What is the appeal of a fisheye lens?

[TitanDiddly]

I don't get it.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I guess it's more of a personal preference. I myself don't like them either.

 

[Mo0o]

Artistic effect?

 

[Zim Hosein]

Topic Title: What is the appeal of a fisheye lens?

Drug users like 'em!

 

[Chaotic42]

Ask Rush.

 

[clamum]

So you can see more of the action, they're a extremely wide angle lens. Skateboard videos use them so it's easier for someone to film and get the trick (I'm guessing). I think the effect looks neat if not overdone.

 

[unsped]

fish use them to see, it focuses the light on their retinas

 

[Saint Nick]

Originally posted by: clamum
So you can see more of the action, they're a extremely wide angle lens. Skateboard videos use them so it's easier for someone to film and get the trick (I'm guessing). I think the effect looks neat if not overdone.

yep.. makes the trick look bigger too.

 

[PHiuR]

what is the appeal of zooms?

I don't get it.

 

[clamum]

Originally posted by: jndietz

Originally posted by: clamum
So you can see more of the action, they're a extremely wide angle lens. Skateboard videos use them so it's easier for someone to film and get the trick (I'm guessing). I think the effect looks neat if not overdone.

yep.. makes the trick look bigger too.

Yeah I didn't think of that before but it does

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: clamum

Originally posted by: jndietz

Originally posted by: clamum
So you can see more of the action, they're a extremely wide angle lens. Skateboard videos use them so it's easier for someone to film and get the trick (I'm guessing). I think the effect looks neat if not overdone.

yep.. makes the trick look bigger too.

Yeah I didn't think of that before but it does

Eh, to me it's just making the trick look fake. EVERY skateboarding video uses fisheyes ad nauseum... completely unoriginal now IMHO.

 

[waggy]

im not to impressed by them myself.

 

[yhelothar]

180° view.
They're meant for landscape. IMAX uses them a lot.

 

[shilala]

I take enough fvcked up pictures, I don't have any desire for one.
I take that back...
I'd like to take some pics around fast water with one. Some kind of waterfall, splashing, over rocks thing would probably be cool.

 

[jiwq]

there's de-fishers if you hate them so much

 

[IronWing]

Great for 360 panaramas.

 

[NogginBoink]

Creating a super-wide-angle lens that doesn't distort is either really, really, really expensive or flat-out impossible.

The fisheye lens lets you get a wide field of view that you just can't get with any other lens. The distortion is a side effect of the wide angle design; not a feature.

 

[Schadenfroh]

It makes for a great song.

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: NogginBoink
Creating a super-wide-angle lens that doesn't distort is either really, really, really expensive or flat-out impossible.

The fisheye lens lets you get a wide field of view that you just can't get with any other lens. The distortion is a side effect of the wide angle design; not a feature.

I disagree.
There are 18-25mm fisheye zooms and there are 12-24mm non-fisheye zooms.
There are 15mm primes, and 17mm fisheye primes from the same line of lenses.

 

[Mark R]

There is a problem converting a 'spherical' view of a 3D world into a flat view on a piece of film (or sensor). The geometry of the 2 is different and it isn't possible to convert one to the other without some type of distortion.

You can either choose a rectilinear projection (a 'normal' lens is of this type) this preserves straight lines, but at wide angles you get very uneven magnification of the image - the edges will be magnified more than the centre (similar to the way the arctic/antarctic are magnified on a standard Mercator projection map).

Alternatively you can use a spherical projection (fisheye) - this gives an even magnification across the picture, but straight lines will become curved.

It is impossible for a rectilienar projetion to achieve 180 degrees of view - and the distortion becomes so severe that it is impractical at more than about 120 degrees.