A Fisheye lens is for creative photography. And then you mustn’t be too demanding as a photographer. A large aperture in order to prevent blurred images indoors or playing with background blur? Professional build quality? Extra well sealed against dust and splashwater? You can forget about these kinds of requirements when purchasing a Fisheye lens. Such Fisheye lenses did not exist.

The Olympus 8 mm f/1.8 Fisheye PRO does meet all these requirements. The world’s brightest Fisheye lens has the best build quality of all Fisheye lenses that we have reviewed so far. And it is not even the most expensive Fisheye in our list.

The world’s only Fisheye with f/1.8

Build and auto focus

Vignetting

Some Fisheye lenses produce black corners and have severe vignetting on the edges. But not the Olympus 8 mm f/1.8 Fisheye. On the outer edges and in the corners, some vignetting is sometimes a bit recognizable, but in general it’s better than expected.  

Fisheye Distortion

Fisheye lenses not only provide a colossally big field of view, but also significant, unmistakable distortion. You will not want to make all your pictures with a Fisheye, but the specific Fisheye distortion in the hands of a creative photographer delivers much nicer pictures than just a big nose as in the example below. The photo below actually betrays the fact that my own preference is for an Olympus 7-14mm f/2.8—which has an equally colossal field of view, but offers it without distortion—to the Olympus 8 mm f/1.8. But then, “creative photographer” is one of the last labels that I would put on myself. In any case, visit the Olympus 8 mm Fisheye review by Robin Wong.

Little flare or ghosts

All wide-angle lenses have a large, convex front lens, so that they are sensitive to flare and ghosts. Because the Olympus 8 mm Fisheye has an exceptionally complex lens design with many lens elements, the chance of flare and ghosts is even greater. We did manage to cause ghosts, as you can see in the partial enlargement below. But this only worked in a shot where the sun was shining directly in frame. And the degree of flare was surprisingly low. The Olympus 8 mm Fisheye displays very, very little flare or ghosts… for a Fisheye.  

Sharpness

The Olympus 8 mm f/1.8 Fisheye delivers sharp, contrast-rich shots. Normally, we measure the sharpness not only in the center, but also on the edges and in the corners. With a Fisheye lens, that is not possible. The scores for resolution in all our Fisheye lens tests are thus always based on the center sharpness (and a part of the sharpness on the edges). 

Click on the illustration below for a picture at 100%—compressed for the web.

Chromatic aberration & bokeh

You do not buy a Fisheye lens for the great bokeh. Even so, at f/1.8—if you creep up very, very close to your subject—this Olympus will reward you with the most beautiful bokeh from a Fisheye that we have ever come across.

Chromatic aberration—colored edges at sharp contrast transitions on the edges of the image—can never be fully prevented with wide-angle and Fisheye lenses. The designers of Olympus have done good work in the design of this Fisheye lens. Even so, in uncorrected RAW files, there are colored edges visible on the edges. We cannot measure it for a Fisheye, but it is actually not relevant either. If you open the jpg files from the camera or RAW files in Photoshop or Lightroom, then there is no trace of chromatic aberration visible.

Conclusion Olympus 8 mm f/1.8 Fisheye PRO review with E-M1

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Look in our list of reviewed lenses in order to compare this lens with other lenses.

WYSIWYG score: This table shows the performance of this lens if you save the files in the camera as jpg, where you have applied all available in-camera lens corrections. This score gives you for this lens/test camera combination: “What you see is what you get”.

Pros

• Typical Fisheye effect
• Excellent build quality
• Dust and splashwater tight
• Very good image quality
• Fisheye with a very highest brightness of f/1.8

Cons

• Typical Fisheye effect
• Not inexpensive

Bring on the cold, dust and rain. Give creativity space with an Olympus 8 mm f/1.8 Fisheye.

 A professional photographer has higher requirements for a lens than a hobby photographer. But not for a Fisheye lens, since then there is really little choice. For an amateur photographer, the Panasonic 8mm f/3.5 is a possible option, but the brightness and the build quality are not comparable with the Olympus 8 mm f/1.8 PRO. Sealing against dust and splashwater or high brightness were properties that the creative professional photographer could only dream about when it came to the Fisheye. The new Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 8 mm 1:1.8 PRO lens is in a separate class. The minimum focal distance of 2.5 cm from the front of the lens makes great macro-work possible. The outstanding build quality makes it possible to shoot under extreme conditions—freezing cold, dust, and moisture. Even professional photographers will be impressed by the terrific build quality of the Olympus 8 mm f/1.8 Fisheye. 

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