 BetterPhoto Member |
Fisheye Lens Options I am the head photographer at my high school and my principal approached me about taking a picture of the school during a pep rally with a fisheye lens. What would be the best lens to buy for a Canon Rebel and the Canon Rebel Digital? Also, if you have any tips, let me know. Thanks for the help.
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Craig m. Zacarelli |
Well, I'd go with a full-frame fisheye or "extreme wide angle lens". Something as small as you can get ... problem is, it seems the smaller the lens (wider) the more $$$ it costs! I bought the Zenitar 16mm full frame (it's not the round kind), it produces a square shot but it's "fisheyed". You can get the ones that produce a round image that are fisheyed too. Problem is, with the sensor crop factor, the image appears not as fisheyed as you'd like, unless you have really strong vertical lines! The Zenitar is also fully manual, no AF or auto aperture at all. But for around $125.00, it's kinda worth it! Craig- P.S.: It would work better on the 35mm Rebel than the digital.
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John P. Sandstedt |
Why use a fish-eye at all? Do you want round, distorted images? Or, are you looking to get more of a panoramic shot? If the latter, rent a Widelux!
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Christopher A. Vedros |
Another neat technique to try would be to put your camera on a tripod in the center of the gym floor, and take a series of pictures while panning around in a circle. Then stitch the pictures together as a panorama using Photostitch or something similar. You can use a regular wide angle lens for this, so it would be a much cheaper option, and you wouldn't get the distortion of a fisheye.
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Lewis T. Beasimer |
Look at the Sigma 8mm f/4.0 EX Circular Fish-Eye lens.
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member |
hi, i have the canon D20 myself, and wondered how the 10-22mm "L" wideangle lens for it was? or the 14mm f2.8? for fisheye, has anyone liked the EF 15mm f2.8? these so far are my serious considerations for my first-time wideangle and fisheye lenses; any info on any of these would be immensely helpful : )
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Craig m. Zacarelli |
allthough its not a fisheye, the new Tamron 11-18mm (?) is supposedly a terrific little lens. Craig-
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photosbysharon.com - Sharon E. Lowe Contact Sharon E. Lowe Sharon E. Lowe's Gallery |
Sinc eyou don't have a digital camera with a full frame sensor, you will not get the true fish-eye look with a fish eye lens. Sigma's 14mm fish eye is reasonably priced and would work well on your film Rebel. Good luck and have fun.
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Lewis T. Beasimer |
That is why I reccomend the Sigma 8mm f/4.0 EX Circular Fish-Eye lens. The extreem wide angle paired with the fisheye will give a good effect on the Digital rebel and the 20D.
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Wade J. Faast |
if you are looking for the distortion factor, go cheap, I mean really cheap, photoshop it, Step 1: select the elliptical marquee tool step 2: Hold shift (to create a perfect circle) and select the area you want to be fisheyed step 3: now go to filter, distort and spherize and slide to bar at the bottom all the way to %100 step 4: now that the selected part has the fisheye effect you must get rid of the left over, go to the SELECT button at the top of the screen and click on inverse step 5: now hit delete, and bada bing bada boom youve got an amazing fisheye for a whole lot cheaper than a lense you will hardly ever use (ive got one and never use it)
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member |
hi wade, i read your response to Will. may I ask: how about for those who want to learn about the different lenses, and not about graphic designing?
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Andrew Laverghetta |
There isn't really that much to learn about a fisheye lens besides that it's really wide and distorts everything. Photoshop is a very large part of photography and I believe that one should have a general knowledge of how to do things. The fisheye is really simple I think, it just makes a lot of straight lines curved, has HUGE depth of field, and gets a lot in the frame at once.
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Mark Feldstein |
My vibe on this Will, is that if you have limited use for a fisheye, RENT one for the occasion or for a weekend and let the school pay for the rental fee. As you probably know, true fisheye lenses are in the megabuck range and you probably won't be really pleased with a cheapo version. There are plenty of rental houses around, including in Chicago, NY and San Francisco that will ship rentals to anywhere in the country. And if you do, look for your feet in the bottom of the frame. ;>)
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