Lensbaby has announced its Circular Fisheye 5.8mm f/3.5 lens is now available with new mount options. Launched in April for Canon and Nikon DSLRs, the Circular Fisheye will soon be offered with Micro Four Thirds, Nikon F, Sony A and E, Samsung NX, Canon EF, and Pentax K mounts. Read more
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
I almost didn’t purchase the Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM lens. I remember a conversation when I bought it a few years back on Google+ with my good pal Gordon Laing where I was really debating buying it. It was in pre production and I had an order in with B&H but it hadn’t shipped yet. At around $ 1,400 the lens felt expensive for what I worried might be an oddball lens, a lens useful for making a few high impact fisheye shots but not good for much else.
I’m happy to say that I did buy the EF 8-15mm fisheye lens and that I couldn’t be more happy about that decision.
My main dilemma with the EF 8-15mm fisheye was that I already owned the excellent EF 24mm f/1.4 lens and EF 14mm f/2.8 lens, and so I felt like I had the whole wide angle world covered. Now I find that I use this lens at 15mm much more than either my EF 24mm f/1.4 lens and EF 14mm f/2.8 lens and get what feels to me to be a remarkable more normal non fishy looking wide angle shot. Yes, you can tell it came from a fisheye lens at 15mm, but barely and I love the slightest degree of distortion I get there artistically speaking.
Of course I have way more fun shooting this lens at 8mm and have found that beyond traditional fisheye subjects, this lens has opened up a whole new world to me when it comes to shooting more abstractly — especially with architecture. I find these days my EF 14mm lens stays in my bag and instead I put on my EF 8-15mm fisheye lens for almost every ceiling photo I take.
I find this lens gets me my highest impact shots. Shots that make you go wow and make people notice.
On a full frame lens this lens gives you a perfect circle at 8mm. I love the square crop format and frequently shoot it at 8mm and then crop square afterwards.
The lens is super sharp and great if you want to get the entire ceiling of Chihuly’s amazing sculpture at the Bellagio like in the photo with this post.
While it’s not the best portrait lens, it can be fun to use as well with photographing people in new and creative ways (like this version of the human eye that I used it on).
As a reminder, my analysis of my Canon gear is being done in partnership with Canon and I am receiving compensation for this work with them.
Thomas Hawk Digital Connection
I almost didn’t purchase the Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM lens. I remember a conversation when I bought it a few years back on Google+ with my good pal Gordon Laing where I was really debating buying it. It was in pre production and I had an order in with B&H but it hadn’t shipped yet. At around $ 1,400 the lens felt expensive for what I worried might be an oddball lens, a lens useful for making a few high impact fisheye shots but not good for much else.
I’m happy to say that I did buy the EF 8-15mm fisheye lens and that I couldn’t be more happy about that decision.
My main dilemma with the EF 8-15mm fisheye was that I already owned the excellent EF 24mm f/1.4 lens and EF 14mm f/2.8 lens, and so I felt like I had the whole wide angle world covered. Now I find that I use this lens at 15mm much more than either my EF 24mm f/1.4 lens and EF 14mm f/2.8 lens and get what feels to me to be a remarkable more normal non fishy looking wide angle shot. Yes, you can tell it came from a fisheye lens at 15mm, but barely and I love the slightest degree of distortion I get there artistically speaking.
Of course I have way more fun shooting this lens at 8mm and have found that beyond traditional fisheye subjects, this lens has opened up a whole new world to me when it comes to shooting more abstractly — especially with architecture. I find these days my EF 14mm lens stays in my bag and instead I put on my EF 8-15mm fisheye lens for almost every ceiling photo I take.
I find this lens gets me my highest impact shots. Shots that make you go wow and make people notice.
On a full frame lens this lens gives you a perfect circle at 8mm. I love the square crop format and frequently shoot it at 8mm and then crop square afterwards.
The lens is super sharp and great if you want to get the entire ceiling of Chihuly’s amazing sculpture at the Bellagio like in the photo with this post.
While it’s not the best portrait lens, it can be fun to use as well with photographing people in new and creative ways (like this version of the human eye that I used it on).
As a reminder, my analysis of my Canon gear is being done in partnership with Canon and I am receiving compensation for this work with them.
Thomas Hawk Digital Connection
Michael and I (Kevin) have spent the last few days photographing together in Buffalo, NY. We met up with Mark Maio and a workshop he was holding photographing Silo City. This is a huge complex of abandoned Grain Silos that at the beginning of the 20th century played a huge part of distributing grain from the Midwest to other areas around the country. Needless to say it was a great time shooting old, huge, abandoned and decaying buildings. We got our fill of urban decay landscapes, with a number of good keepers. You’ll see these on the home page in coming weeks from both Michael and me.
Michael and I will be working together over the next few days along with Chris on a number of different and exciting projects for LuLa, Rockhopper and the Endowment. We’re very excited about everything we are working on.
