Canon® Canon 8-15mm F/4L Fisheye

The 8-15mm f/4L is Canon’s all-in-one fisheye. Key features include:

• Excellent image quality

• Fast, accurate autofocus with full-time manual override

• Full-frame and crop-frame compatible

Great All-in-One Fisheye. The Canon 8-15mm f/4L works with both full-frame and crop-frame cameras, but there are a couple of limitations: at the wide end, it fills nearly the entire frame on a crop-sensor camera, but on a full-frame camera it becomes a circular fisheye (a circular image inside the rectangular image with black edges). As you zoom to longer focal lengths, it becomes a standard fisheye filling a full-frame image (see the images below for examples).

Fast, Accurate Autofocus. Now that we’ve covered that, the Canon 8-15mm f/4 L has a USM focusing motor for fast, silent focus, as well as full-time manual focus override. Optically, it has a floating element (for sharp, close-up photos) and a fluorine coating that helps keep the front element clean.

Well, where do I start? A triumph of technology over common sense, perhaps? Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very good lens. It’s well-built, autofocuses accurately, and is quite sharp. They did a great …

Well, where do I start? A triumph of technology over common sense, perhaps? Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very good lens. It’s well-built, autofocuses accurately, and is quite sharp. They did a great job building it. I’m not sure why they built it, but they did a great job. So maybe I should call it a great lens in search of a purpose.

Fisheye shots are kind of like tequila shots – a few are fun but too many just make you sick. Which brings up the question: “Who spends $1,500 on a lens you would only use once in a while?” And I have the answer: rental houses. Because everyone wants to try this lens, but I don’t think many people are going to add it to their personal collection. Fun for a weekend or special shoot? Certainly.
April, 2013

The Fisheye Comparison Chart under Resources on the right-hand side of this page should give you an idea of what you’ll get with each type of camera. (Obviously, this lens doesn’t go to 4.5mm).