Meet the new Tokina SZ 8mm f/2.8 fisheye lens for APS-C mirrorless cameras. Offering a 180-degree field of view, this new lens ships mid-March and will be available in Fujifilm X-mount and Sony APS-C E-mount. Pricing is forthcoming.
Who’s it for?
This manual focus lens features a click-less aperture and focuses as close as 4 inches. On APS-C cameras it offers a focal length equivalent to 12mm in full-frame terms. Tokina is marketing it to a wide range of users, from landscape photographers to architecture shooters, vloggers/filmmakers to pet photographers.
Frankly, all of these use cases sound like potentially good candidates for the fisheye look—the close focus will certainly allow for some pretty neat compositions and the 180-degree field of view will surely result in unique distortion. Video shooters working in tight locations will definitely benefit from the compact size of this lens. And the f/2.8 maximum aperture should still allow for some nice subject separation.
We could also see this being a great option for skateboard and music photography, the latter, again, given its reasonably fast f/2.8 aperture. And we’d be remiss not to mention the fact that the 1990s—an era when just about every MTV music video featured at least one fisheye shot— are back in vogue. So Tokina’s timing with this release couldn’t be more perfect.
Build quality & optics
The Tokina 8mm fisheye is just over 2-inches long and weighs 9.9 ounces. Its optical construction includes 11 elements in nine groups, with a 7-blade diaphragm and apertures ranging from f/2.8 to f/22. There’s is no front filter thread, but a detachable lens hood will be included. Tokina says the glass elements feature multi-coating to help improve optical performance.
Price & availability
Tokina’s SZ 8mm f/2.8 fisheye is expected to be able from March 15th. We’ll update this story with pricing info when it becomes available.