A new lens is giving Micro Four Thirds shooters access to 360-like images without stitching. The Entaniya Fisheye 250 MFT, introduced Tuesday, offers an extreme wide angle that is large enough to capture both the subject and the photographer in a single frame.
If the camera is mounted with the lens pointed toward the sky, the missing chunk of a 360-degree perspective is the ground, giving the lens an almost VR-like perspective big enough to include the photographer in the frame.
The lens produces a circular image — not the swipe-around view of a 360 camera — but captures a pretty impressive field of view. The lens joins the lineup for what Entanyia describes as “one-shot VR,” including a lens for 1/2.3 cameras and action-camera lens and camera, the Entapano 2.
Those circular images, however, can be unwrapped into VR-like images where viewers can swipe and scroll around the scene, using Autopano Video or the company’s own Entapano VR software.
The lens comes in three slightly different focal lengths, a 2.3mm, a 3mm and a 3.6mm, with each one forming a different size circular image, with the 2.3mm being the smallest. The first two use a wide f/2.8 aperture while the 3.6mm has an f/4 aperture. Designed with 18 elements in 12 groups, the lenses each weigh about 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg). With a pretty wide piece of glass required for capturing that view, the lens is taller than most camera bodies.
According to Entaniya, a company based in Japan, using four aligned lenses with BlackMagic cameras makes it possible to shoot 6K video in 360, with some stitching.
The lenses are expected to be released by the end of 2016 — Entaniya says the lens will cost ¥388,000, which roughly translates to $3,500, according to DigitalRev.
