Show us you circular fish-eye images

[Jørgen Ramskov]

Looks great! Which Sigma is this?

Sigma AF 8mm F3.5 EX DG.

[Akira]

That's done in PP.

Okay, I heard that this is one of the most difficult aspect of a circular fisheye design.

[Kim Pilegaard]

Okay, I heard that this is one of the most difficult aspect of a circular fisheye design.

Any opinions on the Sigma 4.5mm F2.8 EX DC HSM Circular Fisheye for APS-C sensors?

[Jørgen Ramskov]

Okay, I heard that this is one of the most difficult aspect of a circular fisheye design.

Here is an unprocessed shot, I simply loaded it in LR and exported it.


Storetorv og Aarhus domkirke, m.m. by Joergen Ramskov, on Flickr

Fortunately it's easy to fix in PP, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do it

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Any opinions on the Sigma 4.5mm F2.8 EX DC HSM Circular Fisheye for APS-C sensors?

It is "...  tolerable I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me"

You need to use the 4.5 Sigma on a high-resolution camera since its image circle is smaller than the other fisheye lenses designed for FX.

It focuses very close, more or less to the front element itself, which can be useful, but also shows mercilessly any dust on the front. The image centre is sharp, towards the peripheral parts the rendition gets a little softer.

To the rear you can put a tiny gel filter, but this requires the filter to be cut to size.

[Kim Pilegaard]

Here is an image taken with the Spiratone fish-eye lens 0.15x converter on a AF-Nikkor 50/1.4 D. Quite difficult to get a sharp image.

[Kim Pilegaard]

It is "...  tolerable I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me"

Anyway your picture is quite remarkable! The lens might be good on a D500.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

I have the D500 on order and eagerly await its arrival.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Another with the Sigma 4.5 on a D3X. In this case, the wood anemones actually were onto the front element.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Fisheye front attachments are rarely useful, as image quality suffers greatly. Nikea's example convincingly demonstrates this. However, a front fisheye in combination with a relay lens can be advantageous if the lens itself won't fit physically, or its image circle either is too small or too large for the camera format at hand.

This is the 10 OP Fisheye using a relay lens on my D2X to shrink the projected image circle. For my current fleet of FX cameras, the 10 OP can be attached directly so no relay is required.

[Akira]

Any opinions on the Sigma 4.5mm F2.8 EX DC HSM Circular Fisheye for APS-C sensors?

I have never used this lens.  But interestingly, according to Sigma's official website, its image circle is only 12.3mm.  Considering that the shorter edge of APS-C is 15.6mm and that of m4/3 format is 13mm.  So, it would utilize the pixels of m4/3 format more efficiently, but Sigma makes this lens only for Nikon F, Canon EF and Sigma SA mounts.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

I have used the 4.5 Sigma on my Panasonics GH-2 via an F-m43 adapter. As the Sigma is a "G" lens, you need an adapter that allows some control of the aperture setting.

[Akira]

I have used the 4.5 Sigma on my Panasonics GH-2 via an F-m43 adapter. As the Sigma is a "G" lens, you need an adapter that allows some control of the aperture setting.

That adapter is easy to find.  Did you confirm that the image circle fits right into the m4/3 format?

[Bjørn Rørslett]

On the m43, the image circle fits just perfectly inside the frame.

[Akira]

On the m43, the image circle fits just perfectly inside the frame.

Thanks for the confirmation.  I wonder why the image circle is that small for a lens dedicated to an APS-C format...