Fisheye lenses

[chriskb3]

Hey photography experts I have a couple questions for you. I got a Digital Rebel XT a couple months ago and I want to get a fisheye/wide angle lens for it.

First, I have seen two different types of fisheye lenses, the first is the one that attaches directly to the camera, and the second that attaches to another lens (which are a lot cheaper). Whats the differences in these two different types?

Keep in mind that I am no professional photographer but I got this camera because I wanted more than just a point and shoot. Can you point me in the right direction as what to choose?

Thanks
Chris

[chriskb3]

I know a couple of you guys must know...

[Digitalwave]

The add on ones are junk, don't bother.

There are two types of fisheyes; circular, and rectilinear. Rectilinear are just REALLY wide lenses, but they have a normal square field of view and not a lot of distortion. Circular have lot of distortion and the corners of the picture get cropped off, with a roundish image.

Here is an example from my 8mm circular fisheye:

[Ducati]

The add on ones are junk, don't bother.

He's absolutely correct on that one.

You may not be an expert as you mentioned, but you don't want to blow your money.

I'm actually looking for a wide angle lens myself.

[chriskb3]

Gotcha, thanks a bunch guys.

BTW what brands should I be looking at?
Are Zenitar any good? The 2.8/16 in particular...

[Ben Carufel]

Gotcha, thanks a bunch guys.

BTW what brands should I be looking at?
Are Zenitar any good? The 2.8/16 in particular...

Canon OEM if you can afford it.

If not, Sigma or Tamron.

If you can't afford Sigma or Tamron, try Quantaray or Zenitar or one of the other crap brands.

[Digitalwave]

Gotcha, thanks a bunch guys.

BTW what brands should I be looking at?
Are Zenitar any good? The 2.8/16 in particular...

The Zenitar is decent but 16mm isn't a fisheye on your crop body camera. The camera has a 1.6x crop factor, so a 16mm lens becomes and effective 25.6mm lens. An 8mm fisheye on the other hand is 12mm on a crop body, which is pretty wide.

Canon and Sigma make great fisheyes but they are over $500. I have a Peleng 8mm f/3.5. It's sort of like the Zenitar, in that its a fully manual lens and it uses an adapter to mount to Canon cameras. You have to adjust the aperture and focus yourself.

Its not as bad as it sounds though. My focus is always on "M" and I never change it, and the lens is always set to f/5.6 or f/8 for maximum sharpness. I get great results and I only paid $145 for mine. They sell for about $200-250 new.

[chriskb3]

I will have to check out Peleng, thats about the price I want to pay. For me, I can't justify spending nearly the same amount of the camera on a lens. Thanks for yalls help.