Fisheye for D200

[howard_owen]

<p>I lately have been photographing a lot of interiors, everything from commercial buildings to automobiles. I am thinking I'd like to use a fisheye lens from time to time, using the output straight out of the camera for the different perspective, or de-fished with a plugin like Fisheye Hemi.<br>

Is the Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED AF DX the logical choice or is there a better option? It would be sweet if the same lens would work on both DX and FX, but most FX fishies that I've seen lose their magic on DX. I have read that some people are sawing the lens hood off their 10.5's for FX use... ?</p>

<p>Any opinions?</p>

[georg_s1]

<p>If I had to weld a lens permanently onto my D200 it would be the 10.5mm Nikkor. I've used this lens before with the D100 (horrible results) and the D2H (mediocre results) and right now with a D700 (good results but I'm loosing a lot of pixels in DX-mode) and think the DX-fisheye is the perfect match for the D200. From time to time I'll drag an old Sigma 4/8mm out of the cabinet and while it's sharp on the D200 it's a better fit for a fullframe-DSLR.<br>

georg</p>

[Matthew Brennan]

<p>Howard,</p>

<p>I had the 10.5mm DX fisheye with the D200 and D300. I can recommend it highly as a fisheye, it's corner to corner performance is better on DX bodies than the 16mm AF-D is on FX. The 10.5mm fisheye is sharp, sharp, sharp!</p>

<p>I've tried Fisheye hemi as well (as a trial product only). It's works, but for my liking, only to a degree. I would not think it will cut it for interior photographics - too much cramming / altering of pixels in the extreme outer edge of the frame does not do justice to any detail you want to render in these areas. </p>

<p>A relatively inexpensive Sigma 14mm rectilinear lens might work better for your purposes. Although, on DX it will crop down like a 21mm lens you avoid the soft outer parts of the 14mm lens by using the much sharper sweet spot / centre portion of the lens.........? Just a suggestion?</p>

<p>If you are keen on a 10.5mm Fisheye, then why not hire one and put a series of images through a de-fishing program to see what you can achieve without committing yourself to the purchase?</p>

<p>Good luck! </p>

[oded bar-el]

<p>Another option worth looking at is the Tokina 10-17. It is reviewed on photozone.de<br />Build quality is pretty good (like most Tokina's). It is not fast as the Nikon (f/3.5 - f/4.5) and IQ might be slightly lower as well, however, the zoom option is (IMHO) a good feature with relatively low distortion in 17mm and higher distortion in 10mm.</p>

[joe_oliva]

<p>I own the Nikon 10.5mm fisheye, and use it on D200 and D300 bodies. It is indeed a sharp, sharp lens. If you are shooting interiors, you may want to investigate the Nikon 10-24mm or perhaps the Sigma 10-20mm lens for less distortion. I also own a great copy of the Sigma, and enjoy the wide view at 10mm and much less fisheye distortion. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to rent the glass from lensrentals.com and try before you buy.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Nikon's 10.5mm/f2.8 DX should be the obvious choice. It is not an AF-S lens, though.</p><div></div>

[photo5]

<p>Sometimes I feel a fisheye lens can render a scene more accurately than a superwide angle lens. Such as this airplane cockpit, which is already circular, taken with the Nikon 10.5mm DX Fisheye lens and SB-800 flash with dome diffusor.<br>

<img src="http://hull534.smugmug.com/photos/398830830_dYsye-L.jpg" alt="" /><br>

I also wanted to get this whole room in the photo and the Nikon 10.5mm fisheye did the trick:<br>

<img src="http://hull534.smugmug.com/photos/362274106_Jkect-L.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[howard_owen]

<p>Ok, I found a used 10.5. I like what it does, but I'm a little concerned about the sharpness. I will compare it to a new one next week.</p><div></div>

[Robert DeCandido PhD]

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>Use the 10.5 to shoot a series of overlapping images (shoot vertically) and then stitch them together as a panorama. You can shoot 2-3 and get a fine wide angle shot - the Fisheyes are especially useful for interior photography panoramas as well as those moving 360 degree adverts for real estate folks, hotels, etc. Anyway, if you do a search you will find a panorama yahoo group where all of these approaches are often discussed...I'd purchase the 10.5mm lens in a heartbeat and use it with PTGui or Autupano Pro to do panoramas - you can do these handheld usually. I do them all the time...Below is a hand-held panorama (three images stitched together). It is not the 10.5 lens but the 12-24...hopefully you get the picture that handheld panoramas are relatively easy and the 10.5 lens is the preferred lens for doing interior panoramas...</p>

<p>http://www.photo.net/photo/8163561</p>

<p>rdc/nyc</p>

[roypanos]

<p>I have been using the Nikon 10'5 FE to shoot VR panos on a D200 for a couple of years. I have shaved the hood for use on a D700. Apart from a lot of CA it's fine - I used to correct this manually in ACR but now use NX2 which does it automatically (remeber switch off de-fishing for FE use!)<br>

However I recently came across this<br>

http://www.lenstip.com/160.1-Lens_review-Samyang_8_mm_f_3.5_Aspherical_IF_MC_Fish-eye.html<br>

which is a review of the Samyang MF 8mmFE.</p>

<p>Given the good reputation of their other lenses (notably 85 1.4) it's probably worth investigating. At this focal length (and I usually use the Nikon 10.5 @ F8 for VR panos) the lack of AF hardly amounts to a limitation. And I believe the Samyang's a lot cheaper.</p>

<p>Roy</p>