Fisheye lens perhaps is not a priority on many photographer’s buying list.  I think it depend on what type of subject you shooting. I do many event photography. I find fisheye lens can create unique photo. If I lost my fisheye lens or switch to different system, I will grab a new fisheye lens immediately.

Now whenever I go to an event, I always bring my fisheye lens. I am using Canon 7D. The fisheye lens I am using is the Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. It is a quite inexpensive lens. Only cost $250 right now at b&h. It is really one of the best value lens I can find. I usually bring my Canon 17-55 f2.8 and Rokinon 8mm fishyeye to event. 17-55 can cover majority of work. But I need the fisheye to take some shots of the entire space. No other lens can capture the same impact as fisheye lens do.

I prefer using fisheye lens than ultra wide angle lens for this kind of shot. There are two reasons.

Firstly ultra wide angle lens is still not as wide as fisheye lens. The photo is not as dramatic as photo from fisheye lens. Secondly because ultra wide angle lens produce straight line, so people on the edge look very fat and distorted. Fisheye lens produce circular image. That produce huge distortion. but that is actually good for event, because people in the edge look quite thin. Actually their body look thinner than normal. Girls like it.

Let me show you one photo took with ultra wide angle lens.

People become really fat on the edge. The more you toward edge, the fatter you are. Girls always complain why I look so fat in your photo. No more this kind of complain after I switched to fisheye lens.

If you haven’t used fisheye lens, give it a try. It is a really powerful tool for event. But you can still try it for other subject, like landscape, portrait.See how the photo looks like. You might like the effect.