It is a “full frame” diagonal fisheye lens for APS-C DSLRs, meaning that the image it produces fills the frame on APS-C cameras. It produces an immense field of view - 180 degrees on 1.5x crop sensors, or on 1.6x crop sensors such as Canon EOS APS-C DSLRs produces 167 degrees.

The optical construction of the lens is 10 elements placed in 7 optical groups. The Samyang 8mm fisheye features an aspherical hybrid lens and newest generation multilayer anti–reflection multi-coating (MC) to minimise flare and ghosting.

As with all current Samyang lenses it features manual focus. The body of the 8mm fish-eye lens does not change size due to the IF Internal focusing design.

Due to the very large depth of field produced by such a small focal length lens focus can be easily achieved by simply setting the approximate distance on the lens scale. Setting the lens to around 1m at f8 will produce images that are sharp from very close objects to infinity. As with all manual focus lenses for critical or in very close focus situations you can use Live-View to fine-tune the focus manually.

The Samyang 8 mm Fish-eye lens is also capable of producing panoramas and 360 virtual tours, including full 360 degree images with the correct hardware and various 3rd party panoramic software supplied by other vendors. 

Fisheye lenses are also popular for special effects use where distortion and field curvature, exaggerated perspective, or extreme depth of field are desired. Groups such as skateboarders are embracing the Samyang fisheyes for skate videos and photography, due to their very high quality, yet are an extremely affordable option; the alternatives are highly expensive, or are low quality lens adapters offering sub-standard quality.

The aperture consists of six diaphragm blades, apertures available from f/3.5 to f/22. The lens hood is part of the body design and helps to alleviate flare from behind the lens.

The Samyang 8mm fisheye lens offers some of the best optics in a lens for its class, and exceptional value for money. A specialist lens, affordable to every photographer.

Samyang 8mm 1:3.5 Aspherical IF MC Fish-eye CS is available in the following mounts: mounts: Canon EOS, Konica Minolta KM / Sony A Mount, Sony E mount, Pentax, 4/3 (Olympus and Panasonic Four Thirds (NOT micro 4/3rds), Samsung NX