Fisheye Lenses

While an acquired taste, fisheye lenses certainly offer an interesting point of view. Named after the bulbous shape of the eye of a fish, which is how the front glass of the lens protrudes out, these lenses offer radical points of view unmatched by any other optics. The angle of view they offer can go up to nearly 150 degrees (and wider), resulting in extreme distortion at the edges and inclusion of subjects that you could never see in one glance.

There are two types of fisheyes: rectilinear and spherical. As their name suggests, they crop into a rectangular frame or offer a circular view, respectively.

On offer are two classes of lenses, “prime” and “auxiliary,” the former being those that mount directly to your camera body and those that screw over your “normal” lens via the filter threads. Optically there’s no competition, with primes being much sharper, but an auxiliary lens can open the door to fisheye photography in a much more affordable manner. There are also direct mount fisheyes that require you to shoot using manual control (they do not link up with the camera’s autoexposure and focusing systems), which fall in a price range between the two types mentioned above.  

Fisheyes offer incredible depth of field, from inches to infinity at even middling apertures, so focusing is certainly not challenging. The main challenge is figuring out just what to include in the frame; it’s likely that your first encounter with them will get you a bit dizzy!

copyright George Schaub

A trip around Times Square in New York with a circular 6mm fisheye yielded some fascinating points of view. Fisheyes offer, to say the least, a skewed view of the world, but given the right subjects and scene can offer a fun and exciting point of view. You probably are better off trying an auxiliary or affordable prime before you go for a more expensive option, although having a dedicated prime lens makes for much less work in terms of exposure, and delivers overall better image quality.

Settings: At ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/60 second. Focus is generally not something to worry too much about unless you are shooting very close to a subject. Depth of field with these lenses can stretch from inches to infinity with even middle aperture settings.

copyright George Schaub

This shot was made with an auxiliary fisheye screw-in lens. Although image quality is not near as good as a prime, it can give you a look into what fisheye lenses offer. Note the reflections on the circle around the outside of the image space, a typical issue with this type of lens. This is easy to retouch out later, but flare (internal reflections) is common with auxiliaries.