SHUTTER JOURNEY SINGAPORE

Rockstar 10mm F8 Fisheye
Reviewed by Editor AL Lee

Image: Editor AL with the new Rockstar 10mm F8 Fisheye mounted on a Fuji Camera.

13th June 2021, Singapore – And so, recently I have been dabbling with quite a number of China-Brand lenses. One of them recently caught my attention – its a diagonal Fisheye eye lens, fixed aperture at F8, tiny Pan cake design and costs only SGD $55.00 via Aliexpress. the construction of the lens are uncannily similar to the Pergear 10mm F8 Fisheye but with a little twist. The distance selector on the Pergear are at the front of the lens bottom facing outwards while the Rockstar 10mm F8 Fisheye distance selector are on a focusing ring like a regular manual focus lens. Before we deep dive, check out the unbox video below. The review and images will be after the jump.

First and foremost, this new Rockstar 10mm F8 Fisheye appear on eBay and soon all other online platforms somewhere between Oct-Dec 2020. It was quite costly back when it first came out as from our research, it costs around SGD $120 back in 2020 and today it costs merely SGD $55.00 – and delivered right to your door.

Let’s get to the specs. Not much information was available on the internet about this lens so I have to do a little more work than usual. The Rockstar 10mm F8 Fisheye is a tiny lens measuring (estimated) 50mm x 12mm buts weights a weighty 80gm (other mount may differ). This little pancake is made from a full metal construction thus explains the weight.

Image: Rockstar 10mm F8 Fisheye mounted on a Fuji Camera. 

As mentioned in the unbox video above, there isn’t any distance scale on the lens except two markings – left 0.3 to right Infinity. I dismantled the lens to confirm the elements and it turned out to be an exact copy of the Pergear 10mm – there are 5 elements in 4 groups and 2 of the elements looks like special elements (sorry I forgot to take some images of the elements). There are 5 fixed aperture blades which I wondered why wouldn’t they just made it as an aperture ring like Lensbaby.

The lens starts focusing from about 35cm when I set the focusing to the “0.3” marking and there is no filter thread so no screw-on filter can be used. Even the lens cap are the friction-lock type. The front element are tiny, about 1.4cm in diameter and the lens are finished with a red ring that does nothing to the lens except to make it look slightly more special than the Pergear 10mm.

Let’s take a look at the images!

I noticed that the colors rendered are terribly wrong. My white balance are set to Automatic most of the time and I realised the Rockstar 10mm F8 really screwed me on the color department. There are strange & uneven hues of purple at corners and there is also very visible vignetting (light fall off) on the corners. No choice but to keep changing my white balance settings at the later part. Conveniently I just edit the images to monochrome.

Noticing the weird color rendering, I continued with the review and try to use this lens to shoot whatever I came across during the walk.

It is really an unpredictable lens, some of the colors came out correct while some simply looks like they are shot in Pluto.

The Rockstar 10mm F8 Fisheye gave me 16mm on my camera (crop factor) and I am using it like a distorted ultra wide angle lens rather than a true blue Fisheye. The distortions are mild and not exactly visible unless shooting architectural images from a nearer distance.

The 2-mode (near or far) focusing does allows me to quickly change focus distance to shoot random subject easily though.

Using the Rockstar 10mm F8 Fisheye, I used it as a mild-distorted-Ultra-Wide-angle lens. Kinda have the love-hate feeling. It is a competent lens as an UWA but I cannot accept the surprises from the unpredictable color rendering. Gave myself a mental note that I should never use this lens for any serious assignment but as a leisure lens or for days that I am drunk.

I was trying to “like” this lens through the whole review process and it had been hard. I was not able to resonate with it no matter how I tried. The only thing that I enjoyed was the tiny size and the curious look of other photographers whom I met on the streets. They kept staring at my camera. 

The color rendering was so unpredictable to the point that I simply try to concentrate on the framing and composition rather than checking on the colors or sharpness. Yes I was very irritated and frustrated at that point.

Image: Bon Jovi was here.

In summary, the Rockstar 10mm F8 Fisheye is a Nonsense-lens. Yes, it may be cheap (SGD $55.00), small pancake design which you can put in your pocket, a futuristic looking external design, but, the “surprise” color rendering which 80% of the time are inaccurate, the not-so-easy to focus which may get your subject blur even with focus peaking, the crazy vignette, which I almost wanted to throw this lens into the Singapore River.  I will say, don’t waste your f**king time with this lens. Save your money or check out the better China-Brand lenses here.

Buying this Lens
If you are feeling adventurous & curious about this Rockstar 10mm F8 Fisheye and needed a good spank on your butt, then you buy this lens. But I am sure our accredited merchants will rather not sell this lens!

Renting this Camera/Lens – (Please check for availability first.)
For those of you who wish to try out this lens before purchase, we are pleased to share that this camera & lens is probably NOT available for rental at our appointed rental merchant:

Camera Rental Centre is Conveniently Located at:
50 South Bridge Road, CMO Building,  (very near to Clarke Quay MRT)
#02-18. Singapore 058682
Website: http://sg.camerarental.biz/

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Reviewer: Chief Editor AL Lee

Chief Editor & Founder of Ourshutterjourney.com Worldwide and Principal Trainer at Ourshutterjourney Photography Academy. AL is a commercial photographer as well as an educator who believes in the art of digital memories. An ambassador of several photography brands, AL is well versed in many camera systems. Someone once told us AL’s man cave looks more like a camera store than a bedroom. 

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