Fish eye lense

[boloto]

I am looking to buy a fish eye lense
- have no idea where to start.
What anybody would suggest?

[zona5101]

budget? purpose? camera make?
maybe a few more clues please!

[inkista]

Some factors to consider:

1). Budget. How much can you spend on a fisheye? Some of them are pretty costy.

2). Body. What mount system are you using (no good recommending the Nikkor 10.5mm if you shoot Canon), and are you on a full frame or crop body?

3). What kind of fisheye do you want: circular or diagonal? A circular fisheye creates a circular image inside the frame--the rest of the frame will be black. Circulars give a lot more distortion and FoV coverage. A diagonal fisheye covers the entire frame from corner-to-corner (hence the name). The distortion is slightly less and the FoV coverage is narrower.

This is also where your sensor size comes into play. What's circular on full frame will be halfway between circular and diagonal on a crop body. What's diagonal on a crop body can look really funny on a full frame.

4). What do you want to use it for? Are you sure you don't just want an ultrawide rectilinear? Fisheyes are niche lenses, that some folks only use occasionally. Given the high pricetags some of these lenses carry, it's often a rental lens, not one you buy to own. Only VR, skateboard, and scientific photographers tend to shoot with a fisheye heavily.

If you're planning on shooting with a fisheye only to defish it in software more than half the time, chances are good what you really want is an ultrawide instead.

[boloto]

Thank you for your replies!

I wanted to buy it just for fun. I saw some pretty neat pictures taking with that type of lens and want to try it also.
In terms of budget - I don't want to go overboard, but don't want to buy the worst one also.
It is hard to understand what difference in the lenses are with such huge price range.

[boloto]

Oh - and I am using Nicon d90.

[inkista]

Ok, first thing to know. You want an actual lens. You do not want a converter--an add-on lens that you attach to another lens. The converters are very low cost, but the image quality is low. Sharpness won't be good, and there will be a lot of chromatic aberration. If you just want a toy, they're not bad, but for serious picture taking, they're not great.

Sounds like you want a diagonal. If you want a fisheye that autofocuses and has full function on the camera, you're probably looking at around $600 for a fisheye lens. There are a ton, here, but the best one for you would probably be the Nikkor 10.5 f/2.8 fisheye. It's designed for a crop body, so if you eventually got a full-frame camera like a D700, it would no longer cover the sensor. It's a diagonal, that covers the frame corner-to-corner. B&H currently sells it for $670.

If that's too expensive, but you still want autofocus, there are the Sigmas. Their equivalent to the Nikkor 10.5, is the 10mm f/2.8 HSM (their version of AF-S). It sells for around $650. There's also the Tokina 10-17 fisheye zoom ($580).

If that's still too expensive, then you may have to give up autofocusing and get a manual focus lens. The Rokinon/Samyang/Vivitar/Bower/Phoenix (and about a dozen other relabelled brands) fisheye sells on Amazon (in the Rokinon 8mm version), for $270.

[vandergus]

If you're just looking for something to play with than I would take a look at the Bower 8mm f3.5 (also known as the Samyang 8mm f3.5). No metering or autofocus but it's half the price of anything else. Autofocus isn't terribly important for a fisheye since practically everything is in focus anyway. Lack of metering might be annoying depending on how you like to shoot. Get's decent reviews for a bargain lens, though.

EDIT: Jynx! You owe me a coke.

[boloto]

Thank you!!! vandergus and inkista!
This is exactly what I needed the help with. I think I got the overall picture now.

(well, it is actually not an overall, but an oval one now )

[inkista]

Originally Posted by vandergus

EDIT: Jynx! You owe me a coke.

Snort. Yeah, except I got my post in first, AND I found it for $80 cheaper.