Fisheyes

[fingerz]

Are fisheye lenses just lenses which have a very wide angle? If so, what focal length does a lens have to be below to be considered fisheye? And if not, what's the difference?

I quite fancy getting a fisheye or maybe just a super wide lens (if they're different) but can't find any for under £300, which is too much for me to spend on an experiment. Is there any way to get a feel for it on a budget?

[CT]

Fisheye lenses vary enormously. A true fish eye lens has a field of view of 360 degrees or very close to it - if you laid the camera on it's back pointing at the sky it would take in the whole of the horizon. They also produce a circular image. These lenses are really highly specialised and of little practical use for most photographers.

Many extreme wide angle lenses are also described as Fisheye although they give a full frame image. I owned a Nikon full frame fisheye lens once. It had about a 180 degrees field of view. Pointing the camera at the horizon you could see all of your legs and feet in the vewfinder. You could also see anyone standing at the side of you. These lenses cause massive perspective and other distortion effects in your shots and it's more pronounced the closer the subject matter is to the lens, so again they're pretty specialized and of limited use to most of us, and as you've found they tend to be expensive!

It may be possible to hire one if you wanted to try one out for a day or two. :)

[fingerz]

Yeah I know about all the distortion. I like it. But maybe that's cos I'm a young'un and I've grown up with MTV/Channel 4 style interviews with 'crazy' black & white, fisheye type stuff used as cutaways.

[fingerz]

So anyway. Does this mean fisheyes are a seperate thing to very wide lenses?

Would, say, a 10mm lens have the same distortion? And are there any cheap 10mm lenses in the world?

[Marcel]

When I worked at the Beeb, the guy who did the Manchester website came to visit us with a 360 panoramic camera thingy to take a photo.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/panoramas/bus_tvradio_360.shtml
and
http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/panoramas/rnd_tvradio_360.shtml
Guess which one I am :D

I wasn't 'into' photography back then so I didn't bother asking to have a look and a play with it.

[SammyC]

Old giffa at the back of the bus in the white flat cap??!?

[CT]

The Canon 10 - 22mm EF-S has to be worth looking at. That's the equivalent of 16-35mm on a 1:1 format camera. This might be my next lens, but not for a while.

http://www.waltersphotovideo.co.uk/details.php?id=9518A003AA&productname1=Canon%20NEW%20EF-S%2010-22mm%20f/3.5-4.5%20USM

You can get it cheaper than that though! ;)

[Marcel]

lol, nope the big fat bloke with red spikey hair talking to him. :D

Anybody know what sort of camera / lens that was? I remember him saying something like he basically ducks or something, and presses a button and it takes a photo, whizzing round very fast or something.

[dazzajl]

I have the sigma 8mm, which is a circular fisheye with a 185 degree view. Although you only get a full circle on 35mm size film/sensor.

It's really very hard to resist taking shots a one or two mm of the subject with huuuuuuuuge distortion but loads of background setting too.

I use mine for virtual tour capture and the quality is pretty good, still makes me laugh that it comes with a hood.

If you're any where near the wiltshire neck of the woods you're welcome to come and try it out.... you are an EOS user aren't you?

[fingerz]

300D, yeah. Unfortunately I'm in the Croydon area so not really nearby but many thanks for your kind offer. Any chance I could see a few pics you've taken with it?

Also, how much was/is it?

[CriPPle]

Just found these sample pics on the net.

http://www.pbase.com/cameras/sigma/8_4_ex_circular_fisheye

[dazzajl]

Not got much with me but here are a few, low light, hand held, not very good, blah blah blah....... ;)

This guy made a good model
http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=yb2lgb&outx=600&noresize=1&nostamp=1

so I took these two
http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=yb2lgd&outx=600&noresize=1&nostamp=1
http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=yb2lge&outx=600&noresize=1&nostamp=1

and then this interior
http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=yb2lg9&outx=600&noresize=1&nostamp=1

[fingerz]

Nice shots. Cheers for that.

I think I prefer full-frame stuff, though. Rather than the circular style.

[dazzajl]

I think I prefer full-frame stuff, though. Rather than the circular style.

That would have you looking in the 10/12/14mm lens range. I believe these can still give you 180 degree coverage across the horizontal but not vertically too.

[fingerz]

Excellent stuff. Thanks for the info. Now I know what to look for. Doubt I'll find anything cheap enough though.

[dazzajl]

Doubt I'll find anything cheap enough though.

You never know, I've got quite a few bargains over the years just by keeping an eye on the 2nd hand listings untill what I wanted came up.

Jesspos is quite good for this as it only takes a minute to run a check nationwide and they'll send any item (no matter how stupidly big) to your local shop for you too look at.

[daveyuk]

CT
Try Onestop Digital as they have the 10 -22 for £443.99
http://www.onestop-digital.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=24_26&osCsid=bf640256e647e0572bb61a2dfb5bda0d
or
7dayshop as they have the 10-22 for £499.99
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/normal_search_result.php?keywords=canon&sort=2a&&page=9

That's the best I can find, unless the great and the good know any better hope it helps...

[CT]

Cheers Davey, but if I go that route it wont be yet awhile. Both those places are usually two of the cheapest.