what fisheye lens??

[kieran03]

g'day,
looking at getting a fisheye lens for my canon eos 600d. can people recommend what they are using or what they would suggest?? had been looking at the canon 8-15mm fish eye lens, something with a zoom would be nice rather then fixed.

i know alot of people don't like the fisheye lens & say not to buy one...but only really interested in comments from people who either own a fisheye lens or can recommend something.

Thanks

[colinbm]

Hi kieran03
I have a Sigma 10-20 wide angle lens.
Your sensor is about the same size as mine 22 x 14 mm.
There are wide angle, ultra-wide-angle & fisheye :o
The 10-20 will give you a clear picture without any vignette.
The 8-15 I think will give you a circle or near to a circle with vignette at 8mm.
Less then 8mm will be a circle of view with distortion around the outsides (trees or buildings arching on the sides).
Col

[phild]

I have a Canon 15mm fisheye (I am one of the like fisheye brigade), not that fishy on a crop sensor, so not really suited to tour body. I've seen excellent results from a Sigma 10mm fisheye (http://fisheyelensreview.com/sigma-fisheye/review-the-sigma-10mm-fisheye-lens/) lens on a crop body (comparable with the 15mm on Full Frame) and the performance at the edges, particularly coma is better on the Sigma than the Canon. The Siggy 10mm will fully illuminate a crop sensor and give around 180 degree view.

[Tannin]

Fisheye is far too specalised a tool to even think about getting a prime when there are zooms available.

The Canon 8-15 is not really usable on full-frame (unless you call a circular fish "usable", which I don't) and costs almost exactly twice as much as the Tokina 10-17 - which is also not suited to full-frame, and is only half-useful on APS-H. Superb little lens on ordinary APS-C though. I imagine that the IQ of the Canon L Series 8-15 will be outstanding, but I can't really imagine what it would actually achieve in real life that the Pentax/Tokina doesn't achieve.

[Tannin]

PS: see this thread - http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?10256-Gone-fishing

[ScottM]

I've got the Samyang 8mm fisheye, using on a cropped sensor Nikon D90. This lens is pretty cheap, and gives quite good results - better than I expected.
I'll find a link to a thread later today, and post up a couple more recent pics tonight that I took recently.

[ScottM]

Hey Kieran,

These couple still need decent post-processing. The courtyard/exercise yard is a bit extreme at the mo, but they do show the field of view a fisheye gives. It's not something I regularly use; once I'd had enough of being locked into a closed maximum security mental health facility recently I whipped this lens out for a few shots.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5308/5803874721_1016f7f27b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/52423468@N04/5803874721/)
Fisheye_MainExerciseYard resize (http://www.flickr.com/photos/52423468@N04/5803874721/) by ScottM70 (http://www.flickr.com/people/52423468@N04/), on Flickr

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5065/5803873259_d49664017d.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/52423468@N04/5803873259/)
Fisheye_CBlock Rec Rm (http://www.flickr.com/photos/52423468@N04/5803873259/) by ScottM70 (http://www.flickr.com/people/52423468@N04/), on Flickr

[Keith Young]

I have the Sigma 8mm F3.5 fisheye it is a full-circle 180deg on a full-frame or 180x114deg vignetting lens on a crop sensor. Its a prime, so no zoom. I only got it so I could stitch 360x180 panoramas and virtual tours. I occassionally pull it out to make one of those silly "big-nose" portraits but it would be my least used lens these days as the virtual tour fad seems to have come to an end.

[kieran03]

no worries. thanks for the info...
looking more into it, to get the effect i'm wanting need to get a full frame camera. the alternative lens been looking at is the wide angle zoom canon ef-s 10-22mm lens.

[colinbm]

The alternative is to get wide converters to add some more width to a wide lens ??
This will get you a circle image.
Col

[fabian628]

Fisheye is far too specalised a tool to even think about getting a prime when there are zooms available.

The Canon 8-15 is not really usable on full-frame (unless you call a circular fish "usable", which I don't) and costs almost exactly twice as much as the Tokina 10-17 - which is also not suited to full-frame, and is only half-useful on APS-H. Superb little lens on ordinary APS-C though. I imagine that the IQ of the Canon L Series 8-15 will be outstanding, but I can't really imagine what it would actually achieve in real life that the Pentax/Tokina doesn't achieve.

the 8-15 is a zoom. At 15mm it will not produce a circular fisheye effect on FF camera.

[fabian628]

g'day,
looking at getting a fisheye lens for my canon eos 600d. can people recommend what they are using or what they would suggest?? had been looking at the canon 8-15mm fish eye lens, something with a zoom would be nice rather then fixed.

i know alot of people don't like the fisheye lens & say not to buy one...but only really interested in comments from people who either own a fisheye lens or can recommend something.

Thanks

I believe samyang have a manual focus 8mm fisheye and also sigma has a 8mm fisheye that will give that extreme fisheye effect. I also think the 8mm sig will have some of the corners cut off on your 600D.
The best idea is searching google for images of each lens.
Also, if you are considering ultra wide lenses, you may consider a ultra wide rectilinear lens such as canon 14mm, 10-22mm (and there are some other lenses made by other manufacturers that have a similar range). The image is corrected so it is not as wide as the respective fisheye lens, but still quite wide. :th3:

[Tannin]

^ that's what I said, Fabian. It would doubtless be a very nice lens indeed on APS-C, but barely usable on full-frame because you are stuck at the long end of the zoom range. (Unless, that is, you regard a circular fish as useful, which I don't.) Why buy a zoom that you can't use the zoom range on? You might as well save the money, the weight, and the complication, and buy a fisheye prime in the first place.

(EDIT: two posts up, I mean)

[fabian628]

I think if you are buying a fisheye you are pretty comitted to going very wide :D I think canon is just killing two birds with one stone. Most people will probably use the lens at 15mm the most, but it is to have the ability to go to a circular image if you desire it. It also means anyone who buys this wont have any need to competitor lenses, since canon doesnt have a cir fisheye at the moment.

[dannat]

Zenitar do make a cheap 15mm fisheye, manual focus only