At €150, that old Sigma Filtermatatic 16mm fisheye at my local dealers was hard to resist. How would it fare on my high resolution D800? Junk or lost gem?
Once, I remembered from my D300 days that I had to set the lens maximum aperture in the camera menu I managed to get it metering properly. Setting the right focal length seemed to improve the shots too.
The quality of the construction is quite good, though the aperture ring is a difficult to shift. It is super lightweight compared to todays lenses.
Wide open at 2.8 it is a dog; zero definition. But well stopped right down to F11 it is not to bad. Hogan would not put it in his list of recommended lenses for high definition Nikon bodies!
Here are a few shots that I took in town. I had fun defishing. DXO did a nice job returning straight lines to be straight, but it destroyed what definition there was on the edges of the lens. I got much better results with Hugin which seemed to preserve the edge definition much better.
It is best to do any CA correction first before sending the files to Hugin. Any CA's will be exaggerated when they are stretched.
I do not like much the out of camera curvy fisheye look, but I like the results I get defishing the almost 180° view. It is funto play with the projections in Hugin
For architecture I think that having,the camera perfectly level and vertical will improve the defished pictures.
I think I am going to have some great fun with this lens. Stopping down it will not win any sharpness awards, but it is quite usable for those odd occasions where I want a really wide view.
1- as shot
2 Equidistant projection
3 -panini projection
4-Dxo defish. What a disaster on the edges!
5- In town with the original shot stood in a doorway.
6- Cylindrical
7 - rectangular
8- Original shot
9 Rectangular
10 Architectural projection
Once, I remembered from my D300 days that I had to set the lens maximum aperture in the camera menu I managed to get it metering properly. Setting the right focal length seemed to improve the shots too.
The quality of the construction is quite good, though the aperture ring is a difficult to shift. It is super lightweight compared to todays lenses.
Wide open at 2.8 it is a dog; zero definition. But well stopped right down to F11 it is not to bad. Hogan would not put it in his list of recommended lenses for high definition Nikon bodies!
Here are a few shots that I took in town. I had fun defishing. DXO did a nice job returning straight lines to be straight, but it destroyed what definition there was on the edges of the lens. I got much better results with Hugin which seemed to preserve the edge definition much better.
It is best to do any CA correction first before sending the files to Hugin. Any CA's will be exaggerated when they are stretched.
I do not like much the out of camera curvy fisheye look, but I like the results I get defishing the almost 180° view. It is funto play with the projections in Hugin
For architecture I think that having,the camera perfectly level and vertical will improve the defished pictures.
I think I am going to have some great fun with this lens. Stopping down it will not win any sharpness awards, but it is quite usable for those odd occasions where I want a really wide view.
1- as shot
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2 Equidistant projection
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3 -panini projection
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4-Dxo defish. What a disaster on the edges!
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5- In town with the original shot stood in a doorway.
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6- Cylindrical
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7 - rectangular
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8- Original shot
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9 Rectangular
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10 Architectural projection
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