Fisheye / Wide Angle

whyulittle

Next piece of kit on my want list is a fisheye/wide angle lens, mainly for astronomy. Anyone ever used either of the two below? Any good or bad stories about fisheyes?

Sigma 10mm f/2.8 EX DC HSM Fisheye Lens

Sigma 8mm f/3.5 f3.5 EX DG Circular Fisheye Lens

Mellor

I've been thinking of one, but they are pricey, esp if they only get occasional use

pete4130

I have the Sigma 15mm fisheye for fullframe and had the Nikon 10.5mm fisheye on my D200. The image quality on the Sigma 15mm fish is fantastic. It's sharp and fast. The only downside it would have to the Nikon 16mm version would be its slightly bigger size and possibly not be as sharp as Nikons counterpart. It is cheaper though.

The nikon 10.5mm was fantastic. I loved it. It was very small, sharp and fast.

I can't comment on the new Sigma 10mm fisheye for optics, but I would be wary that their 8mm is a circular fisheye (vignetting) as opposed to the rectangular 10mm fisheye (frame filling fisheye). I personally don't like cicular fisheyes. I'm not sure how much of an issue this would be on a crop sensor though?

The only bad stories are they can be easy to overuse and not use effectively. It's very easy to "get everything in" rather than taking advantage of how wide it is, is amazing DoF and not getting close enough. Because they take in so much, its easy for the cam to underexpose if there is alot of sky in a shot. It's handy to spot meter on whats important and have the highlight be slightly blown rather than having a nice sky with a silhouette.

whyulittle

Thanks Pete. Think I need to go away and have a good long look at the different options on different bodies etc.

Thirdfox

How about the Sunex 5.6mm fish-eye? It's a fixed f5.6 lens but apparently really cheap and cheerful...

Here's a review from (cough) Ken Rockwell...
http://www.kenrockwell.com/sunex/super-fisheye.htm

stcstc

sigma have produced a 4.5mm fisheye designed for aps-c sensors

its ment to be nice

whyulittle

stcstc wrote: »

sigma have produced a 4.5mm fisheye designed for aps-c sensors

its ment to be nice

I saw that on B&H alright. Little bit too much for what I'm going to be using it for though. What would be the best option of a full frame lens that can be used on cropped bodies? This seems to be throwing up more problems than a normal lens.

thedarkroom

"Here's a review from (cough) Ken Rockwell..."


?????
Is there something I've missed about Ken Rockwell? Is there a story we all need to know or have I missed a relevant thread somewhere?

Mellor

Thirdfox wrote: »

How about the Sunex 5.6mm fish-eye? It's a fixed f5.6 lens but apparently really cheap and cheerful...

Here's a review from (cough) Ken Rockwell...
http://www.kenrockwell.com/sunex/super-fisheye.htm

how much is cheap and cheerful?

pete4130

You can get a Russian made Peleng lens for about £100-£150 on ebay. Ok optics just manual focus. The Sigma 15mm fisheye is great. Full fisheye on full frame cams and vert wide, albeit with some distortion/curviature on cropped bodies. Here's one of the last shots I took with the 15mm Sigma fisheye on the D3. I'm literally about 3-4 inches from the girls face with this one.

Thirdfox

thedarkroom wrote: »

"Here's a review from (cough) Ken Rockwell..."


?????
Is there something I've missed about Ken Rockwell? Is there a story we all need to know or have I missed a relevant thread somewhere?

Ken Rockwell has good intentions and gives opinions...but many people would disagree with many of his opinions (they seem quasi-right but beginners might not be able to distinguish the chaff from the wheat). However he is all about saving you money though (his philosophy is a 100 dollar camera will give you just a good picture as a 10,000 dollar camera - depending on requirements). Which obviously doesn't go down well with gearheads that normally discuss equipment on online forums.

Mellor wrote: »

how much is cheap and cheerful?

Sorry - just had a look and it's not really cheap is it? 600+ dollars (just like the Sigma).

The Russian Peleng can be had for around 300 euro on ebay I recall.