A New Lens! And Not A Surprise This Time!

So… I promised myself I wouldn’t buy another lens. But the opportunity came up for a bargain on a lens that I’ve been after for a while, and it is indeed similar to a lens I used to shoot with Nikon back in the day that I used to adore and have a lot of fun with.

I finally bit the bullet and bought a rectilinear fisheye lens again. I know what you’re all thinking! Didn’t I just sell a fisheye lens? Yes! Yes I did! But that was a 6.5mm circular fisheye lens which is very different to this.

A little history

When I was a Nikon shooter, well over two years ago now, I used to have a lot of dedicated lenses, but the one I loved the most was my Samyang 8mm rectilinear fisheye. The experience from these lenses is very rewarding, and they are so much fun to photograph with for so many reasons.

When I moved to Fujifilm I thought I could handle a circular fisheye. These produce a circular image, and are much more versatile than rectilinear fisheye lenses. You can shoot circular images, easily convert to rectilinear field of view and the images produced are much easier to straighten up (de-fisheye) than rectilinear fisheye images.

However, they’re just not as much fun, for me anyway. There’s simply too much work you have to do with them and they’re not as usable straight from camera. Those who know me, know I like to get out as right as I can in camera, so with my new lens, this is a possibility again!

My new lens…

I bought a TTartisan 7.5mm rectilinear fisheye! And there are some very good reasons I give in to this best of a lens.

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Firstly, and very unusually, it can take ND filters, and comes with an ten stop filter that you attach via the back of the lens! Perfect for experimenting with long exposures, and very unique.

Secondly, it’s sharp! And not just sharp in the centre like other lenses like this, but even sharp in the corners, especially when stopped down to F/5.6.

Thirdly, it’s an F/2 lens! Meaning I can confidently use it in lower light than the usual F/2.8 fisheye lenses, and cut down on my ISO setting. Perfect

I’ve included a couple of very quick examples just to try out the lens, plus some images of the lens itself. There’ll be far more in-depth articles coming in the future!

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*** Note: Quick tests show it is nice and sharp… When you remember to change the focus ring! lol. I originally shot with the focus to close and the front door and it wasn’t sharp! Stupid me!