Lensbaby 5.8mm f/3.5 Circular Fisheye Review

Lensbaby 5.8mm f/3.5 Circular Fisheye Handling and Features

For a lens pitching in at the budget end, build quality is decent enough, although the lens doesn't feel quite as well constructed as other manual focus budget options from the likes of Samyang. The lens barrel and bayonet are constructed mostly from plastics, plus the manual focus ring feels slightly gritty and aperture control feels slightly loose in operation. Even so, the lens is lightweight, tipping the scales at 220g and it balances well with the Nikon D600 camera used for testing.

Focusing is performed internally, so the lens barrel does not extend during focusing.  Due to the extreme angle of view it can be very easy to let your finger slip into the view of the lens, marring the corner of images. So long as suitable caution is taken, this can be avoided.

Minimum marked focus distance is 10cm, which will be great for shooting in claustrophobic environments or even for the occasional close-up image. The focusing ring travels beyond this point so the closest focus distance may even be closer.

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