FunCam
(Credit: Yanko Design)Designer Jian Guan is a self-professed fan of distortion caused by fisheye lenses. To him, pictures taken with these optics show more of the environment and can be useful for 3D rendering. This is probably why he formulated the Fun Camera.
Shaped like a magnifying glass, the shooter houses a 16-millimeter lens and has a mirror so you can take distorted self-portraits. While it does have its entertainment value, we see some practical use for it: Real estate agents can use the Fun Camera and snap a shot that shows much more view of the room, though the distorted walls may disturb some potential buyers.
Other specifications were not stated, and going from the looks of it, we think this design will remain in the conceptual stage for some time.
(Via Crave Asia)
Sunex's 185-degree Superfisheye lens costs $799 for Canon and Nikon SLRs.
(Credit: Sunex)
Update 10:07 p.m. PST: I added some further comment from Sunex.
LAS VEGAS--A California company called Sunex wants to make it even easier to photograph your toes inadvertently.
At the Photo Marketing Association trade show here, Sunex plans to show off its new Superfisheye lens whose 5.6mm focal length provide a view encompassing a 185-degree span.
The Superfisheye lens costs $799 for Nikon and Canon SLRs with smaller sensors. It's got a constant f/5.6 aperture. The price includes software to "dewarp" the peculiar fisheye perspective into the rectilinear view humans are more comfortable with.
Sunex builds lenses for applications such as security and automotive cameras, but now it's trying to appeal to photographers, too, the company said.
"This is our first product offered for professional, amateur, and commercial photographers," said Francois Pelletier, Sunex's director of sales and marketing. The company started shipping early models two weeks ago, but the official launch is at PMA, he said.
Its earlier products give it wide-angle expertise, he added: "Sunex has extensive experience in wide angle lenses for automotive rear-view, visual-communication (360 room views), security and machine-vision applications."
Sigma's 10mm fisheye lens
(Credit: Sigma)Sigma announced two fisheye lenses Wednesday, one with a 4.5mm focal length and the other a 10mm model--for Canon, Nikon, and Sigma SLR camera owners who want to photograph extreme wide angle views.
Fisheye lenses capture light from an extremely broad angle, but produce distorted views of the world with parallel lines bowing outward. That distortion can be annoying, but many enjoy it as an artistic effect--think giant bulging faces in the foreground dominating tiny trees beyond--and scientists use some varieties of fisheye for precise measurements such as the sky's cloud cover.
But the digital SLR era has thrown a wrench into how the fisheye lens works. That's because the vast majority of digital SLRs sold today--including models such as the Canon Rebel XTi and Nikon D40x---use image sensors that are smaller than a full frame of 35mm film. Because these smaller sensors don't record light that would fall on the outer edges of a full frame of film, the cameras record a narrower field of view. Fisheye and wide-angle lenses, therefore, need to be designed with even shorter focal lengths to compensate.
Sigma announced two fisheye models, both with an f/2.8 aperture. The 4.5mm F2.8 EX DC Circular Fisheye produces a circular image that spans a full 180-degree view in all directions. The 10mm F2.8 EX DC Fisheye HSM, in contrast, fills the whole sensor frame, with a 180-degree field of view stretching from one corner of the frame diagonally to the other when used on Nikon cameras. In other words, the 4.5mm lens captures more of the periphery.
Because there aren't standard image sensor sizes for the smaller sensors, lenses behave differently on Canon, Nikon, and Sigma SLRs. The 10mm model shows a narrower 167-degree field of view on Canon SLRs and 154 degrees on Sigma SLRs, Sigma said.
Sigma's 4.5mm fisheye lens
(Credit: Sigma)Judging by the respective Japanese Web sites, the 10mm model will cost 90,500 yen, or about $820, and be available in December, and the 4.5mm model will cost about $1,040.
Update: Sigma responded with further pricing information for U.S. markets. The 4.5mm lens will have a suggested retail price of $1,400 and an expected street price of $900; the 10mm lens will have a suggested retail price of $1,000 and an expected street price of $650.
Both lenses can focus as close as 13.5cm, or 5.3 inches, from the focal plane. On the 10mm model, that's just 1.8cm, or 0.7 inches, from the front of the lens. Both use quiet hypersonic motors and special low-dispersion glass to minimize chromatic aberrations.
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