EF 15m fisheye for Canon 10D?? Gift for wife help!??clueless

[Scott]

I know very little about photography. My wife has always wanted a fisheye lens and I asked a very helpful person at Calumet in Cambridge about the EF 15mm Fisheye. He informed me that the 10d does not have the chip to make it true 35mm, that the "Focal Length" will only go to 22 or so and I would not get the real "fisheye" effect with the lens. can any of you experienced photographers chime in on this one for me or perhaps make a suggestion? if you have I.M. my screen name is seasidecycle. thanks and have a great holiday.
scott b.

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the site.

The 10D has a sensor (or chip) that is smaller than 35mm film. So any lens that is designed for 35mm will give the effect of having a longer focal length (1.6 times longer) when used on the 10D. Basically, the 10D only sees the middle of the image projected by the lens.

A fish eye lens has the most distortion at the edges so when used on the 10D, the distorted edges would be effectively cut off. There is still some fish eye effect but it's definitely not the same as it would be on a film camera.

Here is a site with lots technical data http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/technical/field_of_view.html

It may still be a lens your wife would like. Or maybe she would like a lens that is not a fish eye but is still very wide. The 1.6 crop factor on the 10D makes all lenses seem longer than they would be on a 35mm camera so it's harder to get a wide field of view.

There are fish eye adapters that just attach to the front of a normal lens. They are much cheaper than an actual fish eye lens but the image quality is also much less.

 

[Scott]

Thanks for the quick response and the informative link.
Take care.

 

[ajmall]

why not buy a sigma 15mm digital fish eye then you will have a proper fish eye effect at the fraction of the price for a canon. i use the film version on my nikon and its great.