When I bought the Fuji X-E1, I expected it to fit into the same role as the camera it replaced, the Olympus Micro 4/3s E-PL1 — an occasional use camera that I would sometimes carry when I wanted more than a point and shoot or camera-phone but less bulky and heavy than a full DSLR.  As I have used it these past several months, however, I find it is crowding out my full-frame Nikon D700 more and more.

Recently I discovered that third-party lens maker Rokinon released an 8mm Fisheye lens for both the Fuji x-mount system and the Sony NEX  E-mount systems, I was immediately interested, even though I’ve never had the fascination with fisheye lenses and shots that almost all of my photographic friends do. I’m really not sure why, but the idea of putting a fisheye on my little Fuji really intrigued me. With the Rokinon being less than $300, I went ahead and picked one up. I took the lens and camera combo outside for the first time last week. Looking for a suitable subject, I was immediately drawn to the Radio City Music Hall marquee, which is conveniently located across the street from where I work. I dodged both pedestrians and cars to grab a few quick shots from different angles. This is my favorite.

While this is not a lens review per se, since I am touting it somewhat (and I will get a small commission if you buy it through the links above) I should note that if you use the Fuji version you have to set the camera to shoot with no lens. This might be true for the Sony version, but I’m not sure. I guess the third party lens does not communicate with the camera sufficiently to let the camera know that there is a lens on. Despite that, I found that I was able to shoot in at least partial automatic mode and the camera somehow managed to get the exposure correct. I’m not sure if it worked properly or if I was just lucky but it worked. I’ll conduct a few more tests and report later.