Fisheye

With my 3 first weddings this year, I am slowly building up my collection. I was thinking about buying the Nikon 16mm 2.8 Fisheye lens, but my question is, how often will it come into play? You can see in my signature the gear I have now...is the 16mm necessary? I heard its a great lens, but is it worth the money? I do other photography besides weddings, so maybe it will be more useful elsewhere. What are your opinions on this lens?

There is no disputing that a fisheye is somewhat of an esoteric lens. But it can produce some pretty amazing images. I have a 16mm f/2.8 AIS and I love the thing. It is razor sharp and essentially flare/ghost free, quite a feat for a lens of this type.

Below are a few of my favorite images taken with this lens:

A fisheye turned this somewhat mundane subject into a really great abstract image


One of the water towers at our beaches looks like a beach ball. Again it takes a mundane subject and makes it interesting


Amber was about 4 feet from me when I took this image. There is fill flash added and notice NO GHOSTS.


A fisheye made this image of Ashley in a doorway a lot more interesting


It can add an abstract quality to interiors as well:


And of course, you can have fun with them too:

Nice shots! The first one is my favorite, very nice lines. Certainly would be a fun lens to play with.

SacrificeTheory said:

With my 3 first weddings this year, I am slowly building up my collection. I was thinking about buying the Nikon 16mm 2.8 Fisheye lens, but my question is, how often will it come into play? You can see in my signature the gear I have now...is the 16mm necessary? I heard its a great lens, but is it worth the money? I do other photography besides weddings, so maybe it will be more useful elsewhere. What are your opinions on this lens?

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If you are open to other brands, take a look at the 8mm fisheye from Samyang. In Fuji X mount, it is an absolutely stellar lens. It is all manual focus though, but it's no big deal. I am sure there would be more distortion, but for under $300 bucks, you can't go wrong.

One other point, depth of field is so deep that you could set the hyperfocal distance on the lens for say, f/5.6 and never have to worry about focusing. You could even use electrical tape and lock it there. There is honestly no advantage to autofocus with a lens of this focal length. You can find an AIS in great condition on Ebay for $400 or less.

[h=1]These shots are with my Rokinon HD8M-N 8mm f/3.5 HD Fisheye. I've been very happy with it and not a lot of cheese to buy it.[/h]

rwdflynavy said:

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These shots are with my Rokinon HD8M-N 8mm f/3.5 HD Fisheye. I've been very happy with it and not a lot of cheese to buy it.



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That is on DX, right? An 8mm fisheye on 35mm/FX would almost assuredly be a circular fisheye. I do occasionally find full circle 8mm f/2.8 AI Nikkors for sale on Fleabay for about $1400, but their use would be so limited that honestly I could not justify the cost.

Yep 7100.

nice fisheye shots!