Review on 📷 Rokinon RK8MBK28-E 8mm F2.8 UMC Fisheye II Fixed Lens for Sony E-Mount (NEX) Cameras - Black by Kristen Rohr

This lens is described as a fisheye, but I found it to be a valuable ultra-wide lens and not just a novelty, mainly because it has no vignetting (i.e. produces an image that fills the entire frame fills in but only produces a round image in the center) and really doesn't distort the image very much when used properly. very practical for recording in a confined space as well as for panoramic landscapes. I have 2 Canon EOS M cameras (M5 and M6II) along with most Canon EF-M lenses, the widest is 11-22mm. I wanted a lens with an even wider angle, but I didn't want to try a non-Canon lens, especially one that didn't have the EF-M electronics to control focus and exposure. But I took the risk of taking this lens and was very satisfied. Unlike all Canon EF-M lenses, this is a "blunt" lens, ie. it has no electrical connection to the camera body. That means it has a few limitations: it's not an autofocus lens, so you'll have to focus manually (like you used to). it cannot participate in the camera's automatic exposure system. You set the aperture mechanically with a ring on the lens, and that aperture is used. No lens information is passed to the camera to use in the camera's lens error checking mechanism or written to the EXIF information that the camera embeds in each photo to tell you what lens was used and exposure information. And in the camera's viewfinder, the aperture shows as "F0.0" because the camera doesn't know what value you set the exposure ring to. What does that mean? think? I think the first two points should be easy for anyone good enough at photography to have a camera like this to hook up to. The last 2 points are problems for me, albeit relatively minor. The lack of autofocus is not a problem with a wide-angle lens, as you are already far away from the subject and usually have almost no depth of field. I just set the lens to infinity and checked that it hadn't changed and my shots were very sharp. The Rokinon instruction manual says that (for Canon) you need to set the camera to M (manual) exposure. , but I set mine to Av (aperture priority) and let the camera choose shutter speed and ISO after manually selecting aperture on the lens ring. What's good: I love, love, love the extreme wide-angle capabilities this lens offers. On my EOS M cameras, the image completely fills the frame and even without post-processing, you hardly notice any slight fisheye distortion unless you tilt the camera. F2.8 aperture collects a lot of light. It has a built-in, non-removable lens hood, which is good as the lens is very curved and sticks out a decent distance. So you CANNOT put a filter on this lens, no matter what it says (but that's not a problem for me). Conclusion: This lens is a great complement to Canon's EF-M IS lens and is very suitable as a tool for ultra-wide-angle photography, especially indoors. I love it.