Canon EF 8-15 f/4L Fisheye distortion

Canon Rumors states that this lens has started shipping. I have almost zero experience with fisheye lenses, but this seems like the opportunity to get ultra, ultra wide on a FF body which will more than likely be my next purchase. My question is can the fisheye effect be completely removed in LR3 or CS5 i.e. can a shot taken at 8mm be completely straightened in PP with no remaining fisheye "distortion" of the image or can it only be partially corrected?

Stone 13 wrote in post #12833627
Canon Rumors states that this lens has started shipping. I have almost zero experience with fisheye lenses, but this seems like the opportunity to get ultra, ultra wide on a FF body which will more than likely be my next purchase. My question is can the fisheye effect be completely removed in LR3 or CS5 i.e. can a shot taken at 8mm be completely straightened in PP with no remaining fisheye "distortion" of the image or can it only be partially corrected?

no way fully corrected.

ed

thanks Ed

From the pictures with this lens and a 5D Mark II it is very wide. http://vimeo.com/27028​766

Take Care,
Cheers, Patrick

Just IMHO, you could spend $1500 in better ways that a very specialized lens like the fisheye. Personally I would look at one of the cheaper sigma fisheye lenses to see if you like it. It you really love the effect, think about upgrading.

My fisheye is easily my least used lens. It's great for when I need the effect, but that's not very often.

Every fisheye can be de-fished in software, but with extreme fisheyes like 8mm on FF the corrected image will be much less wide (probably something like 12mm, or even more), and the edges will have extremely bad quality (very soft).

Look for one of the inexpensive manual focus fisheyes and experiment with that before sinking a lot of money into an FE lens. Depth of field is so deep, you hardly need to focus. But it's a very specialized lens... I had one for years in another system and probably used it a couple dozen times at most.

thanks guys, I'm looking at FF and ultra wide angle options since I'm enjoying landscape shooting a lot more than I thought I would. From my research, it seems that 14mm is about as wide as it gets in Canon EF mount. I've been thinking about the upcoming Sigma 12-24 II but it seems to be vaporware status at this point. I probably wouldn't take advantage of the fish eye effect very often so maybe my thoughts on the 8-15 were a bit premature. I just have a desire to get as wide as possible to avoid stitching images, and since I have a body upgrade in my future, EF-S lenses are out of consideration.....

For the price of this lens you could probably pick up a used original 5D and a used 17-40L and have a very capable and versatile setup for landscape photography.

As a fish-eye fanatic and owner of 2 FE's I use A LOT, I'm definitely waiting for the 8-15/4L. What I'll say is, if you're not sure, then just get yourself a MC Peleng off ebay for $300 and give it a try. The Peleng will be the same field projection as the 8-15/4L, its a 8mm f/3.5 MF lens, its very sharp and works great. If the look aint your bag you just saved $1200+.

If you're looking for a fisheye so you can go "wider" than a rectilinear lens for Landscape photography... lemme stop you right there. You won't be happy. The distortion of a fisheye is what makes it interesting, as you go out towards the edges, the resolution and sharpness falls off dramatically. If you were to defish, the result would be a much softer image outside of the center. Thats not what you're looking for... you're looking for "edge-to-edge" sharpness and you just won't find that in a defished FE shot.

At 8mm with a FF camera it will take an image as if you are peering through the peephole of your front door

Unless you own a crop and a FF and want a lens that will give you the fisheye effect with both bodies I don't see the reason to own this.

I have the Sigma 15mm FE and it is a wonderful lens, less than half the cost of the new canon

LongDraw wrote in post #12849243
At 8mm with a FF camera it will take an image as if you are peering through the peephole of your front door

Unless you own a crop and a FF and want a lens that will give you the fisheye effect with both bodies I don't see the reason to own this...

That is one reason, but there is a use (for some people) for a circular-field fisheye, which is what the 8mm end gives you on FF. Therefore as well as providing for fisheye effects on different formats, for FF you also get two fisheye lenses; 8mm and 15mm. I do admit though that circular-field fisheyes are particularly specialised, even more than the rectangular-format variety. They were originally designed for scientific uses, such as taking a single shot to show the whole sky.

Very interesting stuff guys, once again I've been enlightened on POTN.

i want to get a FE lens but this probably isn't the best choice considering its price and how much it gets used. would def like to check it out though, what an interesting lens.