Nikon 16mm 2.8 AI-S fish eye lens

doublem1

doublem1

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Matt
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I'm looking at getting a fish eye lens but don't want to spend a huge amount. Is the AI-S 16mm fish eye a good one to use? It will be on my D600. How does the lens rate?
 
If you want a hugely distorted rectangular image and don't mind fiddling with the aperture ring, it should do the job just fine. I prefer the full circular image which I can crop down to the same FoV as the 16mm and the Sigma (and presumably Samyang) 8mm fisheyes give me that circle. The Sigma is fully automatic (and the f/4 [older] version has an aperture ring for use on old film bodies) but the Samyang is (IIRC) MF. The Samyangs in some mounts are manual aperture but I think it's automatic in Nikon fit. MF isn't really a problem with fisheyes, DoF is so huge that everything from a metre or so out to infinity is in acceptable focus!
 
Nod said:
If you want a hugely distorted rectangular image and don't mind fiddling with the aperture ring, it should do the job just fine. I prefer the full circular image which I can crop down to the same FoV as the 16mm and the Sigma (and presumably Samyang) 8mm fisheyes give me that circle. The Sigma is fully automatic (and the f/4 [older] version has an aperture ring for use on old film bodies) but the Samyang is (IIRC) MF. The Samyangs in some mounts are manual aperture but I think it's automatic in Nikon fit. MF isn't really a problem with fisheyes, DoF is so huge that everything from a metre or so out to infinity is in acceptable focus!
Click to expand...

Apologies, but what do you mean by distorted rectangular image? Do you mean that this lens produces bad images? I want a rectangular image to produce something similar this this image:

http://img.hdwallpaperpc.com/cover/...ldings_Skyscrapers_Fog_Mist_Fisheye_51712.jpg
 
As Ken said, the shot you posted a link to is pretty distorted - fairly sure that the buildings aren't that curved in real life! My 8mm shows the whole image circle whereas the 16mm (and other similar lengths) crop off the outer bits of the circle.

047047 by gpn63, on Flickr
 
That's the trouble with a full frame camera :)
 
Ah OK. Yeah I meant a rectangular distorted image. I found out the 16mm AI-S lens sell for about £400-500. Can I get a similar lens for around a maximum of £200?
 
Samyang
 
Probably 12 or 14. You may have to go second hand, either the bay or LCE maybe.
 
I think the Samyang 14mm is a rectilinear lens (far less distortion) - I know the Tamron version is!

WRT post #6, it's also the problem with a belly - to lose the feet, I would have to lean forward but that means I have to take a quick step forwards as my centre of balance ends up in front of the toes! Not ideal when there's a nippy horse about 6" from the front of the lens!

You can get exactly the same results from cropping into a circular fisheye's image as you get from a rectangular one but you obviously lose a load of pixels so can't print as big. Much harder to create a full 180° FoV from a series of rectangular frames.
 
From the sample image you linked to the Nikon 16mm Ais will produce similar type of images but you maybe able to find a old Sigma MF lens for less money I have Nikon 16mm AF fisheye and a manual 15mm Sigma fisheye.
And they can produce different results.
The Sigma focuses closer and produces more barrel distortion than the Nikon AF.
What you can easily do with the Nikon is produce low distortion ultra wide images if you keep the camera back vertical and the horizon in or near the middle of picture.
 
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