The EF 8-15 f/4L Fisheye Has Landed

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Canon Rumors

Who Dey
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<p><strong>It’s in the wild!

</strong>So, the end of July date happened!</p>
<p>The EF 8-15 f/4L Fisheye has landed at<a href="https://www.thecamerastore.com/products/lenses/slr-lenses/zoom-lenses/canon-ef-8-15mm-f4l-fisheye-usm"> The Camera Store</a> in Calgary, Canada.  All 4 of the copies they had are spoken for.</p>
<p>I cannot find any other stores with stock at the moment.</p>
<p><em>Thanks Dave</em></p>
<p><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">c</span>r</strong></p>
 
I'm not really sure why people are so excited about this lens. I honestly don't know much about this lens, so correctly if I'm wrong. On a crop body it gives you a 180 view at all focal lengths? And on a FF body it allows you to do a fisheye at the lower end and 180 degrees only at 15mm?

Thanks!
 
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Chewy734 said:
On a crop body it gives you a 180 view at all focal lengths? And on a FF body it allows you to do a fisheye at the lower end and 180 degrees only at 15mm?

You're getting 180° at all focal lengths on all sensor formats. The difference is that on non-FF cameras, you get 180° diagonal AoV that fills the frame (at 10mm for APS-C and 12mm for APS-H). If you go wider than that on those formats, you get vignetting around your image (i.e. part a circle). On a FF camera, at 8mm you get a circular fisheye, with 180° coverage all the way around (vs. just diagonal, which is the longest dimension of the sensor).

So basically, you get 'full frame fisheye' coverage for any sensor size (as opposed to the EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye, for example, where you get 'full frame fisheye' only on a FF sensor, and a cropped, less fishy version on smaller sensors), and on FF you also get the option of a true circular fisheye.

Below I took Canon's example of the different coverages and superimposed the APS-C and APS-H sensor sizes onto the FF circular (8mm) setting, to give an idea of what vignetting would be like. On the lens itself, Canon added a zoom range limiter for APS-C and APS-H to allow you to easily avoid going too wide.
 

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I just received mine today from Pictureline.com. I've been waiting since January hoping to have it before a scheduled trip tomorrow to Montreal. They got one to me today. EXCELLENT, consistent, customer service.

They don't have any more to sell yet, but they say more are coming next week.
 
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Etienne said:
really only good at 15mm on the 5DII

How do you figure that?

If you actually want a 180° FoV all the way around, you need to go to ~8mm on FF, for example the currently available Sigma 8mm f/3.5 EX DG circular fisheye (or the manual focus Pelang version). Canon used to make one, too - the old Canon FD 7.5mm f/5.6 Fisheye.

As shown in the diagram I posted above, a lens like the EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye, which is a 'full frame fishsye, ' provides 180° FoV on the diagonal only - the horizontal FoV is 147° and the vertical FoV is 94°.

So, I'd argue this lens is most useful on a FF camera like the 5DII - on APS-C and APS-H you just get a full frame fisheye, whereas on FF you a full frame fisheye at 15mm and a circular fisheye at 8mm.
 
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neuroanatomist said:
Etienne said:
really only good at 15mm on the 5DII

How do you figure that?

If you actually want a 180° FoV all the way around, you need to go to ~8mm on FF, for example the currently available Sigma 8mm f/3.5 EX DG circular fisheye (or the manual focus Pelang version). Canon used to make one, too - the old Canon FD 7.5mm f/5.6 Fisheye.

As shown in the diagram I posted above, a lens like the EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye, which is a 'full frame fishsye, ' provides 180° FoV on the diagonal only - the horizontal FoV is 147° and the vertical FoV is 94°.

So, I'd argue this lens is most useful on a FF camera like the 5DII - on APS-C and APS-H you just get a full frame fisheye, whereas on FF you a full frame fisheye at 15mm and a circular fisheye at 8mm.

Oh puhlleeaase.... how many times are you going to shoot a full circular fish-eye shot, which is essentially a round circle in black rectangle? Once, twice in your life? That's real useful.

Canon has even gone to the trouble of putting stops on the zoom so that 1.6 and 1.3 crops can be prevented from opening wide enough to waste all that sensor real-estate.

I have yet to meet a photographer or videographer who uses a full circle fisheye on a full frame. You're saying you're surprised that anyone would find this lens somewhat limited on a full frame? You can get a Sigma f2.8 15mm fisheye for $600 brand new, or Canons own for $700. I'll take the f2.8 over the f4 every single time, unless I predominantly used a 1.6 crop in good light.
 
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Etienne said:
...how many times are you going to shoot a full circular fish-eye shot, which is essentially a round circle in black rectangle? Once, twice in your life? That's real useful.

You're saying you're surprised that anyone would find this lens somewhat limited on a full frame?

I'm saying it's more useful on FF than on 1.3x or 1.6x. "Most useful" as in relative to use on crop sensors, in that on the latter you only get full frame fisheye (and there other options for that on 1.6x), while on FF you get the option of either full frame or circular fisheye.

Now, before you go knocking the virtues of full frame or circular fisheye, take me out of the discussion. I was speaking in relative terms, pointing out that this fisheye zoom is more useful on FF than on crop. In absolute terms of utility, while I'm sure there are photographers who will love this lens, *personally* I think an extensive collection of navel lint has more utility than a fisheye zoom.
 
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