Fisheye Lenses

Why do we call a Fisheye a Fisheye?

The name Fisheye was coined by R.W. Wood to refer to any lens capable of imaging the entire hemisphere in object space onto a finite circle in the focal plane. He chose Fisheye name because a fish looking upward at the surface of the water will see the whole sky imaged as a finite circle this way.

There are two types of Fisheye lenses:

Fisheye MC Zenitar 16mm f/2.8 Lens	Zodiak 8 (Arsat) Fisheye 3,5/30 Lens

The Fisheye lens - in one exception in the family of wide angle lenses.

Fisheye lens is not so commonly used; the prize is often higher compared to other wide angle lenses and it is generally considered as having very limited use. Already the name however, should make the diving photographer alert: Fisheye !!!
Fisheye type of lens produces extraordinary results at underwater photography. How come? Here are some properties of Fisheye lens type:

More details to get the explanation:

Imagine yourself standing close to a straight railroad, looking perpendicularly to the rails through the viewfinder of your single-lens-reflex camera, having a lens with an angle of view of 180 degrees. You look at the rails, which are passing diagonally from one corner to the other.

What do you see ?

Realising that this is a correct description of what you see, you also realise, why the Fisheye lens must have a "barrel shaped distortion", and why the conventional property of wide angle lenses: "straight lines remain straight" is impossible for Fisheye lenses. It is evident, why the "barrel shape" in this case is closer to a realistic reproduction than the "straight lines remain straight" of other wide angle lenses.

Iit's logical to think, the planes of sharpness also could be different for Fisheye lenses compared to other wide angle lenses. Conventional wide angle lenses are designed to reproduce flat subjects well on flat film. So they must handle a large variation in lens to subject distance, going from the middle of the picture to one corner . The larger the angle of view, the more difficult this will be. With an angle of view of 180 degrees, and small lens-to-subject distance in the middle of the picture, this is impossible. Therefore Fisheye lenses are designed to reproduce not flat, but Fisheye lenses curved objects sharply on the flat film surface. It's important clue to the extraordinary results at underwater photography: the curvature of field and the reduced lens to image distance, produced by the dome port, is an ideal situation for the Fisheye lens !

You can take lots of pictures under water with a Fisheye lens, without bothering about the distortion, the spectators will never notice.

Please see Pictures made by Zenitar Fisheye lens and Peleng Fisheye lens at the Picture Gallery.

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