Need lens help - decision

I bought an Opteka 6.5 fisheye just to have fun with. For the money, optics are ok. ($150)

However, the product description is deceptive - says it works on FF, but it does not without substantial cropping. (does mount on 5D but vignettes heavily).

I have a crop body for normal color use, and the lens works nice on it. However, my only IR body is a 5D.

(The opteka is manual focus and so forth, but as I said I'm happy with the optics which are surprisingly good.)

I'm trying to decide whether to return it or not. Question is, will I be able to find another fisheye in the same price range that works on crop and FF?

Picture North Carolina wrote in post #17457116
I bought an Opteka 6.5 fisheye just to have fun with // does mount on 5D but vignettes heavily

I think all true fisheye lenses produce a vignette - hence the name. I'm guessing it's supposed to provide a 180deg view all around, and that would be impossible in a rectangular image...

Thank you, I appreciate your help.

My question is if anybody knows of a fisheye that has decent optics and that will work on FF. I have done research and cannot find any.

(manual lens, doesn't have to have auto focus or anything. Just decent optics. Prefer in the 6 mm range.)

The Samyang/Rokinin/Bower 12mm Fisheye is the widest and cheapest Full Frame Fisheye, but it will cost you about $500:

(it gives a full rectangular fisheye image with no vignetting)

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …m_c_12mm_f_2_8_​ed_as.html

For the price any image that is half way to good is going to be fine.
Learn how to actuate the camera so that the widest angle of detail is caught- then do pano cropping.

For FF, any fisheye less than 14 or 15mm will produce vignetting. Suitable options for FF rendering a diagonal fisheye image are more expensive than those available for crop.

Sigma and Tokina, for instance, both have offerings.

Why do you want 6mm? Do you want to produce circular fisheye images, or are you looking for something versatile enough to shoot on both FF and crop? There are FE zooms that cover the range for both formats.

I want the 6 mm for the unusual effects.

Here's more detail which may help understand the need for crop and FF usage.

I shoot primarily (normal spectrum) with a 5D2. But I recently picked up a T3i. The fisheye works great on it.

But I also shoot IR, and the only converted body I have is a 5D. I have no crop IR conversion. And most of the lens effects I am after will probably be with IR.

I have already tested the fisheye on the 5D and it works good as far as optical performance is concerned (surprisingly good resolution for the money). But the FF images need to be cropped substantially to net a usable image. Somewhere around 35% needs to be cropped off. This nets an image size far smaller than the native 5D. I would prefer not to lose so much.

So I need something that will work better on the FF 5D. If it's limited to FF usage only, that is ok because for normal spectrum shots I can put it on the 5D2 instead of the T3i.

The catch is I only paid $154 for the lens. I give thanks for the recommendation, but because it is being used only for effects, I'm not willing to drop $500 or more on a FF fisheye.

Bottom line is I doubt I will find a fisheye that works good on a FF body for the same amount, but I thought I would ask.

Hope that all made sense. Thanks for the help.

BTW, I thought I had linked to the lens, but apparently not.

If curious:

Opteka 6.5mm f/3.5 HD Aspherical Fisheye Lens

(And yes, even tho technically an aps-c lens, it does mount on FF bodies.)