Shoot For the Stars & More - Sigma 15mm 1.4 DG DN Diagonal Fisheye
- drwhite75
- 5 days ago
- 7 min read
Over the last 6 weeks I've been having some fun shooting with the Sigma 15mm 1.4 DG DN Diagonal Fisheye lens. I first decided I wanted shoot with it after spending some time at a location where I could get super close to some old trees. I was shooting with my Sigma 14-24mm 2.8 Art lens and asked myself if a 15mm fisheye would be better or allow me to get closer to shoot at night under the stars. I tried 3 times at the same location and only one of those nights provided the clear skies I needed. With the intention of shooting at night and being clouded out 2 of those 3 nights decied to also start shooting some landscapes on a couple trips I had coming up. What I found was that this lens is fun and versatile in many settings where a regular wide angle lens would be used. One thing I do want to mention is that even though the lens is heavy at 4lbs, it's built like a tank and the image quality shows.
The removable rotating tripod foot lets the camera perfectly balance on your tripod..
Let's take a look at some of the features of this lens -
Full-Frame | f/1.4 to f/16
Bright, Fast Diagonal Fisheye Lens
Optimized for Astrophotography
High-Response Linear Actuator AF System
FLD, SLD & Aspherical Elements
Rounded 11-Blade Diaphragm
Removable, Rotating Tripod Foot
Dust- and Splash-Resistant Construction
180 degree angle of view
4lbs
15.2" min focusing distance.
I also had the Haida rear filter holder which allowed me to use small ND filters for shooting longer exposure landscapes such as water and clouds. The lens itself does not offer any kind of image stabilization so you can just make sure that's turned on in your camera, not the lens.
The rear filter holder goes on the back of the lens where it attaches to your camera. I had never used one of these before and really enjoyed being able to use it without having to carry around a large front adapter for full size filters. You can just leave the filter holder in the lens and take out the filter when you're done using it. Very simple and easy to use.
Super wide, super sharp and highly detailed are the images you can expect when shooting with the Sigma 15mm 1.4 Fisheye. Because the lens is so wide and it tends to "push" the scene away from the camera, I found that I was able to get better depth of field and more in focus at mid range f stops than with normal wide angle lenses. I loved the low angle here that helped create such a dramatic reflection. With the lens only being off the water about 4-6 inches, it's a much different view than if I were standing upright with the camera at eye level.
Distortion with the Sigma 15mm 1.4 Diagonal Fisheye - Yes! there is some distortion and as you tilt the camear up or down the effect will be greater. Below, there are 2 images. These are the exact same image. The only difference is that I applied the lens correction in Adobe Camera RAW. Most of the images I shot with this lens had the curved horizon. It's a super easy fix to straighten it out. You just need to be careful when you compose the image to make sure there is nothing near the edges that you aren't afraid to lose. As you can see the telephone pole on the right was eliminated when the correction was applied.
The lens and lens correction also have a different effect when you shoot vertically. The sides tend to curve in. As if you were to take the above photo and turn it 90 degrees.
All of these images are not lens corrected. You can see the curvature in 2 of them and the waterfall image is harder to see the distortion. So, depending on what you're shooting and the angle of the camera, the distortion will be more or less visible.
One of the things I really liked about the lens correction is that with certain images it can add quite a dramatic effect to the clouds. While shooting with a fisheye is a learning curve both on the shooting end as well as the processing side, the results can be very nice when you understand how the lens works with the processing (lens correction) Here's an example.
RAW image on top without any lens correction... lens correction applied to the lower image. Once the lens correction is applied you can then adjust the image up and down to your liking because it stretches the image a bit...This can be really fun when you also use the long exposure with a ND filter. The effect on the clouds are fun!
This lens was really fun on walks where you're at eye level. Yes, there is some curvature and I think for most scenes it played well and enhanced the overall image. I'm always curious to see what kind of sunstars each lens makes. When I found the sun coming through the trees on one of my hikes, I had to give it a try... A very nice sunstar from the 11 rounded blades in the lens. This worked well with the distortion to frame the trees and trail around the sun. In the lower image I'm standing right at the edge of the road. I was photographing this waterfall when a truck came along. This gave me the idea to do a long exposure with a vehicle as it drove by...so I simply waited...
Another sunset from the mountains of Colorado. Stopping the lens down to F/14 and doing a 30 second exposure gave pretty good results and the reason the sunstar isn't as sharp as the one above... There was a bit of wind which moved the flowers a bit during the exposure as well. Still a fun shot and the depth of field is incredible at F/14
The video shows you just how close I was to this old tree. I was doing test shots and making sure I could get my composition how I wanted before the stars came out. While I did make a slight adjustment before taking the final image, you can see how my set up looked.
Shooting the stars was so fun with this lens and the edge to edge, corner to corner sharpness is incredible for a lens this wide... A true testement to the extremely high quality we have come to love from Sigma Art lenses...
Even at 20 seconds there was little to no star trailing. The stars are pinpoint sharp from center to edges and corners...For these types of images I actually like how the milky way curves up around the old stone building. The distortion doesn't bother me at all.
Now to give you an example of the extreme effect you can get with this lens... The first image below shows you the location and the placement of the camera and lens. It was not shot on the same night. It's an image I shot years ago. I then had the idea to go back with the Sigma 15mm 1.4 Fisheye lens...because of the wide angle and distortion I was able to create an "Arch" out of these 2 rocks just by placing the camera and lens in the right spot. As I was shooting, there were several cars that came by during the exposures. When I first posted this image, no one beleived me when I told them where it was. The illusion this lens creates is fascinating.
I took a trip to New Mexico last week to shoot the Perseid meteor shower and this was one of the locations I was able to visit. The super wide angle view really worked well with this arch and allowed the Milky Way to slightly bend around it. Excellent DOF, sharp stars, no coma & beautiful details are all attributes of the Sigma 15mm 1.4 fisheye lens. I've got a lot more starry night images coming so stay tuned...
I really wanted to make sure that I took full advantage of the Haida rear filter holder and do some long exposures to showcase how the long exposures can work with the lens distortion. The first image was shot during an early morning hike just as the sun was coming up. The 25 second exposure allowed the water to smooth out and the clouds to circle around the sky.
A waterfall in Rocky Mountain National Park. This is quite a large waterfall and with the Sigma 15mm 1.4 Fisheye lens it was pretty easy to get it all in the frame. I can honestly say that using the ND filters in the rear filter holder, I did not notice any loss of detail or sharpness.
From wanting to shoot the stars to ending up shooting a lot of landscapes, the Sigma 15mm 1.4 Fisheye performed at the highest level I could hope for. This image of the crags at Sky Pond at sunrise (sorry for the yellowish color, there was a lot of smoke in the east as the sun was coming up) shows some of the incredible detail just from a handheld snapshot. The lens was literally less than an inch above the water because I wanted to get the best reflection possible.
From stars to landscapes & any creative photoshoot in between, the Sigma 15mm 1.4 Fisheye lens has potential in all types of photography. Designed and built for astrophotography, this lens delivers outstanding image quality for any project you have where wide angle lenses are needed. Maybe the slight distortion is the creative flare your project needs. Sigma didn't sacrifice anything when designing and building this lens.
Where can you see using this lens in your photography? I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments...
Sigma 15mm 1.4 Fisheye - you can find all the details about this lens here.
Darren White Photography - Website
Comments