Toy lenses (peleng/mirror etc.)

[ddr]

So for x'mas I thought I could buy myself a toy or two. I was looking at:
1) Peleng 8mm f3.5 for Canon with Focus Confirmation (a fisheye)
2) ProOptic 500mm f/6.3 Mirror or Rubinar 500mm f/5.6
2)i) an appropriate but cheap 2x extender to make 1000mm

I'm not looking for extremely quality here, just value. The peleng actually isn't that cheap at about $400 after shipping and taxes. Any good value fisheyes for Canon? Any input on the cheap mirror reflex? The more I read about it, the consensus is that a russian or tamron, sigma, tokina f8 will be sharper. Not sure where to get one of those or how much it'll cost. The ProOptic is only $160. I could get a lensbaby but then this seems more interesting to me.

TIA for the input.

[inkista]

Just be sure that with the Peleng, you're ok with having black corners. It's designed as a circular fisheye on full-frame, so used on a crop body, it's going to give you black corners. I have the Sigma 8mm, which is similarly designed, and this is what the pics look like:



If you want the corners filled in, you may want to go with the 16mm Zenitar, instead. It's considerably cheaper than the Peleng, btw. You can usually find 'em around $200.

But I think your best bet is probably the new diagonal (i.e., fills the corners in) Samyang 8mm/Opteka 6.5mm/Vivitar 7mm fisheye (it gets rebadged a lot). You can find the Opteka on Amazon for <$300. Weirdly they're saying it uses a stereographic projection, which I think is just neat.

Another Russian "toy" lens to consider is an 80mm f/2.8 tilt-shift. on eBay you can find the "MC 2.8/80mm TILT/SHIFT lens" for $350.

[ddr]

thank you so much!

the samyang 8mm is on my list now
-how come the rebadged versions have different focal lengths?

that's a cool and affordable TS lens you listed. I read that 80mm is a weird focal length for a TS to be of any use. Any shorter ones? I found a MC TS Arsat 35mm / f=2.8 Tilt Shift but it's ~$600.

On second thought the two added together makes up the cost of a used canon 17-55 hehe

[inkista]

Originally Posted by ddr

the samyang 8mm is on my list now
-how come the rebadged versions have different focal lengths?

No idea. I blame marketeers.

that's a cool and affordable TS lens you listed. I read that 80mm is a weird focal length for a TS to be of any use.

I have an 80mm TS (Hartblei Super-Rotator), and it's pretty useless for architecture and landscape, and harder to use for toy/miniature effect, but it's a good length for product photography, and I've still managed to use it, on occasion, for the miniature effect.

Any shorter ones? I found a MC TS Arsat 35mm / f=2.8 Tilt Shift but it's ~$600.

Yup. And on a crop body 35mm isn't exactly wide. Basically, these "cheap" TS lenses are essentially rehoused medium format lenses (that's how they get the image circle big enough for the shift), which is why you won't be seeing anything wider than 35mm. On 2-1/4 medium format, 35mm is wide angle and 80mm is normal.