What is a Fish Eye Lens?
A fish eye lens is a type of camera lens that is able to take very wide images and display them with a characteristic rounded, convex view. They are used by many different people, from scientists to artists. Fish eye lenses come in a variety of sizes and can be used with all film formats, with differing outcomes to the final product.
Video
Video photography has made use of fish eye lenses in the past. The movie "A Clockwork Orange" used the fish eye lens in many scenes, and the Beastie Boys have used it in their music videos, in particular for the song "Shake Your Rump."
Science
The fish eye lens is used in many fields of science. These include meteorology, the study of plant canopies, land radiation, and anything else that needs hemispherical photography.
Origin
The fish eye lens was originally created to be used in meteorology. Specifically, it was meant to study cloud formations by taking pictures of wide expanses of sky.
Sports
Sport photographers like to use the fish eye lens because it allows them to get a good picture by being up close to the action. It is particularly common in filming extreme sports, such as skateboarding.
Types
Different types of fish eye lenses have different focal lengths. The common 4.55 mm fish eye is able to capture a 180 degree view, for example. A special order Nikon lens, in comparison, has a 6 mm lens that can capture 220 degree views, which is basically the entire sky and pieces of the surrounding ground, when looking straight up.
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