olympus pen e-pl8

with the fishes

in ,
pen + fisheye.jpg

have been wandering around with the meike 6.5mm f/2.0 fisheye lens & experimenting with its funky possibilities. long ago I had a toy 35mm film fisheye camera & always enjoyed the cool perspective of these ultra wide aesthetic lenses. now that I’ve got my hands on a closeout olympus pen epl8 with a micro four thirds mount I was excited to try out a true fisheye as opposed to the free app I have on my phone.

this is such a fun lens! an absolutely giant frame, with the coolest round image & dark vignetting. so much fun for a neighbourhood stroll & putting a new spin on images. the meike is an inexpensive lens that has a much fancier build quality than I expected. this is a solid little guy, made of metal instead of the typical plastic for this price point. I grabbed it with a bundle of free accessories at adorama. between this gem & the slr magic toy lens my olympus pen is becoming a super fun experimental camera.

toys

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after more than 80 years in the business, olympus announced in late june that they would be stopping production on their camera products. once a major player in the camera world, olympus has recorded record losses for the past few years, due in large part to the smartphone’s hold on the point & shoot camera market. I’d only briefly tried olympus 35mm film cameras in the past, but was interested to see their digital mirrorless offerings & found a pen e-pl8 on closeout sale for a steal. combined with the slr magic toy lens this little dude becomes a cool analog camera dupe. I’m loving the random colour & focus oddities which the lens creates. the pen’s small size makes it a great wandering around camera & I’m glad I grabbed one before they’re gone.

hollywood wandering with the olympus e-pl8 & slr magic toy lens.