The crop factor on Micro Four Thirds makes telephoto reach twice as easy. But, the opposite is true for ultra-wide views. Despite the crop factor, the Panasonic G 8mm f3.5 Fisheye manages to capture a 180-degree view. That’s wide enough that photographers have to be conscientious about what’s right next to them as well as what’s in front of the lens.
The Panasonic 8mm f3.5 Fisheye is now more than ten years old. But, can a lens that’s more than a decade old stand among today’s optics? I tested one of the Micro Four Thirds systems few autofocus fisheyes. If you want a quirky lens with a whimsical feel and autofocus, the Panasonic 8mm is one of few options.
The Big Picture
The Panasonic 8mm f3.5 Fisheye has that classic shot-in-a-bubble look of a fisheye lens. The closer you get, the more the edges bend in a whimsical, bubbled orb. It’s a full-frame fisheye (meaning the image is rectangular, not to be confused with a full-frame sensor) rather than a circular fisheye. Yet, it still has all the bubbly character of a 180-degree view. The lens has a nice pop of color and it isn’t afraid of flare. It’s lightweight and compact with a built-in petal hood.
But, if you want a brighter aperture or weather-sealed build, Olympus’ pricier variation may be the suitable choice. This lens has no weather-sealing, no printed focal scale, and it can’t use filters. Still, Micro Four Thirds photographers who want a quirky, fun lens may be tempted by the Panasonic 8mm. It’s a fun lens to play with, but I’d take advantage of the lens’ age and look for a used one from a reputable dealer.
I’m giving the Panasonic 8mm f3.5 Fisheye four out of five stars.
Pros
- Quirky, fun 180-degree field of view
- Classic fisheye “bubble” effect
- Very compact and lightweight
- Colors that pop
- Sharp at the center
- Close .33 focusing capabilities
- Built-in lens hood
Cons
- Lacks the ability to use filters
- No focal scale makes it difficult for astro
- No weather-sealing
- Pricey
Gear Used
I used the Panasonic 8mm f3.5 Fisheye on the OM System OM-5. Both the camera and lens are on temporary loan from their respective brands.
Innovations
The Panasonic 8mm f3.5 doesn’t try to hide the fact that it’s a fisheye. The lens embraces classic fisheye distortion but mixes it with a few features like autofocus with a stepping motor. It’s built with 10 lens elements, including those designed to fight flare, chromatic aberration, and ghosting. This lens was originally launched in 2010, however. While that’s a testament to the longevity of Micro Four Thirds, there are some common features like weather sealing that aren’t present.
Ergonomics
The Panasonic Lumix G 8mm f3.5 could be called a pancake lens. While the curve of the front glass gives it a slightly larger profile, it’s still a compact lens at about two inches long. It’s also lightweight, weighing under half a pound.
With such a small design, there’s little room for any controls. The lens has just one: a ring for manual focusing.
The lens includes a petal-shaped hood that’s built-in. The front glass curves, so the lens doesn’t support screw-in filters. But, there’s also very little plastic on the face of the lens.
Build Quality
The Panasonic 8mm f3.5 Fisheye is a plastic barrel lens, with metal at the mount. That keeps the weight low. There’s a band of silver paint at the base of the lens that does give it a bit of a different look to it.
This lens isn’t weather-sealed. That isn’t surprising since it’s an older lens launched before many camera bodies themselves were weather-sealed. I did take this lens out in light snowfall regardless without consequence, but I would recommend using some sort of cover when shooting in wet weather.
Focusing
This lens has all the ingredients for a wide depth of field, which naturally gives it an advantage when it comes to focusing. Even shooting wide open at a subject that’s two feet away, the depth of field is greater than two feet. That leaves a pretty wide margin of error that helps this lens deliver sharply focused subjects, regardless of the lens’ age.
For most types of ultra-wide shots, the focusing system works just fine. The lens may prove a little slow when trying to photograph someone at a run. It had some misses when trying to photograph my dog. But, the wide depth of field still helps here.
What’s really fun is getting up close with this lens. The closer you get with this lens, the more exaggerated that bubble feel. Get in really close, and the image looks as if the corners were tapped to a bowling ball. That makes the .33-foot minimum focusing distance really fun, It’s not a macro, but if you really want to exaggerate that bubble look, get in close.
Ease of Use
The same wide depth of field that makes focusing easy also makes this lens pretty easy to use. Using this lens, it was easy to focus on the composition. Playing with slight angle adjustments to make big differences in that fisheye bubble effect is highly entertaining.
This 8mm is actually easier to use now than when first launched since there are so many Micro Four Thirds bodies that are stabilized. The lens itself isn’t stabilized, but the wide view and body stabilization on the OM-5 made it easy to shoot handheld long exposures a few seconds long.
