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Understanding Fisheye Lens: Types, Characteristics, and Applications
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Ray Optics and Optical Instruments
Understanding the Fisheye Lens
A fisheye lens, also known as an ultra-wide or super-wide lens, is a type of ultra-wide-angle lens that is capable of capturing wide angles up to 180 degrees. These lenses are particularly popular in the fields of extreme sports, landscape, and artistic photography.
The term 'fisheye' was coined in 1906 by Robert W. Wood, an American physicist and the inventor of this lens. The fisheye lens was first used in 1920 for the study of cloud formation. The angle of view of fisheye lenses typically ranges between 100 and 180 degrees, and their focal lengths vary depending on the format they are used for.
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Types of Fisheye Lens
Fisheye lenses are primarily categorized into two types: full-frame and circular frame. Both types produce different effects and yield different types of images. Let's delve into each type.
Full Frame Fisheye Lenses
Full-frame fisheye lenses can capture a 180° field of view along their diagonal. The vertical and horizontal sides of the image do not exceed 180°. Despite their inability to capture wide angles, they are widely used because the images produced are rectangular and do not have black edges.
Circular Fisheye Lens
The circular fisheye lens can capture a complete 180-degree view in all directions, resulting in a circular image. However, this lens has a drawback: it forms black edges. These lenses are mainly used in artistic photography and skateboard photography.
Learn more about the concave lens and its uses here.
Fisheye Lens Projection
The image below illustrates that the object's projection is 90° either to the left or right of the pinhole. The object's position is linearly proportional to the angle. While the captures of the fisheye lens are impressive, their projection is considered unattractive.
| Projection | Formula |
| Equidistant fisheye | R = f . θ |
| Equal area fisheye |
Where,
- R is the radial position of a point on the image obtained on the screen
- f is the focal length of the lens
- θ is the angle between the point in the real world and the optical axis, measured in radians.
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Characteristics of Fisheye Lens
Here are the main characteristics of a fisheye lens:
- Focal length: A typical circular fisheye lens has a focal length of 8mm to 10mm, while a full-frame lens has a focal length of 15mm to 16mm.
- Angle of view: At its widest point, a fisheye lens has an angle of view of 180°.
- Image distortion: Images captured with a fisheye lens have a distortion known as barrel distortion, where the center of the frame appears to bulge outwards, resulting in a curvilinear image.
- Depth of field: Due to the extreme angle, the fisheye lens has a very large depth of field.
Learn more about the convex lens and its uses here.
Applications of Fisheye Lens
- Fisheye lenses are used in extreme sports, landscape, and artistic photography.
- Many planetariums use fisheye lenses for night sky projection and to project digital content onto the room's interior.
- Visual combat simulators and flight simulators use fisheye lenses for air traffic control and military personnel training.
- Resource managers and scientists use fisheye lenses for hemispherical photography.
- Astronomers use fisheye lenses to capture data on light pollution and cloud cover.
- Videographers and photographers use fisheye lenses to take action shots, such as focusing on the skateboard and skater during skateboarding.
- Fisheye lenses are widely used in computer graphics, typically for creating environment maps from the physical world.
Frequently Asked Questions
Define Fisheye lens.
A fisheye lens is an ultra-wide-angle lens that is designed for shooting wide angles generally 180 degrees. They are famous for extreme sport, landscape, and artistic photography.
What are the various types of Fisheye lenses?
There are two main types of fisheye lenses: i) Full Frame Fisheye Lens ii) Circular Fisheye Lens
What are the various characteristics of Fisheye lenses?
Focal length: A typical circular fisheye lens has an 8mm to 10mm focal length while the focal length of a full-frame lens is 15mm to 16mm. The angle of view: The angle of view of a fisheye lens is 180° at the widest point. Image distortion: Images obtained from the fisheye lens have a distortion called barrel distortion where the centre of the frame appears to bulge outwards and the image obtained is known as a curvilinear image. Depth of field: The depth of field of the fisheye lens is very large because of the extreme angle.
What are the various applications of Fisheye lenses?
These lenses are used in extreme sport, landscape, and artistic photography. Many planetariums use this lens for night sky projection and to project digital content on the interior of the room. Visual combat simulators and flight simulators use fisheye projection lens for air traffic controllers and to train military personnel. Resource managers and scientists use these lenses for hemispherical photography. These lenses are also used by astronomers to capture light pollution data and cloud cover. Videographers and photographers use fisheye lenses to take action shots. For example, while skateboarding these lenses are used to focus on the board and the skater. These are widely used in computer graphics generally to create environment maps from the physical world.