Fish Eye Lens

Had this one on a micro four thirds camera. Manual focus inexpensive lens but I sold it to some for use on a Black Magic video camera.

I was about three inches away from the car. The owner was getting nervous. You have to move in close with ultra wides.

I also use one on my micro 4/3. Like Edward said manual focus and not too expensive.

I use one, but rarely. You have to look beyond the "effect" and limit its use to subjects that will actually benefit from it. Otherwise, you'll end up with a lot of curved but meaningless images.

I generally go to flickr first for topics like this.

Never had one, so I can't say much.

My camera has a fish-eye adjustment program. I have never used one, but I have had a few shots I would have liked to have. I don't see them as that useful a lens to purchase now until I have enough business to justify the expense. So many other things are more important to me that I have not thought seriously about trying to get one.

I have an old Cannon fish eye that my grandfather had. It's fun to play with and it has color filters built in and it is from back in the day when stuff was built right so the optics are great. For me part of the fun of photography is playing with stuff to see what happens...

BTW - In Lightroom you can play around with distortion and get weird fish eye like effects without having to buy a lens. This one kind of the reverse effect.

It's not the same, Edward. True, software can somewhat simulate the effect, but it actually crops the image; but more importantly, it lacks the characteristic 180-degree coverage of a fisheye lens. Below are a couple of examples. In the first, I was only about three feet behind the arch:





In this one, only a fisheye could encompass the entire crater, which is about 3/4 of a mile across. First, I tried a 17-55mm at its widest setting - not even close. Then I mounted a 12-24mm - closer, but still no cigar. Only the fisheye gave me the coverage I needed to get the shot:





You mentioned "weird fish eye like effects," which reminds me of what I used to teach my photography students when discussing optics. Believe it or not, the fisheye lens most closely resembles human vision. You can easily see this for yourself. Look straight ahead and extend your arms to the sides. Move them back until they disappear from your peripheral vision. You'll notice that it's virtually a 180-degree spread. Now comes the fun part. Take a long, straight object (like a yardstick), and while still looking straight ahead, hold it horizontally just in front of your forehead. Now, slowly move it slowly upward and downward. You'll see the characteristic curve of the fisheye view, which increases as you move it higher.

Using the Fisheye Shops image above as an example, I've printed that picture about 36 inches wide. When I (or you) place my (your) nose close to the center of the image, so that the picture fills your view, everything looks perfectly normal. If you can make the image large enough to fill your screen, and get close enough, you can see it for yourself.

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. After using it on tons of shots, I've come to the conclusion that it's a fun thing to play with, but no quality images that I'd put on my walls or try to sell!

A fish-eye would be a welcome addition to my toy box.

Realism? What's that??? ;-)

Maggie, there are uses for it that sell well. But you have to meter out what is good, and what is not. :)