New Opteka Fisheye Modification - Panasonic Cameras

[mushman]

Hello People of Slap,

I like many others have been waiting patiently for information regarding the rerelease of the xtreme. I began to think though that if that day never comes, there isn't really a professional level fisheye available for the cameras as the opteka provides sub par results on its own. I have a introductory level understanding of optics from my first year engineering course, but i thought if there was a way to adjust the minimum focal length you'd be able to get a clear image with no loss of resolution from cropping or other digital manipulations. Fast forward to now. I have been experimenting with various macro sets, and have been somewhat successful. I have found that the best was +1 Macro Filter in front of the opteka with Z24 for my hpx250. Testing on other cameras has been successful but those settings will require brief experimenting as i didn't log them when I tested it. I apologize but these are kind of copies of copies of screen grabs. 

[CHONGO]

good work son

[mushman]

I actually found a better macro pairing versus the one listed above a day or two after my initial post, I had issues with the +1 where it seemed a tad soft still. Using the +2 Macro Filter virtually eliminated the chromatic abberation that is visible above. Will post later tonight with some snowboarding footage and side by side comparisons. Unfortunately, the blue vig seems to be a product of the airspace in between the macro lens and the opteka fisheye. Im not sure if there will be a way of getting away from that but it should be simple enough to fix in post. It was suggested to me to actually use a Century Xtreme Mask to replicate the exact vignetting. I havent done so, but i will likely look into in the near future.

[MedDogz]

Would love to see some of your footage   

[Chimppimpin]

I actually found a better macro pairing versus the one listed above a day or two after my initial post, I had issues with the +1 where it seemed a tad soft still. Using the +2 Macro Filter virtually eliminated the chromatic abberation that is visible above. Will post later tonight with some snowboarding footage and side by side comparisons. Unfortunately, the blue vig seems to be a product of the airspace in between the macro lens and the opteka fisheye. Im not sure if there will be a way of getting away from that but it should be simple enough to fix in post. It was suggested to me to actually use a Century Xtreme Mask to replicate the exact vignetting. I havent done so, but i will likely look into in the near future.

we salute you

[Thejumpoff]

Can you do a side by side comparison of the mod vs the normal opteka. Also maybe show a clip using it? Curious if it has any blurriness around the corners

[Gawd69]

Any update on this??

[colin_jay]

I can chime in a little bit here as Mushman had given me this similar advice when he was working through it, and I did my own sort of tests. After his findings, I ran with it and did a bit of experimenting with my HPX / Opteka set up with various macro filters to determine what I liked the best.

I experimented through +1,+2, and +4 macro filters, with a 10mm Spacer ring, with no zoom, and zoom and scaling in post. The attached video shows a couple comparisons stationary, which I'll admit are a pretty poor example, and a couple moving shots with a +4 macro filter. At the time I thought this was the route to go but I've since went back to a +2 macro filter (footage to follow)



I've since determined that I like the +2 macro filter best, with some zoom in camera, and a bit of scaling in post. Shortly after this I upgraded from the HPX to the AC160, so I'm not sure the exact zoom/scaling combo as i didn't run it very long, but this edit has used that method. I believe the zoom would have been somewhere in the z10 range, with some scaling, but I can't be certain. No other Lens distortion was added in post.



After upgrading to the AC160, I've been running the same setup, +2 macro filter, Opteka 0.3x with a 10mm spacer, Filming at z20-24, and scaling in to about 104 (dependent on in camera zoom) to be able to center the Vig. For some reason on this cam the vig is not completely centered, and drives me nuts. I've also began adding my own vig in post to account of the soft blue edges of the vig, which also drove me nuts. I've just added a circle, color matched to the real vig, and softened a bit to make it look more realistic. First clip and boarding clip has it added, second clip does not. (Ignore my voice, this was never meant to go public  )



After experimenting a bit with that set up, I've come to find what I like best (+2, 10mm, z21, 104 scaling in post) and can be seen in this edit. As you can see it's still not an Extreme, and has a bit of softness around the edges, but significantly better than just the opteka on its own, so shoutout Mushman for figuring this out. I think the next step would be to play around with some lens distortion to getting it as close to an extreme as possible. I've only recently remembered that that was an option of revisiting some old threads here, so that will probably be the next experiment.

[milobyte]

Hello People of Slap,

I like many others have been waiting patiently for information regarding the rerelease of the xtreme. I began to think though that if that day never comes, there isn't really a professional level fisheye available for the cameras as the opteka provides sub par results on its own. I have a introductory level understanding of optics from my first year engineering course, but i thought if there was a way to adjust the minimum focal length you'd be able to get a clear image with no loss of resolution from cropping or other digital manipulations. Fast forward to now. I have been experimenting with various macro sets, and have been somewhat successful. I have found that the best was +1 Macro Filter in front of the opteka with Z24 for my hpx250. Testing on other cameras has been successful but those settings will require brief experimenting as i didn't log them when I tested it. I apologize but these are kind of copies of copies of screen grabs. 

I would like to discuss vs PM or Discord about this. I too have been endlessly digging around for solutions and Lenses as I work with cameras and tend to fix my own gear. Just out of curiosity I'd like to ask questions if youre ever into it.