SAMYANG 8 mm F2 : Cracking little lens for the money

I’ve owned several samyang lenses and they have all been very good – far better than their price suggests. 5 when i was a micro 4/3 user; it was essentially identical to the original 8/2. 8 for aps-c in terms of appearance, size and weight. This mark 2 version is rather bigger and much heavier (290g versus 215g) but is an improved design with better tele-centricity which improves image quality at the edges, so i’ll live with the extra 75g even though it equates to more than the total weight of some lenses i use. Well put together and the focus scale is spot-on (not all manual lenses are) and no complaints whatsoever about handling or performance, just one minor cosmetic niggle, possibly amazon’s fault. The product images are truncated for some reason making it look as though the black version i bought is all black with just a tiny sliver of silver at the mount, but in reality there’s rather a lot of silver showing – far more than i expected (see picture). It’s not a big deal for me but it might be for some prospective buyers, so be aware.

I have used several ultra wide angle and one fish eye lens in the past and nothing gets near this little beauty. Amazingly compact and very solidly constructed nothing comes close in price or performance. I am truly amazed and delighted at the price. I had dithered a while as ‘you don’t really need a fisheye do you?’.But this lens is serious fun and makes a very light, compact street combo with the e-3. Lack of autofocus is not an issue as you pretty much don’t have to focus and anyway it makes you think a little before pressing the shutter. The lens hood is permanent and gives a little protection to the otherwise vulnerable lens and the front lens cap fits well and gives full protection when carried – no filter possible of course. The construction is very solid and the camera fit is firm with a good feel to the focus and aperture adjustment. Depth of field is amazing and the clarity even down in the corners superb. Chromatic aberration is hardly noticeable.

This is a lens that will change the way you think about your photos. Challenging to use (fully manual), but worth it.

Image quality is good but theres a bit of lens play when mounted on the xt2.

I use this lens for landscape and special effects please bear in mind this is a manual focus lens that works really well.

Unbelievable sharp when correctly focused. However the focus marking are in-accurate. I recommend the first thing you do is take test photos at known distances and remark the points on the focus ring.

Samyang 8 mm F2.8 II Fisheye Manual Focus Lens for Fuji X – Black

• Make sure this fits
  by entering your model number.
• Ultra Wide-angle Fish-eye Lens
• Features the latest generation multi-layer anti-reflection ultra multi-coating (UMC) to minimise flare and ghosting
• Built-in Petal-type Lens Hood
• Minimum focusing distance is just 0.3m
• Maximum Diameter: 60.0 mm

If desired, typical fish eye distortion can be corrected with processing software, making this lens even more useful as an extreme wide angle lens. Image quality is incredible for the price. I have to say i am delighted with my purchase and would not hesitate to recommend this lens to fellow photographers.

This lens is really sharp, i see some reviewers saying they had decentred or otherwise flawed lenses, so do some pixel peeping when it arrives and if it’s anything other than perfect i’d keep sending it back until you get a good one. I’ve tested it on an x-t3 which is as the time of writing the highest resolution body available for fuji x and it’s not even soft in the corners at f/2. It’s a proper 180 degree field of view so if you have even a millimetre of finger over the end of the lens it’ll catch you out. Focus is nicely damped and aperture is clicked on 1/2 stops. No electronics in this thing whatsoever but you can set the camera to deal with this. Colours and contrast are up there with any other modern lens. Small amount of flaring when you point it at the sun, and it’s so wide that it’s hard not to, but it’s minor and doesn’t ruin your image. Lightroom has a profile for it so you can make it rectilinear in software which is an interesting effect.

Sharp lens with great angle of view.

Bought this with reasonably low expectations, but have been very pleasantly surprised. Amazingly versatile (see pics), lightweight and easy to use – despite being a manual lens. Pretty sharp all over at f5. 6, so just left it on that, so i wouldn’t have to worry too much about focussing and dof. Unwrapped it on delivery, popped it on my sony a6000 and went out and took the attached shots.

I love a fish eye lens this little lens can do so much. Would recommend to my friends.

For the money this has to be a bargain, lovely quality to the build and for the images it produces.

This is a nice lens totally manual,for a small lens it has a bit of weight,the copy i received is sharp no problems the focusing ring is a bit tight but that is not a bad thing,it’s the widest available lens for fuji as fuji don’t make a prime lens at the moment ,in conclusion happy with lens especially at price can recommend it.

Excellent quality construction.

Terrific, as expected and good value.

At this price, well worth having this fun lens in your bag. You won’t use it much, but now and again you’ll have some great fun with it.

