Videos

In a previous "Weird Lens Challenge" video from photographer Mathieu Stern we learned how to easily create a cool, retro looking video using a 1950s Photax plastic lens. In a new fun and informative clip, Stern uses a rare 1960s Kenko 180-degree fisheye lens to create a unique circular field of vision. (Fun fact: this lens was the creepy red eye of the Hal 9000 computer in the iconic science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey.)

In order to use the retro lens, Stern first attached a 55mm and a 52mm filter to the Kenko fisheye and then mounted it to a Canon 50mm 1.4 FD lens and used an adapter to mount the lens arrangement to his Sony A7 II mirrorless camera. This process may sound a bit complicated but the brief video Stern captured with this rig produced amazing results. The fisheye lens provides a slightly soft image quality that only adds to the beauty of the circular format. 

(Via Mathieu Stern)