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I am dissapointed in the Raynox Fisheye !

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tammons

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So I lay out 400 clams for a Raynox fisheye, since I have heard good things about it. Man that thing is heavier than the camera! And what a crappy lens cap, please! I cant even get mine to stay on. But those things are just minor. My lens is very soft at the edges and has major CA. Is this normal for this lens and if it is has anyone used one of the other fisheyes on the market. For a $400 fixed lens I dont think I should have to deal with CA or soft edges.
Thank god I bought it from B+H because its going back for a refund!
 
Can you post some pics? Curious to see what they look like, thanks.
tammons said:
So I lay out 400 clams for a Raynox fisheye, since I have heard
good things about it. Man that thing is heavier than the camera!
And what a crappy lens cap, please! I cant even get mine to stay
on. But those things are just minor. My lens is very soft at the
edges and has major CA. Is this normal for this lens and if it is
has anyone used one of the other fisheyes on the market. For a $400
fixed lens I dont think I should have to deal with CA or soft edges.
Thank god I bought it from B+H because its going back for a refund!
Click to expand...
 
I have wanted one of these for a long time.
Could you post some photos so I can drool and others can help you? :-)

Seriously maybe somebody has some tips. I have seen positive posts on this lens.
tammons said:
So I lay out 400 clams for a Raynox fisheye, since I have heard
good things about it. Man that thing is heavier than the camera!
And what a crappy lens cap, please! I cant even get mine to stay
on. But those things are just minor. My lens is very soft at the
edges and has major CA. Is this normal for this lens and if it is
has anyone used one of the other fisheyes on the market. For a $400
fixed lens I dont think I should have to deal with CA or soft edges.
Thank god I bought it from B+H because its going back for a refund!
Click to expand...
--
Michael Jones
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I will post a few later today.

I looked closely at their website photos and they are fuzzy at the edges and have some CA too, but not as bad as mine. I am probably going to end up returning it and buying the .5 WA. It does not seem to be as bad.
Michael Jones said:
Seriously maybe somebody has some tips. I have seen positive posts
on this lens.
tammons said:
So I lay out 400 clams for a Raynox fisheye, since I have heard
good things about it. Man that thing is heavier than the camera!
And what a crappy lens cap, please! I cant even get mine to stay
on. But those things are just minor. My lens is very soft at the
edges and has major CA. Is this normal for this lens and if it is
has anyone used one of the other fisheyes on the market. For a $400
fixed lens I dont think I should have to deal with CA or soft edges.
Thank god I bought it from B+H because its going back for a refund!
Click to expand...
--
Michael Jones
Join the Infrared Ultraviolet Photography Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digital_IR_UV_Photography_Tech
Download McPic Photo Viewer (FREE) with IR Colorizer!:
http://www.customvb.net/sw/mcpic/mcpic200.shtml
Join the McPic User Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/McPic
Click to expand...
 
I have the Phoenix Super Fisheye converter that I had bought for one of my other cameras. But it comes with all size adapters to use and there is a 58mm step ring for use with the Sony. I just tried it on my V1, and you can't go full circular frame due to the Sony adapter size, but here's an example of wide shot:



I know this shot could be better but this is just running outside on my back deck to try it! The thing about the Phoenix lens is that it's small and light. If you want more information on this lens, there's a description at onecall.com, which is where I bought it. K.
tammons said:
Michael Jones said:
Seriously maybe somebody has some tips. I have seen positive posts
on this lens.
tammons said:
So I lay out 400 clams for a Raynox fisheye, since I have heard
good things about it. Man that thing is heavier than the camera!
And what a crappy lens cap, please! I cant even get mine to stay
on. But those things are just minor. My lens is very soft at the
edges and has major CA. Is this normal for this lens and if it is
has anyone used one of the other fisheyes on the market. For a $400
fixed lens I dont think I should have to deal with CA or soft edges.
Thank god I bought it from B+H because its going back for a refund!
Click to expand...
--
Michael Jones
Join the Infrared Ultraviolet Photography Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digital_IR_UV_Photography_Tech
Download McPic Photo Viewer (FREE) with IR Colorizer!:
http://www.customvb.net/sw/mcpic/mcpic200.shtml
Join the McPic User Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/McPic
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Galleries: http://www.koo22photos.com/-/koo22photos/default.asp
 
