Bugeyed Video

I recently bought the Inon FL-M150 ZM80 Underwater Micro Fisheye Lens “bugeye” lens, and have had fun trying it out underwater. For photography, it’s an interesting lens, but I like it better for video. The lens needs a lot of light, and that turns out to be a bigger issue when shooting stills than when filming.

This lens has a fisheye field of view, but a 0 mm minimum focus distance. The lens hence allows to film or photograph macro/close up shots, but with a wide angle view of the background. Intriguing. There is distortion at the perimeter when I use it with my Olympus E-M1, and the 17-42 mm kit lens, but the way these videos look is nevertheless quite original.

Mantis shrimp are great subjects for underwater videography. This one was quite active when I placed my camera in front of its burrow. I wonder if it saw its own reflection on the front of the lens?

This seahorse was also a good video subject. This lens has such difficult focusing characteristics, that the subjects have to be very close to the lens. The autofocus also tends to travel a bit, so subjects which stay in place are an advantage.