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Fish Eye for Leica M?


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Spiratone and others used to make fisheye converter lenses that weren't half bad, and even made a fisheye viewfinder. I also had a 12mm T-mount fisheye prime at one time that used to have two curved ends on the photo because it covered about a 30mm circle. None of these were truly crisp, but they were fun! For a bunch of years every time I shot a wedding in a church with a balcony I'd try to get a fisheye shot during the ceremony from up there. I used a converter lens on my Hassleblad 500CM. It gave me about a 40mm circular image on the negative with the 80mm lens. The people always bought it, ALWAYS!

 

Then fisheyes got "over done", auto focus/auto exposure SLR's didn't lend themselves to slow T-mount fixed focus optics, Hasselblads, being "primitive film cameras" used "expensive film", and the world changed! Check the auction site. They do turn up from time to time!

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I just got a Zenitar 16mm fisheye lens for my K1000 and have been having fun with it. But I don't know that there'd be much point to using it on a rangefinder- it does help to see the image you're shooting, and you can pick up a manual SLR cheaper than you could any kind of viewfinder. Common problems with fisheyes are flare and shadows (of yourself) in the image, and an SLR would help in either case.

 

My first thought when I got my fisheye (which is 16mm) is that it isn't that much different from my 17mm rectilinear lens- given the choice, I'd probably go with the 12 or 15mm rectilinear rather than the fisheye.<div>009qrn-20111684.jpg.8a6ec306e82619a6d52878703c2baf32.jpg</div>

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Thanks everyone. Now that I know more, I'll probably stay away from adapting the much

larger SLR fish eyes. If I decide I want something real wide, I'll probably take Stephen H's

advice and go with the rectilinear 15 from VC. Does anyone know the Voigtlander

website....I can't seem to find it?

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a rectilinear WA is no substitute for a fisheye. they are really very different lenses. decide if you want the fisheye look.

 

having said that, isn't there a "fisheye" feature in the latest iteration of PS?? or is it a plugin?? either way, i think you can get a fisheye look in post-processing. i suppose such technology works best with a WA shot, but i don't really know.

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I use a <b>Leica R 16mm Fisheye-Elmarit lens</b> on my Leica Ms for shooting

QuickTime VR panoramas. Been doing so for years. It's mounted onto the camera using a

Novoflex Leica R->M lensmount adapter ring.<p>

 

It's a full-frame fisheye. Very good flare control (especially when shooting in to the sun).

Focus is a non-issue (it's always set to 3m). At f8 or f11 it's incredibly sharp from corner

to corner.<p>

 

You can see photos of my M+fisheye rig in the Leica FAQ at:<p>

 

<a href="http://nemeng.com/leica/003f.shtml">

http://nemeng.com/leica/003f.shtml</a><p>

 

You can see the end result, high-resolution QuickTime VRs, on my site at:<p>

 

<a href="http://4020.net/vr/">http://4020.net/vr/</a>

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  • 9 years later...

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