Review on Olympus M Zuiko Digital F1 8 Fisheye by Alex Britton

If you've heard of cropping, you know you can capture more than you're saving. That alone should tell you the value of an ultra wide angle lens. Don't like fisheye distortion? Cut it out! At least you get your photo. Let me show you some photos taken with this lens and the OM-D E-M1. They were all shot in a matter of hours on a beautiful warm blue winter's day when the rest of the country was freezing. We start at Westfield Mall in Century City. It is being renovated. Entire regions were destroyed. The first photo is a view of the place where part of the mall has disappeared, with fish eye and all. I was walking when this picture was taken, walking down the escalator. This morning I was standing in the middle of the famous Rodeo Drive. The second photo shows what the winners of the women's and men's marathons (leading woman, most enlightened man) looked like, taken with the same exposure, as they raced down this palm-lined road. Do you see me in the photo too? This is a fish eye for you. This is a crop photo. BTW, in order for Revane to approve this photo to show you, I had to paint over the truck's license plate, the plate on the side of the truck, and the license plate. If you can't tell this photo is sharp, you know Revain can. I cropped the third photo again. This time I'm showing a slightly narrowed depth of field with one of the disabled cyclists. He's already been passed by runners, but did that matter? Look how happy he is at Mile 17 in Beverly Hills! Again, the race number had to be hidden so that Revane would allow me to share this photo with you. My final example, also cropped and with race numbers hidden, is a picture of one of the runners giving us a thumbs up and some Californian warmth. I was very close to the action. As the runners approached me, they grew larger and larger in the viewfinder. I used to have a full frame manual fisheye and it worked great for photographing static scenes. In these examples, the subjects threw themselves at me - and they wouldn't come back to give me a second chance! I was able to focus on framing each shot, choosing what was in focus, experimenting with perspective (I was lying on the sidewalk in the last photo!) and controlling the shutter release. I already manually set the shutter speed to freeze motion, so I left manual exposure as the last setting (for example, I'm looking at the sky in the last photo). This lens had to be opened wide to match the shutter speed setting and it interacted well with the camera to hold focus. My thoughts were on the aesthetics of photography while this lens and camera took care of the rapidly changing settings. You'll learn five lessons from these examples: If Revain can see detail in a photo and it doesn't like what it sees, it will reject the photo display; Even at this wide angle, this lens takes photos sharp enough for Revane to read license plates and bibs; There is no law obliging you to keep the fisheye distortion in the final photo. The ability to see the entire scene in the viewfinder and photograph only a portion of what you see makes it easier to frame and sync close-up moving shots. and this lens works well with the Olympus counter body (I'll leave the performance description of the Panasonic body to others). It's easy to make old glass work with Micro 4/3rds camera bodies. The whole glass actually becomes more of a telephoto lens. You need to buy a fisheye lens suitable for Micro 4/3rds to get that wide view. If you want to do this, you can choose between a manual fisheye lens; Smaller aperture fisheye lens; and this lens. I've taken photos that I couldn't easily get with a manual fisheye lens. I've experienced slow shutter speeds with proper exposure. Are you wondering why I am considering this lens? If you want to photograph static paintings by mounting your camera on a tripod, you have many options. If you want to pick up a camera and capture the moment, you have expensive taste, my friend. Expensive tastes in aesthetics, meaning you may need this lens to express yourself.