{"id":2901,"date":"2014-01-04T21:08:13","date_gmt":"2014-01-05T02:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=2901"},"modified":"2014-01-04T21:17:58","modified_gmt":"2014-01-05T02:17:58","slug":"review-rokinon-samyang-8mm-f2-8-fisheye-fujifilm-x-mount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-rokinon-samyang-8mm-f2-8-fisheye-fujifilm-x-mount\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Rokinon (Samyang) 8mm f\/2.8 Fisheye (Fujifilm X-Mount)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rokinon is one of the many brand names that has been around for a while, though they don’t make their own lenses. \u00a0Today, they serve almost exclusively as a rebadger for Samyang optics. \u00a0Other brand names for Samyang lenses include Bower, Falcon, Pro-Optic and (sometimes) Vivitar. \u00a0Samyang has made some waves in the industry as of late for releasing lenses that are all manual, but very reasonably priced and most importantly: very good. \u00a0I’ve been an owner of the (Rokinon branded) Samyang 85mm f\/1.4 for several years, and it continues to be one of the best values in all of photography: a brilliant super-fast 85mm lens that is sharp wide open and has utterly fantastic bokeh…all for less than $300. \u00a0Additionally, they’ve got a 35mm f\/1.4, 24mm f\/1.4, 24mm tilt-shift, 14mm f\/2.8 and so on in a variety of lens mounts.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Rokinon 8mm f\/2.8 Fisheye, on the diminutive Fujifilm X-M1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today I’m taking a look at one of Samyang’s only lenses that was designed from the get-go for use on mirrorless cameras: the 8mm f\/2.8 fisheye (Rokinon Branded). \u00a0This lens is tiny and inexpensive for a fisheye at around $329, which makes it much more palatable for most people, especially as a fisheye is somewhat of a specialty lens for use in certain situations, rather than a lens you use all the time. \u00a0The Rokinon 8mm f\/2.8 fisheye is a so-called ‘full frame’ fisheye. \u00a0In this case, full frame is not referring to the sensor format, but rather the fact that it fills the image frame with the image. \u00a0Fisheyes are known for their uncorrected curving distortion, but what makes a fisheye useful is its extreme angle of view. \u00a0The 8mm fisheye is by far the widest lens available for the Fujifilm X-Mount, with a 180 degree angle of view across the diagonal.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not familiar with my reviews, I review from a real world shooting perspective. \u00a0You won\u2019t find lens charts or resolution numbers here. \u00a0There are plenty of other sites that cover those. \u00a0I review products on how they act for me as a photographic tool in real-world shooting.<\/em><\/p>\n

Around the Lens – Construction<\/h3>\n

The Rokinon 8mm f\/2.8 fisheye is a very small lens – in fact, aside from a few pancake lenses, it’s one of the smallest lenses I’ve ever used. \u00a0It’s essentially the same diameter as the Fuji X-mount and only around 2 inches long. \u00a0It weighs a little more than it looks like it should, but it’s hardly heavy at 217g.<\/p>\n

\"Rokinon<\/a>
Rokinon 8mm f\/2.8 Fisheye<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lens is constructed with plastic focus and aperture rings with a metal base. \u00a0Overall build quality is so-so. \u00a0It feels solid in the hand, but you can tell they’ve cut a few corners to keep the price down. \u00a0The built-in lens hood has a very soft plastic coating on it that scuffs extremely easily, such that after only a few weeks of use, the lens cap (which fits over the hood and locks in place) had left many scuffs and scratches on the outside of the lens body.<\/p>\n

I will say I had to try a few different copies of the 8mm. \u00a0The first one I tried was massively decentered, causing the lens to act as if it were a tilt lens, with the plane of focus dramatically tilted to the right…essentially making it impossible to have the right side of the image in focus with the rest of the image. \u00a0My current one is slightly softer on the right side than the left, but is overall fine. \u00a0Just know that the quality control for Samyang isn’t quite as tight as it is with other manufacturers.<\/p>\n

The lens aperture works in 1\/2 stop increments and features positive click stops that are difficult to accidentally dislodge. \u00a0The focus ring is well-damped, but a little stiff. \u00a0Of course this works to your advantage given the best way to focus the 8mm fisheye.<\/p>\n

The Rokinon 8mm is a fully manual lens, which means you need to stop down prior to taking the photo and all focusing is done manually. \u00a0Luckily, on an EVF camera like the Fuji X cameras, there is no issue keeping the lens stopped down, and second, since the lens features such an extreme angle of view, depth of field is extremely deep as well. \u00a0For the vast majority of shooting, I simply set the lens to f\/5.6-f\/11 (depending on how much light or stability I have) and I set the focus to around 2 meters. \u00a0This puts everything in the frame from approximately 1 meter to infinity in focus. \u00a0I don’t touch the focus ring unless I need to focus on something close up, and then I use magnified live view at closer focus distances to get focus right on.<\/p>\n

Continue: Image Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Image Quality<\/h3>\n

