p.1 #1 · OT: don't read or you will be spending money
If you've ever been on the fence about buying a Fisheye you owe it to yourself to try out the Samyang (Rokinon, Bowen) 8mm 3.5 fish.
For Nikon they even have a chipped version that allows for full AE and AF confirm (AF confirm is pointless... focusing this is a Piece of Cake)
The lens is about $300 and is sharp as heck at 5.6 and above, it does NOT distort anywhere near as much as most fisheye lenses... I read about the different kind of "projection" it uses... I don't claim to fully understand what is going on but i will say that it's a LOT less "distorting" than most fishes I've seen. And it's a ridiculously fun lens.
p.1 #2 · OT: don't read or you will be spending money
side benefit: for personal family shooting... since focusing is basically a non-issue... it's the perfect lens to hand over to your spouse or a friend to take a photo that includes you! Of course with a complete moron you'd need to make sure they don't shoot you from 20 feet away...
p.1 #3 · OT: don't read or you will be spending money
that actually looks pretty nice...not nearly the amount of distortion I usually see from fish-eye (which is why I have never had any interest on having one)
p.1 #4 · OT: don't read or you will be spending money
joelconner wrote:
that actually looks pretty nice...not nearly the amount of distortion I usually see from fish-eye (which is why I have never had any interest on having one)
I felt exactly the same. Then a relative asked me for a recommendation for a fish... so I did some reading on them and read a couple of reviews that commented on the fact that this lens' design was such that distortions on the edges were much more natural.
oh and on the "keep it clean" ... at one point I got some raindrops on the front of it.. and then I was like "WTF is that in my shots" ... the raindrops ON THE FRONT ELEMENT were PERFECTLY IN FOCUS. Actually I might try to use that creatively at some point ha ha ha
p.1 #9 · OT: don't read or you will be spending money
Nice. The Samyang/Rokinon etc. MF ultrawides make lots of sense. I've been looking at the 14mm.
On a side note, I'd like to see a bit more chatter between you and the Brits today....
p.1 #12 · OT: don't read or you will be spending money
One thing I just realized that I should point out... this is a DX lens. I'm pretty sure it will mount on a full frame Canon body without issue just like it mounts on my D800... however you will not be taking advantage of the full rez of your sensor, if that is a concern. On my D800 I'm getting 16mp when using this at DX and some other number just below 20 or so mp when using it at 1.2 (some of the hood is visible at 1.2)
p.1 #14 · OT: don't read or you will be spending money
RobertLynn wrote:
I'm wondering how it will do on a 1.3x 1DIV.
It should do astonishingly well... Might need a minuscule crop in but the lens is definitely delivering more than just the DX 1.5x on my Nikon. On canon crop (1.6x) the lens delivers a little less than 180 degrees
p.1 #19 · OT: don't read or you will be spending money
I used to own this lens, i sold it only because the hood on it made it not fit in the port of my underwater housing...so i got a tokina 10-17, which was WAYYYYYYYY sharper than the rokinon 8mm (same as samyang)...and then i sold that because it caused issues with the AF fine tune of my 11-16, and got a nikon 10.5, which is so sharp, it basically makes both the rokinon and tokina look like they were smeared with grease on every element...i used to have to shoot the rokinon at f/8+ to get sharp images, now i shoot the nikon at 2.8 all day...
However, i will say the price wise, and distortion wise, the rokinon was best!!
p.1 #20 · OT: don't read or you will be spending money
nathan makes a good point re: sharpness... Though frankly I have tons of good shots at F4.0 and everything at 5.6 is consistently client-sellable... so F8 might only be necessary if you're pixel-peeping.
F4 btw is maybe only available on the Nikon chipped lens... or maybe it's imaginary and my camera is actually serving up 5.6... I had read the lens goes from 3.5 straight to 5.6 ... dunno if the AE chip version I bought actually ADDS F4 or if it's reporting 4 but shooting something else.
That said there are three considerations:
1. Because of the crazy FOV you can handhold crazy slow shutter speeds so in terms of "ability to get a sharp photo in "X" lighting situation the Rokinon can be shot at 5.6 at the same ISO that you'd need to shoot an 85 at F2
2. Frankly I think there's not too much of a point to "shallow" dof with a fish... the reason I don't like the Rokinon at 3.5 isn't so much that it's not sharp (it's not ultrasharp but it's cerainly usable) it's because I lose the "everything in focus" feature.
3. I honestly think the distortion should be a higher consideration than F speed ... for a fish. i've used other Fish lenses before and they could honestly be used exclusively as a gimmick... the way this lens puts the image together I think it has a *SLIGHLY* broader applicability
