by the camera.The model lens rcvd was more bulky than the pic in the ad, however in our use not a negative. The manual focus manual aperture works well with the auto camera settings produced excellent digital pics that permitted large scale prints. Macro pics were surprisingly close sharp. In our application, an excellent lens for the price.The only disappointment, it doesnt have a cord to plug in for brewing coffee. . . .
Anonymous –
This lens is fun, wellmade and makes great photos. Ive used it for a couple of weeks on my Canon 70D and absoultely LOVE it. Granted, its a niche lens that could be overused… For anyone who is worried about not having autofocus or automatic aperture, do not let these shortcomings stop you from buying this lens. Because of its VERY wide focal length, almost everything you shoot will be set to infinity. And setting the cameras exposure to Manual will let you see the light meter so youll know how wide to open the aperture. The construction is good and it feels very solid without being heavy. The mount is metal aluminum, not plastic. Also, it appears that the exact same lens is sold under multiple brand names made by Samyang, sold as Samyang, Rokinon, Bower, and others. I noticed that the Samyang version of this lens was priced a bit higher than the Rokinon. But from what I can tell theyre identical. For anyone who is considering buying their first fisyeye lens you cant go wrong with this lens. Its affordable, makes great pictures, and loads of fun. I wish I had this with me on a recent trip to Walt Disney World. I missed so many opportunities for using it
MICHAEL –
I love the look of this lens on an APSC Camera. I purchased the 12mm version for my fullframe camera.Unbeatable at this price point.
Joshua –
I got this lens as my first fisheye. For the price, all I can say is WOW. Its a great lens. Yes you have to use Manual focus and manual aperture, but it takes great pictures. I dont think I will have to buy a more expensive lens, this one does the job just fine.
kevlar35 –
Im using this Fisheye with a Canon 550D and so far Ive been very impressed. Its a very robust build with good quality optics and gives a full frame image without any vignetting. Its particularly good for architectural and landscape work and produces some spectacular effects with the superwide field of view and the signature distortions common to fisheye lenses. There are a couple of downsides though, the lense isnt superfast and fully open at f3.5, in subdued lighting, the depth of field isnt great. However if there is sufficient light to stop the lense down daylit exteriors are perfect then the results are sharp and precise and the DOF is almost set and forget. The lense has no auto settings so everything is manual. More than that the live view on the camera is only of limited use given the way that the lense works, so its only good as a guide. Overall I love it. For this kind of money you wont get better.
hoof –
Different fisheyes have different projections how objects look at different parts of the image. This one has a proportional projection, which means that near the edgescorners, objects dont look squished like most fisheyes or stretched like rectilinear lenses. You need to stop down to F7 or so for optimal sharpness across the field. Mine came with a miscalibrated focus ring the lens was focused at infinite when it read 0.7 meters. Fortunately it was easy to fix look on the internet for repair instructions. Fisheyes tend to not get used much, so having one this cheap is really nice. As it turns out this is optically one of the best fisheyes out there. Manual focusing is fine, because the depth of field is so huge, if you have a calibrated focus ring. Good lens, IMO.
Zane –
I just unboxed my Rokinon 8mm Fisheye lens for my Canon 7D. Upon testing it I found that it is very difficult to focus because 1. It has no focus notification feature e.g. usually when manually focusing you at least get a visualaudio notification when you acquire focus. I did not read any review sharing this bit of information. When I called Rokinon he asked what type of lens I had and when I told him it was for a Canon 7D he informed me that this lens does not have this feature. Apparently the Nikon version does and 2. Viewing edges through the viewfinder of a fisheye lens to determine if you have acquired focus is nearly impossible. If you are going to acquire focus it is going to require you to practice a bit and maybe a meter stick. I am going to play with it now to decide to keep it or not. If you do acquire focus the image is decent. There is no way I am spending more than for a lens I will use only occasionally.One last note Will not work with built in camera flash due to the hood. It leaves a big shadow.
