What is the lens with a hemispherical mirror on a tube used for 360° photos?
Asked 3/9/2011
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I remember reading about a lens that seemed like an “inverse fisheye”: a hemispherical or curved mirror mounted at the end of a tube, used to capture the scene all around the camera. I can’t find the name for this type of lens or examples of it now. What is this system called, and what kind of images does it produce?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
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That's a one-shot 360° panoramic lens. There are a number of examples out there with different mirror shapes; two of the currently-active vendors are
They use different mirror shapes -- the 0-360 version is similar to your drawing, while the EGG is more like what would be left after a circle is swept out of a cylinder, so the effect (as a flat picture) would be different. The EGG is the only current one I could find that didn't have the mirror exposed and at the end of a long, delicate-looking stalk, but since I'm not looking for such a lens myself, I didn't spend a lot of time searching.
(When I wanted a 360° panorama in the film days, I rented a slit-shutter revolving camera. It opened the shutter and rotated the camera through a full circle while advancing the film -- sort of like a flatbed scanner for the world.)
Originally by user2719. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user2719
15y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes — this is generally a one-shot 360° panoramic lens, often called a catadioptric 360° system or panoramic mirror lens. Instead of using a fisheye front element, it uses a shaped mirror to reflect the full surroundings into the camera.
Different designs use different mirror shapes, so the unwrapped flat image can look different depending on the system. These are made to capture an all-around panorama in a single shot, unlike rotating panoramic cameras that build the image by turning during exposure.
Examples mentioned in the discussion include systems from 0-360 and EGG Solutions. Some designs have an exposed mirror mounted out in front, while others protect the mirror inside a housing.
So the device you remember is real — it’s not usually described as an “inverse fisheye,” but as a 360° panoramic mirror lens/system.
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