Althouse: I love the fisheye lens...

April 23, 2012

I love the fisheye lens...

... but this thing's insane!

Compared to that, this thing, the one I've had so much fun with, seems quite reasonably priced.

14 comments:

Pastafarian said...: Good grief.

I assume that the giant lens is so expensive because it's one-of-a-kind. Right?

But $600 for the mass-produced Nikon lens? There's quite a bit of margin in that pricing. Cheese and crackers, we're in the wrong business.; 4/23/12, 8:26 PM
Henry said...: There's at least one good job in lens-polishing out there for a recent arts grad.; 4/23/12, 8:38 PM
edutcher said...: I can see the huge one would have an application in porn - Peter could inspect every morsel of flavor.; 4/23/12, 8:39 PM
Carnifex said...: Every geek gene in my body has an erection!

I haven't done photography in decades and I want it.; 4/23/12, 8:42 PM
Saint Croix said...: Cool fish eye lens shots here.; 4/23/12, 8:42 PM
Wince said...: Are the "red rated" fish eye lenses more expensive?; 4/23/12, 8:55 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: I have a lens that is considered a wide angle lens. It is ridiculously large and impractical yet reviewers claim they keep it attached as their main lens. Which is hard to imagine. It does keep things in focus throughout the frame very well so for fun I photographed an orange with the label showing. The glass ball that is the last lens in the barrel is the same size as the orange and the lens was placed an inch away. The setup looked like this

☐=OO
|
/\

The edges of the lens will have to focus on the edges of the orange which are at different distances along the curve.

It is a stupid photo, nevertheless the page view zoomed to 20 X more than the surrounding pages that took more effort. I do not know why this stupid orange became viewed. This is the first I've linked to it.

If I would move back a few inches the lens would scoop up the whole room. The picture of an opened fruit under the picture of the orange shows the steep perspective the lens will eagerly throw everything. The tiniest shift in angle and the whole picture shifts to a different composition.

I learned a new trick after this orange picture having to do with flash. Refrigerator as reflector. It fills very nicely. I am satisfied with the results I've had with that.; 4/23/12, 9:05 PM
AlanKH said...: Living in a fisheye lens
Caught in the camera eye
I have no heart to lie
I can't pretend a stranger
Is a long-awaited friend; 4/23/12, 9:28 PM
Kylos said...: 220 degrees. Wow.; 4/23/12, 11:01 PM
JAL said...: It would be hard to remain anonymous in a crowd with that thing, Professor.

Dent in the 401K too.; 4/23/12, 11:49 PM
Thomas W said...: I remember reading about that lens some years ago (and a lower price). It also has a greater than 180 degree field of view -- it looks backwards.

Personally I like the Peleng 8mm fisheye lenses from Belarus (former Soviet optics company). Manual focus, but very nice quality for little money.; 4/24/12, 1:09 AM
Triangle Man said...: I the comments is the fascinating tidbit that the 'eye' of HAL 9000 was a different Nikon 6mm lense.; 4/24/12, 6:03 AM
Curious George said...: I saw one on craigslist for $75,000 OBO.; 4/24/12, 7:27 AM
Anonymous said...: Is the lens really big, or is it just attached to a tiny camera?; 4/24/12, 2:08 PM