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Are you itching to make your own skate video? There are a few essential items that you've got to have before you're ready to rock 'n' roll. Start by slapping some soft wheels on your board so you don't make a loud and distracting ruckus while filming. Next, get yourself a 3-chip DV camera so you'll get the maximum sound and picture quality possible. Finally, the piece de resistance for your filming arsenal is the fisheye lens.

Fisheye lenses have multiple layers of dome-shaped glass that distort and tweak images viewed through them. An extreme wide-angle causes nearby objects to appear larger than life, while distant objects get shoved into the background. Rails and gaps are given a subtle bend in their appearance as skaters roll through a slightly rounded landscape. Different fisheyes yield a slightly smaller or larger field of view, but generally range anywhere from 95- to 145-degrees. A standard wide-angle lens is not going to have such a large range and won't provide the surreal curves of a fisheye.

There are a few different options out there, but what you choose depends on how much money you want to spend and what kind of look you want. When doing research, a couple of words you'll come across a lot are barrel distortion and vignetting. Barrel distortion is the desirable effect that gives your image the appearance of being projected onto a barrel, bulging in the middle and curving around the top and bottom. Distortion is good but you want to have little or no vignetting, which is when you see black around the corners of the field of view. Certain lenses have such severe vignetting that the image is actually a sphere in the middle of the screen with a black border all around it. Icky.

The big guns

If you've already spent a few thousand dollars on the camera itself, chances are you're pretty serious about filmmaking and are ready to make the investment on some quality lenses. The industry standard is the Century Optics 0.3x Ultra Fisheye Adapter, otherwise known as the Death Lens (www.centuryoptics.com). One of these bad boys will set you back about $900 from Century, eBay, or wholesale dealers such as B & H Photo (www.bhphotovideo.com). This lens is the number-one choice because of its exaggerated distortion and huge angle of view, and the resulting footage always looks awesome. Also, it comes in both the bayonet mount and 58-mm screw mount, and a variety of step-up rings are available also.

Before dropping the scrilla on this lens, make sure that it will be compatible with your camera. Century's lenses are very versatile because of the different mounting options, so if you're shooting with a Sony (PD150, VX2000, PD100) or a Canon (SL1S, XL1, GL1, GL2, Elura) then you shouldn't have a problem. Be aware that you can't use the screw mount on the Canon GL1, the Sony VX2000, and the Sony PD150, so just be familiar with your gear and investigate first.

Middle of the road

If you're not ready to make the full-on commitment to the Death Lens quite yet, there are options that will let you test-drive the whole fisheye thing for less money without a huge sacrifice in quality. Century also makes the 0.3x Ultra Fisheye for 37-mm screw-mount cameras, and it will only set you back about $350. The Baby Death, as it is affectionately known, is simply a smaller version of the Death Lens and has a slightly smaller horizontal angle of view. This lens still offers Century's pro construction, but packs less of a wallop to your bank account.

The Raynox MX-3000PRO 0.3x semi-fisheye (www.raynox.com) has a really wide angle, and at only $180, we're talking bargain shopping. Check out www.bugeyedigital.com for wholesale prices. (I'm starting to sound like an infomercial-sorry.) This one comes as a 58 mm screw mount or a clip-on mount. Raynox also makes the Death Lens competitor, the DCR-FE180PRO. It wants so badly to be as dope as the Death Lens, but it's heavier and bulkier and costs about $400. If you're going to spend that much money, why not just save up a few more bucks and get the Century lens instead of the wannabe?

I'm straight-up broke

Hey, we all have to start somewhere and work our way up, right? So mom and pops bought you a run-of-the-mill digital camera, maybe even a one-chip camera. It's still better than nothing, and there are plenty of inexpensive options that'll help you get your fisheye fix. Kenko's SGW-043 0.43x fisheye lens (www.thkphoto.com) was created specifically for cameras with a 37-mm thread or smaller. The glass is coated to reduce flares caused by light reflections bouncing around inside the layered construction, a common occurrence with all fisheyes. That's awfully considerate of Kenko, considering that they sell the lens for a mere $50. You're going to get surprisingly great results with this lens at a low cost to you.

Raynox wins for deal of the century, however. The QC-303 semi-fisheye snap-on lens is only $40 and adapts for cameras with thread sizes from 27 mm to 37 mm. The funny thing about this lens is that it's always advertised as a lens you can use to make a "creative wedding party movie" or it can be "practically useful for your trade activity, such as housing insurance and construction." Hmmm, and I thought that skateboarding had popularized the fisheye lens, not housing insurance. Boy, am I a dummy. You do get what you pay for though, so don't be disappointed when you have focusing problems and poor image quality when using this lens.

Generally, smaller threads mean cheaper cameras and likewise, the cheaper cost of lenses such as the QC-303 and the SGW-043. But if you've got a higher-end camera and you want to try out these low-budget lenses, you'll need a step down ring to take your 58-mm screw mount down to 37 mm. No amount of trickery is going to get you pro results with either of these lenses, however.

Get creative

There are, of course, other fisheye lenses out there, so research and pick what works for you and your budget. If you're serious about filming, it will pay off to invest in a Century lens, and you'll get props for being legit. Still, first try playing around with a cheaper lens such as the Kenko 0.43x to get the hang of it. It's also important to have a quiver of different lenses handy because variety is key. If all you use is a fisheye, the look will get tired and lose its charm. Spice it up with a long telephoto lens, keeping in mind that different terrain and different lighting might benefit from a different lens. If you're venturing into film terrain, Century makes a fisheye lens for both 16-mm and 35-mm cameras as well.

Now that you're stoked and you've got your new lens in hand, just remember to be careful. One thing a lot of people don't realize is that you need to be extremely close to the subject you're filming in order for it to pop out at you on the screen. Filming a short distance of ten feet away from a skater can appear more like twenty-five feet through a fisheye, so this lens requires that you get as close as possible to whomever you're filming. Be comfortable skating fast while controlling and aiming the camera before attaching an expensive lens. You want to lower the potential of smashing it to bits with a flying board.

Fancy and expensive cameras and lenses are available to everyone. What you do with these tools that makes the difference. Watching skate videos is a good way to learn the techniques of other shooters, but approach filming as the individual that you are and your unique style will shine through.

Patricia Kavanaugh is a skate betty and photographer extraordinaire. She also writes for San Diego's Fahrenheit.