Very interesting. Thanks for posting. The future of low cost "fun" lenses and more competition in glass keeping prices in check is always a welcome development.
longviewer
Mu-43 Top Veteran
I was planning to save up for this lens - thanks for the samples! 
No problem!I was planning to save up for this lens - thanks for the samples!
genesimmons
Mu-43 Top Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2017
- Messages
- 602
i bought this in e mount for my sony full frame, i was using a rokinon canon mount with an adapter, i wanted to make the camera smaller, this fit the bill, for the price i am pretty happy, much smaller than the rokinon and lighter, and a stop faster, here is a shot on my sony full frame,
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rfortson
Mu-43 Veteran
Thanks for these shots. I picked one up a few months ago (for the price, how could I pass?) but haven't given it a full shakedown. These shots make me want to get it out.
ss383nova
Mu-43 Rookie
Thanks for this excellent review - I couldn't help thinking "how would these look if I defished them to a rectilinear view" - so here are some of the original images, downloaded and
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Interestingly - I had to move the DXO correction slider to a different setting with each shot to straighten the curved vertical object at the lateral edges in each image. So there is no "one-size-fits-all" correction setting to be used - unless you did some croppting etc before uploading.
Now these corrections are done with web-page compresed originals. Can anyone tell us how they work out using originals? I have had surprisingly good results using the "no-name" 8mm f3.8 generic c-mount Chinese fisheye on a Panasonic micro 4/3 - but these are small fiddly lenses and hard to set and focus - and a true micro 4/3 lens at this price could be the step-up I am looking for.
In contrast to this 7-Artisans "crop fisheye", in my hands with DXO-Pro the Meike 6mm f2 circular fisheye has terrible smearing and CA in each corner when corrected. Remember however that as a true 180-degree fisheye it needs 2-3 times as much distortion correction to approximate to a "rectilinear" view - however in my opinion, it doesn't work sufficient for defishing and will have to stay as a choice for die-hard circular fisheye fans or astrophotographers.
Best wishes to you all - Paul C in the UK
Now I bet someone will say - "OK then - now you've defished them - now sort out the verticals".
Now - how many guessed how the images would orientate as they did with that correction? The moral of the story - use your viewfinder horizon line (or get one of those $1 spirit levels that fixes into the hot shoe) and try to shoot as level as you can if you want to turn a cheap fisheye into a substitute for an expensive ultra-wide rectilinear lens.
All this was done with DXO perspective - currently inexpensive as a download on the Mac App Store (promises - no payments from DXO persuades me to use these - they are just so much easier than using photoshop with all the separate steps involved!)
So here you go - best wishes - Paul C
Now - how many guessed how the images would orientate as they did with that correction? The moral of the story - use your viewfinder horizon line (or get one of those $1 spirit levels that fixes into the hot shoe) and try to shoot as level as you can if you want to turn a cheap fisheye into a substitute for an expensive ultra-wide rectilinear lens.
All this was done with DXO perspective - currently inexpensive as a download on the Mac App Store (promises - no payments from DXO persuades me to use these - they are just so much easier than using photoshop with all the separate steps involved!)
So here you go - best wishes - Paul C
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There is always a price to pay, as can be seen in these pics.
I do some defishing and straightening some lines of my samyang 7.5 in dxo 9, with more often than not the same results.
I landscape it isn't that bad, but in cityscapes or inside a building, there is always a consequence in a different part of the image.
It is the nature of these lenses and IMO not a bad thing.
Quite some straightening here:
And not so much here:
I do some defishing and straightening some lines of my samyang 7.5 in dxo 9, with more often than not the same results.
I landscape it isn't that bad, but in cityscapes or inside a building, there is always a consequence in a different part of the image.
It is the nature of these lenses and IMO not a bad thing.
Quite some straightening here:
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And not so much here:
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I agree - creatively using the distortion (and correcting it) is part of the fun of using these lenses...
As you so clearly show - If you put the fisheyes to horizontal and purpendicular - the distortion is all at the edges and very creative while the central image looks surprisingly natural. This is great for nature. Put the subject at the edge of a fisheye image and tilt - and the creative possibilities are fantastic....but hard to control.
For landscapes - I have found that turning a 14-45mm kit lens to vertical and shooting 3-4 images that overlap by 1/3 (thanks to the rule of thirds grid lines in the viewfinder) and fusing with the fantastic free-to-download "Panorama Stitcher Mini" (Mac App Store - up to 5 overlapping images handled) is the best quality solution for getting the "ultrawide look".
Where this panorama approcah fails is when:
[1] things are moving between shots such as in cramped cityscapes, interiors with people, waves sweeping onto the beach
[2] there are objects close to the camera which never line up when the camera position is rotated and so get horribly distorted (yes - you can measure the lens central point and rotate on a panaorama tripod head around that point and overlap in very small steps to get around this perspective effect - but life is too short for us amatuers and the aim of m4/3 is to be small, light and mobile!).
