Playing with my Peleng

[savona]

I just bought a Peleng 8mm on ebay ONLY because I got a REALLY good price. I was playing with it outside just now and noticed I have NO idea how I can possibly focus with this thing on my 20d. Anyone have any hints for me?


Here is the first shot I took with it. Just playing around, I had to sharpen it an awful lot in PS to make it look decent.

[Adaptive]

yeah i don't think it's a very sharp lens. that's what you get for the small price you pay.

[Ronald S. Jr.]

Fishy's sure are fun, though, eh? :D

[dougsmit]

The Peleng is not all that bad if stopped down to f/8. Focus can be by scale (remember the scale is meters not feet) or by eye. Another option is to buy one of those focus confirmation adapters that fools a Canon body into flashing the center focus light at the proper place.

I offer more opinions on Peleng on my page:
http://home.comcast.net/~dougsmit/fisheye.html (http://home.comcast.net/%7Edougsmit/fisheye.html)
and have a gallery of samples on my pBase site:
http://www.pbase.com/dougsmit/peleng

[Billyj571]

cool pic have u used one of the focus confirmation adapters and how $ want to start looking in to fisheye any surgestions

[savona]

cool pic have u used one of the focus confirmation adapters and how $ want to start looking in to fisheye any surgestions

Sorry, I have only had one for about 2 days now. I will offer an opinion when I get to play with it further.

Check out the links Doug posted above, really good reading! Also doug was kind enough to let us publish his arcticles:

http://focusfaction.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=35

[studio206]

what the hell are you guys talking about? lol i've never heard of this lens... is it a lens? i'm confused :-(

[Ronald S. Jr.]

Peleng 8mm fisheye. Yes, it's a lens. ^_^

This is generally where they're gotten from (new):

http://www.rugift.com/photocameras/peleng_fisheye_lens_for_canon_eos.htm

[studio206]

oh wow... very cool ^_^ definitely more than i want to spend though o.O i'm currently trying to buy a L lens off a friend of mine, but she want to buy a replacement be4 she sells it to me.

[savona]

oh wow... very cool ^_^ definitely more than i want to spend though o.O i'm currently trying to buy a L lens off a friend of mine, but she want to buy a replacement be4 she sells it to me.

I got mine from ebay for less than $100 or I wouldn't have bought it. There is not much need for a lens like this other than experimenting and playing around. At least for me anyway.

:)

But as Ronald pointed out- "Fishy's sure are fun though!"

[studio206]

oh wow you did get it for a great deal.

[dougsmit]

I have one focus confirmation adapter which I swap back and forth as the mood dictates. I'm not sure I see it as worth the cost on the Peleng since scale focus is easy but it is handy for close ups with the Peleng.

The matter off whether the Peleng is just a toy is very much a matter of opinion. I find the distortion of rectilinear superwides as disturbing as I do the fisheye perspective and am the very happy owner of lenses in both categories. I find it hard to believe anyone would sell one for $100. My pages on the subject were writen before I bought the 12-24 Tokina which has cut into the use of my Zenitar but not the Peleng. I really enjoy seeking out situations that make the fisheye worthwhile but have never taken the trouble of shooting a 'real' image both ways for comparison. Below is just a 'test' image showing Peleng straight and 'corrected' in software and a 12mm rectilinear for comparison. There is a lot of difference. I do not own a 10mm for comparison but it would fall between these two.


For the record: The blasted white on the ceiling of the Peleng image is from the bounce flash used. The narrow view of the 12mm crops out this area directly above the lens but the 8mm includes it all.

[Adaptive]

I have one focus confirmation adapter which I swap back and forth as the mood dictates. I'm not sure I see it as worth the cost on the Peleng since scale focus is easy but it is handy for close ups with the Peleng.

The matter off whether the Peleng is just a toy is very much a matter of opinion. I find the distortion of rectilinear superwides as disturbing as I do the fisheye perspective and am the very happy owner of lenses in both categories. I find it hard to believe anyone would sell one for $100. My pages on the subject were writen before I bought the 12-24 Tokina which has cut into the use of my Zenitar but not the Peleng. I really enjoy seeking out situations that make the fisheye worthwhile but have never taken the trouble of shooting a 'real' image both ways for comparison. Below is just a 'test' image showing Peleng straight and 'corrected' in software and a 12mm rectilinear for comparison. There is a lot of difference. I do not own a 10mm for comparison but it would fall between these two.


For the record: The blasted white on the ceiling of the Peleng image is from the bounce flash used. The narrow view of the 12mm crops out this area directly above the lens but the 8mm includes it all.



You have some really informative posts in here.


So how does all this factor in with the crop factor? You're not really shooting 8mm or 12mm. Right?

Really it's 12.8mm for the peleng fisheye and 19.2mm for the 12-24 tamron lens right?

peleng lens is EF or EFS mount? wonder how crazy the 8mm would look on full frame :o

[dougsmit]

On full frame, 8mm lenses give a circular image floating on a black recrangle. The edge effect you see on my lower left image corners is seen all the way around with the exception of a tiny clip at top and bottom resulting from the fact that the lens was originally designed for a Russian format as I understand the matter. You would still need to crop in a bit to lose that blue ring artifact so the image would still be a circle.

The Peleng is EF mount. There were some reports that some people had trouble with the mirror of their 5D's hitting the back but I believe this may mean they failed to seat fully one of the rear mounted filters on the lens. You must always use a filter on the Peleng. It comes with four including a clear one. The filter is calculated into the lens design and it will not focus to infinity without one in place. While depth of field is large at 8mm, there is a great need for good tolerances in mounting since the amount of extention needed to move from infinity to close focus is very small. Some people have had troubles with the lens that can be traced to their using a poor adapter to go from M42 to Canon mount. I had no such trouble and have used mine with three different brands of adapters including one with focus confirmation. It would be best to avoid one made of plastic or one that has damaged threads and will not seat fully.

Crop factor terminology is a matter that gripes many of us. An 8mm lens is always an 8mm lens. The image size is always the same but on 'crop' cameras you just do not see the whole thing. It is true that IF someone made a 12.8mm fisheye (none are made) to be used on a full frame body that the coverage would be what you see with the 8mm on a 1.6x cropper. Sigma makes a 12-24mm zoom that covers full frame but it is not as wide as an 8mm fisheye due to coverage lost in rectilinear correction. Few images seem available to show the full circle effect but I found one here:
http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/fisheye/test.htm