Patent: Canon RF 8mm f/4 Fisheye

Canon Rumors Guy

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Canon News has uncovered a patent for an RF 8mm f/4 fisheye optical formula. By the looks of the patent translation, this is likely for full-frame image sensors.
This fisheye design has a full 180-degree angle of view.
Canon RF 8mm F4.0 Fisheye

Focal length: 8.05mm
F-number: 4.00
Angle of view: 90.07°
Image height: 11.40mm
Lens length: 70.43mm
BF: 16.93mm

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Mar 1, 2015
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Another specialized lens and that is ok, impressive Canon lenses. I hope in time they there will be L quality lenses for advanced amateur, such as 24-70 or 28-70 f4...reasonably compact, reasonably affordable, reasonably light weight. That is mostly the way Nikon started their mirrorless. Not meant as a complaint about Canon, but please, at some point, introduce some lenses geared toward something for discriminating landscape photographers...good quality, without the cost or weight of fast, heavy lenses.
 
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riker

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I've never liked the look of fish eye lenses. Am I crazy? Am I missing something here? What is the appeal for this type of lens? Honestly curious from those that like these :)

Yep, I find it mostly useless. In the meantime it's a MUST underwater. But a fix focal length one? Nah, that's outdated. The zoom fisheye is a great thing.
 
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Steve Balcombe

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By the looks of the patent translation, this is likely for full-frame image sensors
Definitely full frame, yes.

... a fix focal length one? Nah, that's outdated. The zoom fisheye is a great thing.
I agree. I use mine only occasionally, but the 15 mm end is more important than the 8 mm. I guess is it's very small and light there could be a case for it.
 
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Nov 2, 2016
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I've never liked the look of fish eye lenses. Am I crazy? Am I missing something here? What is the appeal for this type of lens? Honestly curious from those that like these :)
It’s a speciality lens. Not a huge number of users, but popular for certain shots. It’s good to see Canon round out its line from the very shortest to the longest.
 
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SteveC

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It’s a speciality lens. Not a huge number of users, but popular for certain shots. It’s good to see Canon round out its line from the very shortest to the longest.

A LOT of stuff people are pantingly eager for on here when it's speculated about makes me say "So what?" BUT it's all good news for me anyway. If they put money into developing such things, it means there's a market, and furthermore that they have the resources to chase that market, which together mean they'll certainly develop something more pedestrian that I will be interested in, at some point.
 
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unfocused

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A little confused by this. At 8 mm the current zoom fisheye is a heavily vignetted circular image, and you need to go out to 15mm to get a non-vignetted image in full frame. Not sure how useful the classic circular image fisheye is (at least for me). With the zoom you really get two lenses in one, plus the flexibility to use it with an APS-C sensor.
 
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Sharlin

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Not sure how useful the classic circular image fisheye is (at least for me). With the zoom you really get two lenses in one, plus the flexibility to use it with an APS-C sensor.

I guess one point is that an FF circular fisheye almost covers an APS-C sensor (or an APS-C crop of a larger sensor). So with a little distortion/vignetting correction it also functions as a rectangular APS-C fisheye.
 
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I've never liked the look of fish eye lenses. Am I crazy? Am I missing something here? What is the appeal for this type of lens? Honestly curious from those that like these :)
Such a lens has its appeal for photographers that want to shoot 360 sphere panoramas with as less shots as possible. Together with a rumoured high Megapixel Camera one can do high resolution spheres with only 3 shots around and one additional Nadir shot. If I was into the R System yet I would have hoped for a 8 to 15mm fisheye zoom lens. Only 4 shots around with 12mm is good enough for me + 1 Nadir shot.
The 15 mm end is more versatile then the 8mm end which does have very few usecases in my opinion.

Frank
 
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Jun 29, 2017
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A little confused by this. At 8 mm the current zoom fisheye is a heavily vignetted circular image, and you need to go out to 15mm to get a non-vignetted image in full frame. Not sure how useful the classic circular image fisheye is (at least for me). With the zoom you really get two lenses in one, plus the flexibility to use it with an APS-C sensor.

It’s not just about focal length. A fisheye lets you capture action at very close range with a huge DOF. This is why the GoPro became so popular. These lenses are invaluable for underwater photography. To get the same DOF on my 14mm f/2.8 I need to stop down to f/11 or f/14. That’s a significant loss of light. There are other conditions that make autofocus and flash photography an issue like having so many moving points (fish, coral, zooplankton) while also being poorly lit. An RF body with it’s ability to focus in the dark along with a large DOF will massively increase my number of useable underwater shots.
 
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I've never liked the look of fish eye lenses. Am I crazy? Am I missing something here? What is the appeal for this type of lens? Honestly curious from those that like these :)
1) VR applications
2) scientific applications
3) security applications
4) gimmicky/novel/B-roll sports stuff
5) I've occasionally used a fisheye lens for landscape photography when I needed something wider than 14mm, and the composition allowed me to put the horizon through the middle of the frame, which made the fisheye projection less annoying and obvious
6) Interior architecture (often defished in one axis)

In short, a fisheye has occasional applications, but gets annoying if overused.
 
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Architect1776

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Another specialized lens and that is ok, impressive Canon lenses. I hope in time they there will be L quality lenses for advanced amateur, such as 24-70 or 28-70 f4...reasonably compact, reasonably affordable, reasonably light weight. That is mostly the way Nikon started their mirrorless. Not meant as a complaint about Canon, but please, at some point, introduce some lenses geared toward something for discriminating landscape photographers...good quality, without the cost or weight of fast, heavy lenses.

A good 20mm f2.8 at no more than $300 USD. With computers and machines it should be easy to have superb quality at a decent price.
 
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I've never liked the look of fish eye lenses. Am I crazy? Am I missing something here? What is the appeal for this type of lens? Honestly curious from those that like these :)
I have the EF 8-15 fisheye, and I love it! I use it mostly full-frame, i.e. at 14-15mm, but on occasion I shoot circular images at 8mm.
It ist not for every shot of course, but shooting portraits with that lens is maximum fun. (It's a little expensive fun, but maximum of it, at least.)
It's not easy to frame an acceptable portrait, but when the composition works, those are eye-catchers. I've used it at 8mm for group portraits, too, in a football huddle-style, putting the camera on the ground with the lens facing upwards and the people looking down to the camera. Also nice for food-shots or as macro for flowers. (You can get really, really close, I think with a slim extender it's even possible to capture a spider or fly that crawls over the front lens from underneath, I haven't tried, though - “If your photos aren't good enough, then you're not close enough” – Robert Capa).
 
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