My Photography

2007/9/16 - New Gear: Peleng 8mm Fisheye Lens from Belarus!

Finally I got the package that I have been waiting for. I had ordered this Russian (Belarus) fisheye lens, Peleng 8mm 3.5f, from a Canadian web store some time ago. This web store just worked in a very different way than web stores usually, so I had some doubts wheter I never receive the goods. But everything went OK, and it even got here pretty quickly. I was very excited when I get my hands on the package:

It was clear from the start. The build quality of this lens is rough... Its like a piece of iron in your hand. It took me about 10 minutes to mount it to my camera. Somehow the adapter ring for Canon EOS is not excatly right size. Finally I got it mounted and then some test shots. Its all manual. No electricity in the lens. Light metering sometimes works, usually not. And still for the next hour I just couldn't stop laughing , it is so wierd lens! Everything looks so twisted through it. It was clear after first test shots (or just by looking through the viewfinder), this is the funniest lens I have never tried! And for that only, it is well worth of any penny it costed. Aren't hobbies meant to be fun?!

Then for the actual use for this kind of lens... Some professional has said that fisheye lens exists only for the reason that you can take funny pictures to a photography tecnique book just to show that you can take this kind of pictures. Of course this is not quite true. Fisheye lens can be used to take also "real" pictures, but it requires a lot of practice and understanding what you can and what you can't do with these lenses. Below some pictures.

This is the kind of pictures that everyone has seen:

Works also for people. Just remember that girls generally don't want to look stupid but boys do...

This is probably the only picture so far with this lens that could be taken as "real" photoraphing:

And then for the last, everybody ever seen a straight road?

As you can see, the picture quality is what it is. I'm still sure that this lens can perform a lot better, when I learn how to use it. The focusing is hard, because in viewfinder everything seems to be in focus always. Also when stopping down, the viewfinder goes dimmer because of manual stop selector.

As a conclusion I could say that you really do not need fisheye lens for anything. Still at the right moment, this kind of special lenses can take the picture that no normal lens can.