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A fisheye lens is an ultra wide-angle lens that produces strong
visual distortion A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinati ...
intended to create a wide panoramic or hemispherical image. Fisheye lenses achieve extremely wide angles of view, well beyond any rectilinear lens. Instead of producing images with straight lines of perspective ( rectilinear images), fisheye lenses use a special mapping ("distortion"; for example: equisolid angle, see below), which gives images a characteristic convex non-rectilinear appearance. The term ''fisheye'' was coined in 1906 by American physicist and inventor Robert W. Wood based on how a fish would see an ultrawide hemispherical view from beneath the water (a phenomenon known as Snell's window). Their first practical use was in the 1920s for use in
meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did no ...
to study cloud formation giving them the name "whole-sky lenses". The angle of view of a fisheye lens is usually between 100 and 180 degrees, although lenses covering up to 280 degrees exist (see below). Their
focal length The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light; it is the inverse of the system's optical power. A positive focal length indicates that a system converges light, while a negative foc ...
s depend on the
film format A film format is a technical definition of a set of standard characteristics regarding image capture on photographic film for still images or film stock for filmmaking. It can also apply to projected film, either slides or movies. The primary c ...
they are designed for.
Mass-produced Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and ba ...
fisheye lenses for
photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is emplo ...
first appeared in the early 1960s and are generally used for their unique, distorted appearance. For the popular 35mm film format, typical focal lengths of fisheye lenses are 8–10 mm for circular images, and 12–18 mm for diagonal images filling the entire frame. For digital cameras using smaller imagers such as ″ and ″ format CCD or
CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss", ) is a type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) fabrication process that uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSF ...
sensors, the focal length of "miniature" fisheye lenses can be as short as 1–2 mm. Fisheye lenses also have other applications, such as re-projecting images originally filmed through a fisheye lens, or created via computer-generated graphics, onto hemispherical screens. They are also used for scientific photography, such as recordings of
aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...
and
meteor A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mi ...
s, and to study plant canopy geometry, and to calculate near-ground
solar radiation Solar irradiance is the power per unit area ( surface power density) received from the Sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength range of the measuring instrument. Solar irradiance is measured in watts per square metre ...
. In everyday life, they are perhaps most commonly encountered as peephole door viewers to give a wide field of view.


History and development

Panoramas with fisheye distortion predate photography and the fisheye lens. In 1779,
Horace Bénédict de Saussure Horace Bénédict de Saussure (17 February 1740 – 22 January 1799) was a Genevan geologist, meteorologist, physicist, mountaineer and Alpine explorer, often called the founder of alpinism and modern meteorology, and considered to be the firs ...
published his downward-facing fisheye view of the Alps: "All the objects are drawn in perspective from the centre". File:Vue circulaire des montagnes qu ‘on decouvre du sommet du Glacier de Buet, from Horace-Benedict de Saussure, Voyage dans les Alpes, précédés d'un essai sur l'histoire naturelle des environs de Geneve. Neuchatel, l779-96, pl. 8.jpg, "Vue circulaire des montagnes qu'on découvre du sommet du Glacier de Buet", Horace-Benedict de Saussure File:Wood-1906 - Fig 1.jpg, Wood's pail (top) and improved (bottom) camera (1906) File:Wood-1906 - Fig 2.jpg, First known fisheye image recorded in 1905 using Wood's pail apparatus (1906) File:Bond-1922 - Fig 1.png, Bond's hemispherical lens (1922) In 1906, Wood published a paper detailing an experiment in which he built a camera in a water-filled pail starting with a photographic plate at the bottom, a short focus lens with a pinhole diaphragm located approximately halfway up the pail, and a sheet of glass at the rim to suppress ripples in the water. The experiment was Wood's attempt "to ascertain how the external world appears to the fish" and hence the title of the paper was "Fish-Eye Views, and Vision under Water". Wood subsequently built an improved "horizontal" version of the camera omitting the lens, instead using a pinhole pierced in the side of a tank, which was filled with water and a photographic plate. In the text, he described a third "Fish-Eye" camera built using sheet brass, the primary advantages being that this one was more portable than the other two cameras, and was "absolutely leaktight". In his conclusion, Wood thought that "the device will photograph the entire sky oa sunshine recorder could be made on this principle, which would require no adjustment for latitude or month" but also wryly noted "the views used for the illustration of this paper savour somewhat of the 'freak' pictures of the magazines." W.N. Bond described an improvement to Wood's apparatus in 1922 which replaced the tank of water with a simple hemispheric glass lens, making the camera significantly more portable. The focal length depended on the refractive index and radius of the hemispherical lens, and the maximum aperture was approximately 50; it was not corrected for
chromatic aberration In optics, chromatic aberration (CA), also called chromatic distortion and spherochromatism, is a failure of a lens to focus all colors to the same point. It is caused by dispersion: the refractive index of the lens elements varies with the w ...
and projected a curved field onto a flat plate. Bond noted the new lens could be used to record cloud cover or lightning strikes at a given location. Bond's hemispheric lens also reduced the need for a pinhole aperture to ensure sharp focus, so exposure times were also reduced.


