Fisheye Lens for D80,

Masada

Hi people!,
Im just wondering if any of you can give me more info on fisheye lenses and reccomendations etc.
Ive never used one before but id like to try it out. Ive seen some brilliant photos taken with them so im thinking of buying a lens to give it a go. Im not sure if id use it that much so i would probably be more interested in something affordable but still decent rather than splashing out on my first one.,

cheers!,

pete4130

I had the Nikon 10.5mm fisheye for over a year on my D200. Fantastic lens. Super small, 2.8 so super fast. Really wide on the horizontal angle (as its the diagonal angle thats 180 degrees). Nikon are theonly people making proper fisheye lenses for DX cameras. I only sold mine about 6 weeks ago and my friend only sold his last week! Can't recommend it enough. Other options would be to go for 8mm circular fisheyes with a Nikon fit. On full frame they give black circular vignetting all the way round but they do see 180 degress in every direction....looks sh!t in my opinion.....the rectangular fisheyes like the 10.5mm don't give any sort of vignetting. The 8mm circular *may* not have much, if any vignetting with the DX 1.5x crop factor but would have alot more distortions.

My best advice is if your going to do fisheye, spend the money and do it properly, trying to cut corneres with step up rings and fisheye adapters are a waste of time, money and image quality. I know because thats how I started out with fisheyes and it wasnt long before I realised I needed the real thing.

I only sold my 10.5 as I'm upgrading to a D3 shortly and will go back to using my older Sigma 15mm fisheye that I used on my F100 before going digital.

Masada

cheers, some very good info there man. So im gonna have a look around a few camera shops and get a feel for some of these lenses soon. Dont suppose you'd know a ballpark figure on what a decent one would cost by any chance?

thanks again.

pete4130

I sold my Nikon 10.5mm fisheye for €400 and my friend sold his for the same last week. If you buy from the states thats about what it would cost if you manage to avoid taxes when it gets here. Hong Kong could be the other option to go through. Other than that they cost about €750 here which is too much.

Here are a few examples odf some pics I shot with the Nikon 10.5 Fisheye. Personally I'd go for this one over an 8mm circular fisheye anyday. The quality is fantastic, sharp where you need it and great bokeh!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete4130/533413831/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete4130/1373941604/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete4130/853665741/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete4130/496903444/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete4130/440115590/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete4130/440111987/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete4130/440108936/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete4130/440091163/

Masada

some of those are great., Im gonna have a look at some on ebay later one then.,

thanks a lot,