REVIEW: Samyang 8mm Fish Eye Lens Test in Dunbar Harbour

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This morning a package arrived on my doorstep containing the Samyang 8mm f2.8 Fish Eye lens with a Fujifilm X Mount.  This ultra wide prime lens is far wider than the 10mm end of the Fujinon 10-24mm f4 zoom and gives 180 degree of coverage.  Of course a fish eye lens give a distorted view of the world, the trick is to find suitable subjects.  The first real test will be to capture subjects at next week's 24 Hours of Le Mans. 

 This blog is just my initial impressions and I will do a complete review when I have finished at working at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

After unpacking the lens I put it on my Fujifilm X-Pro2 and headed down to Dunbar Harbour.  With the tide at its low point, the boats in the harbour were resting on their keels and it meant I could also get down low.

The initial impressions of the build quality are very good, especially for a lens that costs just £212.  The lens hood is integral to the lens and can't be removed so the lens cap provided fits over the top of the hood and clips on.

 The Samyang 8mm lens is manual focus only and you have to set the came to 'shoot without lens' in the menu.  The camera doesn't read the aperture on the rear screen, just displaying f0 instead, so I had to rely on looking over the top of the camera at the aperture dial to see what was set - no big problem really.  

 The focus ring is stiffer than the Fujinon lenses I have but it gives good feedback.  It is a doddle to focus with the X-Pro2s focus peeking and, being such a wide lens, infinity comes in at 1 metre anyway.

 I spent an hour walking around pointing the camera at different subjects.  With 180 degrees of coverage the world is distorted at the edges and horizons with never be straight.  But you can pack a lot into each frame with this little lens attached.

 Here are some sample images from the hour I spent down at the harbour in Dunbar.  







The initial impression of the Samyang 8mm f2.8 Fish Eye lens is very good.  The quality of the images are excellent and, while not as good as the XF Fujinon lenses I have, the build quality of the lens is above what I would expect for a £200 lens and it is certainly doesn't feel 'cheap'.

 All in all a very nice lens and a useful addition to my arsenal of lenses for the Fujifilm X-Series.

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