Bowfront Photography

[Sherman]

Hey all, I hope I'm in the right forum for this topic.

I'm considering buying a fellow reefer's 72g bowfront acrylic tank. It's 48Lx24Tx14-18"D. One major concern is the bowfront and shooting through it. Does anyone have any experience with this? Photography is a major part of why I have the tank, so if the bowfront is less than optimal, I need to rule it out.

How are wide shots?
How are macros?
How about distortion, in general?

Thanks so much for any help!

- Jason

[paradise]

Macros will be a problem. The only way to get the distortion of the bowfront minimized is to move farther back, which means you will need longer lenses to get full frames of the same stuff. Take advice from someone who has had a couple bowfront tanks, if you are serious about photography, dont get a bowfront. They look nice but kill your desire to take pics :)

[Sherman]

Bummer! That bad, huh? And yeah, I'm that serious about photography. I admit, I expected the distortion to work in the opposite manner. The further away, the more distortion.

You wouldn't happen to have any examples of what sort of distortion you used to fight, do you?

[paradise]

No, imagine you are sitting in front of you, it's curving a lot, right? As you move away, the thickness of the curve becomes smaller comparing to the distance from you to the tank, so it flattens.