Fisheye Lens

danielfellowes

danielfellowes

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I was thinking of getting myself a fisheye lens, but I'm not sure of how useful it will be... I love the effect of wideangle lenses and the Sigma 8mm f3.5 EX DG Fisheye lens looks pretty good to me (but then, what do I know?). The place I am looking it's £499.99.

I was just wondering if anybody has one, or similar. I'm just sceptical of the demand for circular pictures... It might be fun for me, but it'd be nice if it could make its money's worth in shots.

As a cheaper, possibly more useful alternative, I was looking at the Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM lens for £311.99. As I can't really afford to be spending over £500 on a lens at the moment, are these my best options? Or have I just not looked hard enough?
 
I am sort of in the same boat, I would love to have a fisheye lens to play with, but at that cost it would need to earn its keep, and I just don't think it would :(

I do have the sigma 10-20 and have found you can make a fish eye effect with it, by stitching multiple shots together, like:


I think that was about 8 shots taken in landscape then merged in photoshop. Need a lot of overlap and wasted space at the sides to allow photoshop to bend the picture etc but I quite like the effect. It does seem a bit hit and miss though.



If you push it too far and Photoshop can't handle it :( also if you don't get the right subject the effect doesn't work as well:


but it is my method of getting round spending a silly amount of money on a fisheye :p of course it is completely useless for capturing moving stuff etc, but you could always consider hiring one from somewhere like http://www.lensesforhire.co.uk/ for the odd occasion you know you are going to need one :)
 
I picked up a Nikon 10.5mm Fisheye (around £300ish second hand), I couldn't justify one new as it's a lot of money for something that will get relatively little use. That's the best option in my opinion, exceptional sharpness and quality and there are plenty of tools around that will 'de-fish' them if you're interested in that side of thing.

Wasn't sure if I should go for it or not, but definitely happy I did, so many creative options with it. Still couldn't justify one at £500, but the price I paid seemed more realistic for what I will get out of it.

My first pics with it: http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=102477
 
On the D80 you won't get the full circle from the Sigma 8mm - a little will be sliced off the top and bottom of it. The Sigma 10-20 is a popular super wide angle zoom but may have quality control issues (search the forums to find people's experiences with it).

There is software available for "de-fishing" fisheye images and also for stitching them together to give a 360 degree view - useful for interiors and other things. In general though, a fisheye is a novelty lens. It won't get used every day (mine certainly doesn't, although I wouldn't part with it!) but the results can't really be replicated convincingly.

They do crop up occasionally on the 2nd hand market but can still be expensive. There's an f/4 Sigma 8mm as well as the f/3.5 which may be a little cheaper. I was extremely lucky and got mine through the for sale board here for £220 inc P&P (the f/4 Sigma) but I had been keeping my eye open for one for a couple of years.

If you want to give the fisheye effect a try, there's a Lomo fisheye camera (35mm film) which'll give you a cheap entry to the format. If you want to give it a try, I have one which you can make me an offer on (not actively trying to sell, hence the offer here rather than on the FS board). Like all Lomos, the results are... interesting but it was enough to convince me to keep looking for a lens for the SLRs.
 
Thanks for the replies :)

I think I'll dive in at the deep end while I've still got some money lying around and have a look around for a second hand 8mm one as cheap as I can find. I might have a think about the Lomo. Though I'm just at the stage where I shoot without thinking just to see what happens, which with film could be a bit expensive :p What sort of price were you thinking for it? PM me if you'd rather. I have absolutely no idea how much it's worth... so I'll have to trust you :D

Edit: I've just found a 10-20mm in the for sale section that may have just made up my mind :)
 
Yes, I'd go for the 10 - 20.

I have a 10 - 17 Pentax and at the fisheye end of the scale they are fun lenses, but who wants every pic to have distortion. The zoom lets you have fish eye when you want it and super wide at other times.
 
On a Nikon body there's only one you should consider,the Nikkor 10.5mm F/2.8, it's very sharp and focuses down to about 3cm
 
wack61 said:
On a Nikon body there's only one you should consider,the Nikkor 10.5mm F/2.8, it's very sharp and focuses down to about 3cm
Click to expand...

I'd disagree...the Tokina 10-17mm (beloved of skateboard photographers everywhere) is also worth considering and being a zoom is more versatile than the Nikon offering.
 
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