BackdoorArts
Senior Member
I got my Sigma 15mm Fisheye yesterday and have been itching to get out and shoot, so rainy day or not I took a drive to Easton, PA which I figured would present me with some interesting opportunities to shoot with it.
Before going, however, I will admit to becoming a little perplexed, and then disappointed to learn that for some odd reason Sigma decided they could not put a Manual/Autofocus switch on the Nikon version of this lens (there is one on the Canon and Sigma versions). So, this becomes my first lens with no automatic override for the autofocus, and also the first lens that drives me to the switch on the body. That's going to be confusing for a while. I find the lens to be nice and sharp, with a little CA at the edges, but I almost expect that from a fish. If I have a complaint it's that the autofocus is pretty darned noisy. A lot noisier than any other lens I have. Noisy enough to be distracting in a dark room. If I get a chance I'll shoot video of it.
After taking some test shots and loading them into Lightroom last night it became immediately apparent as to why so many of the photos I've seen taken with this lens don't exhibit fisheye characteristics - it's because Adobe's Profile Correction for this lens removes all distortion, rendering a rectilinear 15mm image from the fisheye shot. I was originally a little annoyed by this, but then I realized that the reason profile corrections exist are to remove distortions, and a fisheye is all about them. So, what I get with Lightroom is a quick jump to a 15mm ultrawide with the touch of a button, which makes the lens very flexible.
To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here are 3 edits of the same photo.
Version 1 - Straight Out Of The Camera
As you can see, there's plenty of barrel distortion, and the 180 degree view on the horizontal is fairly easy to see (I was about 12-15 feet from the wall).
Version 2 - Same Photo with "Auto" correction for Vertical & Horizontal skewing
This is kind of cool and allows for a lot of options with shooting architecture provided you provide room for cropping. With that in mind, I decided to see just how good Photoshop's Content Aware Fill did with the open areas, so I selected them one at a time, expanded the empty selection by 3 pixels and invoked Smart Fill. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed.
This is exactly what Photoshop gave me, no additional touch ups.
Version 3 - Original Photo with Profile Correction added
Here you have the rectilinear profile correction straight out of Lightroom. No additional horizontal or vertical adjustments. Essentially, this turns the fisheye into a 15mm f2.8 at the touch of a button. Pretty good job. And for giggles, I decided to also invoke the Auto correct to adjust vertical and horizontal lines. I have to say, I was slightly blown away by what I got...
That's a complete, 3 story facade from less than 15 feet away!!
I think I'm going to have a lot fun with this lens, I just know it.
Before going, however, I will admit to becoming a little perplexed, and then disappointed to learn that for some odd reason Sigma decided they could not put a Manual/Autofocus switch on the Nikon version of this lens (there is one on the Canon and Sigma versions). So, this becomes my first lens with no automatic override for the autofocus, and also the first lens that drives me to the switch on the body. That's going to be confusing for a while. I find the lens to be nice and sharp, with a little CA at the edges, but I almost expect that from a fish. If I have a complaint it's that the autofocus is pretty darned noisy. A lot noisier than any other lens I have. Noisy enough to be distracting in a dark room. If I get a chance I'll shoot video of it.
After taking some test shots and loading them into Lightroom last night it became immediately apparent as to why so many of the photos I've seen taken with this lens don't exhibit fisheye characteristics - it's because Adobe's Profile Correction for this lens removes all distortion, rendering a rectilinear 15mm image from the fisheye shot. I was originally a little annoyed by this, but then I realized that the reason profile corrections exist are to remove distortions, and a fisheye is all about them. So, what I get with Lightroom is a quick jump to a 15mm ultrawide with the touch of a button, which makes the lens very flexible.
To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here are 3 edits of the same photo.
Version 1 - Straight Out Of The Camera
As you can see, there's plenty of barrel distortion, and the 180 degree view on the horizontal is fairly easy to see (I was about 12-15 feet from the wall).
Version 2 - Same Photo with "Auto" correction for Vertical & Horizontal skewing
This is kind of cool and allows for a lot of options with shooting architecture provided you provide room for cropping. With that in mind, I decided to see just how good Photoshop's Content Aware Fill did with the open areas, so I selected them one at a time, expanded the empty selection by 3 pixels and invoked Smart Fill. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed.
This is exactly what Photoshop gave me, no additional touch ups.
Version 3 - Original Photo with Profile Correction added
Here you have the rectilinear profile correction straight out of Lightroom. No additional horizontal or vertical adjustments. Essentially, this turns the fisheye into a 15mm f2.8 at the touch of a button. Pretty good job. And for giggles, I decided to also invoke the Auto correct to adjust vertical and horizontal lines. I have to say, I was slightly blown away by what I got...
That's a complete, 3 story facade from less than 15 feet away!!
I think I'm going to have a lot fun with this lens, I just know it.