JimG Exposure –
I love this lens. i have been trying it in several different settings. i completly expected it to be full manual focus f. the one thing that i did not expect however is the lack of visual help the view finder would give when trying to focus. when looking through the VF, it honestly looks on focus all the time. there is very little difference when turning the focus ring. i ended up taking several shot using my tripod and then uploading the photos on my computer to see the difference. it worked well for me. Its always fun to learn how to use a product
imagesmith –
and this fits the bill. Ive also got the 1022 and this gives a wider, and sometimes unusual viewpoint. With man made subjects, there is usually a lot of curvature, but for landscape, it is not as significant, especially if you keep the horizon level. Focus is not a problem it has such immense depth of field. There is a bit of a learning curve setting the aperture manually on the lens, but it still meters properly.
Nikonuser –
This is review is for Rokinon 8mm3.5 Nikon mount with buildin AE chip. It is a sharp lens after f5.6 although edges are little softer than the center. I set the lens between 1 to 1.5 meter and fstop f5.6 to f8 and get everywhere in focus. I set the aperture ring on Nikon D7100 and D80 to f22 and the cameras could be used in A or P mode and I get perfect exposure in both cameras. Chromatic aberrations are less than Tokina 11162.8 I also own which can be corrected by software. I didnt give 5 stars because the first copy was decentered and left side was slightly out focus.
James P T. –
Like the rest of todays photographers, Im getting spoiled, autofocus, image stabilization, put the lens on the camera all we have to do is adjust the composition The camera lens does everything else PHEW This is a well built lens, it has no autofocus or image stabilization I had to think about when I first got into taking pic tures My first couple of photos where not that good, once again were spoiled, now we have the luxury of reviewing the image on the back of the camera, no more wasted film. I like doing sunsets, I set the camera on manual the lens on infinity, used the appropriate shutter speed aperture. If you hold the camera perfectly level, you get a great panoramic shot. Most of the time I use a beanbag to rest the camera on and use the 10 second selftimer on the camera. I try to use a fence post or wall, my beanbag is large has 5lbs of ricenot beansin it, it makes it easier to position the camera make a nice rigid mount. I shoot with a Canon 60D that I purchased from B H Photo. I havnt tried doing automobiles yet. I also own Canon Fisheye 15mm f2.8, someday when I get a Canon fullframe camera itll be back on my camera I used Canon T90 film camera with the F.E. on it backintheday for shooting cars. Im in my 70s still learning new techniques. Life is great
Jorjoa –
This is the first fisheye lens I own, and the second one Ive used first one is the sigma 10mm f2.8 fisheye. And I must say this Rokinon HD version performs really good in overall conditions for an accesible price compared to other options. So far, I,ve used it for indooroutdoornight photography withwithout external flash, some family portrait, group portrait and some landscape by day, and I love the projected perspective compared to other lenses notsosquished edges like the others, the almost infinite DOF, the removable hood tried the lens on an F2 film camera without hood and its almost a complete circular fisheye, the sturdy feeling of the focusaperture ring and lens itself, the lens weight and the pictures that creates. Concerning the optics it is acceptably sharp and ghosts and flares are low. However, the reason I gave this item 4 stars is because of the very stiff mounting, the persistent chromatic aberration at all apertures not so strong but still there, and because of the slight, soft focus effect or loss of contrast when stopped from f3.5 to f5.6, no matter the focus distance while this is inconvenient in many situations, it can be interesting to use artistically. If you want a fisheye lens for fun or for professional work but dont want to spend lots of money, this is a perfect choice or the other variations from the same company that makes them even if used sparingly, being a special purpose lens, youll not regret buying it.
Derek –
Used with Blackmagic pocket cinema camera 4K this lens works very well. the fisheye effect is nice and fills the frame shooting 4K 4096×2160. Image is sharp to the edges, and focus is very forgiving. If you have the lens hood installed you will see it on the edges of the frame, but it is easily removed while shooting.
Bev –
I love using this lens Its lightweight and inexpensive. I use F8 and put on infinity…I DO NOT FOCUS this lens and images are super sharp Distortion can be interestly controlled. I have recommended this lens to a few folks and they also enjoy using it. I especially enjoy using it indoors, in small rooms, for architecture interesting compositions, for autos, motorcycles, etc. I use it on a Nikon D7000.