Hill Sky Lens

In 1924, Robin Hill first described a lens with 180° coverage that had been used for a cloud survey in September 1923 The lens, designed by Hill and R. & J. Beck, Ltd., was patented in December 1923. The Hill Sky Lens is now credited as the first fisheye lens. Hill also described three different mapping functions of a lens designed to capture an entire hemisphere (stereographic, equidistant, and orthographic). Distortion is unavoidable in a lens that encompasses an angle of view exceeding 125°, but Hill and Beck claimed in the patent that stereographic or equidistant projection were the preferred mapping functions. The three-element, three-group lens design uses a highly divergent meniscus lens as the first element to bring in light over a wide view followed by a converging lens system to project the view onto a flat photographic plate. The Hill Sky Lens was fitted to a whole sky camera, typically used in a pair separated by for stereo imaging, and equipped with a red filter for contrast; in its original form, the lens had a focal length of and cast an image in diameter at 8. Conrad Beck described the camera system in an article published in 1925. At least one has been reconstructed.


German and Japanese development

In 1932, the German firm Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG) filed for a patent on the Weitwinkelobjektiv (wide-angle lens), a 5-element, 4-group development of the Hill Sky Lens. Compared to the 1923 Hill Sky Lens, the 1932 Weitwinkelobjektiv featured two diverging meniscus elements ahead of the stop and used a cemented achromatic group in the converging section. Miyamoto credits Dr Hans Schulz with the design of the Weitwinkelobjektiv. The basic patented design was produced for cloud recording as a 17 mm 6.3 lens, and the artist known as Umbo used the AEG lens for artistic purposes, with photographs published in a 1937 issue of ''Volk und Welt''. The AEG Weitwinkelobjektiv formed the basis of the later Fish-eye-Nikkor 16 mm 8 lens of 1938, which was used for military and scientific (cloud cover) purposes. Nikon, which had a contract to supply optics to the
Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...
, possibly gained access to the AEG design under the
Pact of Steel The Pact of Steel (german: Stahlpakt, it, Patto d'Acciaio), formally known as the Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy, was a military and political alliance between Italy and Germany. The pact was initially drafted as a t ...
. After the war, the lens was mated to a medium format camera and was produced in slightly modified form (focal length increased slightly to 16.3 mm) as the "Sky-image Recording Camera" in March 1957 for the Japanese government, followed by a commercial release as the Nikon Fisheye Camera (also known as the "Nikon Sky Camera" or "Nikon Cloud Camera") in September 1960, which had a retail price of . The revised lens created a circular image in diameter and covered a complete hemispherical field of 180°. Only 30 examples of the Nikon Fisheye Camera were manufactured, and of those, 18 were sold to customers, mainly in the United States; Nikon likely destroyed the remaining stock to avoid tax penalties. A photograph of
pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the M ...
er
Bob Gutowski Robert Allen "Bob" Gutowski (25 April 1935 – 2 August 1960) was an American athlete who competed mainly in the pole vault. He competed for the United States in the 1956 Summer Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia in the Pole Vault where he wo ...
taken by the Fisheye Camera was published in ''Life'' in 1957. Also in 1938, Robert Richter of
Carl Zeiss AG Carl Zeiss AG (), branded as ZEISS, is a German manufacturer of optical systems and optoelectronics, founded in Jena, Germany in 1846 by optician Carl Zeiss. Together with Ernst Abbe (joined 1866) and Otto Schott (joined 1884) he laid th ...
patented the 6-element, 5-group Pleon lens, which was used for aerial surveillance during World War II. The converging rear group of the Pleon was symmetrical, reminiscent of the 4-element
Topogon Topogon is a wide field (originally 100 degrees field of view), symmetrical photographic lens designed by Robert Richter in 1933 for Zeiss Carl FA. Lenses produced under the name Metrogon also cite the US patent of the Topogon design. The initial ...
design, also designed by Richter for Zeiss in 1933. Testing on a captured lens after the war showed the Pleon provided an equidistant projection to cover a field of approximately 130°, and negatives were printed using a special rectifying enlarger to eliminate distortion. The Pleon had a focal length of approximately 72.5 mm with a maximum aperture of 8 and used a plano-concave front element in diameter; the image on the negative was approximately in diameter.Direct URL from NIST
/ref>


