Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens

by Philip Greenspun; created 1996

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I got hold of this lens because I wanted to do some technical photography. We needed to show the view of a radar sensor that "sees" in a hemisphere and hence wanted a lens with a 180 degree angle of view. The Canon EOS 15 fisheye has an advertised 180 degree angle of view but it turns out to be corner-to-corner along the diagonal. It isn't nearly as wide as a true hemispherical view. So I had to get hold of a Nikon 6/2.8 lens, a $14,000 monster that is not exactly pocketable.

So what did I do with the Canon? Had some fun. It is a $700 lens so you don't have to live in constant terror that your dog will smush his wet nose against the front element. It is compact, not much bigger than a 20, and well-constructed. It will inspire you to think about creative ways to use its distortion.

This is not a lens for every day, but in some ways I think I like it better than my 14mm rectilinear wide angle which was vastly more expensive. Oh yes, as you can see from the example photos, this is a "full-frame fisheye" which means that it covers the entire 35mm frame to the corners.