Unfortunately, its quite common when we balk at creative side of photography paying attention to devices. In other words, technical side becomes more and more the matter in question. Now we are more like to discuss which lens is more bright than to develop our skills of expressing emotions and feelings through photography.

And here it is, this simple and cheap Peleng 8mm fish eye lens destined to plunge us into the world of creativity, amusement and absence of all technical problems.

Impressions about exterior

Peleng 8mm fish eye may be used with T-mount to MAF adapter, with T-mount to M42 adapter (which is in the package) or in my case with M42 to MAF adapter. I mean, this is a T-mount lens. I don't think i should describe this lens again because clicking links below you can find anything you'd like to know about the lens.

The main problem of manual lenses remains the same: problem of focusing. The majority of viewfinders do not allow to do it accurately because they are usually smaller and don't suit to focusing in a manual manner. The only decision is to use additional screens. But this is not about 8mm lens at 35 mm. That's where fisheye beats lenses with bigger focal lengths. F8 is enough to get great well-focused pictures.

The quality of assembly is good. It seems very reliable because of its metal body. There are focusing and aperture rings as well as the ring for opening and closing aperture blades. Pretty useful to shade while metering.

Efficiency

Firstly, this is a very peculiar lens, not supported by most applications. So think twice before buying.

Today you may like it, but tomorrow you will hate your fisheye. It may disappoint and inspirate. But if you didn't cope with it it doesn't mean at all that you are a bad photographer because. May be your style and other preferences are different from what fisheye offers.

General quality of photo improves with closing diaphragm. Opened diaphragm cant unmask all advantages of Peleng 8mm because of shades. Of course, the center of picture is the best and the sharpest what we cant say bout the corners, but in general its quite pleasant. At F11 and F16 this lens shines as it did at F8. But serious applications may cope with it.

There is another advantage: bright colors. Lovers of old glasses from Minolta will appreciate these colors, too. I admired both contrast and colors. Imho.

Peleng has multi-coat which means flare-resistance. But as far as it is the lens of extra-focal range, things become different.

Of course, we may get flared pictures shot by peleng, pictures with so-called white ring closer to corners. I suppose, the reason is the light inner ring on the facial side of lens. I can hardly explain such a way of constructing. But it is more like caviling. For me this is not a fault at all.

If you wanted to know about lens width in comparison to other lenses, my answer will be: 'Yes, it's wide!'
Dont get wrong believing that you can have the same wide-angled image from Sigma 10-20 or Minolta (Sony) 11-18 lenses. Here are examples of using each of these lenses. They are made by my favourite fisheye-hemi plugin.

I didn't want to say that peleng 8 mm is an ideal lens. It is not even close to the ideal one. But it became a worthy completion to my lens collection, full of fun and creativity.

I mean, Peleng 8 mm shows the best results if you are more interested in artistic characteristics than in technical side. That's why good friend of mine was asked to give it a try and to share his impressions of being fisheye-shooter.
Thanks to Pastyr for doing it.

Updated in January 2008

This Peleng 8 mm lens was my good companion during our Madness challenge in January. It did its best for long months of persistent shooting. Check it out in my January madness gallery.