35 mm development

At approximately the same time that Schulz was developing the Weitwinkelobjektiv at AEG, at Zeiss was developing the Sphaerogon, which was also designed to encompass a 180° field of view. Unlike the Weitwinkelobjektiv, Merté's Sphaerogon was not limited to medium format cameras; prototype versions of the Sphaerogon were constructed for the Contax I miniature format camera. The first prototype Sphaerogon lenses constructed had a maximum aperture of 8, but later examples were computed half a stop faster, to 6.8. Several prototype examples of Sphaerogon lenses were recovered as part of the Zeiss Lens Collection seized by the
Army Signal Corps The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of Ma ...
as war reparations in 1945; the collection, which the Zeiss firm had retained as a record of their designs, was later documented by Merté, the former head of optical computation for CZJ, working under Signal Corps officer Edward Kaprelian. The Nikon Fisheye Camera was discontinued in September 1961, and Nikon subsequently introduced the first regular production fisheye lens for miniature cameras in 1962, the Fish-eye-Nikkor 8 mm 8, which required the reflex mirror on its
Nikon F The Nikon F camera, introduced in April 1959, was Nikon's first SLR camera. It was one of the most advanced cameras of its day. Although many of the concepts had already been introduced elsewhere, it was revolutionary in that it was the first ...
and
Nikkormat Nikkormat (Nikomat in Japan) was a brand of cameras produced by the Japanese optics company Nippon Kogaku K. K., as a consumer version of the professional Nikon brand. Nikkormat cameras, produced from 1965 until 1978, were simpler and more affo ...
cameras to be locked up prior to mounting the lens. Prior to the early 1960s, fisheye lenses were used primarily by professional and scientific photographers, but the advent of the fisheye for the 35 mm format increased its popular use. The Nikkor 8 mm 8 has a field of view of 180° and uses 9 elements in 5 groups; it has a fixed focus and built-in filters intended for black-and-white photography. Research indicates that fewer than 1,400 lenses were built. Nikon subsequently released several more milestone circular fisheye lenses in Nikon F mount through the 1960s and 70s: * 10 mm 5.6 OP (1968), the first fisheye to feature orthographic projection, which was also the first lens to feature an aspherical element * 6 mm 5.6 (1969), the first fisheye to feature a 220° field of view; interestingly, the patent accompanying this lens includes a design for a lens with a 270° field of view. A 6.2 mm 5.6 SAP fisheye was later produced in limited numbers with an aspherical surface, encompassing a 230° field of view. * 8 mm 2.8 (1970), the first circular fisheye with variable focus, automatic aperture, and reflex viewing (mirror lock-up no longer required). Meanwhile, other Japanese manufacturers were developing the so-called "full-frame" or diagonal fisheyes, which captured approximately a 180° field of view across the diagonal of the film frame. The first such diagonal fisheye was the Fish-eye Takumar 18 mm 11, released by Pentax (Asahi Optical) in 1962, followed by the slightly faster UW Rokkor-PG 18 mm 9.5 from Minolta in 1966. Both of these were reflex-viewing and fixed-focus. Both Pentax and Minolta followed up with faster lenses with variable focus in 1967 (Super Fish-eye-Takumar 17 mm 4) and 1969 (Rokkor-OK 16 mm 2.8), respectively. The 16 mm Rokkor was later adopted by Leica as the Fisheye-Elmarit-R (1974) and then converted to autofocus (1986) for the Alpha system. , the same basic optical design is still sold as the Sony SAL16F28.


Design

Unlike rectilinear lenses, fisheye lenses are not fully characterised by focal length and aperture alone. Angle of view, image diameter, projection type, and sensor coverage all vary independently of these.


Image diameter and coverage

In a circular fisheye lens, the
image circle The image circle is the cross section of the cone of light transmitted by a lens or series of lenses onto the image plane. When this light strikes a perpendicular target such as photographic film or a digital camera sensor, it forms a circle of ...
is ''
inscribed {{unreferenced, date=August 2012 An inscribed triangle of a circle In geometry, an inscribed planar shape or solid is one that is enclosed by and "fits snugly" inside another geometric shape or solid. To say that "figure F is inscribed in figu ...
in'' the film or sensor area; in a diagonal ("full-frame") fisheye lens, the image circle is '' circumscribed around'' the film or sensor area. This implies that using a fisheye lens for a different format than it was intended for is easy (as opposed to a rectilinear lens), and may change its characteristic. Further, different fisheye lenses map ("distort") images differently, and the manner of distortion is referred to as their mapping function. A common type for consumer use is ''equi
solid angle In geometry, a solid angle (symbol: ) is a measure of the amount of the field of view from some particular point that a given object covers. That is, it is a measure of how large the object appears to an observer looking from that point. The poi ...
.'' Although there are digital fisheye effects available both in-camera and as computer software, neither can extend the angle of view of the original images to the very large one of a true fisheye lens.


