Buy Panasonic 8mm f/3.5 ED Fisheye Lens for Lumix G Micro Four Thirds Digital CamerasPanasonic 8mm f/3.5 ED Fisheye Lens for Lumix G Micro Four Thirds Digital Cameras Product Description:
- 8mm / F3.5 offers a diagonal angle of view of 180 degrees for both photos and HD movies; equivalent to 16mm on a full-frame camera
- Ten lenses in nine groups; adoption of an ED lens achieves a stable descriptive performance from close-up to infinity
- Closest focusing distance is as short as 0.1m; inner focus system enables a long working distance
- Seven blades give the aperture a rounded shape that produces an attractively smooth effect in out-of-focus areas when shooting at larger aperture settings
- Compatible with Panasonic Micro Four Thirds format digital cameras
Product Description
With a 180 degree angle of view, the world is a very different place. And the Panasonic 8mm full-frame Fisheye lens captures that view brilliantly with 10 elements in 9 groups (1 ED lens) to minimize chromatic aberration and distortion, multi-coating to minimize ghosts and flare, and a stepping motor for smooth and silent focusing. When used with a Panasonic G Micro System camera, the lens operates with full contrast auto focus, focusing as close as 4". Seven blades give the aperture a rounded shape that produces an attractively smooth effect in out-of-focus areas (the famous and elusive bokeh). Sheet filters such as gels may be used on the rear element for more creative options.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
62 of 62 people found the following review helpful.
A Great Lens But Not For Everyone (Update)
By B. Fuller
This is a great lens but also a niche lens. The construction on this lens is first rate. It is a lot like the Panasonic 7-14mm f/4.0 Micro Four Thirds Lens for Panasonic Digital SLR Cameras. The lens is extremely small and light for a fisheye lens. Panasonic claims it is the smallest in the world.This lens is really good for an incredibly wide field of view and for the neat distorted look that gives the lens it name-- fish eye.There are 3 types of wide angle lenses:Panasonic Ultra Wide Angle Rectilinear 7-14mm- 114 degPanasonic Diagonal Fisheye 8mm -180 degCircular Fisheye - 180 degThe Rectilinear lens while still having some barrel distortion, basically tries to remove it as much as possible to portray the image in a square or true to life fashion. However, by removing the distortion, the field of view is decreased. As listed above the Panasonic 7mm lens gives 114 deg field of view.The 8mm `diagonal' fisheye give a 180 deg field of view despite being 1mm longer. It does this by allowing for massive barrel distortion. Basically, the only straight lines that will be straight pass through the center of the lens. The `diagonal' fisheye utilizes the entire rectangle of the frame. Whereas, the `circular' fisheye has a circle picture with the corners being black from being completely underexposed. This Panasonic 8mm is a `diagonal' fisheye which I personally prefer.The reason this is a niche lens is that while the effect is cool, it will start to get old very quickly if used over and over again. It would be nice for shooting weddings but only for 2 or 3 photos. The same thing would go for birthday parties or sporting events.For video the same thing goes. You could use it for a few segments in a clip but if you tried to shoot a whole video, even 3 min video, people would become fatigued and bored by it very quickly.So, while, this lens has fantastic construction and great optics and would be a good quiver in many a toolkit, it should not be one of the first lenses you buy. Given the choice between this or the 7-14mm, the 7-14mm is going to be the better choice most of the time. If you are looking for a fisheye to expand your capabilities and you want the smallest with great optics this is the lens for you.Pros1) Great construction -- Plastic but sturdy2) Incredibly small and light (< 6 oz !)3) Great opticsCons1) Only 7 bladed aperture instead of 9 -- Not a big deal because an 8mm fisheye will have almost nothing out of focus. Still for this price 9 blades would be better.2) Niche lens3) Panasonic wasted time and money on this when they could have made 25mm f/1.4 or the even more needed the 300mm f/2.8Update 24 Oct 2010I've been shooting this fisheye extensively for the past week on a trip to Egypt. I carried a G1 and GH1 and the two lenses that stayed on my camera were the 14-140. and the 8mm. This is a great travel lens. There is no doubt about it. When touring around there is always a need for a super wide lens. The cool thing with a fisheye is that you get 180 deg. Yes you get distortion but as you can see on my photos sometimes that is good. The other thing to note is that the distortion can be fixed in post. While you do lose some of the photo when you do this you don't lose as much as if you were shooting a rectilinear lens. So for an update on this I would make the following recommendations concerning this or the 7-14mm.If you are a working professional or semi-pro then you will most likely need both. However, if you can only have one then the 7-14mm would be first followed by the 8mm.If you are a hobbyist then I would recommend the 8mm first. You can fix the distortion in post. It is ~.5 stops faster and it is incredibly useful for all sorts of travel and everyday photography.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Panasonic's Fisheye Lens for Lumix G Cameras
By Gary Wilson
All the caveats in the other reviews regarding the unique interpretation of this type of lens are applicable. I also own such lenses for my Nikon, Canon and Pentax camera systems. I started with the 35mm fisheye for the Pentax 67 system and have used them extensively over the decades. I've even travelled to Europe and on one occasion, where my Canon 15mm fisheye was the only optic along for the ride. With the various software applications to alter the geometry of capture, the fisheye becomes one of the most expressive lens types imaginable. My favorite such software is Image Trend's Fisheye Hemi. This software can give a look, that I grew to love, similar to a swing lens camera such as the Widelux (which I also had years of experience with).The Panasonic 8mm has a remarkable close focus capability which I am planning to make low angle macro like floral shots with. In conjunction with the system's rotatable LCD the kit affords low level access for some extraordinary imagery. This lens is very sharp and is proportionally sized to the growing number of cameras within the micro 4/3 system.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Fun lens
By Jeff
This Panasonic lens is a diagonal fisheye lens which is more useful that a circular fisheye IMHO and is also nice and sharp. It will produce a fair amount of distortion toward the edges and of objects near the camera. Camera orientation is something you need to be mindful of when using this lens. A great lens for interior shots, which I have used for photographing boat interiors with much success. It is lightweight and compact but be careful not to bump the front element as is is fairly exposed. All in all I am very happy with this lens.
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