Fisheye Lenses

[spinetnglr]

 

[oregondaddyof2]

This is a great shot... I havn't really seen one like it before... It adds a new perspective to the main gates...

 

[spinetnglr]

This is a great shot... I havn't really seen one like it before... It adds a new perspective to the main gates...

Thank you ODof2. I have a nighttime version of almost the same shot taken on my way out of the park.

 

[annnewjerz]

Thank you ODof2. I have a nighttime version of almost the same shot taken on my way out of the park.

Gotta admit, I like this one MUCH more than the daytime Karyl (although the daytime shot is nice as well).

The WB is spot on and the symmetry seems better than the first, which had a pumpkin missing on one side.

Still not done processing your trip photos yet, huh?

PS: You should load some of these on Flickr when you get a chance and add these to some WDW groups, I bet people would love them.

 

[spinetnglr]

Gotta admit, I like this one MUCH more than the daytime Karyl (although the daytime shot is nice as well).

The WB is spot on and the symmetry seems better than the first, which had a pumpkin missing on one side.

Still not done processing your trip photos yet, huh?

PS: You should load some of these on Flickr when you get a chance and add these to some WDW groups, I bet people would love them.

Thank you Ann for the comments. I like the night time one better myself. The daytime pics I took I felt a bit rushed and probably did rush bc of people waiting to take pics and I wanted to get out of their shots. The night time pics I took my time and there were not as many people around.

I am pretty much done with the processing just need to upload the rest. I did get the last of my MK shots up yesterday and hope to get the last of AK done soon along with a few misc shots.

I will have to try and get some to flickr as well. I haven't been uploading many pics there lately.

 

[J3nn78]

All with the Nikon 10.5mm F2.8 fisheye on DX nikon bodies.

Some video shot with D90 & 10.5mm Fisheye lens:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTRc-iappW4


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO3Up_U3Elw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT05ixPrPok

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IKIBOT3ExQ

 

[TestTrackBoy]

 

[WDWFigment]

With the recent "outbreak" in Fisheye lenses among the WDW-photography masters, and seeing the beautiful shots they have produced, I am thinking of getting a fisheye lens for my D90.

I am wondering what the various options are for the D90. I only know of the Sigma 10, Tokina 10-17, and Nikon 10.5 as the mainstream options. I see that Code purchased a Rokinon fisheye, so I'm wondering if there are any more obscure options that are high quality but low cost. I am willing to do manual focus; however, I think I want something that will meter on the D90 (which is why I didn't go with the Rokinon). Any ideas?

Alternatively, if anyone is interested in selling their Nikon-mount Fisheye, I am interested in buying it!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

If you want a fisheye for a Nikon, you can't beat this one.

 

[annnewjerz]

I'd look at the Bower 8mm f/3.5 fisheye for Nikon. It's a manual focus lens (which with a fisheye, shouldn't really matter much anyway) , it is made for use on APS-C Nikons and is about $350ish new when I Google'd it. I have no idea if it meters or not with the D90, but my guess would be no since it doesn't have any electronic connection on the lens at all.

I do have to say, my Lensbaby and my 50 1.2 don't meter with my camera and I don't find it to be much problem at all. After a quick test shot or two, it's usually pretty easy to get the exposure close enough that you would only need to do a tiny bit of adjustment in PP, if any at all.

I had looked into the Bower when I was considering a fisheye, but when I found the awesome deal I did on a used 10.5 I just decided that the less than $100 difference was worth it for the Nikon.

 

[Gdad]

You could always go for the $200-ish Russian Zenitar 16mm fisheye. I have perpetually been considering this for a while but never seem to buy one. 16mm is not super fishey on DX though.

 

[WDWFigment]

I'd look at the Bower 8mm f/3.5 fisheye for Nikon. It's a manual focus lens (which with a fisheye, shouldn't really matter much anyway) , it is made for use on APS-C Nikons and is about $350ish new when I Google'd it. I have no idea if it meters or not with the D90, but my guess would be no since it doesn't have any electronic connection on the lens at all.

I do have to say, my Lensbaby and my 50 1.2 don't meter with my camera and I don't find it to be much problem at all. After a quick test shot or two, it's usually pretty easy to get the exposure close enough that you would only need to do a tiny bit of adjustment in PP, if any at all.

I had looked into the Bower when I was considering a fisheye, but when I found the awesome deal I did on a used 10.5 I just decided that the less than $100 difference was worth it for the Nikon.

I think the Bower lens is the same as the Rokinon one (merely rebranded). I'm not sure that I want to deal with the lack of metering when I'm on the run in WDW. I can get it for $275, which I think is a bit much when I can get the Sigma or Nikon 10/10.5 for $400.

You could always go for the $200-ish Russian Zenitar 16mm fisheye. I have perpetually been considering this for a while but never seem to buy one. 16mm is not super fishey on DX though.