...And then the only solution is - pay up the 100's of pounds/dollars for the rectilinear ultrwide - or get the fisheye out of the bag and find a correction program that [1] you can afford and [2] which you can do easily without getting bored enough to discourage you from trying.
My experience so far is that it is taking a lot of learning time to imagine how a fisheye image will work out as you take it. In this respect the "full frame" or "cropped" fisheye lenses are much easier to learn to visualise with than the circular fisheye image lenses. Much respect is due to those who can master fisheyes creatively - I have found the learning curve is challenging!
On the strength of this thread on MU-43 - I have just paid up for the 7-artisans lens with M4/3 mount (£107 GBP with delivery included currently in the UK); now I can't wait for it to come. Thanks to you all for sharing the experience, information & encouragement to keep photography fresh and challenging.
As you so clearly show - If you put the fisheyes to horizontal and purpendicular - the distortion is all at the edges and very creative while the central image looks surprisingly natural. This is great for nature. Put the subject at the edge of a fisheye image and tilt - and the creative possibilities are fantastic....but hard to control.
For landscapes - I have found that turning a 14-45mm kit lens to vertical and shooting 3-4 images that overlap by 1/3 (thanks to the rule of thirds grid lines in the viewfinder) and fusing with the fantastic free-to-download "Panorama Stitcher Mini" (Mac App Store - up to 5 overlapping images handled) is the best quality solution for getting the "ultrawide look".
Where this panorama approcah fails is when:
[1] things are moving between shots such as in cramped cityscapes, interiors with people, waves sweeping onto the beach
[2] there are objects close to the camera which never line up when the camera position is rotated and so get horribly distorted (yes - you can measure the lens central point and rotate on a panaorama tripod head around that point and overlap in very small steps to get around this perspective effect - but life is too short for us amatuers and the aim of m4/3 is to be small, light and mobile!).
...And then the only solution is - pay up the 100's of pounds/dollars for the rectilinear ultrwide - or get the fisheye out of the bag and find a correction program that [1] you can afford and [2] which you can do easily without getting bored enough to discourage you from trying.
My experience so far is that it is taking a lot of learning time to imagine how a fisheye image will work out as you take it. In this respect the "full frame" or "cropped" fisheye lenses are much easier to learn to visualise with than the circular fisheye image lenses. Much respect is due to those who can master fisheyes creatively - I have found the learning curve is challenging!
On the strength of this thread on MU-43 - I have just paid up for the 7-artisans lens with M4/3 mount (£107 GBP with delivery included currently in the UK); now I can't wait for it to come. Thanks to you all for sharing the experience, information & encouragement to keep photography fresh and challenging.
OK - now I have my copy of this lens. Here are the settings to turn it into an ultra-wide rectilinear lens.
The DEFISHING setting for the 7-Artisans 8mm F2.8 on a Micro 4/3 camera using DXO-11 (free to download) is ....
[1] Select Distortion Correction
[2] Select Manual Correction
[3] Select Fisheye
[4] type in (or move slider) to 66%
[5] Select SAVE
Best Wishes to you all - Paul C
Images taken on a Lumix G5 with standard sensor settings & Intelligent-ISO at F5.6 with NO post processing other than DXO distortion correction on the second image.
Another 2x images taken on a Lumix G5 with standard sensor settings at F2.8with NO post processing other than DXO distortion correction on the second image.
The DEFISHING setting for the 7-Artisans 8mm F2.8 on a Micro 4/3 camera using DXO-11 (free to download) is ....
[1] Select Distortion Correction
[2] Select Manual Correction
[3] Select Fisheye
[4] type in (or move slider) to 66%
[5] Select SAVE
Best Wishes to you all - Paul C
Images taken on a Lumix G5 with standard sensor settings & Intelligent-ISO at F5.6 with NO post processing other than DXO distortion correction on the second image.
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Another 2x images taken on a Lumix G5 with standard sensor settings at F2.8with NO post processing other than DXO distortion correction on the second image.
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Can Adobe Lightroom remove the fish eye effect that this lens produces?
Or better to just spend 3.5 times as much for the Laowa 7.5mm Rectilinear lens?
Or better to just spend 3.5 times as much for the Laowa 7.5mm Rectilinear lens?
Don't tempt me Mark !........................
The troble for the Laowa is that the Panasonic Lumix H-F007014 7-14mm is now selling at £470 GBP / $620 USD. The Venus Optics Laowa 7.5mm f/2 MFT Lens for Micro Four Thirds has just reached down to the £400 GBP / $530 USD mark; while the 7-Artisans fisheye is now routinely sub £100 / $132 USD.
So come on Venus Optics - drop the price to £200 / $260 USD and see the sales figures shoot up. At your current price many of us will just save up that little bit more for the Lumix ultrawide zoom.
With that price differential - I suspect many of us will be learning "defishing" protocols for a few years longer.
However it makes the point - is there a magic price at which lens sales for M4/3 take off such that profit improves with lower unit price of the goods? At what price point would you pay up for a new and especially "no-name" generic lens?
- with only manual focus
- with an AF lens?
- with an AF and stabilized lens?
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