Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm f/2.8

Nippon Kogaku · Nikon F · 1970 · Retrofocus fisheye

Also known as: Fisheye-Nikkor Auto 8mm f/2.8 · Ai Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm f/2.8 · Ai-S Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm f/2.8 · Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm 1:2.8 · Nikon 8mm f/2.8 fisheye · Nippon Kogaku Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm f/2.8 · フィッシュアイニッコール 8mm F2.8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Fisheye-Nikkor Auto 8mm f/2.8 (Nippon Kogaku, pre-Ai) Nikon F 1970–1971 230011–231285 (confirmed 230031–231285) 1,275 (Vink, from collected serial numbers)
Fisheye-Nikkor Auto 8mm f/2.8 (Nikon, pre-Ai) Nikon F 1971–1977 240001?–240976 confirmed (the block start is Vink's estimate) Not counted separately — Vink gives 2,491 for the whole 240001–242491 span, which the Ai version shares
Ai Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm f/2.8 Nikon F 1977–1982 240709–241132 (thick rear protector; filters L1A, Y48, Y52, O56, R60)
241193–242491 (thin rear protector; filters L1BC, Y48, Y52, O56, R60) 		Not counted separately — inside the shared 2,491 for 240001–242491 (Vink)
Ai-S Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm f/2.8 Nikon F 1981–1998 243001–247482 (confirmed 243005–247482) 4,482 (Vink) — more than half of every 8mm f/2.8 ever built
  1. The projection is equidistant — image height rises in proportion to the angle of incidence, y = f·θ — which is the ordinary fisheye rule and not the orthographic projection of the 10mm f/5.6 OP. Ten elements in eight groups, unchanged from 1970 to 1998 across all four versions.
  2. Quantities are Vink's, derived from the span of collected serial numbers rather than from any Nikon production record. No factory figure has been published. Summed across the blocks that can be separated, roughly 8,250 were built — 1,275 as a Nippon Kogaku lens, about 2,491 across the Nikon-branded pre-Ai and Ai versions together, and 4,482 as an Ai-S.
  3. The Nikon-branded pre-Ai and the Ai lens cannot be told apart by serial number alone in Vink's data: their confirmed ranges overlap between 240709 and 240976. The Ai ridge on the mount is the reliable test.
  4. Two lengths are published. Vink gives 128mm, which is extension from the flange; Nikon's own specification sheet gives 139mm overall and 128mm from the flange. They agree.
  5. No list price for this lens, in any currency or year, has been located.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • 180° circular image, 23mm across, inside the 24×36 frame
  • No mirror lock-up and no accessory finder — the first Fisheye-Nikkor that could be aimed through the camera
  • A five-filter turret inside the barrel, changed by a knurled ring; no front filter is possible
  • Focuses to 0.3m, with an automatic diaphragm running f/2.8 to f/22

Fisheye-Nikkor Auto 8mm f/2.8 (Nippon Kogaku, pre-Ai):

  • NIPPON KOGAKU JAPAN on the front ring
  • Five slotted screws in the mount, no Ai ridge; Ai conversion kits 56, 57 and 58 fit it
  • Single-layer coating at this stage

Fisheye-Nikkor Auto 8mm f/2.8 (Nikon, pre-Ai):

  • NIKON replaces NIPPON KOGAKU on the front ring
  • Five cross-head screws in the mount in place of the slotted five
  • NIC multicoating on later examples of the run

Ai Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm f/2.8:

  • Ai coupling ridge and the second aperture-direct-readout scale
  • Two sub-versions distinguished by the depth of the rear element protector and by which skylight filter sits in the turret

Ai-S Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm f/2.8:

  • Dash-shaped focus index
  • MADE IN JAPAN engraving; 1,100g against 1,000g for the earlier versions

Serial-range notes

230001–230002
Prototypes, Nippon Kogaku engraved, 2 recorded (Vink).
88011–89388
A different lens: the mirror-up Fish-eye-Nikkor 8mm f/8 of July 1962 – April 1965, 9 elements in 5 groups, 1,378 built. It is the fisheye Stanley Kubrick used to make the eye of HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and it is routinely confused with this one.
750011–752222
Also a different lens: the mirror-up Fisheye-Nikkor 7.5mm f/5.6, January 1966 – February 1970, 9 elements in 6 groups, 2,212 built.

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus fisheye
Construction
10 elements / 8 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/22
Diaphragm blades
7
Min. focus
0.3 m
Dimensions
123 × 139 mm
Weight
1000 g
Years manufactured
1970–1998
Country
Japan
Coating
Single-layer at launch in February 1970; NIC multicoating on later examples

What reviewers say

Optical formula — Retrofocus fisheye

No readable Nikon cross-section of this lens was located.

History

For the first eight years of the Fisheye-Nikkor there was no picture in the viewfinder. The 8mm f/8 of 1962, the 7.5mm f/5.6 of 1966, the 10mm f/5.6 OP of 1968 and the 6mm f/5.6 of February 1970 all buried their rear groups deep behind the flange, close enough to the shutter that the reflex mirror had to be locked up before the lens could be mounted. Framing meant an accessory finder in the shoe, showing an approximation; focusing meant reading a scale. The lens took the photograph and the photographer took it on trust.

The Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm f/2.8 arrived in February 1970 — the same month as the 6mm f/5.6, the last of the old kind — and undid all of that at once. Ten elements in eight groups, arranged as a retrofocus design, put the rear element far enough forward that the mirror swings. The aperture is automatic, so metering is at full aperture through the lens. Focus runs to 0.3m and can be set while watching the result. A turret of five filters — skylight, medium yellow, deep yellow, orange, red — turns inside the barrel, because a lens whose front element bulges through 180° cannot take a filter in front of it. The maximum aperture, three stops faster than the 7.5mm it replaced, exists mainly so the finder image is bright enough to focus by.

The circle it draws is 23mm across on the 24×36 frame, and the projection is equidistant: image height rises in proportion to the angle of incidence, which is the ordinary fisheye rule and the reason a straight line becomes a smooth arc rather than the crushed periphery of the orthographic 10mm OP. Everything in front of the camera is in the frame, which in practice means the photographer’s feet are in it too unless something is done about them.

Three mount generations followed and the optics went through none of them unchanged: 10 elements in 8 groups from 1970 to 1998. The Nippon Kogaku engraving gave way to Nikon in 1971; the Ai coupling ridge arrived in 1977, with sub-versions distinguished by nothing more than the thickness of the rear element protector and whether the turret’s first filter is an L1A or an L1BC; the Ai-S of December 1981 added a dash-shaped focus index and 100 grams. Vink’s serial arithmetic makes it about 8,250 lenses in all, of which 4,482 — more than half — are Ai-S. Against the 265 examples of the 6mm f/2.8, this is the fisheye that people actually bought.

What is not recorded is who designed it. Marco Cavina establishes that every pre-autofocus Fisheye-Nikkor came from just three men — Shimizu Yoshiyuki, Isshiki Masaki and Matsuki Keiji — and Nikon’s own house history names Matsuki for the 10mm OP and the 6mm f/5.6, and Shimizu for the 6mm f/2.8. The 8mm f/2.8 has never been assigned to any of them in print. Nor has a list price, in any currency, for any year of a twenty-eight-year production run. And the point at which the Nikon-branded pre-Ai lens stops and the Ai lens starts cannot be read from a serial number: the two confirmed ranges overlap between 240709 and 240976, and only the ridge on the mount settles it.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo taken with the Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm f/2.8
Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm f/2.8 (Mliu92) — Mliu92, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Sample photo taken with the Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm f/2.8
Fisheye-Nikkor Auto 8mm f/2.8 (Mliu92) — Mliu92, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm f/2.8? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $1,700 across 21 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $1,200–$2,200). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $1,700.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$1,700$1,200–$2,20021
2026-09-06$1,700$1,200–$2,20021

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 18 more listings

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Fisheye-Nikkor 6mm f/2.8

Sources (6)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.