I wanted to try out some ultra wide angle photography recently so I rented a Peleng 8mm lens from the fine people at Borrow Lenses. I had read a few reviews of this lens and knew I was going to get some interesting looking shots. The Peleng 8mm gives you an incredible 180 degree field of view.
The Peleng 8mm http://www.flickr.com/photos/drome/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Peleng 8mm pointing straight up
Also I quickly realized this is no Canon L series lens. The Peleng 8mm is a all manual lens; manual focus, manual aperture. No a big deal but it can be a bit of a surprise if you are used to making changes on the camera as opposed to the lens itself. This also means you will be chimping a bit more than usual.
Backyard Fountian shot with the peleng 8mm
You will notice the extreme vignetting that you get when shooting with this lens on a full frame camera, like the 5D MarkII. I did not crop any of the images I am posting to give you a feel for the extreme nature of the vignette. If I was to use this images for display I would most likely crop a large portion of the black out at least. If you are shooting on a crop frame camera you will still get a vignette but it will be much less.
Umbrella from Below
This lens is useful when you are looking for an extreme wide angle fisheye effect. If I shot more skateboarding this lens would definitely be in my quiver. In normal shooting situations however it does not have a great deal of use. While shooting with it I often felt held back more than I felt empowered. You must get very close to your subject to have it fill the frame. You also really have to be careful with your field of view, at 180 degrees you can easily pickup your legs and shoes in a shot. I did that more than a few times.
Hello legs
I did not get a chance to shot any video with this lens, which I am now kicking myself for. It would have been a great little experiment to try for sure. Maybe I will rent it again an do some skateboarding footage with it.
Overall this is a fun little lens, if you want to break out from the norm I recommend renting it for a week or so and giving it a real workout.
Rent the Peleng 8mm for Borrow Lenses
House, through the looking glass
Don’t forget about me when you need that book cover! 
