360 Fisheye for Canon 5D ?

[Marcello Mazzilli]

I would like to take a Panorama video shot "all in one click" with my 5D. What is the best 360° lenses I could use ? I am talking of one of those circular photographs that you can streighten up in Photoshop using Polar Coordinates. Any idea ?

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

The Nikon Nikkor 8mm f/2.8 fisheye lens. This particular lens sometimes come up on the used sales or Ebay. It needs an adapter to fit Canon of course, and if the adapter mount is deep enough you might get away with the problem of needing to lock the mirror up during shooting; although you'll probably get some vignetting at edges.
Nikon did make other wide fisheye lenses like the Nikkor 6mm f/2.8s, 7.5mm and 10mm OP lenses but all are rare and like finding hens teeth, as well as being very expensive.

A cheaper option and easier to find lens is the Sigma 8mm f/3.5 EX DG.

In the Canon range there is the 15mm f/2.8 fisheye, although will not give you as much wide frame as the 8mm.

There are of course full frame non-fisheye options such as the the Nikkor 14-24mm zoom lens, Canon 14mm, Canon, Nikkor and Sigma 15mm lenses; as well as a few APS-C lenses like the Sigma 8-16mm DC HSM and the Pentax 10-17mm ED-IF.

Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens Review

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...yes/8mmf28.htm

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...yes/6mmf28.htm

8mm F3.5 EX DG Circular Fisheye - Fisheye Lenses - SigmaPhoto.com

[Marcello Mazzilli]

Thanks!!! Very helpful

[Giroud Francois]

none of the lens above will give you a real panoramic picture without shooting several pictures and stiching them together.
it is easy and cheap to do, but unfortunately doesn't allow for shooting places with fast moving objects.
if you take two pictures at different time, even few seconds are ok to make them different enough to have problem on stitching them properly.(walking people, moving cars
A solution is to use 2 camera mounted back to back.
mounting one camera shooting up, is usually not an option, since the interesting part of the picture will be located on the sie of the lens, where all distortion are at the maximum.
another solution is to use a special mirror that allow to shoot up a 360 deg donut. this is usually expensive too but les than 2 cams+ 2 lenses.
stiched pictures have also a great advantageone one shot panorama, is the resolution of each picture stacks up in the final result, so great quality is easily reachable.

[Morton Molyneux]

Hi Marcello,

You can also check out the Samyang, Bower, Rokinon 8 mm. Should be available in Europe and comes in Canon mount. I have one of their 14mm lenses and it performs very well.

8mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens: Samyang, Pro-Optic, Bower

Here is a site in Germany that will modify lenses for full frame use on the 5D

Shaved or original Tokina 10-17 mounted on a full-frame Canon 5D- Shaved Nikkor/Nikon 10.5mm Fisheye - Shaved Sigma 10mm Fisheye - Shaved Samyang 8mm Fisheye

cheers

Morton

[Jim Newberry]

The one-shot 360 panoramic solutions don't look too hot--you basically have to shoot into a mirrored ball to get 360 degrees in a single shot. Here's a discussion about the best one-shot solution:
panoguide: one shot 360 lenses (Q & A Forum)

I've done a bunch of 360 panos with the 5DMII and the Canon 15mm fisheye. Here's one shot that way, and stitched together with PtGui:
http://newberryphotography.com/pano/2172.swf (use shift and command or control keys to zoom in and out--use your mouse to pan and tilt around)

[Mitchell Lewis]

What about the new Canon 8-15 fisheye?

Canon U.S.A. : Consumer & Home Office : EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM

According to the info on the Canon site, it provides a 180 degree field of view. Is that what you're looking for?

[Nigel Barker]

Amazingly you can now even create 360 degree panorama videos Adapters for lenses to create virtual tours

[Jim Newberry]

Yeah, that's what I was referring to in my earlier post when I mentioned one-shot pano solutions. Here's another one: One-Shot Virtual Tours, 360 degree panoramas! Amazing Virtual Tour lens and software. The problem is you're shooting into a plastic mirror globe, so the quality isn't going to be the best. It is very cool that the viewer can pan a video 360 degrees.

[Paul Cronin]

Just purchased the Tokina 10-17 ATX07ROD fisheye and will send the lens off to be shaved. Next on the list is the stitching software and pano software. Should have the whole setup up and running in a few weeks.