Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 8mm f1.8 PRO

Astrophotography With Olympus’s New Super Fast Fish-Eye Lens

The latest addition to Olympus’s line-up of high-end M.Zuiko Digital PRO lenses is the world’s fastest fish-eye with a 180 degrees angle-of-view so it’s a whole lot more versatile than you might expect.

The new M.Zuiko Digital ED 8mm f1.8 PRO is the world’s fastest fish-eye with a 180 degrees angle- of-view so it’s a whole lot more versatile than you might expect. We’ve sampled its expansive capabilities for astrophotography. If you think a fish- eye lens is just a bit too specialised, Olympus may just change your mind with its new 8mm f1.8 model. It’s the latest addition to the PRO series of pro- grade lenses for the OM-D cameras (although it’ll also fit any Digital Pen camera body as well), and it combines a remarkable 180 degrees angle- of-view with a fast maximum aperture of f1.8. In fact, right now, it’s the world’s fastest 180- degree fish- eye.

The ultra-wide angle- of-view is obviously ideal for astrophotography, enabling you to capture the full impact of an expansive night sky. The effective focal length is 16mm so this lens has an inherently large depth- of-field, ensuring any objects in the foreground of your image will be sharp as well as the sky. However, what’s really important for astrophotography is that this focal length allows for much longer exposure times (up to 30 seconds, in fact) without the stars moving and starting to create light trails. In other words, even with fairly long exposure times, the stars remain spherical and perfect pinpoints of light.

Not surprisingly, this places considerable demands on the quality of the optics and Olympus has gone to great lengths to come up with a design that optimises both sharpness and brightness across the frame – quite a challenge with a 180- degree angle- of-view – but also minimises comatic and chromatic aberrations.

The Inside Story

The M.Zuiko Digital 8mm PRO lens is packed with state- of-art optical technologies… the 17- element construction includes Super ED (extra-low dispersion), Super HR (high refractive index) and aspherical types which combine to provide uniform centre-to- corner sharpness and negligible vignetting. Additionally, this lens has Olympus’s ZERO (Zuiko Extralow Reflection Optical) multi- coating to effectively counter both ghosting and flare. Thanks to its exceptional optical performance, this is a fish- eye lens with a great many more applications than would normally be the case… including, for example, underwater photography (where the expansive angle- of-view again creates visual impact and the wide aperture allows for faster shutter speeds) and landscape photography for truly ‘big’ views. An optional underwater lens port is available for using this lens on OM-D camera bodies. A minimum focusing distance of just 2.5 centimetres means that you can even use this lens for some spectacular macro photography, using the exaggerated perspective for dramatic effect.

Olympus has even thought about the environments in which this lens is likely to be used, so its design is fully weatherproofed to prevent the intrusion of dust or moisture while also enabling you to keep on shooting in temperatures as low as -10 degrees Celsius (with either the OM-D E-M1 or E-M5 Mark II). This sealing means condensation forming inside the lens just isn’t an issue when shooting on a cold night.

Compared to many other fish- eye lenses too, the Olympus 8mm f1.8 PRO is very compact, measuring just 80 millimetres length (including its built-in hood) and weighing only 315 grams… so you don’t need a super heavyweight tripod when taking longer exposures at night. And, of course, the fast aperture of f1.8 means you can leave the tripod at home on more occasions, especially with the sophisticated five-axis image stabilisation available in both the E-M1 and E-M5 II.

In Summary

A unique combination of useful capabilities and high optical performance makes the M.Zuiko Digital ED 8mm f1.8 PRO a remarkable lens which has the potential to open up a whole new world of photography, bringing a dramatically different perspective to a variety of applications.