Super wide or fisheye ?

Hi,

Im new to SLR uw-photo looking for a wide angle lens, and not sure if i should go for a Sigma 14mm super wideangle, 15mm fisheye or the Nikkor 16mm.

I will use it for wreck photo mostly.

I think i need some advice

Tell us more.

What camera?

What strobes?

What visibility of water and where you will be shooting?

In my opinion, the straight lines of wrecks are better captured by a rectilinear WA like the 14mm, or maybe the 12-24 zoom. There's a rumor out that a very wide (~10mm) prime may be announced at PMA this year. Me, I don't shoot wrecks, and love the 10.5 and 16 FE's.

10.5 10.5 10.5 10.5 10.5 10.5 10.5 10.5

In case that wasn't clear I mean the 10.5

If you leave a little space on the sides the 10.5 will really let you fill the frame and you can adjust in PS to less curveature if needed. Awsome lens at a decent price. I find it hard to take it off my camera.

Thanks for your answers,

Unfortunatly the dome port for my house (Fantasea FD50) can only handle 14,15 Sigma or 16mm Nikon according to the spec.

I have a Nikon D50, the standard 18-70mm lens and a SB800 flash + slave.

If it was possible i would go for the 10.5. Maybe there is not a big difference between my 18mm and a 16mm ?

There is a big difference between 18 and 16mm.

A D50 used with the 14mm gives you an area of coverage roughly equal to a 21mm lens on film cameras (around 90 degrees).

A D50 used with the 18mm gives you an area of coverage roughly equal to a 27mm lens on film cameras (around 75 degrees).

The 16 mm gives you coverage of 120 degrees as opposed to 180 degrees on 35 mm cameras - this equates to slightly wider than a 14mm rectilinear lens used on a film camera (but of course you will have slight fisheye related distortion but that's generally not such a big problem)

These figures are approximations, much debate goes on about the exact equivalent focal length of lenses when used with digital sensors, but I hope you get my drift....

Given the lens choices you've stated, the 16mm/15mm fisheyes will be the widest, and given the enormous depth of field of these lenses, they most likely to be the best performers behind your dome. 14 and 18 mm lenses can, with certain domes suffer from edge blurring when used at wider apertures (less of a problem with DX cameras due to the decreased angle of view).

Given the fact that the 15mm and 16mm Fisheyes are

- wider

- cheaper

- smaller and lighter

- easier to use behind domes

- they represent good choices. However you also need to take into account that lighting wide shots taken with the 15mm/16mm requires practice and will probably require dual strobes unless you are careful with composition and flash aiming.

hope this helps a little

Steve

If you are limiting yourself to these lenses, and are shooting with a cropped sensor, go with Photobeat's suggestion, the 10.5. It is a sweet lens and under certain circumstances, it can be a fantastic tool for incredible images.

Joe

his dome doesn't support it, Joe