Lensbaby 5.8mm f/3.5 Circular Fisheye Review

Lensbaby 5.8mm f/3.5 Circular Fisheye Performance

As far as sharpness is concerned, the performance of this lens is similar to what is typical of high-end fisheye optics, with excellent sharpness in the centre of the image circle from maximum aperture. As the aperture is stopped down, sharpness towards the edges of the image circle improves steadily from fairly poor levels at maximum aperture, to very good levels at f/11.

MTF
 

How to read our charts

The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column.

The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple.

For this review, the lens was tested on a Nikon D600 using Imatest.

Typically, for fisheye optics, chromatic aberrations can be a feature along high contrast edges towards the edges of the image circle with fringing exceeding 1.75 pixel widths at f/4.

CA
 

How to read our charts

Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software.

Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimise the problem, hence they usually cost more.

For this review, the lens was tested on a Nikon D600 using Imatest.

Distortion is as you might expect from a fisheye. Using a fisheye lens will always be a creative choice, where the distortion is used to enhance your image.

As is common with fisheye lenses, strong point sources of light can cause flare and loss of contrast, even so, this lens isn't anymore, or less susceptible to flare than most other fisheye lenses.

Value For Money

The £210 price of this lens is a little cheaper than the closest circular fisheye equivalent from Samyang. Their 8mm f/3.5 AS IF MC CS II lens costs between £220 and £270 depending on the mount.

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