[Shucker]

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Hi there, I'm hoping you can help...

I searched around the forum but can't quite nail down the answer yet. Is there a CIRCULAR fisheye lens for Pentax that will take a 180 degree (or more) shot so I can take 2 shots and make a 360x360 degree panorama using Panoweaver or similar software?

I'm a complete novice so feel free to talk "baby talk."

Thanks for your help!

[Buddha Jones]

Check what the range is on the DA10-17FE

[irighti]

Sigma currently makes the 4.5mm circular fish eye, but it is not available in the pentax mount. The 10-17 will give you roughly a 180 degree fov at 10mm, however it will not produce the circular effect that the sigma will.

[Canada_Rockies]

Check what the range is on the DA10-17FE

The DA 10-17 is a full frame fisheye - it is only 180 degrees on the diagonal. Circular fisheye lenses were designed for taking weather pictures. All the horizon is in the image, 360 degrees worth, in a circular image on the rectangular frame. I have seen adds for 185 degree circular fisheyes. They must leave a bit of cropping room at the edges.

[ivoire]

I'm not sure this will give you what you want, but it will work with your camera and lens to produce 360 degree panos and virtual tours:

One-Shot Virtual Tours, 360 degree panoramas! Amazing Virtual Tour lens.

[drabina]

Or you can use whatever lens you have and this to create panorama image. I would suspect that two 180deg images would look really weird as a panorama.

[Shucker]

Right now, I take 360deg panoramas using my current lens and stitch it together. It works alright but I'd like to do full sphere 360x360deg panos. I know I can take several shots at stitch them together, but the more shots you take, the greater chance there is of getting the same person multiple times in the final piece.

360deg pano lenses do work alright in most cases, but we need full sphere 360x360 for travel and real estate website design purposes. Full frame 180deg lenses will work, but require 4-6 shots plus an up and down shot.

Correction: Technically, it's a 360x180 panorama.

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Last edited by Shucker; 04-22-2008 at 05:55 AM.

[Abbazz]

I guess the widest lens commonly available today in Pentax mount is the Peleng 8mm F/3.5 circular fisheye. In fact, it's only available in M42 mount, but adapters are cheap and easy to get. Of course, on a crop camera, it won't yield a full circular picture, rather an almost frame-filling picture, except for the blackened corners. Here's a great page about this lens: Fun with Fisheyes

Cheers!

Abbazz

[ivoire]

Right now, I take 360deg panoramas using my current lens and stitch it together. It works alright but I'd like to do full sphere 360x360deg panos. I know I can take several shots at stitch them together, but the more shots you take, the greater chance there is of getting the same person multiple times in the final piece.

360deg pano lenses do work alright in most cases, but we need full sphere 360x360 for travel and real estate website design purposes. Full frame 180deg lenses will work, but require 4-6 shots plus an up and down shot.

Correction: Technically, it's a 360x180 panorama.

I use a nikon with an IPIX lens and rotator to do this. it is a 2 shot system and does exactly what you want in 2 shots (its the best system i've ever seen). I have not seen a lens\rotator like this for pentax cameras. I think IPIX stills sells the system for nikon and canon, but not their software (went out of business). The smcP DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fisheye offers 180degree field of view and would do the job, but you will also need a panoramic head to eliminate parallax (total cost of both will be $700-800). a friend of mine had a 4mpx nikon system for sale a few days ago for about $400-500. email me if you are interested in it and i will see if it is still available. there is a 3.3mpx kodak system on ebay now for about $150:

iPIX FISHEYE KODAK DC290 CAMERA, MANFROTTO TRIPOD+MORE - eBay (item 290223079143 end time Apr-22-08 18:35:03 PDT)