Fisheye post suggestions
 

hi, i have an hvx200 with an redrock m2 and a nikor 8mm fisheye lense. the lense is a lot of fun with my old nikon camera, but it may not work real well with the hvx. now, i've played with it a bit and i have a sense as to the limitations and how i should use it, but what i'm wondering is how people think i should deal with it in post. i can crop the vignetting all-together, which means i lose a good deal of the view, or i can just use the original image. might there be situations where each is appropriate and are there other options in post that might work as well, or give a different look.
i don't plan on using this much, however it is fun and works well on the mountain skiing
thanks, fletch

Have a search under "Zenitar"+"fisheye" or "Peleng"+"fisheye". You will likely end up on the Rugift e-retail site which has links to other pages or sites on fisheyes, main for still imaging.

However there is one link which refers to image software which includes a "de-fish" function which apparently distorts the image which recovers a little of the corners and reduces the barrel distortion. Obviously there will be resolution loss in the stretched areas.

It is a great effect, the cliche vertigo shot looking straight up into the city skyscrapers and spinning slowly one way or another, then the tilt down to the street level, but of infrequent practical utility.

There will be sometimes you'll want to leave the full fish effect in and sometimes you'll want to correct. Up to you. The software looses so much information, but for the effect it might still be worth it. Depends on final output size and what you are trying to say...we can't really tell you when it'd be appropriate or not.

An 8mm fisheye also might be a bit much. Is this one designed for crop sensor cameras like the D2X or is this an old manual one from film days? If it's for crop you might look to a more reasonable 15-17 with the 35mm adaptor. This way it's still fishy but maybe not leaving such vignetting, etc.

Paul

There's a couple of quick shots with the Peleng 8mm f3.5 to AGUS35 into HDR-FX1 here at this address.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t5EKQW0mB0

They are of very poor quality by the time youtube compression has finished with them. The originals look a lot better, the sky colour in particular.

The image size on the M2 I understand to be close to my own and the Mini35. I try for 24mm wide off the groundglass but the edge of the prism path of my own device confines the left edge in the current development.

Look up the Letus threads under Alternative Imaging Methods by Phil Bloom, furthur down the page and you will find a clip he has put up which includes fisheye images.

I think this is the link to his footage but I rather not check as my system has an extremely slow connection.

http://web.mac.com/philip.bloom/iWeb...o%20video.html

I am not clear whether he did these direct-to-camera or via the Letus adaptor into a HC1.

With a 22mm to 24mm wide image, the 8mm will most likely cover the entire image or vignette only the corners.

here's a quick example of what i've got going, i forgot to turn on the M2 so, you can see the grain, but it gives you a good idea of what cropping does to the image. I'm losing 23% of the original image. despite all that, the lense is a lot of fun, if not all that functional
oh, lets not forget the link:
http://homepage.mac.com/justwearitje...Theater35.html
oh, and there's something on the lense, so kill me

I would use the 10.5 or older 15-17mm lenses over the Peleng...it's a nice thing to play with for effect, but these other lenses are really great.

Paul