Focal length

The focal length is determined by the angular coverage, the specific mapping function used, and the required dimensions of the final image. Focal lengths for popular amateur camera sizes are computed as: ;Notes


Circular fisheyes

The first types of fisheye lenses developed were "circular" — lenses which took in a 180° hemisphere and projected it as a circle within the film frame. By design, circular fisheye lenses thus cover a smaller image circle than rectilinear lenses designed for the same sensor size. The corners of a circular fisheye image will be completely black. This blackness is different from the gradual vignetting of rectilinear lenses and sets on abruptly. Some circular fisheyes were available in
orthographic projection Orthographic projection (also orthogonal projection and analemma) is a means of representing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions. Orthographic projection is a form of parallel projection in which all the projection lines are orthogona ...
models for scientific applications. These have a 180° ''vertical,'' horizontal and diagonal
angle of view The angle of view is the decisive variable for the visual perception of the size or projection of the size of an object. Angle of view and perception of size The perceived size of an object depends on the size of the image projected onto the ...
. For APS and m43 cameras, several lenses have emerged that retain a 180° field of view on a crop body. The first of these was the Sigma 4.5mm. Sunex also makes a 5.6mm fisheye lens that captures a circular 185° field of view on a 1.5x Nikon and 1.6x Canon DSLR cameras.
Nikon (, ; ), also known just as Nikon, is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging products. The companies held by Nikon form the Nikon Group. Nikon's products include cameras, camera ...
produced a 6 mm circular fisheye lens for 35 mm film that was initially designed for an expedition to
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
. It featured a 220° field of view, designed to capture the entire sky and surrounding ground when pointed straight up. This lens is no longer manufactured, and is used nowadays to produce interactive virtual-reality images such as
QuickTime VR QuickTime VR (also known as QTVR) is an image file format developed by Apple Inc. for QuickTime, and discontinued along with QuickTime 7. It allows the creation and viewing of VR photography, photographically captured panoramas, and the viewing ...
and
IPIX IPIX is an imaging technology company headquartered in Cohoes, New York. It supplies hardware and software for producing, publishing, embellishing, and collaborating with spherical imagery. History IPIX Corporation, successor-in-interest to Inte ...
. Because of its very wide field of view, it is very large — weighing , having a diameter of , a length of and an angle of view of 220 degrees. It dwarfs a regular 35 mm SLR camera and has its own tripod mounting point, a feature normally seen in large long-focus or
telephoto lens A telephoto lens, in photography and cinematography, is a specific type of a long-focus lens in which the physical length of the lens is shorter than the focal length. This is achieved by incorporating a special lens group known as a ''telephoto ...
es to reduce strain on the
lens mount A lens mount is an interface – mechanical and often also electrical – between a photographic camera body and a lens. It is a feature of camera systems where the body allows interchangeable lenses, most usually the rangefinder camera, sin ...
. The lens is extremely rare. More recently, the Japanese manufacturer Entaniya offers several fisheye lenses with angles of view up to 250° on 35 mm full frame, and up to 280° on smaller sensors (see list below). In 2018,
Venus Optics Venus Optics (Anhui ChangGeng Optics Technology Co., Ltd.) is a Chinese manufacturer of photographic lenses, specialized in the design of innovative macro, wide angle, shift and f/0.95 lenses. Headquarters and production are in Hefei, while s ...
introduced a 210° fisheye lens for the Micro Four Thirds system. The 8 mm and 7.5 mm circular fisheye lenses made by
Nikon (, ; ), also known just as Nikon, is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging products. The companies held by Nikon form the Nikon Group. Nikon's products include cameras, camera ...
have proven useful for scientific purposes because of their equidistant (equiangular) projection, in which distance along the radius of the circular image is proportional to the
zenith angle The zenith (, ) is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction ( plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location ( nadir). The zenith is the "highe ...
.


