Among the reviews for this lens on Amazon a writer remarks if he were to have only one lens this lens
would be it, he loves it so much it is fairly well kept on his camera full time for all things.
And that's a good review right there.
Often reviewers of camera lenses go off on technical tangents that are not so helpful and other reviewers need to justify their purchase.
I am just now beginning to feel comfortable with this heavy thing. I always did know what it can do but had no idea how to do it.
One person marked it down because the flash messes up closeups then other reviewers jumped on him heaping on hurt for not knowing it is not for closeups and not for flash, those two things right there inform that he's way out of his league. snort
But I disagree with the closeup thing. I think I get very good closeups with this. It is one of its best things about it. And portraits too. It does do all that.
But not onboard flash. Honestly. What was he thinking?
Nikon says you get close as eight inches. I believe that figure is for a full frame camera that professionals use, the camera I have is 3/4 sensor for regular blokes, and that means I can get closer. I think. I think I can get closer because I veritably kiss the subject with it and have to watch it sometimes with things like bacon that spatter the large glass eyeball. That thing was a mess. (Micro-fiber t-shirts are perfect for that. The one that I'm wearing.)
It has periphery vision. It scoops things to the side and forces extreme perspective. A dining table disappears into the horizon of the room while detail of both side walls are collected and crammed in. A slight tilt, a step back, any minor changes will force the perspective to shift dramatically, you must be constantly mindful of what is filling the frame. Or it will throw in the trash bin you had hoped to keep out of your lovely picture of the flowers, you must keep looking at the corners and see how they're filled. Then shift a fraction of an inch to correct things by feet or yards on the other end.
Approach the subject straight on and you will have a fine picture with fine perspective.
Shoot from above and the far edges stretch out and pull away. There actually is more distance from the flat surface to the edges of the glass hemisphere lens, so when viewed flatly they appear more distant, they do seem to pull away as if by warp speed. And that is sooooooooo neat-o mosquito *squeal*
Oh, I am going bit insane with this. I'm starting to sound like the self-absorbed photographer constantly talking to his subject even though it is inanimate and cannot hear nor understand me nor care, I still talk to it, reporting what I'm seeing, telling it how gorgeous it is and how well things are going and how it is a
STAR
while constantly moving and catching my shots. I'll take a series of shots moving around the subject looking for light to creep around nicely, highlight texture, reflect surfaces, create shadows and so forth and by doing discovered I can tilt sideways,
pivot
as it were, and with this lens force perspective so that the subject is pulled closer and the thing that was subject before pulls away like this.
It's trippy when you're seeing it through the viewfinder.
And that another thing, the screen in back is not useful for framing yet everyone who picks up my camera and tries it goes straight for that, only rarely when for some reason I cannot get my body behind it like when using a tripod. Things are a lot more clear in the viewfinder. Oh. It's because it's like a camera. Whereas the viewfinder really is through the lens. It says live, and yeah, sorta kinda, electronically live, yeah, but no, the viewfinder really is live. That is the whole point. To see exactly what the lens is seeing.
This is crap use of this lens to be frank. It is meant for better things. Bill said I can go out any time I want to try to find birds in the bushes, dove nests in the trees, catch the turtles sunning, you have to sneak up on them, they jump off their log, there must be a hundred of them, and there goes your shot. They must have eggs too, no? Or just wait there quietly having a sandwich and cocktail until they climb back.
The lens allows you to get right down to the blades of grass and have that in there and pull in the whole pond and the sky if you want, or move closer and get the face of a turtle with his whole pond behind him. That is what this lens is for.
