Sigma and Nikon 8mm lenses

The real kicker is ofcourse the 'forklift truck not included' 6mm lens:
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/fish...
Note that you put the 5.2kg (!) lens on the tripod and just 'dangle' your camera off the mount.

I read about the 6mm lens last night when i was looking for the 8mm Nikkor lens, but didn't see an image of it. Looking at the size of the mounting face gives you a good way of seeing its massive size. I wonder if you can still find them anywhere, and how much they go for.

I tried working out if it would make a 180degree image on a 1.6X camera like the 20D, and it still doesn't, you would need a slightly wider again version, 5mm exactly would do it. But from my very basic working out, it would def give you the horizontal 180 degree view.

So the 6mm lens on a 1.6X Body would be still tighter than the 10.5mm lens on the 5D full frame.

Anybody here got one, as i would love to take an Object VR of it?

Ian

www.NewWorldDesigns.co.uk
CMS Systems, Web Design, 3D Animation

www.QuickTimeVirtualReality.com
Object, Pano, Multinode, QTVR, Flash, Java

One of the 6mm lenses was on eBay recently, with a buy it now price of over $33,000...

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280100696439&fromMakeT...

Ian Wood
Landmarks of Britain
Azurevision

I think ill get 2 just in case i drop one!

I understand its rare and a precision piece of equipment, but who the hell can justify £20k on a lens, you could buy a brand new BMW for that.

Ian

www.NewWorldDesigns.co.uk
CMS Systems, Web Design, 3D Animation

www.QuickTimeVirtualReality.com
Object, Pano, Multinode, QTVR, Flash, Java

There were 3 Nikkor 8mm lenses for sale on eBay a few months ago.

Starting bids were US$3,000 and they sold fast.

I found some one who has a Coastal Optics 185° Fisheye that uses it for virtual photography. He's agreed to let me have sample images for my Camera/Lens/Rotator library; a 2 fisheye set and a 3 fisheye set.

The Coastal Optics lens is still available new, but I'm not sure any of us want to spend US$4,000 on a lens. I'm curious to see how they stitch

Douglas Aurand
Albuquerque, NM

The 6mm Nikkor offered on eBay recently was ridiculously priced at about $33,000. The same seller offers other used exotic lenses and equipment at similarly astronomical prices.

The lens sold new for around $13,000 (it was a special order lens through Nikon). There was apparently one that sold on eBay a while ago for about that same price. IPIX actually owned two of these lenses, yet only one showed up in the assets of the company for the bankruptcy sale (could this imply that some ex-IPIX insider has the other one hidden away in the back of a closet somewhere....?).

With today's VR software, there is virtually no use for an exotic lens such as this in the VR panoramic photography world. It is certainly a collector's item, and represents a mean feat of Nikon optical engineering (come on, a lens that can actually see BEHIND itself...). But it is highly impractical to use in anything but a very controlled environment. You're not likely to be using this at the beach with ocean spray around, or tucked neatly into a pocket of your backpack on a trek anywhere. (It was originally designed to record full-sky, horizon-to-horizon astronomical images.) A 220° field of view is an awful lot of data to cram into a 35mm film or sensor frame, so the resulting resolution (pixels per degree) that can be yielded is pretty low, particularly for the expense involved.

Ford Oxaal wound up with the 6mm lens that was included in the IPIX asset auction. Maybe if we all ask nicely, we can talk him in to bringing it to show around at the IVRPA Conference in Berkeley this June (grin).

Regards,

Scott Highton
Author, Virtual Reality Photography
Web: http://www.vrphotography.com

> Maybe if we all ask nicely, we can talk him in to bringing it
> to show around at the IVRPA Conference in Berkeley this June

Would it be accepted as carry-on?
;-)

The Member Gallery lists the lens used for Jook Leung's "Tribute in Light" as the Nikkor 8mm

Douglas Aurand
Albuquerque, NM

Its said you have to pay attention to the serial numbers as well 243001 and on have multicoating. The ebay auction mentioned here gives 230793 which some sites suggest may date from the 70's and be rather flary without a modern coating.

(plus whisper it but the latest sigma 8mm's are much improved on what they were and if you don't need the f2.8 aperture theres often not really a huge difference between a nikkor 8mm and a $300 peleng 8mm in my opinion.)

But if you want to (or need to) impress the ladies, the Nikkor 8mm will win every time. Something about the size of lenses and size of feet... Note that I don't have a Nikkor 8mm ;-)

Have you seen my 500mm telephoto lens :D

www.NewWorldDesigns.co.uk
CMS Systems, Web Design, 3D Animation

www.QuickTimeVirtualReality.com
Object, Pano, Multinode, QTVR, Flash, Java