Diagonal fisheyes (a.k.a. full-frame or rectangular)

As fisheye lenses gained popularity in general photography, camera companies began manufacturing fisheye lenses with an enlarged image circle to cover the entire rectangular film frame. They are called diagonal, or sometimes "rectangular" or "full-frame", fisheyes. (This was well before digital photography, so the use of the term "full frame" with respect to fisheyes has nothing to do with the use of the term to designate a digital sensor measuring 36x24 mm). The angle of view produced by diagonal fisheyes only measures 180° ''from corner to corner'': they have a 180° ''diagonal'' angle of view (AOV), while the horizontal and vertical angles of view will be smaller. For an equisolid angle 15 mm full-frame fisheye, the horizontal AOV will be 147°, and the vertical AOV will be 94°.For an equisolid angle projection (typical of full-frame fisheyes), the angle of view is double \theta, the angle from the optical axis, and the resulting formula is \text = 4 \cdot \arcsin \left(\frac\right), where \text = 2 \cdot r which comes from solving the mapping function for \theta
Dyxum, Gustavo Orensztajn
/ref> One of the first diagonal fisheye lenses to be mass-produced was the Nikon Fisheye-Nikkor F 16mm 3.5, made in the early 1970s. To obtain the same effect on digital cameras with smaller sensors, shorter focal lengths are required. Nikon makes a 10.5 mm fisheye for their APS DX SLRs. Several other companies make "full frame", i.e. diagonal, fisheyes for APS and m43 cameras, see next paragraph.


Portrait or cropped-circle fisheyes

An intermediate between a diagonal and a circular fisheye consists of a circular image optimised for the ''width'' of the film format rather than the ''height''. As a result, on any non-square film format, the circular image will be cropped at the top and bottom, but still show black edges on the left and right. This format is called a "portrait" fisheye; historically, it has been rather rare - only the 12 mm f/8 Accura lens (see list below) directly follows the portrait principle. Today however, a portrait fisheye effect is easily achieved by using a fisheye lens intended for full coverage of a smaller sensor format, like an APS diagonal fisheye on a 35 mm full frame camera, or an m43 diagonal fisheye on APS.


Miniature fisheye lenses

Miniature digital camera A miniature is a small-scale reproduction, or a small version. It may refer to: * Portrait miniature, a miniature portrait painting * Miniature art, miniature painting, engraving and sculpture * Miniature (chess), a masterful chess game or probl ...
s, especially when used as
security camera A closed-circuit television camera can produce images or recordings for surveillance or other private purposes. Cameras can be either video cameras, or digital stills cameras. Walter Bruch was the inventor of the CCTV camera. The main purpose o ...
s, often tend to have fisheye lenses to maximize coverage. Miniature fisheye lenses are designed for small-format CCD/CMOS imagers commonly used in consumer and security cameras. Popular
image sensor format In digital photography, the image sensor format is the shape and size of the image sensor. The image sensor format of a digital camera determines the angle of view of a particular lens when used with a particular sensor. Because the image se ...
sizes used include ", ", and ". Depending on the active area of the image sensor, the same lens can form a circular image on a larger image sensor (e.g. "), and a full frame on a smaller one (e.g. ").


Examples and specific models

For a comprehensive list of all current and all past fisheye lenses, see External Links below.


Noteworthy fisheye lenses for APS-C cameras

The APS-C image sensor used in Canon cameras is , or on the diagonal, which is slightly smaller than the sensor size used by other popular manufacturers of cameras with APS-C sensors, such as Fuji, Minolta, Nikon, Pentax, and Sony. The other common APS-C sensors range from on the long dimension and on the shorter side, for a diagonal between .


Circular APS-C fisheye lenses

* Sigma 4.5 mm 2.8 * Lensbaby 5.8mm 3.5


Diagonal APS-C fisheye lenses

* Nikon 10.5 mm 2.8 for Nikon F DSLRs * Samyang 8 mm 3.5 for various APS DSLRs. Notable for its
stereographic projection In mathematics, a stereographic projection is a perspective projection of the sphere, through a specific point on the sphere (the ''pole'' or ''center of projection''), onto a plane (the ''projection plane'') perpendicular to the diameter thro ...
. * Samyang 8 mm 2.8 for various mirrorless mounts. Notable for its
stereographic projection In mathematics, a stereographic projection is a perspective projection of the sphere, through a specific point on the sphere (the ''pole'' or ''center of projection''), onto a plane (the ''projection plane'') perpendicular to the diameter thro ...
. * Sigma 10 mm 2.8 for various APS DSLRs.


Zoom APS-C fisheye lenses

* Pentax 10–17 mm 3.5–4.5 = Tokina 10–17 mm 3.5–4.5 (jointly developed) for various APS DSLRs.


