What is a Fisheye Lens?
A Fisheye Lens is a special effects, wide angle type of lens that allows in an extremely wide, hemispherical look to your photo image. Originally, these lenses would cost a minor fortune (upwards of $1,000.00) and were used by meterologists to study cloud formation. The lens used to be called the “whole sky lens”, as it would capture an image of what appeared to be the whole sky!
Today, we call this lens, the “Fisheye” lens, as it more aptly descibes the effect of looking through the bottom of an old coke bottle, or through the circular glass of a fishbowl. Most photographers use this lens in large landscape images to suggest a curvature of the earth. They are also becoming more popular for wedding photography, real estate photos and some portraitures.
A Fisheye Lens, a Miniature Fisheye Lens, and an Ultra Fisheye Lens offer a photographer differing types of fisheye special effects for photo images.
For example, if you have purchased a full frame fisheye 15mm Lens, for real estate photography, you may enjoy its special effects of how the wide angle of the fisheye lens takes in the whole of the back yard and house – adding curvature to the frame of the house to make it appear more inviting and comfortable to the viewer.
A Circular Fisheye Lens if quite popular for capturing sunsets in nature photography, as its special effect of a circular outline around the skyline image aides in the attractiveness of the convex image.
A Miniature Fisheye Lens is very popular for security camera technology as the lens mounts on security cameras and captures large image data framed for a small digital sensor. Planetariums use a form of a fisheye lens when they project a two dimensional night sky convex image over the interior of a dome ceiling for visitor’s viewing.
Recently Nikon produced a 6mm Fisheye Lens to be used for an Antartica expedition. This lens could shoot a 220 degree field of view, including the skyline and the surrounding land, when the camera was titled straight upward.
Aperture Settings for Fisheye Lens
Fisheye Lenses typically use low aperture settings, preferrably f/1.8 to f/4.2. Let’s say you want to purchase a 15mm fullframe Fisheye Lens for your real estate career as a Realty Broker or Agent. Be sure to keep your settings around the f/2.8 range to capture detail, curvature and clarity in the image. With an 8mm Lens, you might want to try an aperture setting of approximately f/3.5. Let’s say you want to purchase a 12.5 mm Fisheye Lens, then the aperture setting may be slightly higher at f/4.2 to f/5.6. Rarely will you use an aperture setting above f/5.6.
Universal Fit Fisheye Lenses
Sigma, Tamron and Vivitar make some types of universal fit Fisheye Lenses, with costs slightly lower than the brnd models. However, it is critical, whether you are purchasing a brand name or a universal fit Lens to take the camera body with you to shop for Lenses.
Making a Fisheye Lens
Many photographers get quite excited over owning the optimal number of lens accessories and choose the fish-eye lens for its extraordinary slightly fishbowl view of a photograph. Fisheye lenses can be expensive and some do not even give enough of a fish-bowl look to the images, to be worth the costs. If you want to decide whether or not you should own a fisheye lens, try doing this simple trick by using an old pair of granny glasses, a bit of electrical tape and your DSLR Camera.
Now, of course, if you are doing weddings and earning income, we would wholeheartedly agree that the fish-eye lens is a perfect compliment for your camera’s bag-of-tricks. But, you may want to consider the purchase, if you are on a tight budget. Some of the less expensive fish-eye lenses just do not give off enough effect to warrant the purchase.
HELPFUL TIP: Remove one lens from the set of granny magnifying glasses and clean the lens carefully, so there are no smudges. Place a small bit of electrical tape on the top and bottom of the glass lens and tape them to your 35mm lens edges. Take a practice picture and you can easily get an idea of whether you want the fish-bowl look to your photography images.
Taking Care of your Special Lenses
Moisture is the enemy of camera equipment. Remember to continually and gently use your softy lens cloth to keep the lens dry and the camera free of moisture, dust or other particles. With the quality, popularity and relative simplicity of DSLR cameras today and the number of specialty lenses available, even beginners can create magnificent shots of any given subject. Using DSLR camera equipment enables the photography buff to take crystal clear photos, with even exposure, capturing vivid and colorful scenery and perfect natural lighting, every time!
One of the greatest things about owning DSLR Camera is that you can change the lenses as often as necessary for different project shoots. During those lens changes, however, there is a risk of dust falling “onto the sensor.” In fact, the CMOS or CCD sensor is covered by a color filter or a clear glass plate, so really the dust has fallen on something that is covering the sensor. Nonetheless, you want to be very careful at this point, because if anything near the sensor is scratched, the camera needs to go in for professional service!
Remember, all digital lenses are made of GLASS! The sharpness and clarity of your photo images, greatly depends on each lens (including the entire camera body) being squeaky clean and free of any dust, sand, or other particles. The most important tool, every photographer should carry in his/her camera kit is a softy lens cleaning cloth. I am not talking about a washcloth from your closet, or even a paper towel. You need to keep a small and inexpensive camera lens cleaning cloth with your camera kit, at all times!
Don’t use Windex either. Take the time to pick up Camera Cleaning fluid at any camera shop or electronics store. Keep it and new soft lens cloths on your kit and clean your equipment, each event at which you are shooting. Just like in any other business atmosphere, you need to keep your tools clean and ready for the next period of operation.
Taking the time to care for your camera equipment and keep your camera kit full and ready for operation, will ensure a long useful life for your photography equipment!