Don't know what happened there..For some reason I'm not able to embed an image here..here's the link:
http://www3.pbase.com/image/19562398
koo22 said:
koo22 said:
I looked closely at their website photos and they are fuzzy at the
edges and have some CA too, but not as bad as mine. I am probably
going to end up returning it and buying the .5 WA. It does not seem
to be as bad.
Michael Jones said:
Seriously maybe somebody has some tips. I have seen positive posts
on this lens.
tammons said:
So I lay out 400 clams for a Raynox fisheye, since I have heard
good things about it. Man that thing is heavier than the camera!
And what a crappy lens cap, please! I cant even get mine to stay
on. But those things are just minor. My lens is very soft at the
edges and has major CA. Is this normal for this lens and if it is
has anyone used one of the other fisheyes on the market. For a $400
fixed lens I dont think I should have to deal with CA or soft edges.
Thank god I bought it from B+H because its going back for a refund!
Click to expand...
--
Michael Jones
Join the Infrared Ultraviolet Photography Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digital_IR_UV_Photography_Tech
Download McPic Photo Viewer (FREE) with IR Colorizer!:
http://www.customvb.net/sw/mcpic/mcpic200.shtml
Join the McPic User Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/McPic
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Galleries: http://www.koo22photos.com/-/koo22photos/default.asp
Click to expand...
--
Galleries: http://www.koo22photos.com/-/koo22photos/default.asp
 
try shooting at f4.5 or smaller
tammons said:
So I lay out 400 clams for a Raynox fisheye, since I have heard
good things about it. Man that thing is heavier than the camera!
And what a crappy lens cap, please! I cant even get mine to stay
on. But those things are just minor. My lens is very soft at the
edges and has major CA. Is this normal for this lens and if it is
has anyone used one of the other fisheyes on the market. For a $400
fixed lens I dont think I should have to deal with CA or soft edges.
Thank god I bought it from B+H because its going back for a refund!
Click to expand...
--
Posting these days requires either dedication or medication...
cheers
Zip:P

 
Actually I am shooting another run on aperture mode today and will post a couple of shots later.
ZipperZ said:
tammons said:
So I lay out 400 clams for a Raynox fisheye, since I have heard
good things about it. Man that thing is heavier than the camera!
And what a crappy lens cap, please! I cant even get mine to stay
on. But those things are just minor. My lens is very soft at the
edges and has major CA. Is this normal for this lens and if it is
has anyone used one of the other fisheyes on the market. For a $400
fixed lens I dont think I should have to deal with CA or soft edges.
Thank god I bought it from B+H because its going back for a refund!
Click to expand...
--
Posting these days requires either dedication or medication...
cheers
Zip:P

Click to expand...
 
Okay I shot another test run today stopped down and things improved a lot. It looks like you really have to shoot this lens F4 and higher. At F2 it is really soft at the edges and a ton of CA. Check these two pics. Straight out of the camera. They look a lot better than my first shots. There is still a litlle CA but not as bad. Now if I can just find a lens cap that will stay on !

F8



F5.6


tammons said:
So I lay out 400 clams for a Raynox fisheye, since I have heard
good things about it. Man that thing is heavier than the camera!
And what a crappy lens cap, please! I cant even get mine to stay
on. But those things are just minor. My lens is very soft at the
edges and has major CA. Is this normal for this lens and if it is
has anyone used one of the other fisheyes on the market. For a $400
fixed lens I dont think I should have to deal with CA or soft edges.
Thank god I bought it from B+H because its going back for a refund!
Click to expand...
 
I'm wondering if the fact that the lens will not go on correctly or falls off is related to the CA and soft edges.



Here is link to some full size crops from test shot shown above
http://homepage.mac.com/inertia_visual_media/memphiszoo/raynoxtestimages/

When I can I shoot at iso 100 and F8, and with lens at full wide even though there is some zoom through.