Noteworthy fisheye lenses for 35 mm full frame cameras


Circular fisheye lenses

* Accura 12 mm 8 (180° portrait fisheye lens, i.e. optimised for the height rather than the width of the frame, thus giving a circular image of larger diameter, i.e. cropped at the top and bottom. 1968. Sold as Beroflex, Berolina, Panomar, Sigma, Spiratone, Universa, Upsilon, Vemar etc. Very bad.) * C-4 Optics Hyperfisheye 4.9 mm 3.5 (270°, 2020, for
evil Evil, in a general sense, is defined as the opposite or absence of good. It can be an extremely broad concept, although in everyday usage it is often more narrowly used to talk about profound wickedness and against common good. It is general ...
only, 13kg) *
Canon FD The Canon FD lens mount is a physical standard for connecting a photographic lens to a 35mm single-lens reflex camera body. The standard was developed by Canon of Japan and was introduced in March 1971 with the Canon F-1 camera. It served as th ...
7.5 mm 5.6 (180°, 1971, three versions: initial version with silver bayonet ring, 1973 S.S.C. version with silver bayonet ring, 1979 NewFD version with the same SSC coating, black bayonet ring; all have inbuilt, wheel-selectable colour filters) * Entaniya HAL 200 6 mm 4 (200°, 19.9 mm image diameter, for
evil Evil, in a general sense, is defined as the opposite or absence of good. It can be an extremely broad concept, although in everyday usage it is often more narrowly used to talk about profound wickedness and against common good. It is general ...
only) * Entaniya HAL 250 6 mm 5.6 (250°, 23.7 mm image diameter, for
evil Evil, in a general sense, is defined as the opposite or absence of good. It can be an extremely broad concept, although in everyday usage it is often more narrowly used to talk about profound wickedness and against common good. It is general ...
only, fixed aperture, 2 kg (the company also makes a 280° model with however only 5mm image diameter)) *
Nikon F The Nikon F camera, introduced in April 1959, was Nikon's first SLR camera. It was one of the most advanced cameras of its day. Although many of the concepts had already been introduced elsewhere, it was revolutionary in that it was the first ...
6 mm 2.8 (220°, 1972) *
Nikon F The Nikon F camera, introduced in April 1959, was Nikon's first SLR camera. It was one of the most advanced cameras of its day. Although many of the concepts had already been introduced elsewhere, it was revolutionary in that it was the first ...
6 mm 5.6 (220°, 1970) *
Nikon F The Nikon F camera, introduced in April 1959, was Nikon's first SLR camera. It was one of the most advanced cameras of its day. Although many of the concepts had already been introduced elsewhere, it was revolutionary in that it was the first ...
6.2 mm 5.6 (230° and at its time the widest fisheye. Looks like the aforementioned 6 mm f/5.6, but different engraving: 6.2 mm 230°. Reportedly the rarest Nikon lens in existence, only 3 produced) *
Nikon F The Nikon F camera, introduced in April 1959, was Nikon's first SLR camera. It was one of the most advanced cameras of its day. Although many of the concepts had already been introduced elsewhere, it was revolutionary in that it was the first ...
7.5 mm 5.6 (220°, 1966) *
Nikon F The Nikon F camera, introduced in April 1959, was Nikon's first SLR camera. It was one of the most advanced cameras of its day. Although many of the concepts had already been introduced elsewhere, it was revolutionary in that it was the first ...
8 mm 2.8 (180°, 1970) *
Nikon F The Nikon F camera, introduced in April 1959, was Nikon's first SLR camera. It was one of the most advanced cameras of its day. Although many of the concepts had already been introduced elsewhere, it was revolutionary in that it was the first ...
8 mm 8 (180°, 1962) * Olympus OM Auto-Fisheye 8 mm 2.4 (180°, rare) * Peleng 8 mm 3.5 (180°) * Sigma 8 mm 4.0 EX DG (180°) * Sigma 8 mm 3.5 EX DG (180°, succeccor of the above Sigma 8 mm 4.0)


