Taken with a Nikon D-70 and a Nikkor 10.5mm Fish Eye lens and two external DS 125 strobes set to 1/2 power.

I was surprised to see the variety of good pictures I got shooting my Nikkor 10.5. Turns out the 10.5 is a very versatile lens which is capable of shooting both close focus wide angle, right down to touching the subject with the port, and al the way out to extreme wide angle shots.

Tip: I get my best lighting results by keeping my strobes closer in than I do for normal wide angle and importantly, mounted about 6 inches to a foot behind the dome port. It turns out that this placement is needed to light very close subjects and it also works well for lighting farther out, true wide angle shots, by painting the central portion of the picture with light.

Tip: In bad vis or low light/no light situations where focusing can be difficult for any lens, take a shot of a sharply defined object about 6 inches in front of the lens and then switch the camera to manual focus. If your experience is like mine you will find that all pictures taken from 6 inches to infinity with this setup will be in focus. And there is absolutely no shutter lag. Even in the dark!

Photos by Peter Schulz