please help, fisheye lenses

[alseides]

Hello - I have an S50 camera and I need to get a fisheye lens. I have looked around and seen 2 different ones for 50 bucks each. looking at the price, I am doubtful of the quality. One is by Opteka and the other is Kenko. I am not experienced with this stuff and have never purchased lenses before.

Opteka:
http://www.47stphoto.com/oppr4fufilef.html#included

Kenko:
http://www.adorama.com/KN043X37.html

One last thing: the opteka model comes with a lens adapter to attach the fisheye lens onto. However the Kenko model does not say what it comes with. Does anyone know? If it doesn't, I assume I would have to buy this:
http://www.bugeyedigital.com/product_main/ckc-s30s40ad.html

Please let me know the quality of these products as well as if the kenko one comes with an adapter or not (and if not will the adapter in the last link i posted work for it?)

please help i cant find info on these anywhere :)
much appreciated
peter

[Andy_T]

Hi Alseides,

welcome to the forum!


The important issue on any camera with a wide angle converter (and a fisheye is an extremely wide angle lens) is vignetting. I would be vary of a 37 mm threaded lens, because this is a very small lens diameter and I would expect the possiblity of vignetting. The adorama ad explicitely mentions this. Most camcorders have far smaller lens diameters than Canon digital cameras.

Mind you ... I only have experience with the G2. It might just work fine on the S series. Also ... for a fisheye lens, the vignetting might be just what you are looking for.

I would also be wary of the 47st photo ad. I've only heard of Opteka lenses as 'special price' offers, but never in a serious review. Thread size is not mentioned there at all ... so maybe you better call to verify the issue.

And ... last but not least ... all the guys I've seen so far that bought fisheye lenses for their compact cameras used them for about a week or so and then never touched them again. Looks very much like a 'novelty' product to me. But this is my opinion.

Like in this thread: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=27187&highlight=fisheye

Best regards,
Andy

[Huckaback Photo]

For many years i owned a full frame 16mm zuiko fish eye(olympus) quite superb but also 17mm tokina wide angle. on the amount of use each lens had, the wide angle wins.
try viewing a slide show with all images done fish eye full frame or circular fish eye you will soon get fed up with to many the same, i know this from experience.
if your looking for a circular fisheye i can tell it really will be a novelty and soon be left at home.
go for a wide adaptor screw on lens instead it will give you far more use.
I now use with my auto focus digital Canons, a 14mm f2.8 and is quite superb if the job is right for it.
but is still not what i call an every day lens.
like all things they are worth trying once but think carefully.
get a super wide instead.
Martin

[alseides]

well novelty or not it depends on what im using it for :) in this case im am not using it for normal photography. if it were just for photos i could see how it the fisheye effect could get boring and result is fewer uses. however what i am trying to do is create a QTVR type panorama. But instead of the QuickTIme method im going hte Java route using PTViewer. Its quite simple but I just need a lense to capture the image. heres what i mean:
http://andymack.com/myphotos/panoramas/images/vrjava.php?mov=auditorium.mov&img=&w=400&h=250&al=true&os=1.8&comments=An%20auditorium%20in%20my%20university.

what ill need is to take 2 fisheye photos of the area i want to capture. one picture will cover 180 degrees so that when i stitch the 2 fisheye photos together i get a picture of the entire room. (basically its 2 hemispheres combined) using the fisheye photos i can convert it to an equirectangular projection (a rectangular version of the stiched photos) so that the ptviewer java applet will be able to create the "virtual reality" part of it allowing the user to rotate and tilt freely as in the link i supplied. whew hope that wasnt too complicated as i dont really understand it myself. hah.

i dont know if super wide lense will be able to capture 180 degress in all directions. (each photo being able to capture the ceiling directly above and the floor directly below, a complete hemisphere) if it doesnt the 2 photos will not stich correctly. i hope you know what i mean.

[Andy_T]

Alseides,

now I understand what you want to do.

Check out these threads:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=13665
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=5104

They refer to using a G2, however.

Best regards,
Andy