{"id":8847,"date":"2011-08-06T04:28:17","date_gmt":"2011-08-06T08:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=8847"},"modified":"2017-08-12T13:55:25","modified_gmt":"2017-08-12T17:55:25","slug":"review-canon-ef-8-15mm-f4l-fisheye-zoom-lens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/review-canon-ef-8-15mm-f4l-fisheye-zoom-lens\/","title":{"rendered":"review: Canon EF 8-15mm f\/4L fisheye zoom lens"},"content":{"rendered":"

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review: Canon EF 8-15mm f\/4L fisheye zoom (lens review)<\/h1>\n

Venturing out again after posting a few\u00a0photos shot with the Canon EF 8-15mm f\/4L fisheye zoom<\/a>, I tried for a more diverse range of images to show what this lens is capable of … and also compare it with the Canon 15mm f2.8 fish-eye lens to see how the brand-new zoom lens stacks up against the older fixed focal length lens.<\/p>\n

I was brave enough to try this lens at 15mm for some funky urban portraits of a model, Kate. Bendy! The trick here is to keep as even as possible and not tilt the lens up or down, or else you risk making your subject look cartoonish. So I crouched down a bit, and worked at belly-button level, keeping the camera as level as possible.<\/p>\n

I think the image works, but I do believe a fish-eye is a limited lens in terms of portraits. Even full-length portraits. As mentioned in the previous article on this lens<\/a>, the fish-eye look can quickly feel over-done when there is a great number of images with the same look. The distorted view that a fish-eye gives, tends to pulls too much attention to the lens’ effect itself.<\/p>\n

Next up, I photographed dance performers working at a promotional event.<\/p>\n

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When zoomed to 8mm on a full-frame camera such as the\u00a0Canon 5D mk II, the lens gives this surreal circular image. The field of view is an impressive 180 degrees. It’s near impossible not to get your own feet or shadow in the image.<\/p>\n

With this, I do believe the Canon 8-15mm fisheye zoom will end up being used as a dual focal-length lens when used on a full-frame camera. Photographers will either use it at (or around) 15mm where there is no vignetting, or go for the full effect. Inbetween focal lengths show a very specific vignette, with the image cut off by an ever-increasing black circle.<\/p>\n

As an example, here is an image shot at 12mm and the distinct black vignette is there. Without it appearing as that circular shape, it just looks intrusive to my eye.<\/p>\n

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But the beauty of using a camera with a high megapixel count, like the Canon 5D mk2, is that you can crop your image and still end up with a high-resolution photograph. (Here is the same image, cropped down to 13 megapixels, losing the black edges to the frame.)<\/p>\n

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