Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

by Canon

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.5 x 4 x 4 inches ; 11.7 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00009R6WN
• Item model number: 2535A003
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 8, 2006

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Love the fisheye effect? Turn to the Canon EF 15mm fisheye lens, which offers an ultra-wide 180-degree angle of view for capturing scenes well beyond your natural field of vision. As with all fisheye lenses, the 15mm provides a ton of unique and interesting effects, with a minimum focusing distance of 8 inches giving new meaning to close-up shots. Best of all, the lens is tack-sharp throughout its entire focus range. The lens--which includes a fixed petal-type hood and a built-in rear filter holder that holds up to three gel filters at once--carries a one-year warranty.

• Focal length: 15mm fisheye
• Maximum aperture: f/2.8
• Lens construction: 8 elements in 7 groups
• Diagonal angle of view: 180 degrees
• Focus adjustment: Overall linear extension system with AFD
• Closest focusing distance: 0.7 feet
• Filter size: Rear gel holder (accepts up to 3 precut gel filters)
• Dimensions: 2.9 inches in diameter, 2.4 inches long
• Weight: 11.6 ounces

Product Description

Fisheye lens with a 180 degree angle of view for unique and intriguing effects. The wide depth of field makes it even more interesting. The short minimum focusing distance of 8 in. (20 cm) gives new meaning to close-up shots. The lens has a fixed petal-type hood and a gelatin filter holder at the rear.It offers an ultra-wide 180-degree angle of view for capturing scenes well beyond your natural field of vision. As with all fisheye lenses, the 15mm provides a ton of unique and interesting effects, with a minimum focusing distance of 8 inches giving new meaning to close-up shots. Best of all, the lens is tack-sharp throughout its entire focus range.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

117 of 129 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My African Wide Angle, August 7, 2006

By 

Just Anonymous (Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens for Canon SLR Cameras (Electronics)

I bought this lens as I was walking out to Africa for a month and a half safari. I didn't own a true wide angle lens and I had just spent most of my budget on a 70-200mm USM "L" lens and a 1.4x extension.

I wanted to get the widest lens I could get but I didn't have the big bucks to get the 16-35L or the 14mm L so I got this lens figuring I could correct in Photoshop CS2 later.

This is what I found:
1) I have a 20D and it doesn't barrel distort anywhere near as bad as I had thought it would....I imagine it distorts quite a bit more on a 5D or other full frame sensor but on the 20D, 10D, 30D, or Rebel it is not that bad.

2) It does distort enough even on the 20D that its noticable on every single inside shot and on many panoramic shots....to the experienced professional, you'd notice it even in panoramas.

3) For the computer person: I find it very easy to correct the barrel distortion in Photoshop CS2 very easily....I use a plugin (there are several on the web)

4) I tend to like the barrel distortion look on some of my pictures.


Pros
1) Image Quality is superb. For not being an L lens, this lens has some amazing color, sharpness, and saturation. They spared very little in grinding this lens. Some of my best African pictures, daytime and nightime were taken with this lens and they were fabulous.

2) Build pretty well, metal mount, metal integrated hood...but not up to L standards by any means....to its credit, it survived 14 days by vibration ridden truck treking across the Kalahari desert with all its dust, mokoro canoeing in the okavango delta for over a week, hiking, elephant riding, and the five diamond resort at victoria falls (the last one was easy for the fisheye)...

3) It is a Fisheye lens and if used properly, it can create some amazing pictures and views...for example In Botswana in the Okavango, I knelt down next to a Gigantic Baobab tree and pointed it up towards the sky, The fisheye captured not only Rex the guide standing next to the tree but the entire massive trunk of the Baobab AND ALL of the canopy of the tree way above. Everything! I know of few lenses that would let me do that. It was an amazing shot only possible with a Fisheye.

4) It focuses to about 12inches.

5) f/2.8 makes it very good in low light situation.

6) The integrated hood comes complete with a nice metal cover.

Cons
1) Its not built like an L:
a) no USM motor so you can hear the whir as it tries to focus
b) no moisture seals etc
c) It does have a metal mount

2) It is a fisheye lens -- I found out after a month and a half what this meant....it doesn't stay on my camera much. I take it out when I need a certain effect or when I plan to retouch in Photoshop. It distorts visibly on a 20D and I imagine quite a bit more on a full frame.

