September 25, 2022
Description
It's fairly obvious that a crystal ball produces a fisheye view when you look into it... so why not have a camera look into it? That's what this thing does: mount a little crystal ball at an appropriate distance in front of a Canon PowerShot ELPH180 (or similar camera).
Clear crystal balls are very common on eBay; a 30mm diameter one sells for about $2. Unfortunately, the one I got has a number of nicks and inclusions, and it isn't perfectly round. There is also the little problem that DoF of the PowerShot isn't sufficient to keep the entire sphere in focus. As you can see by the circular samples above, the resulting images are of very low quality; in truth, door peepholes make better improvised fisheyes. Still, this is cheap, interesting, and sort-of fun as a novelty. Enjoy!
Note: there is now a version of this for an 80mm ball.
Printer Brand:
MakerGear
Printer:
MakerGear M2
Rafts:
No
Supports:
No
Resolution:
0.25mm or finer
Infill:
25%
Filament: MakerGear (any is ok) PLA Black
Notes:
Best to print the parts separately because you get cleaner threads. The mount fits the ball in the front, which is then locked in place using the lock part. The whole rig is then connected to the PowerShot by screwing-in the printed 1/4-20 bolt to the camera tripod socket.
Incidentally, the first of the circular images is a flat poster for Buck Rogers. The view angle is plenty wide, but you can see that the DoF simply isn't enough to make everything in focus.The fourth circular image clearly shows the non-spherical nature of the ball.License:
Creative Commons — Attribution
ProfHankD
