Friday, December 12, 2008

how to make a fish eye on the cheap(revised)

some of you have already read this but it's like THE most popular thing on my other site so without further ado
this is how you can duplicate what costs like $200 bucks for 10 bucks at home depot.

have you ever longed to take pictures with a fish eye lense? haha
some of you may not know what a fish eye picture even looks like .
well for those that do and always wanted one or wanted to have a camera that was capable.

look no further. i'm gonna tell you how i built my own fish eye and wide angle lenses for 20 bucks and 7 bucks. no you don't even need a dslr just some handy hands and some ingenuity .

materials:
-some pvc pipe
-some foam sheet
-spray adhesive
-tape (electrical preferably)
-peep hole like the ones used for doors you can find these at the hardwear store for about 6 bucks.

just remember
160 degree=wide angle(which is better in my opinion)
and 200 degree= fish eye lense

so once all these things are aquired; take the stupid sleeve thing off the peep hole( unscrew it) next cut your piece of foam sheet to a small strip long enough to rap around the peep hole but short enough that it doesn't go beyond the end.

spray both the peep hole and the foam sheet on both sides, then rap the foam around the peep hole. this process may need to be repeat according to your pvc pipe width.

once it is the correct size(snug enough to fit into the pipe without falling out)
insert it into the pipe.
next tape the outer rim of the peep hole so it stays inside the pipe. lastly apply either tape or foam to the adjacent end of the pipe so your camera can snug into the other end.

once it fits onto your camera your gonna have to zoom in a bit but you won't need to go beyond the optical zoom . this is the end result

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some pictures i took no tricks this is what the pictures look like through a 7 megapixel regular digital camera.
(one thing that takes a little experimentation is wether to use the flash or not sometimes they get really fuzzy if you don't use the flash.)

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it takes a while to get your pictures right . and also the effect varies from camera to camera. some better then others. so don't go blaming me when your pictures look like fuzz through a tube.

rye1hundred     ps. visit earl at work will ya he seems
lonely

2 comments:

earl the pearl said...

i don't need a dslr for my fisheye :(

Chris said...

I am really enjoying these photos, well done. I wanna check out more of your work, enjoying your style so far:) And I do really want a fish eye, too. Oh, btw nice to meet you and I'm Chris;)