Why??
This is THE fisheye. The most looked after for both users and collector.
Users? What use can a fisheye have? Panoramic photography, of course!
Nikon has the longest history in fisheye making among all other
companies, late in '70 they made a kind of jewel, an enormous, georgous
and quite perfect lens. Capable of high definition till the end
of the circle, beautyfully corrscted chromatic aberrations, very
low vignetting. Nowdays, the most lucky panographers have got one.
The only commercial circular fisheye is the Sigma 8mm f4 EX, a very
honest and cost-effective lens, with some pros and cons, but nothing
if compared to the 8/2.8 F-Nikkor.
Metering?
EOS does:
Usually this lens is seen on D100, D70 cameras, on Fuji S2 (one
of panographers' favourite). thanx to Nikon's idiot politics to
let down compatibility, this leave us with some exposition problems.
All Nikon bayonet Dslr cameras (except D1 serie and Kodak ones
till DCS760) do not have the AI aperture mechanical lever, and
neither a functioning meter sistem with non-AF lenses!!! NO stop-down
mode!!
Canon
does! Canon entry level CMOS are in my opinion and for my use,
better than Nikon sensors, and Canon EOS bodies support stop-down
mtering.
Since
adapters exists, why not??? The best fisheye on the best affordable
body!
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the 8/2,8 Nikkor on a 350D Eos, held by a modified Agno's TCP-L
Panoramic Head. This system is giving amazing 7200x3600 pixel equirectangular
panoramas
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Problems:
focusing!
The first adapter
I bought gave me a lot of problems with all fisheye lenses, no
problem with other lenses, neither with the focus-critical
55mm f1.2. With the 8/2,8 F-Nikkor I had focus
misalignments, a little play here and there, and nothing of what
I tried led me to a good image.
That is why I ordered other different ones and begun experimenting.
So here we have 4
different N/EOS adapter tried:
- 3 were Hong-Kong made, bought on eBay,
- another is a Fotodiox adapter, made in Japan
but bought from an USA seller.
- I did not bought nor tried the Novoflex one,
that seems to be the mother of them all... and also the first one
industrially produced. Well, it is a little bit overpriced for me,
but you can take a look to the good novoflex adapter review on camerahacker.com
Do not forget to take a closer look to the whole site, it is really
interesting!
- Special consideration
is for Cameraquest adapters, cameraquest.com
, who sell for a more rasonable price what are claimed and known
to be very precise and wellmade adapter
Infinity
and beyond!
HK sellers claim their adapters to be infinite focus compatible,
and they are true. To ensure this they project their adapters to
allow focus to infinity... and BEYOND!
Their main problem is tolerances, workmanship and materials used...
Nikon mount register
is 46.50mm
Canon EOS register is 44.00mm.
The first adapter
OI tried had a medium of 2.10mm thickness, tolerance all around
is +/- 0.4 mm!
Bad adapter... it was really light, seem made of aluminium.
The other HK adapters
are a medium of 2.20mm thick, tolerance is +/- 0.15mm! Brass or
bronze, nickel coating.
You will barely notice
the difference, with any kind of common lens... but a fisheye change
focusing from 20cm to infinity moving forward and back the whole
optic system of a 0.5mm, and the 0.23mm less of the adapter make
a BIG difference! Set focusing to 50cm and all is ok...
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Photodiox adapter:
material, weight, thickness... everyrhing tells us we own a professional
adapter. My measures revealed tolerances very close to what camera
manufacturers declare for their bayonets. Price was around 90$ on
eBay. REALLY worth the money.
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The Fotodiox adapter in place, On foreground the little release lever.
Although different from the other HK cheap ones, this system is just
a little bit easier. |
The super sharp 55mm Micro Nikkor f 3,5, the hystorical first F-mount
one, on a 350D Canon. no problem to mount this one with a cheap
adapter.
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Avaliability,
manufacturers and prices.
novoflex,
code EOS/NIK
cameraquest
various adapters
from eBay
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The 10.5 nikkor on the 350D Canon.
(photo: Stefania Zangrando)
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