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Canon objektiv fisheye7/27/2023 ![]() ![]() What’s a Kelda? Is it a Samyang?Īs it turns out, some digging reveals that some people have noted the similarities in external design, but no one has been forthcoming with the answer.įurther digging shows that Kelda is NOT a Samyang lens. There are no electrical contacts, of course, nor mechanical linkages for aperture. The rear of the lens has a very very fine concentric circular patterning, which is different from any other lens I’ve seen. The downside is that you can’t fit the cap on, and thus, the front element is very vulnerable to damage or dirt. Without the hood attached, it should be possible to use the lens with a full frame sensor without any edges from the hood showing up. There is evidence of an anti-reflection coating of some sort. The front element of the lens, as you would expect, is nicely curved but is also fairly dark coloured. The aperture is controlled by the metal ring in the rear, which has click stops. During focusing, the lens extends ever so slightly. The ring rotates with little resistance, and does not feel nicely damped, instead feeling a bit light and hollow. Focusing is enacted by rotating the larger rubberized ring. ![]() The lens features a red-coloured band around the ring, probably making a connection with the Canon L-series red colouring. The petal hood comes off by rotating the hood until the symbols meet. The lens features a front cap which clips onto the hood, which is released by squeezing the plastic ribbed portions. The lens was placed in a plastic bag with a small bag of desiccant. The lens itself is packed inside a moulded plastic shell in halves, similar to what my Samyang lens was packed in. It’s a bit thin, but it feels good and it doesn’t smell like some of the other Chinese plastic pouches. The first thing you’re greeted by when opening the box is a pleather pouch for the lens. Their URL, is actually not registered at the moment! How very reassuring. The capitalization is pretty bad, but it does clearly show the lens was Made in China, and Kelda Corporation is a US company (unexpectedly). Curiously there is no mention of where the lens was made or assembled on the sides of the box, or even details of the company – you have to turn it over to find out more. One good feature is a removable petal lens hood – this was not a feature of the original Samyang CS (and was implemented in the CS II). ![]() The sides of the box lists some of the features of the lens – pretty much a generic spiel. It was listed on eBay with no branding.Īs it turns out, the lens is a Kelda branded lens, packed in a mostly generic white colour cardboard box. It was a bit of excitement and a bit of a mystery to get the package and see what was inside. I decided to take the plunge in case it was indeed a rebadged Samyang. ![]() It wouldn’t be entirely out of the question, as I got my Samyang lens for cheaper than AU$380 – the pricing is very much affected by the exchange rate, which, is quite poor at the moment. There was no branding on the listing and the details were sparse, but the price was definitely attractive. Having a need to buy another fisheye lens, I went shopping and came across a Samyang lookalike which was 45% cheaper, at AU$210. Both lenses cost just a fraction (under half) of what a Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 DX fisheye (~AU$840) would cost. These options are both manual-type lenses, requiring manual focusing and aperture control, however, for fish-eye lenses with such a wide depth-of-field, the focusing is much less critical than it would otherwise seem. In fact, I liked it so much that I owned one for Canon and one for Nikon! The other that’s widely known is a Zenitar 16mm f/2.8 fisheye (~AU$260), which is more suited for full-frame users, and isn’t as nice when it comes to flare handling. In terms of options, the one I like most is the Samyang 8mm f/3.5 fisheye (~AU$380), available under a range of different rebadge names such as Bower, Pro-Optic, Rokinon, Opteka, Vivitar, Falcon, Polar, Walimex and Bell and Howwell. The number of fisheye options for DSLRs have generally be limited, and it was hard for many to justify spending real money on a real fisheye lens. Their extreme distortion effect serves to be a novelty, which is sometimes overused, and can prove to be a handy feature to squeeze in extreme fields of view, or to ease 360-degree panorama photo-taking. Fisheye lenses are pretty special when it comes to lenses. ![]()
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