Kenneth –
After viewing all the reviews on You Tube I had to purchase this specialty lens. I mounted it on my camera and I havent been able to remove it yet, it is just so much Fun.
Anonymous –
What I really like about this lens is that it actually fits the camera. What Ive found with a lot of these non brand fisheye lenses is that they do not offer the full picture. Others that I tried would have black corners in the image for the inside of the lens. With photos that is easy to crop but with video that bugged the hell out of me. But with the rokinon this was not a problem it fit my Nikon D7100 great. Also an added bonus is that the yellow ring matches nikons colors
Norman –
I use it on all my Blackmagic Cinema Cameras. Perfect for my specific use. I mount this lens on my Metabones Speedbooster EF to M43 Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, with great results. I also use it with the 2.5K Cinema Camera and the 4K Production Camera. It is not quite the same as the Cine lenses from Rokinon, where the fstops have been declicked, but it is a nice sharp very wide lens. It also works nicely on my 60D and without the lens hood you can use it on a full frame 5DIII. Keep in mind this is a specialty lens that you would use to capture a scene artistically. It is a manual lens. No autofocus, no auto aperture. I am fine with that. If you need auto, this is not your lens. But it does a great job doing what it does. If you need the very highest quality and want to spend in the thousands, you will get better results. For the rest of us, including higher end pros, this lens will not disappoint.
Dave –
To start off I use a Nikon d7100, and shoot completely manual at all times. This lens is preferably NOT for fullsize image sensors to keep in mind. So a lot of the complaints I read about this lens was about how it doesnt respond to their camera electronically, or it lacks an auto focus. With the D7100, the light meter system does work and the aperture indicators do show up on the viewfinder, but it is a fully manual lens. Thus meaning you have to take your hand and manually move the inner ring to adjust. It is a shame people lack andor dont like how simple and old school this is. The quality of the build is where it needs to be. Its sturdy, the focus and aperture rings are very smooth and have the right amount of drag, and the glass is flawless. The lens cover is a little on the cheap side and doesnt take much to knock off, but who buys a lens for the cover Images are brilliant with the Rokinon I only use RAW format. It holds a great tonal range and does very well with highlights in the upper end I tend to over expose and back down postcapture for better tones.Dont expect to use this lens in low light conditions with out a tripod or flash. But if you want to capture some vast skys and landscape this is for you, especially long exposuresI am overall very pleased that I purchased this lens compared to some of the steepers prices out there these days.
Anonymous –
Great lens for the price. If you know the various personality issues of a fish eye lens distortion, etc and accept that this is manual focus and aperture adjustment, then you should love this lens. It is very solid and well made. The base ring that mates to your camera body is metal, not plastic, the barrel is metal, not plastic, the focus ring is buttersmooth, and the aperture and distance markings on the barrel are clear and legible. The color saturation in images with this lens is excellent and rivals that of my Canon L series glass. The wide aperture of this lens means shooting indoors is not a problem. For the price, this is a very wellconstructed lens, that produces excellent images. I have been using it for over a month and have run about 400 images through it and am impressed with the results. If you want a fish eye lens, this one is true value for money.
Stomminator –
Ive only taken about 50 or so shots with this so far, but Im lovin it. This is the first fisheye lens Ive owned and the field of view and fisheye distortion really opens up new possibilities for creative photos. The focus and aperture are manualonly, which isnt a big deal since focus isnt usually critical at this focal length, but I wish it would at least communicate the aperture value to the camera so I could see what aperture I shot at when importing the photos. The lens also seems slightly soft at f3.5 but is sharp once stopped down to f5.6. There are, of course, some chromatic aberrations in the images, but Photoshops automatic reduction in the RAW importer nearly eliminated them. I also took some shots toward the sun and flare didnt seem to be a problem. Overall, my first impression is that, at on sale, this lens is a fantastic value and unlike any other lens that I own. Recommended.
