Canon EF 8 - 15 mm f 4 L Fisheye USM lens review with test shots

I am not really good at lens reviews but i decided to try this one out anyways just because Canon have probably made their most fun lens ever.
Its a Fisheye lens, not something that i would have bought a few months back, simply coz i was happy with the gear i already owned. it was only until i managed to see a few shots taken with the Fisheye lens and the positive reviews given by Kai, presenter on Digital Rev Tv( a hardcore Nikon fanboy praising canon lens?)  i decided to dig into my savings and buy this piece of expensive glass.

Build Quality : its an L series lens. that means it has all the awesomeness of an L lens, Canon's flagship series of top of the line quality products. its small in size, and its also a bit plasticy, but its made from some very strong plastic. and its weather sealed.... so take it out anywhere , anytime... just dont try going underwater, coz that will be plain stupid.

OOh just look at those curves!!!! for someone who is clumsy, i seriously suggest u use the lens hood that comes with it. shooting with the lens hood is not a great thing to do, coz this is such a wide angle lens, u can actually see the lens hood in the frame as well. i always take off the lens hood and shoot but immediately place it back when i am not shooting. The glass is way too expensive to be replaced if anything bad has to go wrong.

with lens hood

Specifications : i want to keep this review very simple and not drivel on its 'technical details' like most other reviewers do.

its a very wide angle lens.... 8 to 15 mm on a full frame body like the Canon 5D mark II makes the images really really wide. wider than the range of the human eye. Its also the worlds first wide angle zoom lens on a Fisheye. at the widest end of 8 mm the image becomes circular i.e the 180 degree angle of view which appears within the area of the image sensor.

8 mm, f 4, 1/2500

as seen above, the circular Fisheye gives a different kind of feel to subjects which are circular in shape....off course this is just a test shot... nothing creative here...

when u increase the focal length the circular vignetting gives way and u get wide angle shots as seen below

15 mm , f 4, 1/160

One has to be a bit careful when coming close to subjects, like i did with this puppy. i managed to bump its nose and smudge the lens a bit but when looking thru the viewfinder i could never have guessed i was getting this close to its nose.

and the image u see of the eye (below), is NOT A MACRO SHOT. its a 100 percent crop of a portrait but i had focused on the eye and the sharpness is unbelievable. add to that, accurate!!

12 mm, f 4, 1//40

ok so far all the pics seen here are close range shots... what about landscapes? how does it fare with that? again, it all depends on how creative u get, because this is a fun lens ....

13 mm, f 22, 10 secs

this is a lame attempt of light trails using a tripod, taken from my apartment. and believe me u, this is indeed a very wide angle shot.


for the shot below, i had problems using a simple point and shoot camera cos i was never able to get the building in the frame.

15 mm, f 22, 1/80

 i had to move several meters back and used to barely manage to get the framing right. Not in this case. not just the entire wide building, but parts of the swimming pool to the right and even the car parked to the left managed to creep in the frame! like i had mentioned earlier, its range is wider than the human eye can see!

So whats the catch here? whats the con? what will really make u not own one of these? haha the price u idiot! its shit expensive!!! costs about Rs 89,990/- here in India and with inflation and higher dollar price, it wont be getting any cheaper. Unless off course u get it from abroad, or buy it in the grey market without a bill. but it still wont be cheaper than Rs 76,000/- which is again very expensive. There are cheaper models of the fisheye like sigma and tamron lens but then again, its cheap for a reason, or maybe several reasons but i dont care coz i dont own them bwahahaha.

ok and this lens is not meant for the clumsy idiots who keep bumping and crashing into things. chances are if u belong to this category of butter fingers, then u are going to break the front glass element on the very first day.

So it brings us to another question. Do u actually need a Fisheye lens?

thats something u need to ask yourself. i was a skeptic and now i am a believer. i believe this is the most fun lens canon has in their entire range simple coz the sky is the limit when it comes to taking creative shots with this baby. it will totally change the way u will look at another photo again. its small, yet packs a punch .

15 mm , f 4, 1/10

this shot was taken using the self timer mode of 10 secs. i kept the camera with the Fisheye on the shelf of the fridge and clicked it making a funny expression as if i was 'caught' stealing ketchup. Fact is i dont even like ketchup.

so final conclusion, Beg, Borrow or Steal, this is a must have lens.