Fisheye comparison using HMC150

Superfresa66 said:
Just thought of asking, a friend of mine just got the Century Optics Fisheye http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...ics_0HD_FEAD_AG_Fisheye_Adapter_Lens_for.html
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I have the century optics fisheye and the quality is awesome. If you can live with somewhat like 107° viewing angle, I would definitely recommend this one. If you zoom past the vignetting of the DoVision lens it won't be wider than the century lens plus you lose a good deal of image quality due to zooming. The glass quality of the century lens is incredible. Crystal clear picture.
 
I'd hardly consider the Century lens a fisheye, has nearly no barrel distortion and makes the picture a bit wider, but not $600 wider...

Personally i think both lenses have their plus's, the Opteka is much wider, but has some vignetting, the 16x9 isn't that wide, but has no vignetting.
 
I have the century optics fisheye and the quality is awesome. If you can live with somewhat like 107° viewing angle, I would definitely recommend this one. If you zoom past the vignetting of the DoVision lens it won't be wider than the century lens plus you lose a good deal of image quality due to zooming. The glass quality of the century lens is incredible. Crystal clear picture.
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I used the Century lens and the image looks really sharp, but i have to agree with Strobe in not really considering it a fisheye!!

Personally i think both lenses have their plus's, the Opteka is much wider, but has some vignetting, the 16x9 isn't that wide, but has no vignetting.
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i saw the pics you put up, but is hard to tell how sharp they really are! if you were to zoom in the Opteka enough to get rid of the vignetting (and i know you lose the full fisheye effect) how sharp would you consider it to be?...
I'm thinking if is sharp enough i might go that route!!!

Thanks for all your help
 
Strobe Media said:
I'd hardly consider the Century lens a fisheye, has nearly no barrel distortion and makes the picture a bit wider, but not $600 wider...
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That's simply not true, I can easily post some pictures to show you that it indeed has fisheye barell distortion. The term fisheye is not defined by the skateboard industry and the use of the death lens. The term was established a long time ago. 0.45x is fisheye and 0.3x is also fisheye.

One could easily prove by simple math (or with some image manipulation tool for that matter) that when you zoom past the vignetting of the DoVision lens entirely, you will not have much more barrel distortion than the century optics lens have. Also Century is not some kind of cheap lens vendor, they produce high quality lenses. Look at the edges of the image of the DoVision video, it becomes very blurry, the century lens has definitely got much better glass quality.

Check the the attched picture, I've cropped away the part of the image you would eliminate when you zoom past the vignetting. Really not that much barell distortion left in my opinion.

Anyway, get whatever lens you like ;)
 

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We're not talking about vignetting here, we're talking about width and height of view and barrel distortion, that's what determines a fisheye, I'd say the fisheye made by Schneider Optics is closer to a wide angle lens then a fisheye lens.
 
I think it looks like a decent choice for the case. I take it that there's no ability add filters to these.. That was always a huge bummer on the Century glass.
 
You can allways add the filters on post (i know tiffen has a great digital collection)... and before someone tells me otherwise, I know is not the same doing it in post!!! =)
 
Well that's not why I want a filter. I want one cause it's so easy to get the lens dirty and so easy to scratch it and or pitt the lens. I was always so meticulous about cleaning the lens, it would be better if I could just clean the filter.


Also, there's no compromise for a good polorizer and a grad in post..
 
@Strobe:

Look at the attached picture. Just wide angle? Not to me, sorry...
 

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I think we'd be able to get some type of matte box cover or such. Cavision makes something that might work but it's expensive.


I just know how things tend to hit the fisheye lens and bounce off and then bingo... the lens is trash. That's kind of why I'm interested in getting a cheaper one this time around.
 
I'm getting the century optics fisheye next week. I've had nothing but Century lenses growing for the past 10 years and cant imagine going with different glass. I do agree, the distortion isn't as great as you'd like compared to the past fisheye century lenses / DEATH LENS. I do think century needs to step up in a way. The good fisheye for the hmc150 is about $3k when its all said and done, I really think that's a rip off and I believe skateboarders purchase maybe 80-90% of those lenses. A 14 year old kid wont be able to purchase a $3,000 fisheye after he just bought the hmc150.
 
i don't WANT to spend $3000 on glass that's just going to get hit by a skateboard anyway. i'm all about the cheaper opteka, although i haven't used any of these lenses yet.
 
I film with a vx2100 (looking to upgrade to an HMC150, hence my being in this forum) and i have the opteka 58mm fisheye "death" lens.
I have to say, after already owning a Century MK2, im very impressed.

As far as the screw on aspect of the opteka is concerned, i have a friend who makes bayonet rings that have a screw attachment in the front, so your lens screws on the ring, and then bayonet mounts to the camera.
I'll talk to him about making them for 72mm.
 
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