I typically use this lens for creating fully spherical high resolution panoramic images. Here are links to some of my early tests with it.
http://homepage.mac.com/inertia_visual_media/stlzoo-btfly/
http://homepage.mac.com/inertia_visual_media/citymuseum/
http://homepage.mac.com/inertia_visual_media/memphiszoo/

--
David Goldwasser
http://www.inertia-llc.com
 
tammons said:
F8



F5.6


tammons said:
So I lay out 400 clams for a Raynox fisheye, since I have heard
good things about it. Man that thing is heavier than the camera!
And what a crappy lens cap, please! I cant even get mine to stay
on. But those things are just minor. My lens is very soft at the
edges and has major CA. Is this normal for this lens and if it is
has anyone used one of the other fisheyes on the market. For a $400
fixed lens I dont think I should have to deal with CA or soft edges.
Thank god I bought it from B+H because its going back for a refund!
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Cliff. Johnston

tammons,

If I recall correctly lens performance is optimal at f 8. Give it a try and let us know.

Cliff.
 
tammons said:
Okay I shot another test run today stopped down and things improved
a lot. It looks like you really have to shoot this lens F4 and
higher. At F2 it is really soft at the edges and a ton of CA. Check
these two pics. Straight out of the camera. They look a lot better
than my first shots. There is still a litlle CA but not as bad. Now
if I can just find a lens cap that will stay on !
Click to expand...
Agree, there's still quite a bit of CA even when stopped down to F8. However, you may be able to correct for this with, for example, some of the plugins that come with panorama tools. A good article/tutorial can be found at:

http://www.caldwellphotographic.com/TutorialsDistortionAndColorFringing.html
 
I tried reducing the CA of the vertical image successfully by applying the following corrections in "Pano Tools > Correct":

Co-efficient "D":

r=1.003
g=1.0002
b=0.998

Mind you, these are starting values for more exact iterations of your own testing.

Once the co-efficient "D" is established to reduce or correct CA for a particular lens/(perhaps F:Stop), all images taken with that lens can be corrected no fuss with the same setting all the time. And it only takes seconds to correct each image.
Just an idea...
David Goldwasser seems to have mastered (tamed) the lens quite successfully.

Myself, I would like the coverage of such an extreme fisheye/wideangle if I could make use of it as David for example.

--
Bernd Taeger
 
That's a lot of money for a lens. Couldn't equivalent results have been achieved with a pano head and some good stitching software?
 
I guess so but you could never get the fisheye distortion.
Tom Matty said:
That's a lot of money for a lens. Couldn't equivalent results have
been achieved with a pano head and some good stitching software?
Click to expand...
 
Those photos look a lot better than mine. They have almost no CA and are sharp. How does your Raynox lens do at F2. Also did you correct for CA at all ?
I downloaded a photo from the Raynox site and even that photo had a lot of CA.
David Goldwasser said:
I'm wondering if the fact that the lens will not go on correctly or
falls off is related to the CA and soft edges.



Here is link to some full size crops from test shot shown above
http://homepage.mac.com/inertia_visual_media/memphiszoo/raynoxtestimages/

When I can I shoot at iso 100 and F8, and with lens at full wide
even though there is some zoom through.

I typically use this lens for creating fully spherical high
resolution panoramic images. Here are links to some of my early
tests with it.
http://homepage.mac.com/inertia_visual_media/stlzoo-btfly/
http://homepage.mac.com/inertia_visual_media/citymuseum/
http://homepage.mac.com/inertia_visual_media/memphiszoo/

--
David Goldwasser
http://www.inertia-llc.com
Click to expand...
 
ahlz said:
tammons said:
Okay I shot another test run today stopped down and things improved
a lot. It looks like you really have to shoot this lens F4 and
higher. At F2 it is really soft at the edges and a ton of CA. Check
these two pics. Straight out of the camera. They look a lot better
than my first shots. There is still a litlle CA but not as bad. Now
if I can just find a lens cap that will stay on !
Click to expand...
Agree, there's still quite a bit of CA even when stopped down to
F8. However, you may be able to correct for this with, for example,
some of the plugins that come with panorama tools. A good
article/tutorial can be found at:

http://www.caldwellphotographic.com/TutorialsDistortionAndColorFringing.html
Click to expand...
now what does CA stand for again? hehe
--
Quiet, it's my loudest cry.
 
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