dome club
We also sell fisheye projectors. Yet customers hardly ever buy them because they
are TRIPLE the cost of spherical mirror projection, with significantly lower
resolution Why then do people sometimes buy fisheye projectors? possibly they’re
not aware of the relatively new spherical mirror projection option fisheye
projection produces a full, uninterrupted horizon (whereas a spherical mirror
creates small shadows on the dome behind it) Yet consider this: although some
audience members may prefer a full, uninterrupted horizon; most won’t mind (or
even notice) if you use the software to spin the sky around to show North, for
example it may be quaint to have the audience sit in a circle looking up at the
sky (as if they’re outside), yet after 10-15min most people get bored of seeing
stars (and very likely the sound of your voice!) so next you’ll project
astronomical images and video clips. Yet with fisheye projection such content
needs to be radially symmetrical and positioned at dome zenith if the
concentrically-seated audience is to enjoy it equally; limiting your choice of
content you’ll soon run out of radially symmetrical visuals (plus by now the
audience is truly weary of your voice), so you decide to screen a fulldome film
yet 99.9% of fulldome films are unidirectional, which means at least half your
audience will be watching the film upside down (see example here) you therefore
ask everyone to move to the rear of the dome this of course means that, as with
a spherical mirror system, you can never completely fill your dome With so many
restrictions and limitations, is it worth paying up to $20,000 extra for a
fisheye projection system, just so you can offer a 'full, uninterrupted
horizon'? Your expensive fisheye system will risk falling into disuse and begin
collecting dust in a storeroom somewhere we are occasionally approached by
fisheye system owners enquiring what they can do to make their systems as
versatile as a spherical mirror system we've had audience members who saw the
same film in a 7m dome with spherical mirror projection, and then a 7m dome with
fisheye lens projection, say: 'the fisheye projector being at the centre of the
dome made us, the audience, feel of secondary importance, as if we were pushed
out to the side'.
