Nikon FC-E9 0.2× Fisheye Converter Review

The Nikon FC-E9 is a 0.2× fisheye converter lens for the Nikon 5700, amongst others. The lens attaches with a screw-on adaptor (for the 5700 it's a Nikon UR-E12). All of these photos were taken with my 5700 at ISO 100 and 1/30 of a second with an aperture of about f3.5-4.2. The result is an image with a field of view of up to 183 degrees. Keep reading to find many original out-of-camera jpegs and descriptions of each image!

The "control" shot is at the right. This photo was taken at the 5700's widest wide angle setting of 8.9 mm (in 35 mm-equivalency, about 35 mm). This is the original out-of-camera jpeg, about 1.9 MB.

This fisheye photo was taken at the 5700's widest setting of 8.9 mm/35 mm. A closer look shows what I suppose is vignetting all around the edge of the photo. The sky is completely blown out, which likely accounts for at least some of the purple fringing that is obvious. Compared to the wide-angle "control" shot, the photo appears a little flat (reduced contrast and undersaturation). To some extent, this is to be expected--such a large front element (about 4 inches in diameter) with such a large field of view will capture a lot of stray light, creating the effect shown here. Sharpness looks good. The image at the right is the original, 1 MB out-of-camera jpeg.

The above photo has a lot of black around the top and bottom. The camera can be zoomed in a little to better fill the frame while still retaining the full fisheye view, as shown at the right. This photo was shot at 10 mm; 35 mm equivalent is about 39 mm. Interestingly, comparing this and the previous shot don't show much (any) difference in the field of view, but it's certainly filling more of the frame. The same contrastless, undersaturated color appears in this photo, though sharpness is quite good. Click the thumbnail at the right to download the original out-of-camera 1.1 MB jpeg.

My prime interest in this lens is to use it as an ultra wide-angle lens, which starts at about 25 mm (97.5 mm 35 mm-equivalent)--as shown at the right. A little vignetting in the corners is visible. "Sharpness" only happens in the center of the frame; the edges are just blurry. Color and contrast are a bit better, though. Click the thumbnail at the right to download the original out-of-camera 1.4 MB jpeg.

Zooming in just a little further takes care of the corner vignetting visible in the previous shot. Likely the result of zooming in a little further, edges are blurred even more. Click the thumbnail at the right to download the original out-of-camera 1.4 MB jpeg.

The two thumbnails below are zoomed in further. The left-hand image was shot at 41 mm (159.9 mm 35 mm-equivalent) and is a 1.5 MB out-of-camera jpeg; the right-hand image was shot at 62 mm (241.8 mm 35 mm-equivalent) and is a 1.5 MB out-of-camera jpeg. Both show the same problems previously noted: very blurry edges, good center sharpness, reduced contrast, and reduced saturation. The right-hand image is easily compared to the "control" image as they share roughly the same field of view.

In conclusion, as a fisheye lens, the Nikon FC-E9 seems like a good performer. If that's what you need, this is a good lens. Zoomed-in, though, the quality is significanlty worse.