Fisheye Lenses

[eclemens27]

Hi,
I have a Canon Rebel T3 and am interested in buying a fisheye lenses. I own a film fisheye, but would like the ease and quality of a lens for my DSLR. I'm not serious enough of a photographer to buy one of Canon's very expensive fisheye lenses, but would like to get a true lens, not a filter one that would attach onto a lens that I already own. I've briefly searched online for this particular sort of product, and managed to find three lens that seem to fit what I'm looking for and fit into my budget - about 300 dollars at the most. Are the three that I've found good for what I'm looking for and how are they? I'm aware that they are fully manual and am alright with that - it should make me a better photographer. Also, if anyone has additional suggestions for products that fit what I'm looking for, it would be much appreciated.

Here are the three models I have found:

Amazon.com: Samyang SYHD8M-C 8mm f/3.5 HD Lens with Removable Hood for Canon: SAMYANG: Camera & Photo

Amazon.com: Rokinon FE8M-C 8mm F3.5 Fisheye Lens for Canon - Black: ROKINON: Camera & Photo

Amazon.com: Bower SLY358C Ultra Wide-Angle 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens for Canon: Electronics

Thank you very much!

 

[TheBiles]

Those are actually all the same lens with different brand names. I'm a big fan of their 14mm f/2.8, so I'd feel comfortable with one of those if you want to go low budget.

Sent from my Galaxy S4

 

[eclemens27]

Alright, thanks a lot. What about the Peleng? Since I posted this I found out about it, and I do like the black circle effect that you seemingly get on the Peleng that is not on these three (or one I guess) models.

Amazon.com: Belomo MS Peleng 3.5/8mm Fisheye Lens for Canon EOS Cameras - New: Electronics

 

[480sparky]

Vivitar, Samyang ,ProOptic, Bower, Opteka, Bell & Howell, Rokinon and Falcon are all the same lens.

Alright, thanks a lot. What about the Peleng? Since I posted this I found out about it, and I do like the black circle effect that you seemingly get on the Peleng that is not on these three (or one I guess) models.

Amazon.com: Belomo MS Peleng 3.5/8mm Fisheye Lens for Canon EOS Cameras - New: Electronics

A circular fisheye like the Peleng won'g give you a circular image unless you're shooting with a full-frame camera. And you may find they intrude into the body so far as to get hit by the mirror as it moves up.

They're also totally, 100% pure manual. No autofocus, no chipset, no aperture control.

 

[TheBiles]

They're also totally, 100% pure manual. No autofocus, no chipset, no aperture control.

All things you don't need on a fisheye. They have nearly infinite depth of field.

 

[480sparky]

They're also totally, 100% pure manual. No autofocus, no chipset, no aperture control.

All things you don't need on a fisheye. They have nearly infinite depth of field.

No aperture control means the camera does not stop the aperture blades down. There's no mechanical linkage to the body whatsoever. The lens mount is strictly the physical mating to the body and nothing else.

This also means manual exposure, something a fisheye cannot do by default simply because of it's immense DOF (which, BTW, can be focused close enough to lose infinity focus!)

 

[Gavjenks]

(which, BTW, can be focused close enough to lose infinity focus!)

Hm... are there fisheye primes for large format cameras (I'm sure you can add one of those collimated fisheye adapters, but meh)? Now that I think of it, I don't think I've ever seen such a photo before. But if so, they could probably very easily throw the background out of focus, without really trying.

Maybe. Not actually very confident about that prediction the more I think about it.