Excellent build and quality. Manual focus is no problem and results are as good as other fisheyes i have used. My second samyang lens and really impressed.

Samyang 8 mm F2.8 II Fisheye Manual Focus Lens for Fuji X – Black : Relly happy with the lens and the delivery from amazon was perfect as ever.

This lens is amazing value for money. The results are sharp and the distortion not too extreme. I had previously tried the vivitar equivalent and had been very disappointed, but this lens is in the same league as canon’s own. Not being auto focus isn’t and issue as the depth of field is enormous.

Really, and i mean really impressive lens, particularly at this price. Obviously manual focus, but it doesn’t matter at all on a lens like this. Infinity is about 1m away, so it’s hard not to get things in focus. I use focus peaking and it works a treat for the rare time that i need to adjust focus. Mine is sharp across the entire frame, and the sharpness is excellent. It’s as sharp as lenses far more expensive. You will not be disappointed. I’m very fussy and this lens passes every test. Build quality is phenomenal. Feels like an high quality vintage film-era lens.

I have been using this for star filed and milky way photos. The focus ring on mine is very stiff. This is lucky in a way, as the focus point on mine is way off. Infinity is really about 1m, so the stiff focus helps to hold it at the right setting. It is possible to adjust this, but it involves unscrewing bits of the lens, so i am not ready to do that yet. It gives decent results for stars. The field of view is fantastic, although it is a bit of an acquired taste.

I’ve contemplating buying one for some time and i finally took the plunge and it’s an amazing lens. I bought it to fit a sony a6000 as i needed to capture to some interesting sights around london for a project i’m working on. It’s a manual focus so disable the lens checking option in camera ( on the sony it will remind you the second you connect it. ), on the first day out i simply set focus to infinity, shot mostly as f/8 and mostly just adjusted the iso and exposure compensation to cover the rest. I used it mostly indoors as i was intrigued to see how it would ‘bend’ all the verticals and it’s truly fascinating to see it at work. One thing that takes some getting used to is that the lens has a huge field of view and often times it can quite literally see behind you, often pulling in 8-10 feet if the ceiling directly above and behind your head. This also occurs below and you have to be quite careful when shooting to check the bottom of the frame as you will see your own feet and arms. I absolutely adore this lens and it has to be one of the best purchases i’ve made in a long, long time.

This is a fantastic lens and this seller provided fabulous value since it cost only £215. Since i bought it, the lens has been more-or-less permanently on my camera body. It does of course take amazing wide photos to capture all of a scene, but it does also equally have drawbacks in that you can’t use it to take normal photos of things and people. It gives a different perspective on your photographed world and the images are captivating. I am so pleased i bought it and strongly recommend it. Note that you will have to fiddle with the camera settings to switch to allow the camera to take photos as if there was no lens present, otherwise it won’t work; only takes a few minutes to find that in the settings menus.

I have made amazing photos with it. There is tons of distortion with it. I want to buy the samyang 12 mm which is rectilinear and compare. I might keep both, we will see. Dont let the manual focus and aperture put you off, being so wide angle they are not much of an issue.

A brilliant little lens on my sony a6000.

Bought this for my sony a7s with the intention of shooting in aps-c mode, since theres no real fisheyes for full frame e mount yet ( other than the sony 28mm with fisheye convertor ) and i have to say its great for the price. This lens is absolutely tiny also, it’s the smallest lens i own. The focuz throw is a little long but other than that no complaints very sharp, no colour fringing or anything. Super impressed with this little lens especially for the price. Shipping was a little slow but thats it.

I use a fuji x-e2 with this lens. Cheap because it has no autofocus, no electrical contacts and no expensive-to-engineer correction, plus, of course, it is a third party lens, not a fuji. Resolution is sub-fuji, but not by miles – get everything else right and it will reward you with sharp images. This means hyper-focal focussing. This is easy, although with a lens of this type you might almost just have a fixed focus design – depth-of-field is huge, even if you don’t really want it to be. Interestingly, distortion is not so insanely far out that this can’t be used for more general purposes – yes, distortion is very high compared to a conventional corrected 24mm, for example, but i have found it pleasing for landscapes and interiors and haven’t felt the need to try to straighten out the verticals or right any of the other ‘wrongs’. Can do things you couldn’t really do any other way. In my opinion more than a curiousity, a toy or an amusement. Flare, which would be a problem with any ultra-wide and is no worse here – avoidable, mostly, if you take care.

Solid, sharp, my goodness what a bargain, its small, yes it is a one trick pony but that is one fun little lens.

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Cracking little lens for the money

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