Peter –
In skate videography our equipment takes a MASSIVE beating. Although this lens doesnt necessarily last through all of them at least its inexpensive to replace. Would highly recommend for anyone but professionals
Shine Sudhakaran –
I did a lot of reseach before purchasing this lens. Infact i was in search of a ultra wide angle lens. Because of the heavy price tag for premimum lens manufacturers i started thinking of cheap alternative. Then i started digging defishing techniques. If we use good defishing plugins we can use this as a normal ultra wide angle lens. The only confustion i had was about the manual focus. I found some reviews stating that even for the brand new lens we need to caliberate the lens. Finally when it reached my hands i realised that manual focus is nothing so hard for such ultrawide lens. This lens is razor sharp. This lens is a must buy for all landscape photographers. I love the fisheye perspective very much though my primary intention was an ultra wide lens. I started experimenting with lens.
Robert –
As I own a Sigma Quattro H, this lens is modified to a Sigma SA mount.I photograph Landscape in Panoramic Format or 219 Aspect Radio in DC Mode with the Sigma Quattro H. The results are excellent, great contrast sharpness at either F8 or F11, manual focus isnt an issue, I just set the lens at Infinity the images are in focus. I highly recommend this quality lens, the low price is a bonus.
Carl –
Ultra wide angle results for when you need or want a different, sharp view of a vast subject or a subject confined to a small space. There is no focusing required, since it is so wide. Just set on infinity and shoot. The auto exposure for Nikon works perfectly and does the figuring for you. If you need an ultra wide, this is as good as anything out there.
inataku –
Theres no better Fisheye for the price for Pentax DSLR users. Excellent built quality and well damped smooth focusing ring. But most of all for Pentax users this lens has the A setting where it works in Program, Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority modes. It is a manual focus lens but with such ultra wide angle of view you just set the aperture to f8.0 and the lens at 1 meter everything will be in sharp focus. Definitely recommend and must have lens for capturing the world around you in a different but creative perspective.
Steve –
I purchased this lens to use inside houses for real estate web ads. After I figured out how to handle lens shadow with modified diffusion sheet newbie with fisheye lens, and became familiar with the manual focus took a number of shots and experimentation but ended up with it simply set on most of the time. This lens did exactly what I wanted and, after dealing with distortion in Lightroom, I am satisfied with the results on two shoots so far, and of course, quite pleased with the price.
blund193 –
I bought this Rokinon 8mm for my Nikon D90, because I was looking for a cheap fisheye that I could have some fun with. It turned out to be an exelent fisheye that gives more than you pay for. I dont regret that I bought this lens at all What I like most with this lens is the super wide angle Its very fun to have this lens, even if Im in the nature, or just taking funny party pictures. Ive been uploading a lot of pictures of partys to my Facebookprofile, and people seems to love the pictures because of the fisheyeeffect. This have become my ultimate partylens What I dont like about this lens, is actually nothing at all. I mean, at this price I was surprised over the quality and application this lens have. Bottom line is This is a lens that everyone should have in their camerabag. Its easy to use, and Im sure that everyone who loves to take pictures, will love this lens too. Im also sure that if I ever loose or break this lens, I will buy a new one the same day
Frederick –
There are a lot of versions of this lens, and for some unknown reason, the sellers dont adequately describe this lens. This version has the Nikon AE chip, which means that in shutter priority it will automatically adjust the aperture. I find this a very valuable feature. Of course it is still manual focus, but the range finder on the camera still assist in getting proper focus. For the price they are asking, this lens is a steal.
