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DIY Fisheye Lens For Aiptek GO-HD Camera

there's someone at the door

The Aiptek GO-HD isn’t such a bad camera for the money. It does 720p video and 8 megapixel photos, but the lens doesn’t go very wide. But a post in the Flickr blog pointed to a solution: use a door peephole as a fisheye lens. It works, but holding the peephole in front of the camera can get tiresome. Here’s how I solved it:

video camera with wide angle adapter attached

A rubber stopper easily holds the peephole, while a 1.25 inch hole in the stopper slides over the lens protrusion and holds snugly to it. Here’s the step by step:

pieces parts

Start with the parts. I’ve got an electric drill and a number of bits at the house, but I had to go to the store for the 1.25 inch drill bit. I also don’t have large rubber stoppers or peepholes laying around, so I picked those up too.

level drill

The hardest part (well, the only part) is drilling the two concentric holes, making sure they’re centered and straight through. My drill has a bubble level to make this easier.

breakthrough

My 1.25 inch bit had a screw-type guide in the center, making it easier to drill the larger hole first.

a stopper with a hole in it

The larger hole fits snugly around the lens, the smaller hole holds the peephole.

video camera video camera with wide angle adapter attached

Here is the camera before and after attaching the fisheye. The rubber stopper fits snugly, but is easy to attach and remove.

using wide angle adapter

In use, I find I have to zoom to its maximum telephoto setting. The circular peephole view almost fills the width of the 16×9 frame that way, though it crops quite a bit of the top and bottom.

I didn’t have Sandee to chase around the house after finishing this, so I had to test it on myself and my cat: