The fundamental matrix is a basic tool in the analysis of scenes taken with two uncalibrated cameras, and the 8 point algorithm is a frequently cited method for computing the fundamental matrix from a set of 8 or more point matches. It has the advantage of simplicity of implementation. The prevailing view is, however, that it is extremely susceptible to noise and hence virtually useless for most purposes. The paper challenges that view, by showing that by preceding the algorithm with a very simple normalization (translation and scaling) of the coordinates of the matched points, results are obtained comparable with the best iterative algorithms. This improved performance is justified by theory and verified by extensive experiments on real images.