One of the things on my wish list, was a fisheye lens. The main characteristic of a fisheye lens is that it has an extremely wide angled view. Some even go as far as an 180 ° angle. Because it has such a wide angle, you can put pretty much a whole room on a single photo if you position the camera on the right spot.
The second characteristic is that this extreme wide angle gives the image a spherical distortion. This spherical distortion gives portrait photo's a very funny effect, because the center of the image is magnified more than the sides. I really wanted one, but the only problem was that most of them are rather pricy.
While browsing a web shop stumbled upon a fisheye lens by an unknown brand that was almost half the price of similar lenses of the major brands. I got curious, but remained skeptical; after all the difference in price usually means compromises. After reading a few reviews and watching a lot of sample photo's I was convinced: this lens kicks ass! I'm talking about the Samyang 8mm fisheye lens, which is sold under many names. In certain European countries, including the Netherlands, Samyang lenses are sold under the brand name "Walimex".
So, what's the catch ? Well, it turns out there is no real catch. Optically this lens performs just as good, if not better, than some lenses that are twice as expensive. So why is this one so cheap ? The difference in price is in the way the lens operates. With most lenses, you can set the aperture size from within the camera. A tiny motor then makes the diaphragm either larger or smaller, and thus increasing or decreasing the aperture size. With this lens there is no tiny motor, and you can't set the aperture size in the camera. To make the diaphragm larger or smaller, you have to twist a ring on the base of the lens.
Aside from the manual diaphragm, this lens has no autofocus; it only has manual focus. This is no problem at all, because having a focus ring on a fisheye is rather useless anyway. Because of the extreme wide angle and spherical distortion, the depth of field is so amazingly large that no matter how you set the focus on the lens; pretty much everything will be sharp anyway. For example, if I set the focus on 30cm from the lens, then everything between 15cm and infinity will be in focus.
In short, by keeping this lens a fully manually operated lens, the manufacturer managed to cut the costs dramatically; making this lens extremely interesting for people that are looking to get a fisheye lens, but are not willing to sell their first-born child to get one. I totally love my new fisheye lens, and can't wait to get into the field and shoot some kick-ass photos. 