Performance
Autofocus was quiet, fast and accurate. Overall, images were impressively sharp and punchy with no apparent colour cast due to the lens coatings. When used wide open at f/1.8, sharpness at the centre was good; corner sharpness, while still good, was a tad less, just as expected. Closing down by just one stop improved the corner sharpness. The sweet spot seemed to be at f/5.6.
By f/11, one can notice the effects of diffraction (if one tries to look for it); at f/16 and f/22. the results were quite ‘soft’.
As mentioned earlier, the lens offers tremendous depth of field. However, if you focus on a subject that is really very close and use f/1.8, you can create a soft blurry background (see image on next page).
We did not notice any lateral chromatic aberration, though it is possible that this could be due to the EM-1 (and other recent bodies) automatically correcting for it.
There was some darkening at the corners with lens wide open. With such a wide angle of coverage (180 degrees diagonally), it is quite difficult to avoid getting the sun into the frame. Even then, the Olympus 8mm f/1.8 fisheye lens did a pretty good job of restricting flare. Overall, a very good performance!
Value for Money
The M.Zuiko DIGITAL ED 8mm f/1.8 Fisheye PRO lens is available at an MRP of Rs.68,990. On one hand, this price may seem high for a lens that has limited use, but on the other hand, it is a ‘fast’ f/1.8 lens, and if you are creative, you could use it to explore various new picture-taking possibilities. |SP
FINAL SCORE 79.5%
Design and Build Quality 17/20
Key Features 16/20
Ergonomics 18/20
Performance
Autofocus 4/5
Sharpness 4/5
Distortion control 4/5
Aberrations 3.5/5
Darkening of corners 3/5
Extra features 3/5
Sub-Total 21.5/30
Value for Money 7/10
PLUS
• Very good build quality
• Very sharp
• Lightweight
MINUS
• Filters cannot be used
VERDICT
Let’s face it. A fisheye lens is not an everyday-use lens; its utility is limited. Even then, if you are the creative type who loves to explore the various possibilities of using it – creating unusual images with loads of barrel distortion, taking obnoxious closeups of your friends and creating super wide-angle effects with postprocessing in Photoshop, then you’ll love this fisheye lens. Definitely Recommended!
Rohinton Mehta
