Fisheye Lens

[newtda]

Hello,

I am looking for a cheap fisheye lens that I can play around with, I am looking to pay under $100. I have the cannon Ti1. What is out there that I might like?

[mjs1973]

The fisheye lens question comes up from time to time and you can find some of the threads where they were discussed here.

You have a few options to consider. Do you want a full frame image or a circle image? As I have mentioned in a bunch of the threads I linked to earlier, I have an MC Zenitar 16mm fisheye lens. It works pretty good and wasn't expensive. But it's only 16mm wide and on an APS-C size sensor it's really only giving you a field of view of a 25.6mm lens which really isn't that wide, but it does give you a full frame image. There is one on ebay for about $230. I think I paid about $100 for mine but that was 10 years ago.

There are some 8mm fisheye lenses out there that will give you a much wider field of view but they will give you a circle image, and not fill your entire frame. A quick search on ebay and about the cheapest I saw for these was $250.

Another option is to find a fisheye lens that screws to the front of an existing lens that you already have. The image quality usually isn't as good as a true fisheye but the price may make it a good option. I saw some on ebay ranging from $30 - $40.

Hope that helps.

[mattb]

I have a MF 8mm f/3.5 Rokinon in K (Pentax) mount. I bought it new on Amazon for $239 and it's been a fun lens for sure. Definitely worth it and optics are surprisingly good for the money. Not sure if it does full frame or not but I have a feeling it may. The same lens is sold under the name Bower and others. Probably any 8mm MF f/3.5 fisheye is going to be this same lens.


IMGP8565.hdr.jpg by MattB.net, on Flickr

[mjs1973]

I have a MF 8mm f/3.5 Rokinon in K (Pentax) mount. I bought it new on Amazon for $239 and it's been a fun lens for sure. Definitely worth it and optics are surprisingly good for the money. Not sure if it does full frame or not but I have a feeling it may. The same lens is sold under the name Bower and others. Probably any 8mm MF f/3.5 fisheye is going to be this same lens.

Maybe I'm mistaken on this. Perhaps the 8mm fisheye lenses will cover the entire frame on the APS-C sensors cameras, and only give a circle image on full frame DSLR's?

[mattb]

Maybe I'm mistaken on this. Perhaps the 8mm fisheye lenses will cover the entire frame on the APS-C sensors cameras, and only give a circle image on full frame DSLR's?

Ah, look here's Ken Rockwell's piece on this lens. Looks like you lose the corners on full frame.