3) Integrated Hood...can't put screw on filters...but it does have a gel filter holder.

4) No bag.

My veredict:
1) I've purchased a 16-35mm Canon "L" and that lens stays in camera most of the time when I want wide-angle but when I need a special look or I really want to capture everything, I bring out my 15mm Fisheye. I won't sell it, I don't regret buying it. I learned what a specialty Fisheye lens is and its staying in my arsenal for those special shots.

2) I can't compare against non-canon lenses but I can say that Canon quality here is extraordinary. I would knock them on the construction but the lens is built well enough and the "glass" itself is spectacular so 5 stars.

3) I ordered from Amazon 3 days before my trip --- it arrived the next day. Great Service. Thx Amazon.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good diagonal fisheye, November 20, 2009

By 

Craig Dickson (San Mateo, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens for Canon SLR Cameras (Electronics)

Fisheye lenses come in two varieties. Both types create a heavily barrel-distorted image that provides a roughly 180 degree field of view. Circular fisheyes create a circular image that falls entirely within the frame, leaving black around the edges. The circular image covers a full 180 degrees in all directions. Diagonal fisheyes, which fill the frame, give a 180 degree view only along the frame's diagonals. With both types, a crop-frame camera such as a Canon Rebel or 50D will reduce the field of view significantly unless the fisheye lens is specificially designed for a crop-frame sensor. This will have the effect of significantly reducing the fisheye effect, which is at its most dramatic around the edges of the image (precisely the area lost by crop-frame sensors).

The EF 15mm f/2.8 is a diagonal fisheye designed originally for 35mm film cameras, and now usable on full-frame cameras such as the Canon 1Ds or 5D. It is one of the oldest SLR lenses that Canon still manufactures: it was introduced in 1987 as one of the first generation of EF-mount lenses, and does not seem to have been updated at all in the intervening 22 years, even as most of its siblings have been replaced by newer designs.

It is a fairly compact, lightweight lens with a metal mount and a plastic shell. Build quality is fairly typical of Canon's mid-range consumer lenses. A small petal-shaped hood is built in and cannot be removed. Because the front element is convex, there are no threads to mount filters in front, though gel filters can be mounted in the back. The front lens cap, oddly, is only held in place by friction, but so far I haven't seen it fall off.

Auto-focus is provided by the Arc-Form Drive (AFD) motor that was standard in the early EF lenses, which is somewhat noisier than more modern technologies. Fortunately, it doesn't have to move very much to focus, so it still manages to focus pretty quickly. The manual-focus ring spins freely when the lens is in auto-focus mode.

Image sharpness, contrast, and color are quite good, and the lens can focus down to 20 cm (about 8"), which allows for the kind of dramatic perspectives that fisheye lenses are famous for. There are some chromatic aberrations around the edges, but these can be easily corrected in software if you're shooting digital. Every once in a while, when the sun is just out of the frame, I will see a bit of flare, though oddly this never seems to happen when the sun is actually IN the frame.

With only five aperture blades, the lens cannot be expected to deliver pretty out-of-focus highlights; on the other hand, a 15mm lens has naturally deep focus, so it can be a challenge to get anything far enough out of focus that the highlights matter. In practice, this is hardly ever a problem.

This is a fun lens that makes high-quality pictures. Despite its rather outdated design, it does a good job and I recommend it.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the best lens I own, January 2, 2006

By 

Jack Silver "silverjackphoto.com" (Springfield, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens for Canon SLR Cameras (Electronics)

Let me first start off by saying - long time canon user. I own 6 or 7 lenses, including three L series lenses, and this is by far one of my favorites - if not my absolute favorite.

I shoot mostly glamour and erotica type work on a 20D. So right there, this lens is not a true 15mm for me - but 1.6x15mm.

It's sharp as a tack. It's light weight. It's very short (I call it the nub lens). And it's autofocus is amazing.

Very little barrel distortion...

and highly recommended. This lens is probably as sharp (if not sharper) than my 24-70 2.8L or my 17-40 4.0L lens.