Fisheye Projection<\/h4>\n
\"The<\/a>
The equisolid-angle projection of the Panasonic 8mm Fisheye on the Olympus OM-D E-M5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’m going to get a little technical for a minute here to discuss something unique with this lens. \u00a0The Rokinon 8mm f\/2.8 Fisheye is unique in that it features a unique projection compared to what almost all other manufacturers use with their fisheye lenses.<\/p>\n

Fisheyes can have several\u00a0different projections…that is how it maps a point of light in space to the image sensor. \u00a0 A non-fisheye lens can be said to have a rectilinear projection. \u00a0This keep lines straight throughout the image, but in wide-angle lenses, this results in the size of objects at the images edges being stretched larger than they are in real life. \u00a0It also distorts circular objects into ovals.<\/p>\n

All fisheye lenses distort straight lines into curves (unless the line passes through the image center). \u00a0However, most fisheye lenses use either an equisolid angle projection or an equidistant projection. \u00a0Both of these projections are similar in look, but result in that classic extreme bulge in the center, with the elements towards the edges of the frames becoming a bit more compressed. \u00a0These can still be 180 degrees across the diagonal, and you still get a very wide horizontal and vertical field of view.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The stereographic projection of the Rokinon 8mm f\/2.8 provides a wider horizontal and vertical field of view while having less extreme distortion and edge compression<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, the Rokinon (Samyang) 8mm f\/2.8 for mirrorless cameras uses a projection that is essentially stereographic. \u00a0This projection maintains the proper relation of angles in an image. \u00a0The result is a fisheye that has a less pronounced center bulge, no edge size compression and a slightly wider horizontal and vertical field of view for the same diagonal field of view. \u00a0In practical terms, the Rokinon 8mm fisheye is slightly wider (horizontally and vertically) than most other fisheyes, and provides a more natural looking image. \u00a0 Take a look at the two images to the right (excuse the clutter). \u00a0These are the same scene from the same spot with the Panasonic 8mm fisheye on the OM-D E-M5 and the Rokinon 8mm fisheye on the X-E1. \u00a0You can see the different look the Rokinon fisheye gives you, as well as the notably wider horizontal field of view. \u00a0Part of this is from the Fuji’s 3:2 aspect ratio, vs the 4:3 aspect ratio of the OM-D, but most of the difference is from the different projection. \u00a0You can see that even though the OM-D shot has a vertical field of view advantage due to aspect ratio, the Rokinon shot still has a wider vertical field of view as well. \u00a0I’ve always liked fisheyes, but the stereographic projection used by this lens is a big plus.<\/p>\n

Sharpness<\/h4>\n
\"One<\/a>
One Columbus – Fujifilm X-E1 with Rokinon 8mm Fisheye<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Rokinon 8mm is generally quite a sharp lens. \u00a0At f\/2.8, the central region is sharp, though the edges and corners are a bit soft. \u00a0Stopped down to f\/8 or so, the lens maintains good image sharpness all the way to the corners. \u00a0As I mentioned earlier, my lens is slightly softer on the right edge, but you really need to pixel peep in order to see it.<\/p>\n

Bokeh<\/h4>\n

Bokeh? What bokeh? \u00a0The one big downside to the Rokinon 8mm fisheye is it does have a rather long minimum focus distance for a fisheye lens. \u00a0The 8mm is only able to focus down to 0.3m, which is actually further away than the Fuji 23mm f\/1.4. \u00a0With the extreme field of view, this is not particularly close. \u00a0As a result, throwing backgrounds out of focus isn’t really easy to do. \u00a0There are some out of focus areas when focused very closely, and the bokeh is unobjectionable, but it’s hard to characterize due to the minimum of actual blur present.<\/p>\n

Color, Contrast and Chromatic Aberration<\/h4>\n

The Rokinon 8mm is a rather contrasty lens, providing plenty of image pop throughout. \u00a0The color rendering is relatively neutral…nothing special to note here. \u00a0There is a small amount of lateral chromatic aberration, which can be seen as a magenta or cyan edge near the image corners and edges, though it’s relatively well controlled and easily corrected in RAW development.<\/p>\n

Distortion, Flare and Vignetting<\/h4>\n
\"Tree<\/a>
Tree – Fujifilm X-E1 with Rokinon 8mm Fisheye<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Rokinon 8mm fisheye appears to exhibit some barrel distortion. \u00a0 Ok – just checking to make sure you’re reading. \u00a0Of course, given its fisheye nature, the 8mm produces heavy fisheye type distortion, causing all straight lines except those in the center to curve. \u00a0 I’ve already covered the type of distortions given by this particular fisheye in the discussion on projection above.<\/p>\n

The lens is generally resistant to flare in most instances, which is good, since there will be light sources in your images in many circumstances given the wide field of view. \u00a0However, it’s not among the best performing fisheyes I’ve seen in this department. \u00a0If the sun is placed near a corner, there can be some wild flare artifacts produced. \u00a0Of all the fisheyes I’ve used and owned (which total five), the Sigma 15mm fisheye for full frame cameras had the best flare control – it was nearly impossible to get that lens to flare. \u00a0The Rokinon is merely OK here. \u00a0See the image to the left to see what amounts to the worst case scenario for flare. \u00a0Vignetting, however, is not really a problem for this lens.<\/p>\n

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

Pros<\/h4>\n