On the weekend the South Aussie Pentaxians met for the first time (well - 3 of us!) and the lads showed off their pretty amazing kit - giving me a go with the lenses.

Tas had a very nice Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 EX HSM. Very quiet, nice to use. I miss my old film based Canon FD24mm f2.8 wide angle - (great natural perspective), and was quite taken with this little beauty.

Adrian showed off his Pentax 10-17mm fisheye f3.5-4.5 DA. Also very quiet, nice to handle, but with a huge piece of glass on the front. A really good lens too, and a little lighter (about 100g).

Now have a look at these images of the same basic subject, but compare the effect of the fisheye. Both were taken with auto white balance, at 10mm focal length (program mode, centre weighted average metering) with very little PP from the RAW images (with ACR4.6/PShop CS3)

First Tas's Sigma - note the fairly natural lines and low distortion. Close to my old 24mm in many ways:



And now Adrian's Pentax fisheye. Stunning effect really. I think the colour might be a little better on this, but as I said, no real PP



The striking thing is how curving a piece of glass at the same focal length can produce such different images. Now the question is which one do I prefer for my own camera bag?

But seriously, I think the fisheye is great, but its a specialised lens. I could see a use on occasion, but the Sigma may be a better all rounder - particularly if your into landscapes with fairly natural perspective.

Oh - and for anyone contemplating the fisheye - this is a quick snap as a few cars went by - who needs a stretch limo???


Thanks guys for letting me try these out!

[pasipasi]

The Pentax fish-eye shot seems to be considerably wider, are you sure you took the shot with Sigma at 10mm?

[MoiVous]

The Pentax fish-eye shot seems to be considerably wider, are you sure you took the shot with Sigma at 10mm?

Sorry - I seem to have uploaded version without the EXIF data. But yes, both were taken at 10mm. Thats why I was so amazed. I took a shot with each at the smallest zoom, and the EXIF data I have in CS3 confirms that.

I'll upload the images again with the EXIF data intact.

Update:
On checking the images, the EXIF data is there - please view thePhotoGalleries/Miscellaneous section to see the images and view EXIF if you can't see it here. Not sure why the EXIFviewer isn't working.....

[daacon]

Good stuff - there is alsos the Pentax DA 12-24. I have the DA 10- 17 and DA 10-17 Fisheye love them both.