Fisheye Lens, Panoramic Lens, Wide Angle Lens for Action Camera gopro
Currently we have 180 degree, 185 degree, 190 degree, 195 degree and 200 degree Fisheye Lens, 205 degree, 206 degree, 210 degree, 220 degree, 230 degree Panoramic Lens, We are R&D newest HFOV 240 degree super Fisheye Panoramic Camera Lens
(1) What is Fisheye Lens?
A fisheye lens is an ultra-wide-angle lens that is designed for shooting wide angles generally 180 degrees. These lenses are also known as the ultra-wide or super-wide lens. They are famous for extreme sport, landscape, and artistic photography.
Characteristics of Fisheye Lens
Following are the characteristics of a fisheye lens:
Focal length: A typical circular fisheye lens have 8mm to 10mm focal length while the focal length of a full-frame lens is 15mm to 16mm.
Angle of view: The angle of view of a fisheye lens is 180° at the widest point.
Image distortion: Images obtained from the fisheye lens have a distortion called barrel distortion where the centre of the frame appears to bulge outwards and the image obtained is known as curvilinear image.
Depth of field: The depth of field of the fisheye lens is very large because of the extreme angle
(2) Fisheye vs Wide-Angle Lens
what is the difference between a fisheye lens and a wide angle lens?
A fisheye lens is an exaggerated wide-angle lens.
One noticeable difference you will see is that the former produces a distorted edge unlike the latter. The fisheye distortion is vertically extreme where it bends in the middle which is why the subject at the center is the least distorted.
Generally, the lens is more prone to distortion at an image’s periphery is the focal length is shorter.
The reason why wide-angle lenses use a corrective lens element is to remove the chances of image distortion or pincushion distortion.
On the other hand, the fisheye lens takes advantage of this effect that’s why the corrective lens element is not put into place.
It is important to note that there are different types of fisheye lenses:
Circular Fisheye Lens
The photo I shared earlier is a great example of a circular fisheye lens.
It gives a 180-degree angle of view on the entire periphery namely: vertical, horizontal, and diagonal with a distortion that is like a barrel. This simply means that the produced image is contained within a circle because of the vignette effect in the corners of the frame. This effect is also known as the “tunnel vision” effect.
Diagonal (Full-Frame) Fisheye Lens
It is a 180-degree image with a diagonal angle-of-view where the edges are the areas of the picture that is mostly distorted leaving the center “normal-looking”.
Unlike we saw with the circular fisheye forming a circular image within the frame, a diagonal fisheye lens fills the frame entirely.
Hence the reason why it’s also called “full frame” fisheye lens.
And it’s often used for traditional landscapes and interior photography.
Miniature Fisheye Lens
They were made for small format devices such as security cameras. Because of the maximum coverage, fisheye lenses are used in these miniature digital cameras.
Overall, these are perfect to use on taking pictures of a large crowd.
(3) Applications of Fisheye Lens
These lenses are used in extreme sport, landscape, and artistic photography.
Many planetariums use this lens for night sky projection and to project digital content on the interior of the room.
Visual combat simulators and flight simulators use fisheye projection lens for air traffic controllers and to train military personnel.
Resource managers and scientists use these lenses for hemispherical photography.
These lenses are also used by astronomers to capture light pollution data and cloud cover.
Videographers and photographers use fisheye lenses to take action shots. For example, while skateboarding these lenses are used to focus on board and the skater.
These are widely used in computers graphics generally to create environment maps from the physical world.
