Hi guys,

Could you recommend your favorite fisheye lenses for FF? I've got a few projects coming up that actually require the use of such a lens, but I've never fully explored the options.

Thanks!

Canon and Sigma both make 15mm diagonal fisheyes. I own the Canon one, does a good job, never used the Sigma one but I've heard its pretty decent.

Edited by thedigitalbean on Mar 27, 2008 at 03:07 PM GMT (Reason: typo)

The canon one is quite good. Old design, but there is not much of a need to update it.

Sweet, thanks guys. I'll probably pick up the Canon...

it's 15mm btw

Go for the Canon fisheye. There is also the Russian made manual focus Zenitar fisheye that gets good reviews and reasonably priced if you don't mind manual focus.

Canon 10D wrote:
Go for the Canon fisheye. There is also the Russian made manual focus Zenitar fisheye that gets good reviews and reasonably priced if you don't mind manual focus.

and the peleng 8 mm

The Canon covers the entire FF-it is not a circle image within the FF. I have it and like it. I often use Hemi deFish software ($30 @ ImageTrendsInc.com) especially for people.

I have not used the Canon fish, and I shoot crop bodies, but I have the Sigma 15mm diagonal fish, and it's great. Images are great, I can't tell the difference from my Canon 17-40. It's probably redundant for me to have both, but can't bring myself to sell it.

You can always rent them both fairly cheaply and try before you buy.

I have a MC Zenitar... very decent lens all the way around... cost about $130 with a very good adapter.

DOF is so large with a fisheye that manual focus is no hassle with the Zenitar. So I'm very happy with it for the 10 times a year I use this lens

I've had the Canon fisheye for a little while, I've always wanted one. It's an incredibly fun lens to use. And yes, I rarely use the AF on this lens lol, which is good because it's old and noisy as hell!

The Sigma focuses closer, if that's important to you. They're otherwise about the same.

I've heard that the Zenitar hits the mirror on the 5D. Can't confirm or deny, cause I haven't tried it myself.

Another option is the Tokina 10-17 fisheye zoom. It's an APS-C lens, but zoom in a tad from 10mm and you get the same image you'll get from a Canon or Sigma 15mm fisheye. You can even zoom a bit further out than 180 degrees if you like. And of course if you have any crop cameras you can still get 180 degrees on them, too. I haven't seen any comparisons of the Tokina to the Canon or Sigma, but I've heard only good things about the Tokina from pano shooters.

I'm planning on picking up the 10-17 at some point, to use on both my 5D and 40D. The ability to use it on both cameras is a great boon to me.

I've got the Sigma 8mm, and use it on my 5D and crop cameras:

Sigma 8mm on 5D:

i use the canon fish on my 5d for concert shooting all the time. Would not live without it.

CKrueger wrote:

Another option is the Tokina 10-17 fisheye zoom. It's an APS-C lens, but zoom in a tad from 10mm and you get the same image you'll get from a Canon or Sigma 15mm fisheye. You can even zoom a bit further out than 180 degrees if you like. And of course if you have any crop cameras you can still get 180 degrees on them, too. I haven't seen any comparisons of the Tokina to the Canon or Sigma, but I've heard only good things about the Tokina from pano shooters.

I'm planning on picking up the 10-17 at some point, to use on both my 5D and 40D. The ability to use it on both cameras is a great boon to me.

I don't understand what you're saying. How is it possible to get a 15mm FOV on a FF camera such as the 5d or 1Ds? You said it's a cropped lens, so I don't see how it's going to work well for a larger sensor..

I've been looking for a FF FE lens, so can you explain this for us FF guys?

I own both the Sigma and Canon 15mm fish. They're both very good. The sigma is a little warmer, Canon's got slightly better edge detail. Build on both is good. Focus on both is crap (as they're not USM or HSM).

In AF mode, the Sigma wont let you easily turn the focus ring, so you're forcing it if you want to manually refocus without going from af to mf

The Canon is smarter and dumber at the same time: you can turn the ring all you want, it just wont move the distance. So im sure that's better for the AF motor, but proves annoying for real life usage.

Both have that metal hood built in. body wise the Canon is smaller, and lighter I believe, but the sigma feels nicer because of that pebbled finish throughout the body. The Canons focus ring is cheap feeling, but the rest of it is metal, including the mount.

Toss up says I. Go for the better value. I picked up the Canon fish in a firesale even though I'd already owned the Siggy. Had I needed to pay a good price for it, I would have kept the Sigma. In fact, I was hoping the Canon AF was USM, and surprised to find out it wasnt

Max

jamesf99 wrote:
I don't understand what you're saying. How is it possible to get a 15mm FOV on a FF camera such as the 5d or 1Ds? You said it's a cropped lens, so I don't see how it's going to work well for a larger sensor..

I've been looking for a FF FE lens, so can you explain this for us FF guys?


Mounting the 10-17 on a 5D, you simply zoom the lens in until the corners are no longer vignetted. Viola! Same image as you'd get from your APS-C camera when zoomed out. Check out the last image on this page for a graphic illustration on how this lens works:

http://michel.thoby.free.fr/Tokina_10_17/Fisheye-What_is_the_real_Angle_of_view.html

FWIW, many other crop lenses work similarly on FF. The Tokina 12-24 can be used as an "18-24" on a 5D, and the Sigma 10-20 can be used as a "13-20" (!) on a 5D. Only Canon's EF-S mount lenses cannot be mounted, because they protrude further into the body than EF mount lenses. (And even this can be fixed with at least some EF-S lenses.)