DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Anyone using this lens - especially on an AFS-C body? I'd be interested in hearing your experiences and seeing some of your photos.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

This is a Samyang lens, sold under various brand names, the optics are good, construction is ok. I got mine for about $175, and have been extremely pleased.
Apologies I don’t have access to images right now, computer rebuild.

If you can get one at the right price I would recommend it.

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

I have one and love it. I use it rather frequently, as the fisheye distortion is not as extreme as with most other 180 degree diagonal fisheyes. There is a bit of veiling flare at f3.5, but already at f4 the quality is excellent and it is sharp to the edges with very little CA. Also very good shooting into bright light sources. I consider it a bargain. Will try to post images tomorrow

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have the Meike 6.5mm fish eye, and it's fun. I use it on my Sony a6000. I paid Amazon $149 in 2017.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Have the Rokinon version.
Love it.
Here is a photo taken with my 8mm f3.5 Rokinon fisheye.
Get one, they are fun and come in very handy for very tight spaces like this place.

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Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

Its on my to-do list to get a fish-eye lens. Of course the degree of fish-eye effect and amount of vignetting around the frame depends on the lens focal length and on camera sensor size. Here is a chart that shows what you might expect along those parameters.
https://www.lensrentals.com/product-assets/bc73df81-8d53-4e96-86fa-a729ee97fce6/Fisheye%20Comparison%20Chart.pdf

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

Here are some shots with this lens. These are HDR images of the Tohoku tsunami of 2011. These images were part of an exhibition, which has been shown in many places in Japan and lately in Germany. The prints were about 2 feet by three feet, and this lens definitely held its own against much more expensive lenses that I used for other photos in that exhibition.

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amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

No, it is definitely not a relabeled Samyang/Rokinon lens.

If you compare an 8mm Samyang/Rokinon alongside an 8mm Meike, the difference is very obvious.

Meike makes lenses and sell them under their own brand name. They are also relabeled and sold under the Opteka brand. There may be other rebranding of them I'm not aware of.

I don't know if they still do, but Samyang lenses have sold under Bower and Pro-Optic (Adorama) brand names. The Rokinon name is the one Samyang uses themselves, for their lenses sold in N. America.

Original poster... It's a good thing you want to use the lens on APS-C camera... that's what the 8mm fisheye is designed for. They would have very strong vignetting on full frame. Essentially instead of a rectangular image like you get on APS-C, you'd see more of a round circle on full frame. Both have that "fisheye effect", strong curvature of some elements in images.

I don't have the Meike 8mm fisheye... But I do use their 12mm ultrawide lens (also an APS-C design). Frankly, I was very pleasantly surprised how good the Meike lens was and have recommended the lens several times! It is not only very well made, it comes with solid accessories (caps and hood), the controls are smooth and image quality is excellent. Yes, it's a manual focus, manual aperture lens... But that's no problem with an ultrawide that has huge depth of field... and would be even less of a concern with a fisheye because you hardly have to focus them, they have so much DoF! A fisheye is sort of a specialized lens, so it's great that you can get one $165 or less, like the Meike.

The Samyang/Rokinon 8mm fisheye is probably just as good. I have their 21mm f/1.4 and it's equally well made and capable. Samyang/Rokinon do tend to be a bit more expensive than Meike.

The image below is a sample done with my Meike 12mm f/2.8 (with B+W C-Pol filter, on a 24MP Canon mirrorless APS-C camera)...

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kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

Thanks for this info. To be clear, I have the Samyang, branded "Pro Optic", so what I wrote may not apply to the Meike.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Samyang/Rokinon are made in Korea. It doesn't appear they are relabeling Pro Optic or Bower brand any longer. (I did find a Bower fisheye, but only in the Samsung NX mount.)

I'm impressed with the image quality you're getting with the ProOptic (Samyang) lens, especially how well it handled the sun directly in the frame. Ken Rockwell has a very positive review of that lens, too.

Meike is made in China. They also sell under the Opteka brand name.

Some other brands of manual focus, rectilinear fisheye for APS-C that might be worth a look, depending upon what mount is needed, are:

- 7artisan 7.5mm
- Kamlan 8mm f/3... I have their 50mm f/1.1 II, it'san amazing hunk of glass and an extremely nice lens.
- Meike 6-11mm f/3.5 fisheye zoom... makes both round and rectilinear fisheye images, depending upon zoom setting.

Sigma makes an 8mm for some systems too, but it's very pricey like the Nikon, Lumix and Olympus.

topcat Loc: Alameda, CA

I have a Samyang and I am very happy with it. I don't use it often, but when I do, I am happy with the results.

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Very effective. Little to zero sense of any “special effect”, mainly just an incredible feeling of immediacy. Like I can smell it.