Review on 📷 Rokinon FE8M-C 8mm F3.5 Fisheye Lens for Canon - Black: A Comprehensive Review and Buying Guide by Kenny Sarma

-- Spoilers at the end of the review -- If you currently use or need a fisheye lens for your DSLR, this is for you. (Not great on full frame cameras like Nikon FX cameras. Sorry.) I saw this on the Revain Daily Deal and thought it was a bargain at $299 for a fisheye lens. It's a nice, durable lens and I started shooting as soon as I got it. (FYI, this lens is made by Samyang in Korea and sold under different brand names like ProOPTIC, Bower, etc.) I currently have a Nikon D40 and it needs to be set to manual "M" mode. One thing I didn't know about my D40 is that it doesn't read the light meter in M mode. You need to do some trial and error checking the photo on the LCD to get the right exposure. (It's a camera-side issue, another reason I'll be updating soon.) Manual focus and manual iris bring it back to old school, and to be honest I missed that direct control technique a bit. One delightfully quirky thing about the Rokinon 8mm, IMHO, is that the lens tends to focus to infinity at almost any setting, making the focus ring all but useless for distant subjects. And that's a good thing, because you're more focused on getting the exposure right anyway. The pictures are just amazing. It can capture almost 180 degrees; I took a selfie from just a foot away and the photo showed a light directly overhead. With the exception of zooming the image up to 400%, the colors and sharpness are great. So if you need fisheye for your DSLR (not full frame), this is the only choice. ---- So, here's a SPOILER. --- If you have never photographed with a fisheye lens before, or if fisheye photography is not part of your current work, you should consider buying an ultra wide-angle lens, such as the B. 11 to 12 mm and higher. Fisheye will have a distorted/bubbly effect on photos and many photographers may want this. But unless it's part of your current job, this novelty will bother you within a day or two. This is a very specific special effects lens and most photographers will not carry it around in their bag for everyday use. On the other hand, ultra wide-angle lenses maintain straight lines and have minimal distortion. I had it over the weekend and will return it on Monday. I'm saving up for an ultra-wide lens, or better yet, a full-frame camera like the rumored Nikon D600, which will be an "entry-level" FX.