One of the unusual ways of using Peleng 8mm fisheye lens is its application in the projectors of digital planetariums. Digital planetarium gives the possibility to project different images on the dome of the planetarium and thus creating the presence effect, i.e. the audience can be immersed in virtual worlds. Earlier planetariums projected only celestial objects (displaying the stars, the planets and their orbits, simulating celestial phenomena such as meteor showers etc.), however now it is possible to show any images like cartoons, short films and videos, including, for example, simulation of flight to the stars or your own images and videos.  

Now I would like to talk about this Russian lens that takes photos like this one. There will be one more article where I will compare how it works with the film or digital sensor. 

So, Peleng 8mm f3.5 Fisheye Lens. It is a circular fisheye lens that covers 180 degree field if used with 35mm film. This film is usually bought on eBay or with the help of numerous online and offline sellers, it is not expensive so you will have to pay only about 300-350 dollars. You might have read a lot about this lens which is first of all positioned as the lens for fun and experiments but surfing the russian part of the Internet you will read about its exciting possibilities. Native country of Peleng supposes it to be a serious lens.
I could use this one for about 4 months and yes, it was very interesting to be a Peleng owner so I decided to describe defects just to let future buyers know. But you have to keep in mind that some of these drawbacks depend only n my choice of lens-camera combination and they probably won't appear in another combinations.

About Peleng 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye

 There are two possible kinds of fisheye lenses, you can see them further. Peleng fisheye represents the second kind. Soviet photographers used the film in another way that's why the circle of picture cannot be placed inside the 35 mm entirely even in cameras with regular film. Digital cameras still have the lens limitation of 180 degrees which can be noticed in the corners and their advanced photo system sensors can capture even less images.
1. Full frame fisheyes take half-spherical picture bias the 35mm film. 14-16 mm focal length is peculiar to them.
2. Lenses with 6-8 mm focal length capture spherical images, seizing full 180 degrees. The whole picture is placed inside the narrow film stripe.
Here are Sumire and Rui who were caught by my Peleng 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye.