> From his review of the Samyang 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye, which is otherwise > relatively informative (yes I know, smack), then this: > > "There really isn't anything useful you can do with a fisheye, other > than use the images as a basis for tweaking back to straight with > software." > > "If you're going to buy a fisheye, it doesn't make much sense to spend > much money on it, since you'll probably get tired of it in a few > days." > > http://www.ken****well.com/tech/8mm-f35.htm#perf
I bought my 8/3.5 on the assumption that it was the photographic equivalent of a bag of cheeto's. Optical junk food, enjoyable on occasion, but not a staple part of healthy diet. To my surprise, it is proving to be far more useful than I ever imagined. I would say that if there is any one thing that defines my personal style, it is tight framing. I've found that the easiest way to get a good photo is not to put more good stuff in, but to take out anything that isn't good. So, I'll use a narrower field of view and include as few extraneous details as I can. As such, a fisheye is exactly not the lens that fits my shooting style. So, when I got my fisheye, I figured I'd play with it for a few days, have fun, and it would be on hand for the rare occasions when it is what I need. I've been surprised over the past couple of weeks by how frequently those rare occasions come up. There is certainly a lot to learn about using such a wide lens. It includes a huge amount of background, but things are often so small at any distance, that they are more background color than compositional elements. If something is very close, particularly at the edge of the frame, you'll get the wild fisheye distortion, but further away, particularly toward the center of the frame, they look normal, just like using a mild wide angle on a smaller sensor (go figure). I think that a fisheye lens is like HDR, they are both easy to spectacularly misuse, but can be extremely useful in the proper circumstances. -- [email protected] via squirrelmail -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
