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December, 2024

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Are fisheyes gimmicky or good?

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MaxBerkowitz
Posts: 440 - Karma: 2,611
A lot of people on NS seem to really hate the fisheye look. Myself, I actually enjoy it, as long as there's no fallout or black corners. I really like the look of fisheye cable cams and follow cams, and I'd say my favourite use of it I've seen is anything by silvia, a mountain bike film crew from BC. Here's one of their videos to show off what I think is some of the best fisheye work around.

By the way, my fisheye is a manybrand one, the opteka 6.5mm f/3.5
I love it!
Dec 22 2012 6:22AM
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TijmenDal
Posts: 4849 - Karma: 1,295
The thing with fish-eyes is that they're hard to use correctly. If you know how to, it's cool, but most people don't. Other than that, it's not so much that it hurts having one and using one every now-and-then, but for us broke skier kids, a fisheye is very hard to justify when there's better/more versatile glass around.
Dec 22 2012 12:14PM
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Balto
Posts: 25985 - Karma: 4,404
good fisheyes are expensive, and the cheap ones are really terrible optically(for photos), so it's hard to justify buying one as they have such a specific use
Dec 22 2012 12:33PM
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MaxBerkowitz
Posts: 440 - Karma: 2,611
weeeellll I suppose that's true if you mean cheap ones are soft.
but the manybrand ones retail for 250-300 and are sharp by 5.6, and I never shoot lowlight on a fish.
Dec 22 2012 12:41PM
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Balto
Posts: 25985 - Karma: 4,404
sharpness is not the only thing that makes a lens good, most of the cheaper ones have very bad CA and color fringing

hasselblad and mamiya both make/made very nice 30ishmm fisheyes that performed wonderfully optically, the canon 8-15L is also quite nice, and for FF use on a budget the canon 15 2.8 is decent. Oh and the nikon 10.5 is decent for a crop body
Dec 22 2012 12:57PM
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TWoods
Posts: 10014 - Karma: 8,386
It's all in how you use them.
Dec 22 2012 1:40PM
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deleted2
Posts: 958 - Karma: 107
Not a huge fan of them in video, I mean I don't really film anymore but I'd say most people that are using them in skiing are just slapping it on and getting the skier in frame. For filming I feel like you really have to get creative with a fisheye. Now for photos, I personally like the look in action sports and you can even make it look right with some portraits and lifestyle shots. But when overused I think it looks gimmicky. That's just the point of view from a filmer turned photog.
Dec 22 2012 2:18PM
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RileySnyderPhoto
Posts: 688 - Karma: 1,451
It might be just me but I think the 8-15L is stupid
Dec 22 2012 7:25PM
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