8mm Peleng vs 8mm Sigma

Manfr3d · January 30, 2007

Hi!

I'm currently looking into circular fisheyes for
360° panorama photography on a crop body.

After some research I found the Peleng 8mm/3.5
fisheye typicaly sold on ebay and two versions
of the Sigma 8mm, namely the 3.5 EX DG and the
older version 4.0 EX non-DG. Prices of the sigma
have jumped quite a bit since the introduction of
the DG variant. Where I live its 750 EUR (urgh).
The Peleng is about 250 EUR and the Sigma 8mm/4.0
non-DG is hard to find on the used marked.

I'm going to use the lense often and likely in
difficult lighting situations (bright sunlight) at
f8 or smaller. The images will be viewed on a
computer 99% of the time so resolution isn't
the most important thing to me.

Can anyone comment on these three Lenses?
How do they get the job done, what do you
think?

Thanks!

Blurmore · January 30, 2007

I've been facing this same situation and I'm sure you have seen all the googleable info and samples of the Peleng. I can give you some first hand advice given to ME by a Russian guy who works at my local pro camera shop. He told me the Peleng has some SERIOUS flare issues... No big news there, but he said the flare issues extend to situations whe you would not expect flare. He basically said that the flare at almost ANY source of light, even very diffused light. He said the Sigma f4 suffered some from flare, but was as decent lens and very sharp stopped down to f8. The 3.5 he indicated was worth the money as it controls flare better because of the coating and is optimally sharp at f5.6. So I fished around at him about the Peleng and he stuck to it that the flare issue was a deal killer even for a lens you can pick up for 250 dollars.

Manfr3d · January 30, 2007

Wow, that was a quick reply

Yes I've read quite a bit about these lenses and looked
at alot of images on pbase and various panoramasites.

Flare is sth that I really dont want, especialy not in
a 360° stitched landscape panorama. If the peleng
is that bad I'll probably wait until a used Sigma comes
along and research the real world differences between
the 3.5 and 4.0 some more.

So did you end up buying the new 8mm/3.5 EX DG Sigma?

Blurmore · January 30, 2007

Manfr3d wrote:

Wow, that was a quick reply

Yes I've read quite a bit about these lenses and looked
at alot of images on pbase and various panoramasites.

Flare is sth that I really dont want, especialy not in
a 360° stitched landscape panorama. If the peleng
is that bad I'll probably wait until a used Sigma comes
along and research the real world differences between
the 3.5 and 4.0 some more.

So did you end up buying the new 8mm/3.5 EX DG Sigma?

I've bid on a few f4's on Ebay, last one went for 380 killer deal in my opinion. These f4's are common for fmount but rarely come up for EOS, I've even bid on a screwmount Sigma f4. But my limit is 350 bucks for this lens.

Red Bull · January 30, 2007

I have a Peleng and I haven't had any serious flare issues. It's a great lens for a fairly cheap price. I haven't used mine at ton but I really like mine.

Manfr3d · January 31, 2007

Red Bull wrote:

I have a Peleng and I haven't had any serious flare issues. It's a great lens for a fairly cheap price. I haven't used mine at ton but I really like mine.

Mind posting a pic with 45° angle towards the naked sun?

SCS_Photo · January 31, 2007

I know it has just a bit more focal length then you're looking for, but have you considered the tokina 10-17mm Fisheye zoom?

Manfr3d · February 1, 2007

SCS_Photo wrote:

I know it has just a bit more focal length then you're looking for, but have you considered the tokina 10-17mm Fisheye zoom?

No not until now. But I see that it only has a 180° diagonal
field of view but not horizontal or vertical, something
that to my knowedge only circular fisheyes have.

I plan to do 360°/180° panoramas where each frame
needs to cover 180° vertical.

Blurmore · February 1, 2007

SCS_Photo wrote:

I know it has just a bit more focal length then you're looking for, but have you considered the tokina 10-17mm Fisheye zoom?

This lens must have come out UNDER the radar. I believe I will be purchasing it instead of an 8mm f4 or 3.5. I'm not using it for a techincal application only for effect. Thanks for the heads up.

ziggy53 · February 1, 2007

Manfr3d wrote:

No not until now. But I see that it only has a 180° diagonal
field of view but not horizontal or vertical, something
that to my knowedge only circular fisheyes have.

I plan to do 360°/180° panoramas where each frame
needs to cover 180° vertical.

I don't recall what camera you use, but the Peleng 8mm does not provide a full circle fisheye on a crop camera. (Probably around 120°.) It is possible to use an "optical relay", or optical transfer mechanism, to get what you want. (The Sigma 8mm will have similar problems.)

http://www.muellerworld.com/peleng/

The other solution is to use a full-frame camera. That would be a much more practical solution.

ziggy53

Manfr3d · February 1, 2007

ziggy53 wrote:

I don't recall what camera you use, but the Peleng 8mm does not provide a full circle fisheye on a crop camera. (Probably around 120°.) It is possible to use an "optical relay", or optical transfer mechanism, to get what you want. (The Sigma 8mm will have similar problems.)

http://www.muellerworld.com/peleng/

The other solution is to use a full-frame camera. That would be a much more practical solution.

ziggy53

I use a 10D (and isDs) with 1.6x Crop. You are right this
review confirms you:

http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/lenses/peleng_8_35/index.htm

I completely overlooked this. Does the Sigma then give
me 180° horizontal field of view otherwise it doesn't
seem to matter for 360°/180 panos since this guy

http://www.360bilder.de/hochstativ.html

does it with a 1.6x crop body and the Sigma 8mm.

ziggy53 · February 1, 2007

The Tokina 10-17mm fish is getting a fair amount of interest from the pano producers:

http://www.360rage.com/panorama-forum/panotopic42.php (be sure to check out their 6+1+1 QT pano: http://www.premiumpano.de/special/tokina_107.html)

http://www.panoguide.com/forums/tipsntricks/2675/

It seems the lens can also work on full-frame cameras from 15-17mm:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1029&message=21110821

This could turn into a most interesting lens indeed.

Thanks to SCS_Photo for the find,

ziggy53

SCS_Photo · February 2, 2007

ziggy53 wrote:

The Tokina 10-17mm fish is getting a fair amount of interest from the pano producers:

http://www.360rage.com/panorama-forum/panotopic42.php (be sure to check out their 6+1+1 QT pano: http://www.premiumpano.de/special/tokina_107.html)

http://www.panoguide.com/forums/tipsntricks/2675/

It seems the lens can also work on full-frame cameras from 15-17mm:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1029&message=21110821

This could turn into a most interesting lens indeed.

Thanks to SCS_Photo for the find,

ziggy53

My pleasure.

It should be noted that this lense is a collaboration with Pentax, for K-Mount you must by the pentax, as tokina doesn't make it in Pentax K-Mount. The same is true of the 50 & 100mm macros, 12-24mm, and the forthcoming 50-135mm f/2.8 zoom.

8mm Peleng vs 8mm Sigma

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