Here are two pictures comparing the 9mm (18mm) fisheye from the edge of the sidewalk with two shots from a 25MM (50mm), one from the sidewalk and one from across the street. I am disappointed with the limited fisheye effect using the fisheye lens. I am looking for how the lenses might distort the picture, so did not touch up the photos.
Fascinating how little distortion it gives at these distances. Perhaps it’s a better wide-angle lens than you thought! Or maybe you truly do only get the fish-eye distortion effect at much closer distances.
I don’t think I would want to spend the money to test it, but I would be interested in trying a top-end fisheye lens and comparing it to this one. I am guessing that at distances the distortion with my lens does not stand out as much unless there are strong straight lines running from edge to edge in the shot.