Like you said, 16mm isn't wide enough on DX. That would barely pass muster in the UWA Cult. What would the others think of me?! I think I want 8-10.5mm.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Get the 6mm. You can start a wider than UWA cult. And it'll work on a full frame, so you'll be ready when you upgrade.

 

[Daisy14'sDH]

THat lens is insane! Seriously how much does a peice of glass like that cost!

 

[WDWFigment]

Get the 6mm. You can start a wider than UWA cult. And it'll work on a full frame, so you'll be ready when you upgrade.

Mark, you might be surprised to learn that outside of The Woodlands, people don't just have piles of thousand dollar bills (do these exist? Us poor folk in Indiana don't know...I saw it once on The Simpsons, so I presume they do) lying around their house. I just read that a copy of that lens recently sold for $38,000 on eBay.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Mark, you might be surprised to learn that outside of The Woodlands, people don't just have piles of thousand dollar bills (do these exist? Us poor folk in Indiana don't know...I saw it once on The Simpsons, so I presume they do) lying around their house. I just read that a copy of that lens recently sold for $38,000 on eBay.

Don't exaggerate. It sold for only $36,991. And that was for one without any scratches, haze, fungus, or separation. I'm sure that if you would accept one with a little hazy fungus you could get the price down even more.

As for $1,000 bills, they don't circulate anymore. They haven't made them in quite a while. They looked like this:

Our preference, however, is to use these bills when buying used lenses:

Although, if you are picking up a Canon 1200mm, you might want one of these suckers. I've never seen one of these in person.

 

[WDWFigment]

If you've never seen that bill, how did you take a picture of it? ;-P And isn't that your uncle on the face of the bill?

Thanks for the link to that auction. I had not seen that and it's pretty interesting/humorous.

 

[Code]

I'm enjoying my Rokinon (aka Bower aka Pro-Optic) well enough, but I wouldn't consider it if it didn't meter on my camera esp. for Disney. Also when I got it for some reason the Sony mount was $50 cheaper than all others (deal is gone now), not sure why but if it had been $50 more I'm not sure I'd have gone for it.

I'd go with whichever you can get cheaper between the Sigma 10 and Nikon 10.5, I had a really good experience with the Sigma 10 when I rented it, it lives up to its EX branding.

 

[WebmasterMike]

Mark, you might be surprised to learn that outside of The Woodlands, people don't just have piles of thousand dollar bills (do these exist? Us poor folk in Indiana don't know...I saw it once on The Simpsons, so I presume they do) lying around their house. I just read that a copy of that lens recently sold for $38,000 on eBay.

We have stacks of them outside of The Woodlands!

 

[Groucho]

Fisheyes... Nikon... crop sensor... options...

1. Nikon 10.5 F2.8 - relatively fast, full fisheye (though not as wide as some others)
2. Sigma 10mm F2.8 - probably comparable. Surprisingly large - I'm not sure how big the Nikon is, but when we put Code's rented Sigma against my Pentax 10-17mm, the Sigma was much, much larger.
3. Tokina 10-17mm - well, I know all about the optics on that one. The zoom is very handy but I do miss the speed of the F2.8.
4. Zenitar 16mm F2.8... really nice lens, well-loved by most owners, but of course not full fish on an APS. Still very wide, though - remember than 16mm in a fisheye will give you a much wider shot than 16mm on a rectilinear lens. This is, of course, my go-to lens for fisheye on my FF Pentax cameras. (You know - the kind where you open up the back and put this little cylinder in one end and thread it into a spindle on the other side... I've actually been carrying around one of my K1000s a lot the past week or two.) There are probably many other full-frame-compatible fisheyes you could also consider if going down that road, including the Sigma 15mm.
5. Samyang/Rokinon/Bower/Vivitar Series 1 (theirs is marked as 7mm) F3.5... a little slower but by most accounts, a very capable fisheye. I'm very curious about this one myself... not quite enough to buy another fisheye... but if it was an F2.8, I would seriously consider it!
6. Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye - this gives a fully round image on a full-frame and has vignetting in the corners on a crop sensor. It's a nutty one.
7. Lensbaby Composer with 12mm fisheye optic. This is a really odd duck - I will probably have to try it out one of these days. You get circular fisheye on full-frame, or nearly - presumably it moves around depending on how you adjust the Lensbaby itself.

There may be others but that's what I can think of all the top of my head.

Does your camera have the ability to do stop-down metering? If so, the lack of metering isn't such a huge deal - the only time I recall it being an annoyance for me (my Zenitar requires stop-down metering) was when shooting on Splash Mt and trying to quickly meter at the top of the big drop!

Annnewjerz, no stop-down metering for you? If you have that, there's no need to guess and take test photos...