The 8mm Fisheye, What’s it good for?

Like Crumby, many may be asking this question: The 8mm Fisheye, What’s it good for?That’s because, as lenses for dslrs go, these are mighty cheap, and may, due to their cheapness and odd perspective, tempt many. But what’s cheap if good for nothing?

Crumby has never had much success taking pictures of medium to large sized plants (botanical). So Crumby thought, I need a lens that will close focus and yet have most of the plant in focus, top to bottom, front to back.

Because 8mm fisheyes are billed; close focusing and larruping depth of field, Crumby finally gave in to the urge and purchased a clone of the Samyang; the cheapest that could be had at the time on EBAY. Lately, as a consequence of that purchase, Crumby has been fixing to figure his new lens out.

As everyone knows, there is no electricity flowing through this type of 8mm fisheye. And without electricity, there is scant hope that the lens and camera may communicate. Divine intervention might have them communicate. Yet given the failure of the camera/lens combo to communicate, the average amateur photographer must estimate how far one is from a subject, turn the distance wheel accordingly and also set the desired f-stop manually. These procedures may be too vexing for many. Plus, many may forget to do one or the other and thus mess up a shot or two.


But enough of all this mumbo jumbo. Here’s an example of a fairly large plant (botanical), a Silphium no less, in a big bucket. This, alas, is one of Crumby’s best efforts to date.