Full-frame (i.e. diagonal) fisheye lenses

* Canon EF 15 mm 2.8 (optically simpler successor of the below FD model; since discontinued) * Canon Fisheye FD 15 mm 2.8 (predecessor of the above, incompatible with EF mount. Two versions: original with silver bayonet ring, 1973; NewFD with black bayonet ring, 1980. Both have inbuilt colour filters and S.S.C. coating) * Fuji Photo Film Co. EBC Fujinon Fish Eye 16 mm f/2.8 (M42 and X-Fujinon mounts, discontinued) * Minolta AF 16 mm 2.8, since continued as Sony A * Nikon Fisheye-Nikkor 16 mm 2.8 AI-s and AF D (since 1979) * Nikon Fisheye-Nikkor 16 mm 3.5 (1973, predecessor of the above) * Pentax SMC 17 mm 4 Fish-Eye * Pentax 18 mm f/11
Pancake A pancake (or hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack) is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or frying pan, often frying w ...
Fisheye (160°) * Samyang 12 mm 2.8 ED AS NCS Diagonal Fisheye (famous for its stereographic projection; available in several SLR and evil mounts) * Sigma 15 mm 2.8 EX DG Diagonal Fisheye * TTArtisan 11mm 2.8 Fisheye (notable as the first fisheye lens marketed, among others, in Leica M rangefinder mount and for Fuji GFX (the lens does not cover the full GFX frame, though!). An expert found it's actually 15 mm in focal length and has an angle of view of only 176°) * Zenitar 16 mm 2.8 Fisheye lens


Zoom fisheye lenses

* Canon EF 8–15mm 4L Fisheye USM180° at all focal lengths, but turning from a circular to a diagonal fisheye on a 35 mm full-frame camera, i.e. changing in vertical angle of view. On a crop camera with APS-C/H size sensors, it only yields a cropped circular and full-frame image. A zoom lock is included which avoids leaving the focal length range of full coverage on crop sensor cameras. * Nikon AF-S Fisheye Nikkor 8–15mm 3.5–4.5E EDdesigned for full-frame and FX cameras, this lens behaves identically to the Canon. *
Tokina is a Japanese manufacturer of photographic lenses and CCTV security equipment. Lens designations * FX - Full frame * DX - cropped digital * AF - Auto-Focus * AT-X Pro - professional line (constant aperture zooms or primes) * AT-X - consumer lin ...
AT-X AF DX = Pentax DA ED IF 10–17 mm 3.4-4.5a fisheye zoom lens designed for APS-C sensor cameras, also sold as an NH version without integrated lens hood: then, it is usable on full frame cameras. * Pentax F 17–28mm 3.5–4.5 FisheyeThis lens was born for 35 mm full frame film cameras, to take the place of the 16mm f/2.8 in the AF era. It starts from a 17mm full-frame (diagonal) fisheye. When it reaches 28mm, the fisheye effect is almost gone, leaving an overdistorted wideangle image. It was intended as a "special effect" lens and is claimed not to have sold too many copies.


Curiosities

* Canon 5.2 mm f/2.8 RF L (a 190° stereographic fisheye with ''two'' fisheye lens systems: for 3D virtual reality shooting onto a single 35 mm full-frame image sensor, and less relevant for photography: fitting two image circles onto one frame of 36 mm width means that each can only be 18 mm in diameter, wasting quite a bit of resolution) * Pentax K "Bird's eye" 8.4 mm 2.8 (prototype, 1982, rendition not quite the same as a fisheye)


Sample images

Museumfisheye.jpg, An image of the
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...
museum entry taken with the 7.5 mm circular fisheye Nikkor lens WellsCathedral-28F12wyrdlight.jpg, Fisheye used to capture entire Wells Cathedral Chapter House room Car Fisheye.jpg, Canon 8–15mm zoom at 8mm of BMW M3 Panotools5618.jpg, Image shot with a 16mm full-frame fisheye lens before and after remapping to rectilinear perspective. File:Fisheye mapping function (animation).gif, Comparison of conventional (rectilinear) mapping function with four different fisheye mapping functions, given a constant focal length.