Charles R –
Ive been using this lens for a couple of weeks now. Its not for the faint of heart but if you like to experiment and understand the ramifications of using a fisheye lens, this is an inexpensive route to go.The images my lens produces are very acceptable, especially if the lens is stopped down 23 stops. Depth of field makes spoton focusing tricky but thats the nature of this lens.All in all, I really like what this lens can do especially at the price.
kyungheelee –
Ive studied Photojournalism at University and been working in the field for around 18 months doing ongoing nightclub shoots, magazine shoots, motion photography, and some film. Ive got a few L series lenses, but this is now my favourite indoor lense for film and tight group shots. While the lens operates entirely from manual settings i.e., no AF, manual aperture setting on the lens only, the quality of the film captured is comparable to L series lenses. This lens is highly suited to almost any amateur endeavour especially filming in natural light outdoors on an aperture between 11 to 22. My only concern with this lens is that it is difficult to determine the specific focal point and therefore, when printing A4 or larger, the image may not be as sharp as intended. There is also some very mild, but noticable, image distortion that emerges on the very edges of the frame when printing on A3 and will intensify exponentially on larger prints. I would recommend amateurs who need to film or photograph in confined spaces purchase this lens as it is a great lens for the price.
robgendreau –
I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about getting a fisheye. Id always thought it was one of those onetrick ponies. But maybe that shows my age. I was rather wrong to dismiss this and Im glad I took a chance on it. So, why use it Obviously its great for super wide angle shots. Not only that, but this lens seems to have a very nice and consistent stereographic projection look it up, and compare to rectilinear straight lines preserved or classic fisheye area preserved. In short, angles tend to be more natural, and it has less fishiness than some. You get tremendous depth of field, and depending on the subject the distortion isnt all that noticeable. These days with software its also possible to correct a lot of the distortion after the fact. Obviously not as good as getting it right in the camera, but sometimes thats impossible without spending a LOT more on something like a tiltshift lens, etc. Finally, the fishy effect isnt seen as so odd these days. I chalk that up to action cams, which use super wide angles bordering on fisheyes. So for action shots this doesnt look that strange anymore even without correction. And when used for video it has some of the same benefits such a lens affords in action cams. It opens things up to some other interesting compositional possibilities. Like shooting into the sun since the field of the sky is so huge the sun occupies a very small part of it, hence can become part of the composition even without lots of filtering or bracketing. And the sky colors can be very interesting as well. Not to mention night shots of say the milky way. I use this on Pentax, and it works great. Rather heavy, but par for the course for wide angles. Easy to focus since its like everything from 5 to infinity is in focus in most all light anyway. No aberrations, smooth focusing action. And quite sharp. Infinity was maybe a tad off, but it doesnt matter much.
Moxie –
As a longtime Leica M user now Canon and L lenses, I was fully prepared to write this small investment off as a bad idea. I have used the lens on two occasions now in a variety of shooting situations. I must report that I am thrilled with the quality of the photos I have taken. The depth of field is impressive. It seems that at f8, 11, 16, the sharpness is excellent. Even shooting into the sun the small amount of lens flare is acceptable. I have wanted a fisheye for a long time and this little gem is perfect very good quality and excellent value. I am very pleased with this purchase. Even the BH service over Christmas and New Year was faster than I thought would be reasonable. Using a fisheye it is best to also include a close foreground object.
zacg66 –
I love my Rokinon 8mm lens. It is so great for all of my films. FYI I am a young fimlaker based in Northern California. I love to make films and this 8mm was the perfect lens to add to my arsenal. I truly have never seen an image wider than what is produced by this lens. I love the lens so much and It just is amazing. The 8mm Rokinon 13.5 will truly take my filmaking level to 100 and improve my films 10 FOLD. I LOVE IT SO MUCH, ITs crazy. And it is about half priced a new one. GREAT PRICE, GREAT PRODUCT. IF YOUR A FILMAKER, YOU NEED TO HAVE THIS AWESOME, I AM SO GRATEFUL, REALLY, THANKYOU.
uppermidwest –
Phenomenal optics on this lens at least as good as any of my Canon Lenses under 1000. Yes, it is fully manual and does not communicate with my Canon T2i. But that actually has made me a much better photographer. I am much more aware of the relationships between Fstop, shutter speed, and focal length. It is becoming very intuitive to me to know what manual parameters to use not only with this lens or any of my lens. Hence, I have taken a huge step as a photographer Unplugging myself from automatic and going Manual. You can not imagine the number of places you will use this lens until you use it. Landscapes, tight places where you can not back up any further, unique perspectives in any picture. The only knock I can make on this lens is the cheap lens cap otherwise build quality is just incredible for any lens 23 times the price.
