The Canon EF 8-15mm f/4 L USM fisheye zoom lens

We've just received our new Canon zoom fisheye lens.

Keith has been out and about, giving it a try on his Canon 1Ds Mk3 (full frame) DSLR.

There are lots of images in this overview, but do remember that you are seeing them (mostly) reduced to fit a web page and in JPEG format

This is not a formal lens test, it doesn't contain any detailed measurements on lens performance, although there are two MTF charts at the very end...

The main idea is to give an idea of what the lens is like to use, and hopefully give an idea as to the much greater range of uses it has that you might at first think.

Using a fisheye lens

A few years ago I purchased the Canon 15mm Fisheye lens.

It's an old design, first available in EF mount in 1987. The main giveaway is the non USM motor, so you hear a slight whirring sound as it focuses.

I was quickly impressed by the optical quality of the lens and its almost complete resistance to flare - important, since with a 180 degree field of view from corner to corner (on a FF body), the chances of getting the sun in your frame is quite high.

It became a standard item in my bag for architectural and interior photography, particularly when used in conjunction with the Fisheye Hemi PS plugin for altering the projection geometry of your images.

In the UK, Keith buys our new Canon equipment from Park Cameras - EF8-15 EF8-15 at Amazon.com

I'll come back to aspects of 'fixing' images later, but the 15mm has provided numerous great photos that have gone down particularly well with our clients (remember that for a lot of my commercial work, a client's opinion is the arbiter of success ;-)

Canon announced the new EF8-15mm lens in August 2010, and it's taken almost a year to actually appear.

It's a stop slower than the old 15mm, but the zoom means that I can go from a 173 degree corner to corner (filled frame) at 15mm, to a circular image at 8mm (180 degree circular FOV) Full specs at foot of article

Sample images

For a quick comparison I took the camera out into the street.

Note the tripod legs at the very bottom of the 8mm view - 180 degrees gets a lot in.

Already I'm hearing 'but who wants circular images' - I'll come back to this, but first I want to have a look at some of the details.

How does it compare with the old 15mm?

Move your mouse over the image to see 100% crops of the same part of the frame.

Both images have had chromatic aberration 'tuned out' during the conversion from RAW using ACR and Photoshop.

Not that there is a lot with the new lens (mouse over image to see changes)

Canon's DPP software already incorporates correction data for this lens.

The woodland view below, was taken to see if there was much in the way of flare

The 100% crop shows small amounts, but having made a print of this image, it's difficult to spot (I've boosted the colour, to show it here)

The view at 11mm picks up no obvious flare

If I process the RAW file with a black point of zero, and then massively brighten the image to show noise in the image, then some internal flare does show (mouse over image below to see)

It only takes setting a black level of 7 to get rid of most of this. Given where the sun is in this image, this is pretty good performance in my book...

A few more samples from Bradgate park (all at f/8) - note how any straight line (the horizon) that goes through the centre of the image, remains straight.

Whoops - note the fingers.

For comparison, here's the view with an EF14mm 2.8L

Note how a wide rectilinear lens stretches corners and alters cloud shapes.

and using a TS-E17mm (tilt/shift lens)

and just for good measure, 3 stitched shots from the TS-E17 (shifted up and down by 12mm)

'Fixing' images with software

Since I've used Fisheye Hemi with my 15mm, I wanted to see what it would do with the 8-15.

The shot below is at the 11mm setting.

Move your mouse over to see the effect of Fisheye Hemi's 'Full frame' setting (one I'd use with my old 15mm)

Move your mouse over the image below to see the effect of Fisheye Hemi's 'circular' setting.

With a bit of a crop, this makes for an interesting wide view.

At just over 11mm, I've a 180 degree field of view from edge to edge.

You can see the bridge I'm standing on.

Note that with this image I've edited the lighting of the image a bit before applying the transformation.

Canon's own DPP software offers a number of distortion correction modes.

The Chromatic aberration and peripheral lighting adjustments work well (mouse over image to see), but it's perhaps the ones that alter geometry that people may want to try.

I know from using DxO Optics Pro that just attempting to turn a fisheye image into a rectilinear one can easily fail, so I wasn't surprised to see the emphasise linearity setting in DPP mash the edges of the image (mouse over the image to see some of the adjustment for this)

A more subtle alteration

Overall, the DPP options work well.

However, if I wanted these particular alterations, I'd probably use DxO optics Pro which has some more complex settings (that and I personally just don't much care for DPP as part of my workflow)

Here's the sort of correction options you get in DxO (this lens is not yet supported with specialist correction data)

Note that there are many more packages supporting geometry correction - we're Mac based so I've not tried many of the windows PC based options.

Conclusions

The lens is sharper and shows better contrast and flare resistance compared to the older EF15mm lens.

Given the quality of the older lens, this is no mean feat.

I've taken sample shots at f/8 here, since that's where I most often use a lens like this.

• I note that the tests at Lenstip suggest a peak resolution at f/5.6 at the centre and f/8 further out.

One feature I didn't try is a switch that limits the zoom range if you are using a crop sensor camera.

If' you've a crop sensor camera then, with this lens, you now have the availability of an equivalent to the 15mm on a full frame camera.

This lens is just made for full frame...

Autofocus is quick and silent. For metering I'd suggest manual mode in any non frame filling focal length.

It focuses down to 15cm, which gives an interesting magnification of 0.39, and some very odd views.

If shots like below (Leicester market) were all this lens did, then I'd agree that it's a lens that you might quickly tire of.

However I know that by careful consideration of how you are going to make use of images, it's one that I'll be making use of in my professional work too.

The photo below, was taken with the old EF15 and corrected with the Fisheye-hemi plugin. - it's one of the venue's iconic images, and one that has paid for the old lens, in itself. I'm particularly looking forward to V2 of Fisheye Hemi, hopefully appearing later this year.

Three more photos from a recent visit to Wells Cathedral

Two 'fixed' with Fisheye-hemi and one at 8mm

View down the cathedral, from main entrance.

The scissor arches

Looking up in the chapter house

Update 2 - a portrait of Michael Westmoreland

Taken at the opening of his 80th birthday exhibition (more details). If you didn't know, Michael is one of the key figures in the history of panoramic photography.

~12mm - Projection changed with FishEyeHemi and cropped. Printed as a 36" wide print.

Summary

Unique lens - great quality and not the one trick pony that some might dismiss it for.

EF8-15 at Amazon.com

Specs - Canon EF 8-15mm f/4 L USM

There is a page about any 8-15 news/info that I'll keep updated with any new reviews I come across

Specifications:

Focal length	8-15mm
Diagonal Angle of view (FF)	180º - 175º 30'
Maximum aperture	F4
Minimum aperture	F22
Lens Construction	14 elements/11 groups
Number of diaphragm blades	7
Minimum focus	0.15 m
Maximum magnification	0.39x at 15mm
AF motor type	Ring-type Ultrasonic Motor
Focus adjustment	Lens extension via inner focusing and focus cam plus floating mechanism
Filter thread	67mm (note - does not accept normal filters)
Filter size	Rear Gel Holder (accepts up to 3 pre-cut gel filters)
Supplied accessories	Front and rear caps EW-77Hood LP1219 case
Weight	540 g
Dimensions	79 mm diameter x 83 mm length
Lens Mount	Canon EF

More Info

Canon 8-15 article on CPN
More technical 8-15 review at Lenstip
Our 8-15 info page (Canon press info)
Keith's 'junk box lens' test index page

You can search all the hundreds of articles on the site for more information

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