Tag: Lens

The Fisheye Cometh

“You can rent lenses?” Yes, rhetorical voice of me, lenses can be rented.

Vacation is rapidly approaching. We’re going somewhere very photogenic so I decided to try something a little different. I rented a lens for “Clicky.”

“You can rent lenses?”

Yes, rhetorical voice of me, lenses can be rented.

I ordered a 4.5mm f/2.8 Sigma fisheye lens from BorrowLenses in California. It arrived today. The rental price and shipping is around 15% of what a lens would cost. It’s a lens to play with, not own.

The lens itself is very different than anything I’ve shot before. There are no straight lines. Everything is spatially distorted.

Distances are distorted too. Everything looks farther away and larger than it really is.

Finding the right tricks to make a pleasing shot won’t be easy. I’ve already thumbed through dozens of photos on Flickr to see how others use this lens (yeah–you can do that too).

Here are my first attempts in no particular order. Click any photo to make it larger.


Wearing The Contacts At Work

Unfortunately when I looked in the little case where they ‘live’ the left lens had escaped!

“Adorable,” said my wife. “You look marvelous,” chimed the guy responsible for me getting hired to host “Inside Space” on SciFi. “You are squinting Geoff, put on the glasses, you look better and more trustworthy,” was the word from a Facebook friend¹. They were all commenting about tonight’s test run in contact lenses. It went reasonably well.

That is the glassless me on the left. Alas, I have my father’s tiny eyes and it always looks like I’m squinting.

The lenses have been on-and-off twice today. I am getting used to sticking my finger on my eyeball. That’s gross just to say. Both lenses stung for the first 30 seconds or so but were fine after that.

I had to work tonight, covering for a colleague whose furnace started a small fire that filled his downstairs with smoke. No injuries. Hopefully no lasting damage.

It is an awful night following an awful day with enough rain to bring flood warnings and enough wind to knock down power lines and trees.

On the drive in what was noticed at home became more obvious. My distance vision is not as good as it was with glasses. I can still see well enough to drive but signs and other objects aren’t nearly as clear.

The “Fitting Guide” for the lenses, instructions for my eye doctor, have instructions to work around this problem. I’d like to try.

My plan was to take the contacts out as soon as I got home which I did easily. Unfortunately when I looked in the little case where they ‘live’ the left lens had escaped! About ten minutes later I located it on the floor. If these things are going to last for three months holding onto them will be critical.

The real question will be how this looks at work and whether viewers accept it or even care.

¹ – Let’s just think of this guy as dentist number five. The dentist who doesn’t recommend Trident to his patients who chew gum.

I’m Trying Contacts Again

First though I watched a video as a nice British woman and the world’s dweebiest opthamologist demonstrated the right way. Maybe my problem is I wasn’t doing it with a British accent?

When I got my new glasses I asked the optometrist about the possibility of wearing contacts. Yes–this is vanity at work pure and simple. Helaine says I look younger without glasses and who am I to argue.

I’d tried contacts before many years ago. The experience was awful enough that Stefanie made it part of her “Geoff” repertoire.

Did I really walk around the house asking everyone if the contacts were in or not? Guess so.

Mary, the optometrist, said she’d order a demo pair of a new more comfortable type made for people like me who usually wear bifocals. A pair of C-Vue Toric Multifocal lenses arrived a few days ago.

I attempted to put them in. Wisely, the last thing your eye wants is for you to stick your fingers in it! I couldn’t get the lenses in.

After Helaine asked today I decided to give it another try. First though I watched a video as a nice British woman and the world’s dweebiest opthamologist demonstrated the right way.

Maybe my problem is I wasn’t doing it with a British accent?

I went upstairs and after ten or fifteen shots I got the left lens in. Two tries later the right was in too.

Not bad. I can see! I am typing this sans glasses. That being said it’s not a perfect solution.

The reading prescription seems pretty close. My glasses corrected eyesight is 20/15. It’s not that good. Still, I haven’t found any type too small to read! That’s impressive.

The distance prescription is another story. I definitely don’t see as well as with my glasses. Distant objects are not sharply in focus. That’s as critical for distance–but it would be nice to have.

There’s one other strange artifact. My vision is spatially distorted. The top edge of my laptop screen no longer looks like a straight line. It’s a concave curve with the center appearing lower than the corners. Weird.

Meanwhile I’ll have to check and see how long these contacts can be worn and whether it’s possible to make the precription better. At the moment I’m cautiously optimistic.