looking for fish eye type lens for video/photo

hamlet · Dec 26, 2017

I am getting back on the saddle and getting back into camera stuff, i am looking for a fish eye lens for my d7100. Preferably it should have AF and be of equal or close to the quality of my 18-35mm art lens. It doesn't need to have zoom.

480sparky · Dec 26, 2017

Nikons fisheye offerings are pretty slim. An older 16mm and a new 8-15 FX. Their only other choice is a 10.5 DX. That might be your best bet.

Sigma makes a DX fisheye, but I don't know offhand if it's full-frame or circular. They used to make both, but one or the other was discontinued.

Auto-focus may not be as critical as it seems. Fisheye's have such tremendously deep DOF you can pretty much use hyperfocal focusing.

KmH · Dec 27, 2017

How much of your money can we spend?

$220 - Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 HD Fisheye Lens, Auto Aperture Chip, Removable Hood - for Nikon APS-C DSLR
Delivers a round image on FX that does not fill the frame.

$160, but not as good as the Rokinon - Opteka 6.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens for APS-C Nikon DSLR

katsrevenge · Dec 27, 2017

I have that Opteka 6.5mm mentioned. It's nearly impossible to mess up the focus on it after a few shots. You just sort of set it at infinity and point it at things. Here's one of my favorites I've taken with it, so far. The whitish blurs are snowflakes on the lens, not the lens itself, it was really coming down that day.

Dreary Day by Kat M., on Flickr

hamlet · Dec 28, 2017

KmH said:
How much of your money can we spend?

$220 - Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 HD Fisheye Lens, Auto Aperture Chip, Removable Hood - for Nikon APS-C DSLR
Delivers a round image on FX that does not fill the frame.

$160, but not as good as the Rokinon - Opteka 6.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens for APS-C Nikon DSLR

I'd say i would probably spend something like a grand at the most. The rokinon or samyang as it is known here is perhaps a suitable lens, but i'm hesitant on the quality it will deliver. I remember using the 11-16mm tokina and being very disappointing by how soft the pictures looked. Maybe i can see if i can rent it or some such thing.