Fish Eye VS Wide Angle Lens

Trying to figure out which type of wide lens you need to get leads you to two options: a wide angle & fish eyes.

A fish eye lens is created to give a wide angle view of the world around us, with the name of the lens coming from the perspective of the shape of the spherical lens of the eye. Fish eye lenses with an imaging circle (or angle of view) of the order of 180 degrees. If you have a fish eye lens with a larger imaging circle you can capture a wider field of view making it easier to include larger groups in one photo. Some fish eye lenses can even pan up and down or left and right or offer a sliding lens barrel that lets you change your focal length. This is great for being able to take a wide shot of a group of people and narrow it down to just a few individuals.

A wide angle lens is able to get a shot wider than what the human eye can take in. The difference between the fish eye lens and the wide angle lens is the fish eye lens makes objects appear circular and wide whereas the wide angle lens can make objects appear cylindrical.

So it really comes down to what you like to take photos of and video. A fish eye lens can be found mounted on various cameras when they are shooting extreme sports, particularly the skate video scene of the 90s made it a staple of their production. It is not just skateboarding though, these lenses work great for all action sports, regular (what is the other word you can use?) sports, weddings, and other occasions where you need to capture a wider angle than just your typical 90 degree lens.

If you are filming anything else that isn't based around sports, but more along the lines of making some ads, narrative or more traditional videos or photos, we would recommend sticking to a wide angle lens that has minimal distortion.

Fish Eye Lens Types

Buyers, who are looking for high quality and affordable camera lens for their cameras, they typically search for Fish Eye camera lens under $100. The fish eye lens can create a rounded and curved picture, which varies from the plane of the traditional lenses. The fish eye camera lens is very famous among professional photographers and hobbyists.

There are many popular brands such as Canon, Nikon, Fuji etc. that offer such kind of lens in the market with different functions and specifications at an affordable price range. Buyers should know that there are two main types of fish eye lenses: full frame fish eye lens and non-full frame fish eye lens. Full frame fish eye lens is used with camera having a full size sensor and non -full frame fish eye lens with a smaller sensor. For example, the camera manufactured by Sony has a smaller sensor and the users of the camera do not need a full frame fish eye lens.

There is also a third type of fish eye lens, which is a circular fish eye lens. The circular fish eye lens is a full frame fish eye lens with a 180 degree field of view. Fish eye lens is similar to a convex mirror, but the focal length of the fish eye lens is from its corner to the center, which is different from a convex mirror. In a convex lens, the focal length changes as the lens is tilted. Non-full frame fish eye lens are much cheaper, but they are also less powerful. The focal length of the lens when using a non-full frame fish eye lens is about double the focal length when using a full frame. They are about the size of a large book. People who are looking for a powerful fish eye lens would consider buying a full frame fish eye lens, but these type of fish eye lens are not so good for taking portraits.