I simply can't say enough about this lens. I'd wanted it for a long time but just could never justify the money. Then I rented it and went on a shoot, and shortly after we started shooting it was pretty much decided I had to buy it. After several days of use in various shooting environments and then taking a good look at the images it was easy to get an understanding of how and where the fisheye distorted the image, which then allowed me, to an extent, to shoot w/ that in mind, so I could avoid the effect where I didn't want it, or embrace it in certain areas it'd look okay. The 180º field of view is more or less a gift from the photography gods in my opinion, and the incredibly close focus minimum focus distance (5" I believe, but maybe less) opens up a whole slew of previously unfeasible shots.
One big thing to note, however, is that it does in fact have a convex lens and that quasi hood that is NOT removable—both of which mean no UV (or any other kind) of filter, which in turn (at least in regards to the UV filter) means you don't have that added layer of protection between expensive glass surface and the world (which is always a little scary). This of course is something to be absolutely aware of at all times when shooting w/ this lens, as you can get precariously close to something but not realize it b/c you're looking the through the lens and the item looks farther away (think, "Object in lens are closer than they appear"). I oftentimes find myself taking my eye away from the viewfinder to look at the front of the camera to see how close I am before shooting, b/c of how easy it is to assume (and b/c I learned the lesson...one time I actually did hit the subject w/ the lens, fortunately it was something fairly soft and didn't do any damage, but the lesson was learned nonetheless).
As far as what type of shooting this lens allows goes...it simply allows you to be really close to something while still being able to capture the whole thing (usually). Example: using the 10.5 I took a picture of a 7' server rack in my office; I held the camera on the floor, angled up (probably a bit more than 45º), centered on the rack, and maybe six to eight inches from it. The photo got not only the ENTIRE rack, but also a good chuck of the walls behind on each side of it and the ceiling above it. Now, w/ my 18-105mm on the camera, zoomed out to 18, standing w/ my back to the wall across the (fairly small) office from the rack I could get about 75% if the rack, none of the floor or ceiling, and a little bit of the walls to each side. And I was probably eight or ten FEET away from the rack. Another example: standing w/ my toes touching the riser of the first step of a entry staircase (so the top landing was maybe five feet above ground level where my feet were) of a church I was able to get the entire staircase (including my toes!), front door, the whole face of the church, and ALL of the main bell tower; the 18-105mm got me the upper third of the stairs (maybe the upper half), two thirds up the building, and maybe half as much of the face as the 10.5mm.
So, if you like the sounds of the extremely wide angle and the shots it allows, and/or the incredibly close focusing distance, this is definitely a lens to get—BUT that's provided your Nikon is DX and not FX (full frame); I'm not going to go into it here, and I'm pretty sure I'd butcher it if I attempted, but it's something to do w/ crop factors when using a DX lens on an FX body or FX lens on a DX body and how you lose some of the aforementioned benefits.
Other things to note: aperture ranges from f/2.8 to f/16; and there's a focus dial-indicator thing (pretty certain that's not the correct term, but it's the thing that allows you to pre-focus (if you know how) or set the focus in super low-light conditions (again, if you know how)) which can be extremely useful.
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