LENS-DB.COM

Abbreviations

Specification

Source of data

• Own research.

Manufacturer description #1

From the Spiratone SLR LENSES and ACCESSORIES 1968/69 catalogue:

New! Spiratone 180° PRIME 7mm f/5.6

Spiratone, pioneer in fish-eye lenses, is proud to offer another first: a prime 7mm lens which fits directly into the camera body (not in front of regular lens), with stops to f/45, a sharpness range from infinity to within a few inches. Covers 180° 'hemispheric' field - four times as much as your normal lens, 2 1/2 times the angle of a 28mm lens. Allows through the finder viewing - no need for mirror lockup.

Manufacturer description #2

Spiratone's 7mm f/5.6 180° PRIME

PRE-SET DIAPHRAGM LENS

The only other 7mm prime fish-eye you've seen (or seen advertised) sells for over $400 - and fits only a few SLR models. It requires the use of a separate finder: the mirror must be locked out of the way for viewing and exposing.

Spiratone's 7mm Fish-Eye lets you view right through your pentaprism finder - as with all your other lenses with the mirror in its usual position.

It has a continuous diaphragm from f/5.6 to f/45, with a pre-set system for fast working. It's fixed focus - at f/5.6, everything from a few inches to infinity is in focus, and at f/45, objects practically touching the front element are within the tremendous depth of field limits - can you imagine the effects you can achieve? Advertising, commercial and industrial photographers have for years used fish-eye lenses in their work: Spiratone made it possible for the amateur and the professional with a limited budget "to get into fish-eye photography".

Manufacturer description #3

From the book "A Guide to Hanimex Lenses":

Included in the range of Hanimex lenses are several special purpose types which, because of their unique qualities, we have not yet discussed.

First of these is the f/5.6/7mm. 180° extreme wide-angle lens, commonly referred to as a "fish-eye" lens for reasons which are obvious.

Originally devised for photographic examination of tubular interiors in the ceramics industry, this lens was found to have interesting potential in artistic application, whilst its astounding 180° angle of view made possible wide-angle pictures in previously restrictive situations.

Exaggerated perspective and linear distortion are inherent in a lens of this type, but can be turned to artistic advantage.

The fish-eye lens does not cover the picture are from corner to corner like the conventional wide-angle lens, but registers a circular image within the picture format.

In fact, all lenses register a circular image, but our camera is designed to extract a clearly defined rectangular section from this circle.

Due to its virtually infinite depth of field at all apertures, the Hanimex f/5.6/7mm. fish-eye lens is of fixed-focus design and its sole adjustment is that of aperture.

Diaphragm adjustment is by the preset method with an aperture range of from f/5.6 to f/22. Due to the unique circular nature of the viewfinder image, it is not possible to observe the exposure meter needle of T.T.L. metering systems and a separate meter reading should be taken, either by hand meter or by prior observation with a conventional lens mounted on the camera.

In many respects, the fish-eye is a "fun" lens with which one is able to give full reign to creative experiments. Thus it cannot be said that there are correct or incorrect methods of application. The only caution which might be mentioned here is that the extreme wide-angle coverage of 180° often results in portions of the photographer's own anatomy encroaching on the picture area.

In particularly confined situations where even the widest of conventional wide-angle lenses cannot deliver sufficient coverage, the fish-eye lens never ceases to astound even the most experienced photographers with its all-encompassing ability.

Typical characteristics of fisheye lenses

• Extreme angle of view (at least 180° diagonally);
• Circular types (the image circle of the lens is inscribed in the image frame) or diagonal types (cover the entire image frame);
• Usually of equidistant projection type, with the distance from the picture center to any given point always proportional to the angle from the optical axis to that point;
• Huge barrel distortion;
• Short closest focusing distance (0.20 - 0.30m with 35mm full-frame prime lenses);
• Very large depth of field, eliminating the need for autofocus or precise manual focusing;
• Due to the extreme angle of view and convex front element, front filters cannot be used;
• Often equipped with a filter turret with swivel-mounted filters;
• Often come with a small, built-in petal-shaped lens hood.

From the editor

A rare old circular fisheye lens with the interchangeable mount. We saw it under the names SPIRATONE 7mm f/5.6 Fisheye and HANIMEX FISH-EYE 7mm f/5.6, both with the minimum aperture of F/45 (not F/22 as stated in the book "A Guide to Hanimex Lenses").

The aperture is square because the diaphragm mechanism has 4 (four) blades.

The ridged ring below the two diaphragm rings is not a focusing ring and does not rotate.

Notes

• Independent-brand lenses were made for 35mm film SLR cameras by companies that competed with the camera manufacturers. Some came from factories that made lenses under their own brand names (Angenieux, Kiron, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina). Many others were national and international marketing organizations (Kalimar, Panagor, Rokunar, Soligor, Starblitz) that bought lenses from anonymous manufacturers. One firm — Vivitar — actually designed its own lenses and accessories, which were then subcontracted to manufacturing firms. Still others were private labels, sold only by specific photo specialty shops (Cambron, Quantaray, Spiratone).

Lenses with similar focal length