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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Shooting a DOME project with EPIC. Which lens to use?

We use the full vertical portion in of the sensor (shooting in FF) of whatever RED camera we use. The Sigma 4.5mm gives you a full circular fisheye but does not use the full vertical of the sensor, so you loose out on overall resolution. All other fisheyes are cropped in some fashion. The Sunex 5.6mm @ 185°, IMHO is the best lens out there right now for dome use when shooting on a single camera.

Matt
 
This is a particular specialty of mine, I've shot 4K dome projects for quite a few venues. The 6mm Nikkors are the only suitable lenses because the 220º FOV puts the horizon in a viewable position instead of right at the edge of the image circle. It's also much sharper, however it requires a custom optical system to get the circular image to fit the Epic sensor. There are limitations for sure but it looks amazing when done properly.
Here is a bit of footage I shot for the New Zeland tourism board seen from inside their Rugby ball dome...

 
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Evin, that's a pretty nice lens. I'm guessing you had to modify it due to the metal stem (if that's what you call it) on the rear of the lens. Otherwise the 220 fov is pretty nice! I just may have to track one down.

Matt
 
Resurrecting this thread for the 8K era....

Is there any circular fisheye lens which will cover the 8K sensor - or are lenses now the bottleneck to optimized data capture for dome?
 
How about this puppy:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MXY0SAX

Meike-lens.jpg
 
Hey Michael this lens may technically work, but the one thing that really turns me off from lenses like this is the fact that they are not fixed. Just like the Cannon 8-15 mm, you breathe on these lenses and they are out of focus. That said, I haven't seen this lens first hand so for $150 bucks, it may be worth the gamble.

Matt
 
Matt Mascheri said:
Holy zombie thread batman! Well funny enough I still stick by my Sunex lens. There really hasn't been a new lens that can match what it does. It should give you a true 4Kx4K dome master on a Weapon 8K at 185 FOV.
Click to expand...

thanks for weighing in, Matt. I may need to pick up a Sunex and run a few tests. I have a project that I would like to shoot specifically for dome.

I saw a remarkable dome rig yesterday made up of an array of six A6300 cameras. A fantastic rig, for the price, and remarkably compact - although of course the post stitching is intensive. These guys were doing some of the nicest dome/VR imaging I've seen. It didn't look washed out or compromised at all. I saw a few images shot on Helium 8K in the same demo, and while they were nicely composed and executed, they weren't as sharp as the 360 rig. Not as post intensive though. Everything is a trade. The same demo had some CineAlta 8K images - also very nice images but an expensive and heavy rig - the A6300 array looked as good or better.

All shot by different people in different settings so it's hard to judge cameras when so many variables are unknown. Still, an interesting comparison.
 
Hey Meryem,

Yeah there are quite a few rigs out there, and its all about portability vs price vs output. Three or four years ago I did a dome test at the IMERSA conference with the F360 rig and the RED EPIC Dragon with a Sunex. Shot them side by side and they looked remarkably close to each other by the time the footage was up on the dome. Multi cam rigs will get you better overall dynamic range and higher resolution as you are only capturing a slice of the environment, but if you are strictly shooting for the dome, a 8K Weapon with a Sunex would be my choice. No stitch lines, RAW footage and a defined pipeline all works to your favor. If you toss in shooting for VR too, then it's a different story.
 
Matt Mascheri said:
Hey Meryem,

Yeah there are quite a few rigs out there, and its all about portability vs price vs output. Three or four years ago I did a dome test at the IMERSA conference with the F360 rig and the RED EPIC Dragon with a Sunex. Shot them side by side and they looked remarkably close to each other by the time the footage was up on the dome. Multi cam rigs will get you better overall dynamic range and higher resolution as you are only capturing a slice of the environment, but if you are strictly shooting for the dome, a 8K Weapon with a Sunex would be my choice. No stitch lines, RAW footage and a defined pipeline all works to your favor. If you toss in shooting for VR too, then it's a different story.
Click to expand...

I think I might have been at that demo, actually. Did it include images of you cleaning your lens? That was pretty comical, in dome delivery. I was there scoping out some options for a friend who wanted to do a dome delivery of a Grand Canyon piece (but it never happened). IMERSA was yesterday, that's where I saw the demo.

What about this one? It seems like it would use the vertical space of the sensor better than some of the other 180s. I'll probably get a Sunex, since it seems like the most flexible option out there. I just want to be sure I'm not overlooking anything.... the 6mm Nikkor is a serious collector's item now, Evin should hang onto that one for posterity...

http://www.momentcorp.com/review/nikon_fisheye-nikkor_8mm_f2.8.html
 
Yeah that was me, but that was shot on the original RED ONE non-MX back in the day (circa 2008 maybe) ;-) The Dragon demo was done maybe three / four years ago. Anyway, the Nikon 8mm is a nice lens, but is a FX lens, not DX which is closer to the RED sensor sizes so the 8mm winds up being roughly 16 mm or so on a RED camera which really won't get you the circular look you need for the dome.

How is IMERSA going? good stuff this year?
 
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