fisheye vs wide angle lens.

[jfproul]

can someone explain to me the difference ... wich one do i need for u/w
photo ?


thanks

 

[hvulin]

it's about distorting the perspective... fisheye lens distorts a lot, WA lens shouldn't...

here is a very good explanation: Fisheye lens - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[chadbeck]

It also depends on what you are taking pictures of and how close you want to get. A fisheye lense like the inon has a 165 degree coverage and the inon wide angle only has about 105 degrees. I would get on wetpixel and look in the pictures posted. There are lots of options taken with both that will give you a pretty good idea of what you can expect.

 

[Christian]

Both can be used for UW photography. There are + and - to them both. A fisheye lens have plenty of 'barrel distortion' - it will give you a curved picture, but a very wide field of view. The classic fisheye gives you a 180° FoV. When shooting a dslr, fisheyes behave a lot better behind dome ports. The give you very sharp corners and edges and is the preffered choice among many for whalesharks, whales, mantas, reef scenes, big schools of fish. To most, the fisheye effect isn't disturbing under water, as there are very few straight lines to mess up. But if you wish, it's possible to straighten the picture in image manipulation software, like Photoshop.

What you reffer to as 'wide', is normally called a rectilinear wide angle lens. It will try to give you as straight lines as possible, but when wider than 85-90°, there are normally some distortion in the edges, usually so called pincusion distortion, but not as pronounced as with a fisheye. Wide, rectilinear lenses usually produce inferior sharpness in corners when used behind dome ports compared to fisheyes. Many preffer them for wreck photography as the curved lines of a fisheye can be disturbing on a wreck.

hope it helps

Christian

 

[RonFrank]

Fisheye lenses provided a 180 degree field of view. With the fisheye lens only lines running through the center of the image will be straight. All other straight lines will be curved. This type of distortion can be *cool* but it get old VERY fast in Topside photography, and even with UW photography this distortion can be disturbing.

Rectilinear lenses render straight lines as straight lines, and that mirrors how our eye's perceive things. In WA Rectilinear lenses barrel distortion is often a problem. In Telephoto Rectilinear lenses pincushion distortion is common.

Barrel distortion looks kinda like this: *HIGH TECH DRAWING TO FOLLOW!*
()

Pincusion distortion looks like this:
)(

*Yet another technical marvel in the diagram world!*

If you are looking to purchase UW gear, IMO get a good WA Rectilinear lens (Tokina/Nikon 12~24mm comes to mind), and then you may want to look into a Fisheye lens like the NIkon 10.5mm.

Fisheye lenses are very limited topside however one can purchase software to correct the distortion at the cost of cropping.

 

[pactrop]

I love fisheye shots.

 

[fisheyeview]

I use both. Sometimes I want a clean shot with a rectilinear lens, and sometimes I want the distortion for the effect. It all depends on what you are looking to do in the shot, and untimately it comes down to personal taste.

 

[alcina]

I use both. Sometimes I want a clean shot with a rectilinear lens, and sometimes I want the distortion for the effect. It all depends on what you are looking to do in the shot, and untimately it comes down to personal taste.

Translation: you'll end up buying both eventually

 

[jfproul]

well thanks guys .... i got the fisheye and macro lens for now ... enough $ for now.
i don't even know if there is a wide angle lens for my olympus e-510 on the market...