Walk around lens

Hey guys, its been a long time since I have posted on DPreview (so long that my account is not inactive).

In any case, Im heading to NYC in a few weeks and would like a nice walk around lens. Also, I have been looking at a few rectilinear fisheye lenses. Any and all insight would help.

Keep in mind I still am using my trusty *ist DS! So I cant use SDM.

-M

markjo159 wrote:

Hey guys, its been a long time since I have posted on DPreview (so long that my account is not inactive).

In any case, Im heading to NYC in a few weeks and would like a nice walk around lens. Also, I have been looking at a few rectilinear fisheye lenses. Any and all insight would help.

What do you mean by "rectilinear fisheye"—are you referring to a fisheye lens that covers the entire frame, as opposed to producing a circular image? The term rectilinear lens is generally used to refer to a lens with a rectilinear projection—a normal, non-fisheye lens—which makes a "rectilinear fisheye lens" something of a contradiction in terms.

At any rate, the obvious choices for fisheye lenses seem to be the Pentaxx 10-17 zoom and the Samyang MF fisheye lens (which is also sold under a plethora of other brand names, such as Bower, Phoenix, and Vivitar). I don't have any personal experience with either, but have heard little disappointment with either one from those that do have them.
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--DrewE

markjo159 wrote:

Hey guys, its been a long time since I have posted on DPreview (so long that my account is not inactive).

In any case, Im heading to NYC in a few weeks and would like a nice walk around lens. Also, I have been looking at a few rectilinear fisheye lenses. Any and all insight would help.

Keep in mind I still am using my trusty *ist DS! So I cant use SDM.

-M

Tamron 18-200, around $200 used and very useful with decent quality. I think it is better then Pentax kit lens between 24-55, and equal at 18mm at F5.6 or more in corners, and sharper in center at all apertures. Excellent flare and ghosting resistance is a nice bonus. Pronounced distortion is a downside, like most super-zoom lenses, but reach to 200mm without lens changing will be very handy in NYC.

Sort of depends on what your requirements/preferences for a good "walk-around lens" are. Currently, as I've posted probably five times already this week, if I had to choose only ONE lens to keep with me all the time, it'd be my Pentax DA 55-300 F4-5.8. No, it's not a really "fast" lens. And of course it's autofocus, but you can also focus manually with it. I've never used the manual focus feature on it, so I have no idea how "smooth" that is. I know only that it works like a charm as an autofocus lens, and I used it in a dark theater with just dim stage lights last fall, shooting at the full 7FPS the K-5 offers, in the continuous AF mode, following dancers, and got almost every shot in perfect focus.

For a lens that sells for less than $400 and gives APS-C users an effective zoom of 83-450 mm (and holds F4.5 all the way to 200/300-effective), that's NOT a bad deal!

And you'd STILL be shooting with A PENTAX lens -- not a Tamron! This lens actually helped me decide to FOREGO my agonizing over spending $$$$$ for the F4 300 or the DA* 60-250. Would they be better? Sure. Would they be that many TIMES better? I seriously doubt it.

Someone posted some shots he took of a raccoon yesterday with this lens. He shot them with manual focus because he was having trouble getting good AF with limbs around the raccoon interfering with the AF. You should SEE the bokeh behind the coon! You'd think the pics were shot with a $1,500 lens!!!
Jeff
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May the Blessings Be.

I have the Rokinon 8mm/3.5 (one of the Samyang's clones), and it is not bad at all!

1/Sigma 17-70 2.8-4.5 Macro non HSM
2/Pentax DA 18-250 ( or Tamron 18-250)
3/Sigma 18-125 HSM

did not use new Pentax 18-135 WR , so can not comment , well too expensive for me
I have Sigma 10-20 and love it ( did try some fish eye - not for me)
kind regards
jack

It dawned on me after I hit sent, rectilinear fish-eye is a bit of a contradiction. However yes, it should be the correct term if you want to have the image cover the entire frame vs. having a circular image in the center.

The Peleng 8mm and Samyang 8mm have came up on my search, however after thinking about it, the effect may be too severe.

The alternative would be the Zenitar 16mm. Is there anything similar to this lens with autofocus?

-M

The Peleng 8mm is quite different from the Samyang 8mm, and decidedly inferior for what you want. The Peleng is a full-frame circular fisheye, and ends up leaving black corners on an APS-C DSLR. It's also quite prone to flare and not all that sharp.

The only AF fisheye lenses I'm aware of for Pentax are the Pentax 10-17 and the Sigma 4.5mm, 10mm, and 15mm lenses. The 4.5mm is a circular fisheye and quite spendy; the rest all sell for around $600-$650 new. Realistically, it's not that much of a chore to focus a fisheye lens. The depth of field is enormous. For many uses, you could just leave it preset somewhere around the hyperfocal distance all the time.

Edit: Wanted to add that the Sigma 4.5mm and 10mm lenses are HSM lenses, and so can not autofocus on your camera.
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--DrewE

Hi,

The Samyang 8mm is in fact a stereographic projection lens which gives slightly less distortion than true fisheye (see lenstip.com review) it also couples to give aperture control from the body (there is one contact on the bayonet on the pentax models) and is sharp in the center from F3.5 but needs to be stopped down to F8-11 to get sharp edges and corners. Good metal construction,in short a bargain!
--P.S. Sensational flare resistance even against the sun.
Dave's clichés

markjo159 wrote:

The alternative would be the Zenitar 16mm. Is there anything similar to this lens with autofocus?

there used to be a good bit on here about the 16mm. not so much in the last few years.

years ago, richardday posted angle of view comparisons with the Z16. links got broken. richardday posted them again a few years ago (2008!). links are broken again.
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1036&message=28851322

as i remember, the horizontal field of view for the Z16 was about 14mm. a bit less than the Pentax 14...? i think this was after de-fishing with ptlens or some such.

if you are interested in the lens, i think ari aikomus has occassionally posted some pictures.

The Z16 has crossed my mind, especially since I can get it very cheap. It offers some distortion of creative effect, and is fast.

As far as a walk around lens goes, Ive often found myself wanting something a little longer than the 55mm on the kit lens, but never that much further.

Funny thing is I remember the postings from richardday back in 2006/2007. Im just amazed at how much everything has changed (Ive been out of the loop for quite some time).

-M

yeah, time moves. i remember the links having been reestablished. looking to see if they still existed for you to review, i was surprised that was in 2008. the lens did have quite a following. in the last few years, i think the DA15 has taken over... DA15 costs a lot more.