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why a fisheye?

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Fisheyes will give you either a 180 degree horizontal view across the frame or a 360 view depending upon the lens.

I have a Pentax *ist DS and a 10-17 fisheye zoom lens - which is a 180 degrees at 10mm

They create phenomenal depth of field like all ultrawides but the massive distortion can be used to excellent creative effect when desired, although it is also possible to hide/minimize the distortion by careful placement of the horizon.

They generate mind bending perspectives.

Here are a couple of examples (all at 10mm):











They can be used to take conventional shots although it requires careful composition to hide the massive barrell distortion. The advantage of the 10-17 zoom (a version is also made by Tokina) is that its pure fisheye at 10mm but at 17 the distortion is nearly gone so it gives you a nice degree of flexibility.

--
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/charleycoleman
 
Caat said:
Fisheyes will give you either a 180 degree horizontal view across the
frame or a 360 view depending upon the lens.
Click to expand...
Er, no fisheye is going to give you a 360 field of view. You may be referring to a "full circle" field, where the corners of your rectangular sensor get no light and the 180 degree field of view is shown in a circle in the center of the sensor.

--
[ e d @ h a l l e y . c c ] http://www.halley.cc/pix/
 
Ed Halley said:
Caat said:
Fisheyes will give you either a 180 degree horizontal view across the
frame or a 360 view depending upon the lens.
Click to expand...
Er, no fisheye is going to give you a 360 field of view. You may be
referring to a "full circle" field, where the corners of your
rectangular sensor get no light and the 180 degree field of view is
shown in a circle in the center of the sensor.
Click to expand...
Not sure the "Er, no" is strictly necessary. And I am not entirely sure what you are trying to say.

Not all lenses described as fisheyes provide a 360 degree field of view. For example all of Pentax's fisheye zooms have been designed to have a 180 degree field of view whether they have been made for 35mm film or APS-C sensors. This fills the whole frame, but obviously in the case of a circular fisheye the image forms a circle and the rest is black. I believe Sigma has designed a circular fisheye for APS-C - which is obviously still going to be 360 on a 35mm sensor but much smaller.

--
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/charleycoleman
 
In the days of film Nikon (I think) produced a fish eye lens that was intended for Meterological photography. If you pointed it straight up you got a view of the entire sky with the horizon aound the edge of the circular frame. I'd call that a 360 degree field of view.
--
Caat said:
'I don't take snaps - I paint with light' - Tony Hancock
Click to expand...
 
Caat said:
Ed Halley said:
Caat said:
Fisheyes will give you either a 180 degree horizontal view across the
frame or a 360 view depending upon the lens.
Click to expand...
Er, no fisheye is going to give you a 360 field of view. You may be
referring to a "full circle" field, where the corners of your
rectangular sensor get no light and the 180 degree field of view is
shown in a circle in the center of the sensor.
Click to expand...
Not sure the "Er, no" is strictly necessary. And I am not entirely
sure what you are trying to say.
Click to expand...
I think what Ed is saying is that a 360 degree field of view would include everything in front of the camera, and all the way round at the left and right to include everything behind the camera too. Although there are panoramic views with this effect, it would not be taken as a single shot with a lens having a 360 degree field of view.
Regards,
Peter
 
sherwoodpete said:
Caat said:
Ed Halley said:
Caat said:
Fisheyes will give you either a 180 degree horizontal view across the
frame or a 360 view depending upon the lens.
Click to expand...
Er, no fisheye is going to give you a 360 field of view. You may be
referring to a "full circle" field, where the corners of your
rectangular sensor get no light and the 180 degree field of view is
shown in a circle in the center of the sensor.
Click to expand...
Not sure the "Er, no" is strictly necessary. And I am not entirely
sure what you are trying to say.
Click to expand...
I think what Ed is saying is that a 360 degree field of view would
include everything in front of the camera, and all the way round at
the left and right to include everything behind the camera too.
Although there are panoramic views with this effect, it would not be
taken as a single shot with a lens having a 360 degree field of view.
Regards,
Peter
Click to expand...
Ah, OK. I see. 180 h x 180 v as opposed to 180 h x 90 v

I meant 360 around the edge of the lens which I admit was confusing (and not how its defined anyway!).

--
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/charleycoleman
 
Including the whole horizon in the view, with the zenith at the center, is a "full circle" 180 field of view. To compute field of view, you don't measure the perimeter of the image circle (an image circle, any circle, has a circular perimeter, obviously). Instead, you measure the relative angle between camera and two extreme edges that are included in the view. Point A, Camera, Point B. The angle between those three points, while the two points A and B are in view through the camera aperture, is the field of view.

A 360 field of view implies that the camera and lens itself, as well as objects behind the camera, are in view in the photographed frame. Any lens or reflective apparatus that you can show me which does this is not going to be a fisheye lens.

--
[ e d @ h a l l e y . c c ] http://www.halley.cc/pix/
 
sherwoodpete said:
I think what Ed is saying is that a 360 degree field of view would
include everything in front of the camera, and all the way round at
the left and right to include everything behind the camera too.
Click to expand...
Exactly.
sherwoodpete said:
Although there are panoramic views with this effect, it would not be
taken as a single shot with a lens having a 360 degree field of view.
Click to expand...
Correct; there are some interesting toys that you can use to capture 360 field of view, say, in a torus projection. No such equipment exists that could do it in fisheye projection.

--
[ e d @ h a l l e y . c c ] http://www.halley.cc/pix/
 
I'm impressed with the degree of control you have with your fisheye lens; most such photos have lousy composition and sort of revel in the distortion.

Your shots are interesting and the wide angle appears intrinsic to the picture. Nice work.

--
Leonard Migliore
 
Leonard Migliore said:
I'm impressed with the degree of control you have with your fisheye
lens; most such photos have lousy composition and sort of revel in
the distortion.

Your shots are interesting and the wide angle appears intrinsic to
the picture. Nice work.

--
Leonard Migliore
Click to expand...
Thanks very much. I use it a reasonable amount yes but not nearly as much as my 'normal' lenses. You're right that getting decent composition can actually be very difficult and you suffer a continual battle against your shadow getting into shots on bright days - and shooting into or alongside the sun is challenging because of flare.

--
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/charleycoleman
 
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