Fisheye and wide angle lens?

[rpc212]

Hi,

I am looking at a Sigma 8mm EX Circular Fisheye lens for cpaturing 180 degree sky shots. Is this a good lens? I will be using it on a Canon 20D.

I also want to take 360 degree panoramas. What would be a good wide angle lens to use for this?

Thanks,

rpc212

[Andy_T]

rpc,

welcome to the forum :D

Take a look at this thread, especially at the links given to the virtual big bend website.
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=20923

I think this is very close to what you want to do - hope you find the necessary info there.

Best regards,
Andy

[rpc212]

Thanks Andy,

This is one of the things I want to do. However my main concern is static Sky shots at the moment and capturing the surrounding terrain down to the horizon. I am wondering if using a wideangle lens with a fisheye and then stiching them together would work? Anyone have any ideas?

I guess the distortion from the fisheye at the edges will be a problem however if I got enough overlap I will, hopefully be able to paint this out.

What wide angle lens should I get or would the Canon 17-85mm EF-s be good enough?

Thanks,

rpc212

[buze]

Rectilinear wide angles have as much distortion as fisheyes; it's just a different kind. If I were do do 180 degres sky shots I'd opt for a 8mm fisheye, however realize that it will be 180 only on a full frame camera; not on a cropped one. On my 350D I get 180 degres *diagonal* view max.
If you want to see my recent experiments with fisheyes and perspective corrections check there :
http://galleries.oomz.net/pub/M42/russian/peleng8mm/

[rpc212]

So Buze you are saying that the 8mm Fisheye will not give 180 degree coverage of the sky in all directions on a 20D? So is there any lens that gives full 180 degree coverage?

Thanks,

rpc212

[buze]

None, as far as I know...