Fish eye lens, what will it do

[kevin63]

I have just been given a think what is a fish eye lens, sure it says 10mm-20mm and is a Sigma for my Nikon D50, what will it do or when would I use it, if anyone has any examples I would be grateful.

[Stigmundfreud]

its the HDR of the lens world. Marmite effect, very useful in very limited uses.

[Simpo Two]

The 10-20 is an ultra-wide angle lens. You get more in, but it's all smaller, and verticals curve to buggery. I have one and use it for interiors when I can't get far enough back to get everything in.

If you have one, then the logical solution is to stick it on and see what it does, no?


Fisheye lenses, to me at least, produce a circular image because they're so wide they actually photograph their own insides, and if you're not careful, your feet as well.

[stuthemong]

You can run them through DXO or PTGui et al. to correct the fisheye distortion and get very wide FoV rectalinear shots if you want

[VxDuncan]

The sigma 10-20mm isn't a fish eye lens - it's a very wide angle lens for a digital crop sensor thats been corrected to remove the distortions. Uncorrected it would be, but this has been designed to remove the normal barrel distortion you'd get with a fish eye. As said, hard to use properly, but fantastic when it comes into its own.

[Doug86]

If you dont like it I will buy it off you

[RobDickinson]

Sigma 10-20 is an excelent lens but its no fisheye. It still attempts to resolve a rectilinear image.

Fisheyes do not, you wont get any straight lines in a fisheye.

[paul911]

I have owned my Sigma 10-20mm for one day so haven’t had time to experiment properly yet. I’d do a search on Flickr as there are thousands of pics to look at.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/sigma10-20/

I wouldn’t call it a fish eye lens and didn’t get any curving sides or vignetting, on my test shots anyway. I bought one mainly for landscapes, and cant wait to put it to some use. If you own one then surely stick it on the camera and experiment.

[Stigmundfreud]

so its more like a 14 or 16mm lens then

[Marcellus]

Ok hope this helps....I've just stepped out onto my balcony and took this photo with a 10-20 Sigma;



Then changed lens to my sigma fish eye and took the same pic;

[kevin63]

I called it a fish eye because I have'nt a clue what it is, but thanks to you guys I now know and I am glad it is not a fish eye looking at the photo above, I don't think I would use that, anyway I am now off to have a play, I may be back.

[stuthemong]

Sorry guys I was, of course, speaking rollocks.

In my defence, on my desk I have a tokina 10-17 fisheye, a sigma 10, nikon 10.5 and a sig 4.5 (and two sigma 8's) - the sig 10-20 is all I don't have, and got a bit fuddled.

I likes my panoramas

Stu

[Scho]

Marcellus said:

Ok hope this helps....I've just stepped out onto my balcony and took this photo with a 10-20 Sigma;



Then changed lens to my sigma fish eye and took the same pic;

i hate you.

do you live in les houches?

ETA...st gervais?

Edited by Scho on Monday 11th August 14:51

[Marcellus]

Scho said:

i hate you.

do you live in les houches?

ETA...st gervais?

Close..............go through St Gervais continue up the mountain and you get to Les Contamines which is where I am!!

[kevin63]

I have had a play with the lens and I like what I see, can't wait until the next car show to give it a proper go.
Thank you everybody for your comments and brilliant photo's.

[DucatiGary]

a fisheye lens is already on my shopping list as the next purchase.

love the "MTV" effect they have, if thats such an effect i can describe it as . . . . . .

anyways, ill shut up, yeah?

[fergusd]

The image that has the black circle around it is the classic fisheye (although the one in the image above is not a very severe fisheye at all), you also get the more useful (perhaps) full frame fisheye which produces, eh, a full frame image but with fisheye like distortion, the nikon 10.5 is a full frame fisheye . . . I have one and like it, once you work out it's just a very, very wide angle lens you can use it just like any other . . .



doesn't really look too fishy, however



does , so it really depends how you use it . . . and some people like them and some people don't . . .

oh, the sigma 10-20 is not a fisheye it's a rectilinear wide angle . . .

Fd

Edited by fergusd on Monday 11th August 22:53

[JulianCRX]

fergusd, where was that 2nd picture taken?

[TheGreatSoprendo]

JulianCRX said:

fergusd, where was that 2nd picture taken?

Aiguille Du Midi looking down on Chamonix is my guess...

[Scho]

Marcellus said:

Scho said:

i hate you.

do you live in les houches?

ETA...st gervais?

Close..............go through St Gervais continue up the mountain and you get to Les Contamines which is where I am!!

thought it look familiar, ridden my bike through there on the way to lake passy from the back of the les houches ski area. lucky fella, such a great part of the world