Bug-Eyed Travel Photos with the $10 Fish Eye Lens

Posted by Mike Richard on November 15, 2007
Filed under: Photography, Sidelines, Tips

Like what you see? Subscribe to the full RSS feed.

Amateur photographers will attest that digital SLR lenses cost way too much. Specialty lenses in particular - fish eye lenses, macros, wide angle, what have you - can be priced well north of $1000 US. Web forums and blogs have prompted a variety of DIY photography tipsters to crop up during the past two years. Pedro Mendes is one such hackster with some quick advice on crafting a fish eye lens for less than $10 US:

All you need for this effect is a $10 peephole for your front door, which you can get at any hardware store. I used a plastic pop bottle cap to attach it to my digital camera’s lens. Make a hole in the bottle cap and then screw your peep hole in the hole. Place the bottle cap over your lens (on my camera, the cap fits perfectly over the end of the lens.) The trick to make it work is zooming way in and usually setting your camera to macro.

The final product:

The $10 Fish Eye Lens

It ain’t beautiful but who cares when your photos can look like this:

$10 Fish Eye Lens Photo

Not too shabby for the price of a Domino’s pizza and a little elbow grease.

If you liked this post, subscribe to our full feed RSS. You can also subscribe by email and have new posts delivered directly to your inbox daily.

Vagabondish editor Mike Richard lives in Rhode Island - a small patch of land in the northeastern U.S. He is a professional web designer and travel junkie with an unhealthy addiction to backpacking, camping, hiking and seeing the world. He enjoys knit hats and speaking in the third person.



Like This Post? You Might Also Like:

On the Nightstand

The best travel books recommended by Vagabondish contributors and readers.

Comments