Battle of the Fisheyes

I thought it might be fun to pit my $37 fisheye lens adapter against the $800 Olympus 8mm fisheye lens.

Of course, there probably isn’t any contest here at all as the Olympus lens is simply stunning but the lens adapter is no slouch either.

But I decided it might be fun to take some photos on a recent visit to the Portland Rose Garden with the 8mm lens and the fisheye adapter attached to the same camera (an Olympus e-520) with a 14-42mm lens.

Same camera settings, same location, different lenses. I’ll let you decide which is better.

8mm (I recommend the larger version):

Lens adapter (again, more detail in the full size shot):

Of course, one of the limitations of the lens adapter is the distortion that occurs when you use the zoom which is very similar to the results I get with my Lomography Fisheye (film) camera:

Which doesn’t occur on the fixed fisheye lens:

Lens adapter:

Both lenses capture an incredible amount of detail. Having a fisheye lens like the 8mm would be a great addition to any camera bag…in my opinion at least. I know a few people aren’t that keen on the distortion that any fisheye brings but for me, it makes things a lot more interesting when you can capture an incredibly wide angle.

8mm:

Sadly, I have to send all the Olympus gear back tomorrow so for now, I’ll have to settle with my lens adapter. I definitely want to add a fisheye to my gear soon…having the Olympus 8mm for this past month has only solidified this.

You can view the rest of the photos from the rose garden, as well, all the other shots I’ve taken with the Olympus gear in the past month.