see also:

• camera lenses
• super wide angle lenses
• fisheye lens photography
• wikipedia
• http://michel.thoby.free.fr/Fisheye_history_short/Projections/Various_lens_projection.html

• fisheye lenses are special lenses which are designed to give a 180deg field of view and extreme barrel distortion is a characteristic of these lenses
• there are 2 main image types:
  • diagonal fisheye lenses - these images fill the full rectangular frame of your image
  • circular fisheye lenses - these lenses give a circular image thus the area of your frame outside of this circle will appear as black
• fisheye lenses are very much a niche lens which is primarily used for creative photography
• they are particularly useful for creating visually stimulating images, artistic or humourous imagery
• their short focal length combined with an aperture of f/8-11 means that most of the image will be acceptably sharp, and it may be possible to have subjects almost touching the lens to be sharp while the background gives a relatively sharp and very wide perspective.
• their protruberant convex front lenses mean that filters cannot be mounted
• some lenses allow small filters to be inserted into a rear slot
• given the niche nature of the lens, when considering purchasing one, it may well be worth considering a reasonably affordable one with excellent optics in a compact, light size so you will actually take it with you in your photographic adventures
  • the stand out lens that fits this bill is the Samyang / Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 manual focus fisheye for Micro Four Thirds for Micro Four Thirds system

• closest focus 0.135m
• $US799
• see Olympus ZD 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens

• see Olympus mZD 8mm f/1.8 Pro fisheye lens

• close focus 0.1m
• $US799
• rear sheet film holder
• see Panasonic Lumix G 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens

• manual focus lens designed for Sony E mount but also in MFT mount although some of the circle is cropped
• see Meike fisheye lenses

• at $US299 this is a great lens despite there being no electronic connections with the camera so you must manually set aperture and focus - but for a fisheye, this is not a great problem for most shots - just set to f/8 and focus just short of infinity and most will be in focus anyway.
• closest focus 0.09m!
• 197g!
• stereographic projection in fisheye lenses so it doesn't compress marginal objects as much
• see Samyang / Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 manual focus fisheye for Micro Four Thirds

• see Olympus mZD 9mm f/8 fisheye bodycap lens
• manual focus tiny and inexpensive (~$99)

• these are cheaper, smaller lenses which are placed on the front of other lenses for which they are specifically designed
• image quality will generally be not as good as a dedicated fisheye lens
• Olympus FCON-P01 Fisheye Converter
  • converts M.Zuiko 14-42mm MkII kit lens into a fisheye lens
• Panasonic DMW-GFC1 Fisheye Conversion Lens
  • for use on 14mm f/2.5 and the LUMIX G X VARIO PZ 14-42mm

• circular fisheye
• $US1199

• manual focus lens designed for APS-C
• see Meike fisheye lenses

• only 167deg field of view on Canon 1.6x crop cameras
• $US679

• no electronic communication thus MF and manual aperture
• $US409
• Photozone.de review
  • high build quality
  • lateral CA can be high at times
  • good flare control
  • purple fringing better than Tokina 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fisheye zoom lens but still an issue
  • near-“stereographic” projection
  • highlights in out-of-focus areas can be annoying

• unique ultra wide zoom lens which zooms from rectinlear fisheye at 15mm to circular fisheye at 8mm
• $US1579
• Photozone.de review
  • border quality issues and CA becomes more pronounced at 15mm end, particularly when stopped down
  • excellent flare control
  • some purple fringing
  • AF tends to set infinity focus so maybe best to use MF

• closest focus 0.2m
• rear filter holder

• circular fisheye
• $US1199

• $US939

• $US799

• cheap and of lower optical quality than most mentioned here
• closest focus 0.3m
• MF, manual aperture
• $US350

• MF, manual aperture
• introduced in 1977
• close focus 0.2m
• one of the 1st fisheye lenses not to require mirror lockup
• quite a large lens, weighs 640g
• this is a rare lens and 2nd hand on Ebay may well fetch over $1500
• mir.com review
  • features an ingenious built-in filters design via a revolving filter turret located at the middle section of the lense (early version of the Zuiko circular fisheye has L39, Y48, O56 and R60 as standard while later version provides a combination of L39, Y48, Y52, 056 & R60)

• MF, manual aperture
• introduced c1975-76, MC version started c1982
• close focus 0.2m
• only 180g
• 2nd hand on Ebay for mint condition will set you back ~$1000
• mir.com review
  • Original version of this fisheye has three filters built-in ( L39, Y48 and O56) while the later version replaced one of them with a neutral density and retain the Y48 and O56 filter

• introduced in 2003
• close focus 0.14m
• Ken Rockwell's review
  • some secondary (green-magenta) fringes at the sides and corners
• Photozone.de review
  • primary weaknesses are chromatic aberrations (color shadows at the borders) and purple fringing (color blooming)

• circular fisheye
• $US1199

• manual focus lens designed for APS-C
• see Meike fisheye lenses

• $US679

• introduced in 1993
• close focus 0.25m
• Ken Rockwell's review

• circular fisheye
• $US1199

• manual focus lens designed for full frame
• see Meike fisheye lenses

• $US939

• cheap and of lower optical quality than most mentioned here
• closest focus 0.3m
• MF, manual aperture
• $US350