The ultra-wide view with a short body can occasionally prove a bit challenging. If you’re shooting in the winter and wearing gloves, this lens requires extra care to keep from getting the tips of the gloves in the image — the view is that wide. You also don’t only have to worry about distractions in front of you, but that truck or tree that you are standing next to could even get caught on the edges of the frame.
The most challenging aspect to using this lens, however, was shooting astro. The lens doesn’t have a focal length scale. The OM-5 didn’t have an on-screen focal length scale, and its Starry AF only works with Olympus lenses. I used focus peaking and on-screen zoom but still felt like I was guessing as to whether or not those stars were actually in focus. I only have one usable shot from a freezing-cold attempt to photograph some stars.
Image Quality
The Panasonic 8mm f3.5 has all the lovable weirdness of a fisheye lens. The resulting image is rectangular, but the center has that undeniable circular feel. While you won’t get a distortion-free image with this lens, lines look less curved towards the center of the frame. And, subjects look less distorted the further away they are.
Bokeh
Bokeh, on a 8mm f3.5? It’s definitely hard to achieve. You can get some softer backgrounds when you get in close to a subject. It’s not the kind of lens that you buy specifically for the bokeh though.
Color Rendition
The colors coming from the Panasonic 8mm f3.5 Fisheye have a bit of a pop to them — take a look at how bright the bricks look on these buildings. This lens is fun to mix with different art filters. In fact, as I was shooting this lens, I thought — add a colorful filter, pop it in video mode and move the lens in circles a bit as you record and you’d get a trippy-looking video that looked as if it belonged on That 70s Show.
Lens Character
Fisheye lenses are always weird. And of course, weird is where the character comes in. That extreme barrel distortion gives images a unique look as the image almost appears to swirl. Trees curve as if inside a whimsical children’s book. The horizon curves into a smile. That ultra-wide view also makes it easy to create natural frames in the image. It’s wide enough that even in a relatively open space, the trees can still dot the edges of the frame. This lens can capture two full streets when standing at an intersection. Or, when pointing up, catches the buildings on the current side of the street and across the street as well.
Age also helps adds some character too — it doesn’t have the extreme flare suppression that many modern lenses. You can get some nice soft circular flare and ghosting if you direct this lens toward a light source.
Sharpness
I was surprised at how sharp this lens is. Everything on those bubbled edges is soft, yes, that’s expected. The more exaggerated the bubble effect (by how close you are) the softer the edges are going to be. But the center can be nicely sharp here.
Extra Image Samples
From day one, The Phoblographer has been huge on transparency with our audience. Nothing from this review is sponsored. Further, lots of folks will post reviews and show lots of editing in the photos. The problem then becomes that anyone and everyone can do the same thing. They’re not showing what the lens can do. So we have a section in our Extra Image Samples area to show edited and unedited photos. From this, you can make a decision for yourself.
Unedited
Edited
Who Should Buy It?
The crop factor that makes Micro Four Thirds so great for telephoto shoots makes ultra-wide angles challenging. There are many fisheye lenses available for Micro Four Thirds, but not nearly as many options that still have autofocus. The Olympus 8mm f1.8 Pro is the closest comparison. It’s brighter and weather-sealed, but also heavier and more expensive. It’s the better option if you plan to shoot in the dark, want more occasional bokeh, or want to shoot in the rain. Or, if you want that super wide view but not that bubble look, the Laowa 6mm f2 Zero-D MFT is great. It’s manual focus, but a 6mm lens is actually fairly easy to get sharp with manual focus.
Fisheye lenses are a sort of acquired taste. But, they create lots of quirky, fun images and can fit a huge scene into one frame. If you want a fun, easily portable lens with those quirks, the Panasonic 8mm f3.5 Fisheye isn’t a bad option. But, with the age of the lens, I’d be more inclined to pick up a used version, especially since the quirky looks mean that it’s not something that you’re going to leave on your camera all the time. If you want that whimsical feel without the price of Olympus’ f1.8 option, the Panasonic 8mm f3.5 Fisheye isn’t a bad buy.
Tech Specs
Lensrentals lists the following specifications for the Panasonic 8mm f3.5 Fisheye:
- Angle of View: 180 degrees
- Aperture: f3.5-22
- Autofocus: Autofocus
- Brand: Panasonic
- Diameter: 2.4”
- Dimensions Length: 2″
- Focal Length: 8.0-8.0
- Hood Included: Yes
- Image Stabilization: No
- Item Type: Lens
- Lens Type: Specialty and Wide Angle
- Low Dispersion Elements: 1
- Max Aperture: f3.5
- Minimum Aperture: f22
- Minimum Focusing Distance: 0.33feet
- Mount: Micro 4/3rds
- Weight: 0.4 lb.
The Phoblographer may receive affiliate compensation for products purchased using links in this blog posted.
Leave a Reply