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Please help with any info on this fish-eye lens!

Here is a picture of what it looks like. If anyone could tell me what type of mount it is, I would really appreciate it.

http://img284.echo.cx/img284/5287/img52155dd.jpg

http://img284.echo.cx/img284/7685/img52217kn.jpg

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May 24, 2005

or adorama camera,inc.42 West 18th street,NY 10011

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May 24, 2005

These were made and sold under a variety of names quite some time ago. At one time I had two of them (under different names); still have one of them. They haven't been made in years (about two decades +/- a half-decade).

If used on the front of a 50mm or shorter focal length (in 35mm small format) it creates a 180 degree full circle fisheye image . . . the same as a 7.5-8mm full circle fisheye prime lens. I recommend using it with nothing shorter than a 50mm; it only makes the circle smaller on the film frame. If used with a 100mm prime, it creates the equivalent of a 16mm full-frame fisheye with 180 degree field of view across the film plane diagonal . . . think of it as cropping down to a rectangle just barely inside the circle.

To use it, open up your prime lens to its widest aperture and its focus distance on infinity. Leave them there (don't change them)! Lens aperture will be adjusted on the fisheye. There is no focusing; the focal length is so short and depth of field so enormous that it's good from a few feet to infinity.

Set the ring on the fisheye to the closest focal length you are using. This does not set or adjust anything inside the fisheye; it simply make the aperture setting ring on the fisheye accurate for the focal length you are using.

Adjust the aperture on the fisheye (NOT the prime) until your TTL metering gives you an acceptable shutter speed. I recommend stopping down an f-stop or two on the fisheye from wide open if at all possible (without getting into shutter speed trouble) . . . it will make the image a bit sharper.

These things are best used with camera on a tripod that you can level! Don't expect anything that stellar that you can enlarge to 20x30 inches. They're not all that sharp, but they're OK to about an 8x8. I use mine exclusively with the medium format 645 now as it renders a sharper image and I can make 11x11's with it.

Last, but most definitely not the least, I DO NOT recommend using this on a zoom lens! They were made for use with prime lenses running with their apertures wide open; they work very poorly with zooms that have moving internal glass elements for focal length and focusing. If you don't have one, get a 50/1.4 or 50/1.8 prime to use with it. If you need to, you can step up or step down from the 52mm adapter that's on it to match your filter ring threads (I have the 55mm fisheye adapter plus a 55mm->58mm filter adapter on mine to fit my medium format lens). However . . . and this is a very strong recommendation . . . DON'T use a cheap filter adapter! This thing is too heavy for it and will strip out of the cheap stamped ones made of thin aluminum . . . falling to the Earth at 9.8 meters per second squared. The ubiquitous cheap Tiffen filter adapters are NO GOOD for holding this thing. It's not the fall that destroys it; it's the near instantaneous deceleration at the end (about 300 g's). Get a hefty one made by B+W that's machined and can take the weight (you can buy B+W filter adapters from B&H Photo Video).

-- John Lind

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May 24, 2005

http://medfmt.8k.com/bronfe.html

You'll see a Kenko version of the fisheye auxiliary lens at the top of the page . . . and one of the photos shows it with a B50 adapter screwed onto the 52mm fisheye plate so it can be put onto a Bronica lens.

(Note that in 6x6 and 645 medium format, the 80mm lens is considered the "standard" lens; it has the same field of view as a 50mm lens on a 35mm camera).

-- John Lind

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May 24, 2005

Oddly enough, I found that same link on an ebay auction right after submitting my question here, although I was still in the dark about what I had.

I dunno why I didn't think of trying that before, but sure enough it fits right onto the 50mm 1.8 prime lens I have for my Nikon FE (another 'artifact' I suppose, but hey Im poor). The only problem is that with that camera, the meter is on the far left side, and now is completely blacked out when the fisheye is attached so I have no idea of the appropriate shutter speed.

Just to clarify though, are you saying that with a 100mm prime I will get the best fit onto the negative? I've been meaning to buy a prime lens for my Canon for awhile now so now I guess I have an excuse:)

Thanks again,
Scott

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May 24, 2005

	Howard County War Memorial 180 full circular fisheye of memorial. Made using fisheye auxiliary lens on a 50mm prime. John A. Lind

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May 24, 2005