narranderacaravanpark –
Wasnt sure when before buying this lens, but now very pleased with performance for dollars if you need to capture big areas quickly, this lens is great. Awesome angle of capture 180 degree view is extremely handy for photographing indoors such as when doing building inspections for capturing general area. Landscapes become simple as once you focus this lens, its depth of field is so big, you nearly never need to refocus. Items closer than 10m from you, the fish eye effect gets them severely bent. Good if you want this effect but still great for panoramic landscape pictures without globing the world. Heavy for size 410g, as has lots of glass, but physically compact really intended for APSC format. Physically smaller than my 1835mm fullframe lens, but about 100g heavier. Hood is not removable, care needed not to mark the front lens glass as cant use filters. Tail cap, special lens cap and soft bag included. Soft bag handy, but probably good to have a tougher case if you carry your lenses with you. Tail and lens caps feel cheap, but lens itself moves quite nicely and seems good quality. Pentax version of this lens only needs to have the focal depth defined on powerup select once, remembers setting, hit shutter to accept and leaving the lens aperture setting in A auto and the camera in Green automatic everything seems to work fine I havent found a need to adjust anything. Massive capture angle and depth of field, with a degree of auto setting on Pentax K7 very difficult to miss a shot. Colour seems good, though easy to get minor sun flare, which seems extremely well controlled compared to my 1835mm lens. A Zoom would be handy, but that would just compromise performance. Less weight would be good for portability, but isnt horribly heavy. This superwide angle fish eye lens is great for capturing a big area to show relation of things, very good price for what you get and a performance Im definitely happy with. Id buy this lens again.
Nikki –
I have rented this lens twice from a local camera shop. It takes great images on my Nikon D5100. As most people have noted, it must be used in Manual exposure mode, but its really no problem. I normally shoot on f8 and set the distance at 1 to infinity. A few test shots to adjust shutter speed for the available light and you are good to go. I will eventually buy this lens, but am going to get the one with the AE chip so I can meter and use autofocus. It is not that much more expensive and is important for me to have longterm. If you want to have fun with a fisheye lens, and dont have a lot of money to spend, I think this lens is a great investment.
va2mom –
Bought this for a vacation and use it more than I ever thought I would. Nice quality, works beautifully as a wide angle fisheye lens.
tpm067 –
First of all, shipped Purolator and came well packaged. Used for a couple weeks now and am loving the lens. Checked many reviews on the internet of this lens as well as Ken Rockwells. Everyone says its the best crop frame fisheye for the money. I have to agree so far. Im very happy and hope to keep getting great shots in the future from this lens
mrkarica113619 –
I originally wanted to get a wide angle along the lines of 10mm but it was just too costly. The alternative was to settle for this 8mm fisheye lens and correct the distortion for a similar effect. Im pleased to say that once this lens arrived, I found myself liking the fisheye effect as well as use for wide angle. The construction of the lens feels very solid. It feels like a high quality lens and has a good balance with my Canon 500D. There is nothing to say about what I dislike about the lens. Afterall, youre buying this for 13 of what Nikon or Canon lens are asking for theirs This lens is full manual, which means there are no autofocus, autoexposure, or stabilization. But that does not mean a novice cant use this lens. It is very easy to get used to after a few uses. Believe me, youll have a harder time not focusing instead of focusing. Its that easy. The front element obviously sticks out and is prone to touching. Also it does not have thread of any sort to be able to attach some kind of filter. Compared to cheap screwon lenses, the glass on this 8mm fisheye is very resilient from scratches than the cheapo screwons. I know this because I used a cleaning cloth on a screwon lens and I saw little scratches. But after using a cleaning cloth to wipe an greasy finger print off this 8mm fisheye, the glass stayed scratch free. You certainly cannot beat this lens for what it offers for the price. And Adorama has done a great job in delivering this lens to me safely and swiftly. I could not compare this lens to anything else because its just too good. Low price and high quality. Id definitely recommend this to a friend.