Nikon 10.5 versus Sigma 8mm superwide

Just curious if anyone has had any experience comparing the image quality of the Nikon 10.5 mm lens versus the Sigma 8mm wide angle lenses. I am getting ready to house something wider than my 12-24 and am intrigued by the 8mm Sigma, but haven't heard much about its underwater qualities.

Any info, experience and/or opinions are most appreciated.

Thank you.

Joe Belanger

With the 10.5, you will get some barrel distortion, but underwater photos still look sort of "real." Remember, the 10.5 will act like the 16mm on a film camera. It will fill the frame.

With the Sigma it won't fill the frame, and the top and bottom of the image circle will be cut off. You will also get horrendous barrel distortion. I don't like it.

Cheers

James

Here's an example of a 10.5 shot. The barrel distortion is not objectionable, at least to my eye. If I had been more careful with placement of the reef in the background it would be even less apparent. The 10.5 is a full frame fisheye, the Sima 8mm is a circular fisheye. I agree with James, the 8mm is cool for an occasional special effect shot but not a lens I would use very often.

The 8mm is not especially good with cropped sensor cameras. It doesn't come very close to filling the frame on the sides so a lot of your sensor is sacrificed.

Larry,

The pictire looks as if you eliminated the 10.5 barrel distorsion with Capture. However, you are using an S2 so, is your picture a crop of the central portion of the shark picture?

Just wondering

Michel

Larry,

 

The pictire looks as if you eliminated the 10.5 barrel distorsion with Capture. However, you are using an S2 so,  is your picture a crop of the central portion of the shark picture?

 

Just wondering

 

Michel

People keep asking me that, but no, the image is presented as shot. It is not cropped or de-fished. Actually, this shot would benefit from a little cropping, etc. but I wanted to show the full frame to demonstrate that barrel distortion is usually not a problem with the 10.5.

Here's my doctored up version

Nikon's 10.5 is an incredible lens for wide angle underwater. It does everything he 16mm fisheye used to do with film. Check out http://www.ehanauer.com/PNG/untitled.html. All the wide angle scenics were done with the 10.5.

I have both , love the 10.5mm wish I'd saved my money on the 8mm and wasted it some other way ;-)