Alain Briot’s monthly article is featured today The Canon EF 8-15, f1.4 USM Fisheye Lens. Not only is it a review of this lens but also how the lens plays a big part in Alain’s photography.
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The Luminous Landscape – What’s New
A dedicated circular fisheye lens from Lensbaby for under $ 300.00 sounds great, but how does it perform?
Lensbaby Circular Fisheye 5.8mm f/3.5 Lens
Lensbaby kindly sent me their new Circular Fisheye lens (the Canon version) to review about four weeks ago, and I can tell you that I’ve had a load of fun with it since then! The Lensbaby Circular Fisheye is best used (or optimized for) APS-C sensor sized cameras. I’ve been using it on a full frame Canon 5D and actually quite like the results it gives. You can see in the photographs below that it is a full circle, you might also note the shiny outer ring in the photographs – this is because the little lens has a polished barrel. With the barrel being polished, you can mess about getting neat flare and shine into your images, but you can also avoid that by tilting the lens away from direct light and moving it around to suit.
The 5.8mm f/3.5 circular fisheye from Lensbaby is a full manual lens, it doesn’t talk to your camera, it only talks to your hand – aperture ring and focus ring are within easy reach, feels good in your hand, sturdy and solid enough. The little lens has a pop-on, pop-off plastic lens cover and a plastic mount.
The Lensbaby Circular Fisheye will focus (manually, remember everything is manual) really really close – 1/4″ close and then out to infinity.. Which means it’s hilariously perfect for when your baby decides to lick the lens – a photo series I thought about producing, but strangely nobody else wanted to lick it after baby slobber! Ah well.
With a maximum aperture of f/3.5 it’s fast enough for most situations and with an ISO bump in dimly lit rooms, I wasn’t left wanting.
The field of view is 185° which is very very wide… like, see behind you wide – well, almost!
Yes, that’s Fro Knows Photo, yes he was holding my lens… We were together for a week in Israel – more on that later!
I’m not going to talk about edge to edge sharpness or chromatic aberration, I think we’re sort of missing the point if we’re looking at those factors in a $ 299 lens – this lens is about making fun photographs. It’s sharp enough, it’s well built and pretty sturdy – I’ve taken it from Melbourne, to Coffs Harbour, to Israel and back and it’s performed really well. Is it worth the price tag, yes absolutely.
I’d say people that enjoy exploring different types of photography would enjoy this lens, people that like making fun pictures will love it. Sure, it’s not the Canon 8-15mm L series Fisheye, but then it’s not $ 1500 either.
People that have a spare $ 1500 to drop on the L series Canon (or Nikon.. sorry, not sure which Nikon fits the bill)
My opening line “how does it perform” is kind of a silly thing to ask on a cheap lens, and lets face it, this is a cheap lens by comparison to other available options. So for the fun the lens brings and for its affordable price point, Lensbaby, I give you five of the available five stars – good stuff! (And no, you can’t have your lens back!)
The post Review – Lensbaby Circular Fisheye by Sime appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Parrot, the maker of the popular AR Drone 2.0, has launched a new model, the AR Drone 3.0. It also flies under the name Bebop. The Bebop is essentially a flying camera with four rotors. The camera comes with an F2.2 fisheye lens with a 180-degree field of view and a 14MP sensor. Learn more
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Lensbaby, maker of popular selective focus lenses, has announced a 5.8mm F3.5 circular fisheye lens for Canon and Nikon mounts. With a 185° angle of view, the lens produces a full-circle fisheye image when used with APS-C-sized sensor cameras. The lens also allows you to focus as close as 1/4-inch. Lensbaby is taking pre-orders now. The circular fisheye will sell for $ 299.95. Learn more
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Fisheye photos are tricky to do well. Sure, the super wide angle and curved distortion makes a lot of these pictures look cool. You don’t even need to know much about photography to impress your friends and get a boatload of “likes” on Facebook. But if you want to capture a unique perspective, you’ll need to do your homework. Then, you’ll have Continue Reading
The post 50(ish) Examples Of Breathtaking Fisheye Photography appeared first on Photodoto.
Photographs from a fisheye lens look different, which can be a good or not-so-good thing. This uber-wide angle lens let’s you get super close to your subject, yet still see the background. It’s an unusual perspective you can’t get with any other lens. But there are challenges, too. The edges are distorted, which makes some shots look weird, but below, Continue Reading
The post Fisheye Photography: 9 Shots That Work Amazingly Well appeared first on Photodoto.
Alongside the OM-D E-M10, Olympus has also announced three lenses. First up is the M.Zuiko Digital 25mm F1.8, a relatively inexpensive fast normal prime, that looks specifically designed to complement the much-loved 45mm F1.8. Second is the 9mm F8 Fish-Eye Body Cap Lens (which Olympus technically considers an ‘accessory’); this offers a 140° angle of view in a tiny plastic body. Finally there’s a new ‘pancake’ kit zoom for the E-M10, the M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 EZ, which features an electronic zoom. Learn more
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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