A fair price for a Nikon 6mm f2.8 fisheye?

[kievuser]

Hello everyone,

I saw a huge Nikon 6mm f2.8 fisheye, and I am still waiting for a quote of price. However, I'd to know what is a fiar price for such a strange lens? Is it a good lens?

Thanks

Kievuser

[Flor27]

6mm f:2.8 Fish-eye Nikkor... you mean this one ? http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/fisheyes/6mmf28.htm



Expect 10.000 US$ ++

This is the big one here, to figure it out how big it is :

[kievuser]

[Flor27]

Tell us if you get it ! I would DIE to put my eye into a viewfinder camera's fitted with this lense !!

[Attila]

I found one entry in my db try to sell buy photo-arsenal asking price was 36 000 USD they works with double price at least. So fair price might be 12 000 USD.

[kievuser]

[F16SUNSHINE]

It is hard for me to imagine having such a specialized lens holding up so much of a lens budget.
Sure it is a fascinating collection piece and if you are an specialize in this type of photography that is great.
I would suggest to take a Peleng or Zuiko (much more but still less than the Nikon) and enjoy spending the balance on other lenses.
If you do not make very big enlargements It will be hard to enjoy the difference in IQ between the two.
Of course if you take it for $1200 in the end don't miss a beat. The chance to make a profit is too high

[Orio]

The high price of some lenses is justified not only by the quality of glass and coating, but also by how well the optical design optimizes the aberrations and distortions.
A fish eye lens is not corrected. For this reason, you will not see enormous differences between this lens, and the cheaper fisheyes available. In my opinion, spending so much money on a non-corrected lens makes little sense, unless one needs it for his job and can recover the cost with the incomes.
For a hobbyist, it is an almost complete nonsense in my opinion.
But of course, everyone sees it his own way...

[Flor27]

Marco Cavina (who must have a place in the Pantheon of manual focus lenses gods) has some very nice technical details about the Nikkor fish-eye lenses, including this one :

http://www.luciolepri.it/lc2/marcocavina/articoli_fotografici/Nikkor_fisheye_story/00_pag.htm

On mir.com.my website, they have wrote the first 6mm nikkor was done for specail purpose task as tube inspection. Some french people said the 6mm f:2.8 was done for auroras studying.

[EdSawyer]

I saw one of these change hands on Ebay within the last year, as I recall the price was about $25k.

-Ed

[Attila]

Welcome Ed!

That is awful lot for a lens.

[kds315*]

I'm very sorry to correct, but of course the 2.8/6mm is a very well corrected lens - just the lens projection formula is different than the usual rectangular projection formula normal lenses have. Just a quick glimpse on the error graphs shown in Marco Cavinias excellent link mentioned above tells that about the 2.8/6mm with 220 degrees of coverage.

I had it once, but decided not to keep it...a mistake I guess.

[Attila]

This big one really ! Thank you Klaus as always!

[sichko]

Thanks Klaus. That's a tremendous demonstration.

[Attila]

Click here to see on Ebay
8mm Nikkor

[peterqd]

I've got a couple of them bolted on the front of my car. I always wondered why they didn't work.

[n6mod]

The 6mm Nikkors (both the f/2.8 Monster and the smaller f/5.6 MLU lens) are really remarkable pieces of glass. They're very well corrected, though they are a different projection. they also have a 220deg field of view!

The FB-111 fighter/bomber has one pointed straight up. It's both the celestial navigation camera *and* the wingtip sweep monitor.

For fun, check out the SphereCam, made with a pair of the 5.6 lenses back to back.

I've thought about building something similar out of a pair of cheap digicams and FC-E8's, though I'll have much less overlap at the seams, as the FC-E8 is only good for about 185deg.

[kievuser]

[EdSawyer]

Klaus, impressed you actually had one of those once! Very nice.

Attila - indeed $25k is a lot but they were around that much when new I think (if not more), custom made to order, and only made less than 100 of them probably. so, given all that, not too surprising re: price.

-Ed

[Attila]

Yes, right. I wish to afford

[kievuser]

Hi,

I saw the seller again yesterday. The lens was sold together with the camera and a few other items for about USD 3,000. I think the buyer got a deal.

Cheers,

kievuser

[EdSawyer]

that is a deal. if in good shape I bet it could fetch 8-10x that price. Chances are it might turn up on ebay, I'd guess.

-Ed

[Rob Leslie]

Though the lens is very well corrected I would still see it as a waste of money. Doing 220 degrees is no problem if you stitch a panorama and IMO more fun. You can get 180 degrees on crop factor DSLR with a Peleng and correct it very well, With FF you can get 180 degrees with a Zenitar 16mm and that only requires little (But careful) correction. Personally I would go for the true fisheye for fun and creativity and the Stitching option for the degree of true reproduction you want.
You would have to explore all the other options before being tempted by this expensive toy. My samples both taken last weekend

Panorama 9 shots (Portrait orientation) the FOV is about 160 degrees Pentax K10D


An experimental Cylindrical Panorama made from 3 frames (Pentax 18mm kit lens) This is the first time I tried this. It is a shooting technique I have only just discovered and it looks very promising. I’m waiting for the right subject to try it properly. I’m fairly excited about it as it seems the easy answer to many architecture shots. The FOV here is about 120 degrees, the cottages were in a narrow lane so I could only go back about 12 feet from the front wall. This one was done without a tripod so I didn’t expect much as mentioned just a trial shot.

[Attila]

I think Rob has perfectly right panorama is better solution in most cases and unbelievable cheap compare with this lens.

[kds315*]

Guys,

two completely different things are being discussed here which should IMHO not be mixed:
- a very rare and collectibale lens the Nikon 2.8/6mm indeed is
- how to achieve 220 degree panos, which indeed is very easy

So certainly that Nikon fisheye is a wonderful piece of (technical) art and as such this discussion started. Now I see us ending up discussing how to get from A to B the cheepest way and compare that to a drive with a Rolls Royce to achieve the same. Sure you also get from A to B, but the difference should be quite obvious. Or use a different example, how to get drunk the fastest way, you would certainly not use Champagne or a Grand Cru Bordeaux for that?

I agree that most likely we'll see that lens soon appear on ebay and fetch quite some bucks.