An 8mm fisheye lens is made for this location - U4 Überseequartier Hamburg
My conclusion:
Positive:
+ It's sharp at f2.8 and gets better up to f5.6 (especially corners)
+ It produces good color and contrast
+ It's solid build and small
+ Chromatic aberrations and flare are very controllable for a fisheye lens
+ Very reasonable price for what you get
Neutral:
o The aperture and focus ring are a bit stiff
o The lens is quite heavy for its size
o The amount of Vignetting appears to be normal for a fisheye lens
o Aperture is changed in 1/2 f-stops instead of 1/3 f-stops
Negative:
- There are no depth of field markings on the lens! Why not???
- No lens information (lens type, f-stop) is passed on to the camera (custom set it to 8mm in camera!)
- Attached to the X-Pro 1 the lens is very short and it is hard to hold (support) the lens without capturing part of your fingers in the corner of the frame.
- The minimum focus distance starts at 0.3m (1ft). At that distance a 8mm lens closeup shots doesn't look very close at all and it can't produce this special funny perspective that is unique to some UWA lenses.
At first I was a bit sceptical about buying a "new" third party lens
for my Fuji X-Pro 1. But the fairly low price, lack of a Fuji equivalent focal length and the fact that this is
not an every day lens made the risk of ordering it a bit more manageable.
After a week of intensive testing I am nothing short of impressed with the value that this lens offers and if you have been wanting a fisheye lens for your Fuji X-Mount camera, the Samyang 8mm f2.8 is certainly worth a closer look.
If you have any further questions leave a comment below or Twitter me @HamburgCam
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