Review on Samyang SYHD8M-C 8mm f/3.5 HD Lens with Detachable Hood for Canon by Alejandro White

When I first saw this fisheye lens advertised at Revain I had to admit I had my doubts. I never considered the possibility of buying a fully manual lens and it seemed to me that owning such equipment would be a hassle. Oh how wrong I was. This Samyang 8mm CS-II lens has the deepest depth of field I've seen. I just set the focus to beyond infinity and as long as I'm shooting something at least 1 meter away everything in the field of view is perfectly clear. The lens is insanely sharp for close-up shots, but at an F3.5 aperture, it can soften when objects are close by. Once you increase the aperture to F5.6, F8, or even F11, this lens's sharpness of objects, especially at a distance, improves beyond belief, so much so that at F11 it's perhaps my sharpest lens. I would definitely recommend just leaving this lens at F8 or F11, preferably set to infinity, and only changing it when lighting was poor and a lower f-number is required when increasing the ISO would not be justified. The price of <$300 for this lens is a crazy deal and I have to pass it on to Samyang because he made an amazing piece of glass. PS The focus ring is probably the most cushioned and smoothest ring I've ever used. 5/5 stars :-)