Other applications

* Many
planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a Theater (structure), theatre built primarily for presenting educational entertainment, educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navi ...
s now use fisheye projection lenses to project the night sky or other digital content onto the interior of a dome. * Fish-eye lenses are used in
POV pornography Gonzo pornography is a style of pornographic film that attempts to place the viewer directly into the scene. Jamie Gillis is considered to have started the gonzo pornography genre with his ''On the Prowl'' series of films. The name is a referenc ...
to make things right in front of the camera look bigger. *
Flight simulators A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they rea ...
and visual combat simulators use fisheye projection lenses in order to create an immersive environment for pilots, air traffic controllers, or military personnel to train in. * Similarly, the
IMAX Dome IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme ...
(previously 'OMNIMAX') motion-picture format involves photography through a circular fisheye lens, and projection through the same onto a hemispherical screen. * Scientists and resource managers (e.g., biologists, foresters, and meteorologists) use fisheye lenses for hemispherical photography to calculate plant canopy indices and near-ground solar radiation. Applications include evaluation of forest health, characterization of
monarch butterfly The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. ...
winter roosting sites, and management of
vineyards A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...
. * Astronomers use fisheye lenses to capture cloud cover and
light pollution Light pollution is the presence of unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive use of artificial lighting. In a descriptive sense, the term ''light pollution'' refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting, during the day or night. Light po ...
data. * Photographers and videographers use fisheye lenses so they can get the camera as close as possible for action shots whilst also capturing context, for example in
skateboarding Skateboarding is an action sport originating in the United States that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry job, and a method of transportation ...
to focus on the board and still retain an image of the skater. * The "eye" of the
HAL 9000 HAL 9000 is a fictional artificial intelligence character and the main antagonist in Arthur C. Clarke's ''Space Odyssey'' series. First appearing in the 1968 film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', HAL ( Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer ...
computer from ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' was constructed using a Fisheye-Nikkor 8 mm 8 lens. HAL's point-of-view was filmed using a Fairchild-Curtis 'bug-eye' lens originally designed for films in the
Cinerama Cinerama is a widescreen process that originally projected images simultaneously from three synchronized 35mm projectors onto a huge, deeply curved screen, subtending 146° of arc. The trademarked process was marketed by the Cinerama corporati ...
360 dome format. * The first music video to be shot completely with fisheye lens was for the
Beastie Boys Beastie Boys were an American rap rock group from New York City, formed in 1978. The group was composed of Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar, programming) ...
song "
Hold It Now, Hit It "Hold It Now, Hit It" is a song by American hip hop group Beastie Boys, released as the first single from their debut album ''Licensed to Ill''. It is also remixed on the album ''New York State of Mind''. In 2008, it was ranked number 27 on VH1 ...
" in 1987. * In
Computer Graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great de ...
, circular fisheye images can be used to create environment maps from the physical world. One complete 180-degree wide angle fisheye image will fit to half of cubic mapping space using the proper algorithm. Environment maps can be used to render 3D objects and virtual panoramic scenes. * Many personal
weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include tempera ...
online cameras around the world upload fisheye images of the current local sky conditions as well as a previous day time-lapse sequence with climate conditions such as temperature, humidity, wind and rainfall amounts.url=http://www.bloomsky.com


Mapping function

The subject is placed in the image by the lens according to the ''mapping function'' of the lens. The mapping function gives r, the position of the object from the center of the image, as a function of f, the focal length, and \theta, the angle from the optical axis. \theta is measured in
radian The radian, denoted by the symbol rad, is the unit of angle in the International System of Units (SI) and is the standard unit of angular measure used in many areas of mathematics. The unit was formerly an SI supplementary unit (before that ...
s. Other mapping functions (for example Panomorph Lenses) are also possible for enhancing the off-axis resolution of fisheye lenses. With appropriate software, the
curvilinear In geometry, curvilinear coordinates are a coordinate system for Euclidean space in which the coordinate lines may be curved. These coordinates may be derived from a set of Cartesian coordinates by using a transformation that is locally inv ...
images produced by a fisheye lens can be remapped to a conventional rectilinear projection. Although this entails some loss of detail at the edges of the frame, the technique can produce an image with a field of view greater than that of a conventional rectilinear lens. This is particularly useful for creating
panoramic images Panoramic photography is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with horizontally elongated field of view, fields of view. It is sometimes known as ''wide format photography''. The term has also ...
. All types of fisheye lenses bend straight lines. Aperture angles of 180° or more are possible only with large amounts of
barrel distortion In geometric optics, distortion is a deviation from rectilinear projection; a projection in which straight lines in a scene remain straight in an image. It is a form of optical aberration. Radial distortion Although distortion can be irre ...
.


See also

*
Azimuthal equidistant projection The azimuthal equidistant projection is an azimuthal map projection. It has the useful properties that all points on the map are at proportionally correct distances from the center point, and that all points on the map are at the correct azimut ...
* Dashcam *
Miniature faking Miniature faking, also known as diorama effect or diorama illusion, is a process in which a photograph of a life-size location or object is made to look like a photograph of a miniature scale model. Blurring parts of the photo simulates the shal ...
*
Stereographic projection In mathematics, a stereographic projection is a perspective projection of the sphere, through a specific point on the sphere (the ''pole'' or ''center of projection''), onto a plane (the ''projection plane'') perpendicular to the diameter thro ...
* :de:Fischaugenobjektiv Fisheye lens with more information in German


Notes


References


External links


Fisheye projection theory

List of all Current and all Affordable Photography Fisheye Lenses
*
he New Fish List, Luca Vascon, 2021


*
Alternative archived URL
{{Photography Photographic lenses