DXO Optics Pro Rocks!

May 4, 2009 eiriksodxo, dxo optics pro, fisheye, photography, review9 Comments

I have written about how to correct Fisheye images in this blog before. Now the team behind DXO Optics Pro have built support for the combination of Canon 5D MarkII and my Canon 15 mm f2.8 Fisheye.

And look no further. The best fisheye correction you can get is here. DXO analyze the different lenses in detail. On the specified camera. So you need to check if they have a module for your lens / camera combination. But if they have, DXO does the best corrections possible.

My original image

Corrected with DXO Optics pro

Corrected with DXO Optics Pro with new aspect

All sorts of corrections

I’ve just scratched the surface of this program. It does all kinds of advanced corrections. Here is my old test image from the 50mm f1.4.

Original 100% crop at f1.4

Any chance that DXO can do something with this total mess of optic errors?

100% crop at f1.4 corrected with DXO

Pretty impressive! But before you run out buying crappy lenses thinking that you can save everything in DXO, have a look at the same image snapped at f5.6:

Proper optics out there in the field is the best way to go. But so far I’m impressed with DXO. It’s worth the fisheye correction on my 15mm alone!

Passing a subway station

March 31, 2009 eirikso5d mark II, 5d mkII, canon, fisheye, subway, train, video10 Comments

You need:
1. One train
2. A subway station
3. The Canon 5D Mark II
4. And a Canon 15mm f2.8 Fisheye

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3946951&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=01AAEA&fullscreen=1
Passing a subway station from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo.

Place the camera firmly against the window. Start video recording just before you approach the station. Add a stupid sound from the default Apple audio library.

Exact location: Nationalteateret station, Oslo, Norway.

…and you can click through to Vimeo to watch the video in HD.

How wide is wide?

December 21, 2008 eirikso5d markII, 5d mkII, canon, compare, fisheye, wide angle1 Comment

About as wide as this:

Link to a bigger version of the image.

I snapped the same image with the following lenses:
Canon 15 mm f2.8 fisheye
Canon 16-35 mm f2.8 L USM II @16mm
Canon 24 mm f1.4 L USM II

And marked the reach of the different lenses on the 15 mm image. But I also wanted to see how a Sigma 8 mm circular fisheye did:

Link to a bigger version of the image.

So now you know. That’s the difference between these different lenses on a Canon 5D MkII fullframe camera. And if you don’t like the distortion of the fisheye you can remove it.

How to remove distortion on a Fisheye image

December 14, 2008 eirikso15mm, 5d mark II, canon, fisheye, hemi, ptlens, rectfish5 Comments

I recently bought the Canon 15mm f2.8 Fisheye for my new 5D Mark II. It’s extremely wide angle and gives the characteristic fisheye distortion.

Here’s a gallery of images shot with that lens:
http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=63961

In some images you want the fisheye distortion, but in other images you might want to remove it.

And there are several applications that can help you with that. Regardless of what fisheye you’re using.

The most common way to remove the distortion is to squeeze the image in the middle. Something like what PTlens will do for you. In addition you can adjust perspective, rotation and a couple of other settings.

But this leaves you with an image that has to be cropped and if there are people along the edges of the image they will look very distorted.

Another program called Fisheye Hemi aim to fix that problem. And will try to remove the fisheye distortion using advanced algorithms to keep as much as possible and do the adjustments but keeping people and other details in the image without distortion.

I’ve made a simple flash animation to show the different images. Click the buttons below the image to change from original, to the one corrected with fisheye hemi to the one corrected with PTlens.

[kml_flashembed movie=”http://eirikso2.com/flashfiles/FisheyeTest.swf” height=”400″ width=”500″ /]

There are a lot of programs that is made to help you adjust lens distortions. I’ve also tried DxO, but simply found it too difficult to use. For people using Windows I’ve heard positive remarks of RectFish.

Please leave a comment if you have a favourite that I haven’t mentioned.