Birthday Present a little bit fishy?

[wilgk]

Hi Everyone
I have been absent for some time, doing a lot of volunteer work for a netball club and a business admin course online, whilst working full time eeeek

Anyway I am about to have a birthday (another one!) & thought of adding a fisheye lens to my arsenal, as I have hired 1 quite often for some fun stuff with my sports teams.

& the family have no idea what to buy me!
I am a canon shooter, but the relatively recently released 8-15 (I think) fisheye zoom 'L' is way too expensive for 'fun'

Has anyone any suggestions on Tamron/Tokina/Sigma equivalents?
I have a 7D so crop sz camera.
I have a 'travel' pack 1 lens tamron 18-270 & for what I use it for, have been happy with tamron, but any advice/suggestions happily received.
Many thanks
& I look forward to posing again soon as well.

[Manfred M]

Have a look at the 8mm Samyang fisheye. http://www.syopt.co.kr/eng/product/8mm.asp

It is quite inexpensive and optically is quite sharp. The downside; manual focus and no integration with the camera electronics. The upside is that pretty well everything is in focus when you set the lens to infinity and a couple of test shots with and looking at your histogram, and you are in business. I do own one and shoot with it a couple of times a year, so the low cost is the reason I went with it. It is well built mechanically...

This is a shot with this lens:

[wilgk]

Thankyou Manfred,,for your prompt reply & gorgeous photo!
I forgot to mention, I do mostly indoor low light sports stadiums basketball, netball, so I don't think I would cope with manual focus too well in those scenarios

[Manfred M]

Thankyou Manfred,,for your prompt reply & gorgeous photo!
I forgot to mention, I do mostly indoor low light sports stadiums basketball, netball, so I don't think I would cope with manual focus too well in those scenarios

As I said; set the lens at infinity; and virtually everything is in focus. Focus is really almost optional at 8mm. With a 180 degree field of view, the hardest part is keeping your feet out of the shot. Maximum aperture on the Samyang (which is sold under a host of different names including Rokinon, Bower, Pro Optic, etc.) is f/3.5.

[inkista]

The Samyang/Rokinon (also known as the Walimex/Vivitar 7/Phoenix/Bower/Pro-Optic 6.5) is a great lens. And the advice given above is true: the DoF is very deep. However you also need to be aware that focus isn't the only thing you need to do manually or the only thing that's missing on a manual lens. You have to manually adjust the aperture on the lens using the aperture ring, and because the body can't control the aperture, you'll be using stop-down metering [not a huge deal, but stopping down the lens physically means the viewfinder gets darker] and limited to the Av and M modes. And the lens EXIF information will also be missing (focal length, lens ID, aperture used), unless you manage to glue on an electronic communication chip.

None of this is unsurmountable. And if you're an oldtime all-manual film shooter, it'll barely put a hitch in your stride. I shoot with the micro four-thirds variant of this lens, and love it. But I'm mostly shooting landscapes/cityscapes with it, not sports. And I've used adapted manual lenses on my Canon bodies.

If you think you'd prefer to have autofocus/auto aperture/full EXIF info, or a slightly faster lens, I'd point next to the Sigma 10mm f/2.8 EX DC (crop). It fills the hole in the Canon lineup where a crop fisheye should go (e.g., the Nikkor 10.5mm). And if you're nuts enough to want a fisheye zoom, Tokina's 10-17 DX (crop) could also be worth looking at. Both are in the US$650 price range.

[wilgk]

Thankyou again Manfred & Thankyou Kathy - I will look up those examples... 4 weeks to go, time for research