Rokinon lenses??

[RAWcop]

I found this, we'll call budget, fisheye lens on Amazon. Does anyone have any experience using these lenses? Are thy worth the $270 price tag? Thanks in advance.

Amazon.com: Rokinon FE8M-O 8mm F3.5 Fisheye Lens for Olympus 4/3 (Black): Camera & Photo

[OsmosisStudios]

The lens will produce a CIRCULAR fisheye image, but if youre cool with that then go for it. Also note: the one you listed is for the Olympus OM mount, and wont go with anything else.

(though on Olympus it wont be as bad of a circular fish)

[RAWcop]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

The lens will produce a CIRCULAR fisheye image, but if youre cool with that then go for it. Also note: the one you listed is for the Olympus OM mount, and wont go with anything else.

(though on Olympus it wont be as bad of a circular fish)

That is the image I am looking for. I found Samyang 8 mm f/3.5 Aspherical IF MC Fish-eye review - Introduction - Lenstip.com which is the same lens, just a different name.

And I have an Olympus e620. So i t should fit.

[OsmosisStudios]

Wow, thats a rectangular fisheye. Wowzerz.

[inkista]

Diagonal fisheye.

Yeah, the Rokinon/Samyang/Bower/Vivitar 7mm/Phoenix/Opteka 6.5mm and about a gazillion other rebadges fisheye rocks (no idea why some brands give it a different focal length, as it's all the same damn lens). It's diagonal on a crop, and it maps stereographically, which is just cool as far as I'm concerned. It's the best buy you're going to find at this price, and has way replaced the Peleng as inexpensive fisheyes go. And for half the price of the Sigma 8mm, you're going to get most of the same performance. There's also a version for videographers that allows follow focus that's been announced.

The only big drawback is that it, like all the Samyang/Rokinon offerings are, is a manual focus lens. That means you will have holes in your EXIF, you can only shoot in Manual or Aperture Priority modes, and you have to stop-down meter (if your camera can do it--Canons can, entry-level Nikons can't), as well as manually focus.

OTOH, with an 8mm fisheye, critical focusing is not going to be a problem. Tons of DoF. I'd say it's definitely worth the money from the samples I've seen, if you can put up with the inconvenience of a manual focus lens.

Os, you should see the Rokinon/Samyang 14mm f/2.8 ($400. Rectilinear. Full-frame). Also the $250 85mm f/1.4, and the upcoming 35/1.4.