Ultra wide angle: fisheye or rectilinear?

[Robin Smith]

A FF fisheye is not an everyday user, but there is nothing like it when it serves the composition. I had the Canon one and loved it, and want to get another. It can transform a mundane ultrawide shot into something special, but there's no point just using it "to get everything in". As to panoramas, I generally don't bother with them as they tend to look unspectacular on screen, and only work on a very large print where they given the treatment they deserve. If you put them on the iPad then I suggest cropping an ultrawide would work just as well in practice. Framing/mounting is also a non-routine expense as mentioned.

[BeBu Lamar]

Stitching can work pretty well. I've taken panning shots on slide film and stitch the images together many years later.

 

You can also stitch verticals and even odd, non-linear, overlapping frames.

Stitching has a different look but I think it looks more like the way the eyes see.

[JDMvW]

Here's a 'stitched' panorama (done in 2018) from two Ektachrome slide images (1974), because I feel like it.

Ngorongoro Crater

Display here on P.net (given the limitations on size) is not impressive, but a large print on the wall can work just fine.

[charles_escott_new]

The strangest lens I own is a Tokina 10-17mm APS C fisheye zoom. I use it on Nikon cameras and Sony Nex with an adaptor. Has there ever been another like it? Charles.

[Robin Smith]

Canon 8-15mm EF?

[charles_escott_new]

Thanks Mr. Smith, I had forgotten that lens. Not that I could have afforded it but I bet it performed better than my Tokina. At 10mm the ends curve alarmingly, it makes you feel drunk. Then zooming to 17mm it sort of becomes a normal wide angle. If you can take the man, Ken Rockwell has some interesting shots in his review of this lens, in his normal vivid colour the results are even more alarming. The only time I really appreciated this lens was when taking some shots of the Roman amphitheatre at Calleva Attrebatum, which is a mile from my home. From a restricted point of view it was great to have the zoom option to capture the arena. The other good thing about this lens is that it works on FX cameras as well. The Purple Haze in the corners is perhaps not so great. Charles.

[Robin Smith]

Charles. The Canon 8-15mm is a great performer, but it is essentially a circular fisheye at 8 mm and a normal FF fisheye at 15mm, so it is always a fisheye. It was a way for Canon to rationalize their fisheye offering: they only need to provide one lens to cater to anyone who wants either type of fisheye. Personally I don't care for circular fisheyes, so it is if little interest to me, and the old, discontinued 15mm FF fisheye is excellent as well as being faster, smaller, and less expensive.