I gave in to the urge to buy another lens, decided to direct my spending to the ultra-wide end (wider even than the DA 15 Ltd.) and in the end decided that if I was going to make a frivolous purchase, I might as well go with the least expensive option. Hence the Rokinon 8mm fisheye.
Without off camera flash, indoor shots ended up at ISO 12,800, which are too grainy to form much of an opinion about this lens. So I went outside, the fisheye really opens up what is normally a relatively small and confined space. Snowflakes blend into a grey background, believe it or not, the picture above is actually brightened up a bit in PP.
Unlike the DA 15 Ltd. which loves to be pointed directly at the sun, this lens suffers a bit from flare. I dialed back the sun a bit to make sure all of the stairs are visible, the rest of the image is brightened by 1/3 of a stop. The bootprints at the bottom are 2 meters away from the camera, focusing this lens is easy for everything but closeups at MFD, set it to 1 meter and don't worry about it.
I did experiment with de-fishing and couldn't find any situations where it helped. As long as the sides of the frame are not critical to the composition of the image, our brain doesn't mind distortion in between. I have to remember to only bring out the fisheye if there is good light and lots of contrast, otherwise I end up with a 180 degree panorama of dull bland. Hopefully these pictures are helpful to anyone considering the purchase of a fisheye lens.
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