Last week I was kindly offered a lens from Adam for the not-so-huge sum of money of £35. The lens is a Peleng 8mm fisheye lens which is a completely, totally, fully-manual lens with absolutely no electronic connections on it. This means that when using it, the aperture and focus must be done by guessing, the eye and some skill (yeh, ok!)

Well anyway, I’ve always wanted a fisheye because they offer such a massive wide view as well as the awesome looking fisheye distortion as seen on some skate video’s and various extreme sports.

Graham and a couple of my friends went out to Portsmouth in the usual places for night photography a few nights ago and I came back with a surprising number of good, usable shots. I think it helps having such a hard to use lens since I am less lazy when taking a photo, making sure the exposure is correct, composition is spot on and tripod is actually on firm ground!

Here’s some of my favourites…

Seeing this pond in real life was quite impressive at night on such a calm evening, but even more so when I eyed it up through my camera and the fisheye! I really like the distortion in this shot which is simply not possible without such a wide crazy lens.

I have a thing for this church and I always say it. I am never completely happy with any photos that I take of this damn church, but this one is probably one of my favourites so far. Again, the distortion is just crazy – I love it!

Ben had the idea of painting this star on the floor, basically outlining the star which is already there – put there as a memory of WW2 I think. This came out well too, and I wouldn’t have been able to take this shot without the fisheye.

There was a few more shots that I took from the evening too, all of which I am fairly happy with. As for the lens itself, I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the look and adventure of a truly wide lens. Its relatively cheap through eBay and works just out of the tin. Its a no-frills manual lens, so it does take a fair bit of time to get used to and a lot of patience and practising is required. After that, just enjoy!