Canon has designed a fisheye lens for EOS R cameras

Fishy business! A Canon RF 8-15mm f/4 Fisheye has been designed for EOS R cameras
(Image credit: James Artaius)

Something smells fishy… and it could be because Canon has designed a fisheye zoom lens for the Canon EOS R family of full-frame mirrorless cameras. 

The manufacturer has been hard at work on the Canon RF 8-15mm f/4 Fisheye – which is a mirrorless version of one of the best fisheye lenses, the Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM for DSLRs. 

While there are plenty of creative options among the best Canon RF lenses – from the bokeh-tastic Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L DS lens to the Lensbaby Composer – something that's notably absent from the current lineup is a fisheye lens. 

So we're grateful that Canon is revisiting its classic EF optic, which boasts a 180-degree angle of view that enables you to create circular fisheye images at 8mm (giving you that distinctive "porthole effect", as shown in the image above) as well as shots with full-frame coverage (which fill the entire frame) when the lens is zoomed right in.

Canon usually makes a tweaks to something, or adds an extra bell or whistle when it produces RF equivalents of EF lenses, so it will be interesting to see if it does anything dramatic here or if it's a straight-up translation of the existing DSLR optic. 

Here are some of the details from the optical formula, unearthed from the Japanese patent registration that was spotted by Canon News

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Focal length8.1011.9715.07
F number4.104.104.10
Half angle of view91.5190.0090.32
Image height11.5017.0021.50
Lens total length111.33107.33108.91
BF13.1324.4431.63

Canon is showing no signs of slowing down with its madcap maturation of the RF mount lineup. Already we've heard that there's an Canon RF 35mm f/1.2, a Canon RF 35mm f/1.2 Defocus Smoothing version, a Canon RF 300mm f/2.8 and another RF super-telephoto coming in 2021. 

We're bowled over by how much effort the manufacturer is putting into the RF mount. Now, if it would just give us a 1:1 macro lens… 

Read more: 

Fisheye lens camera tips: get great shots with a fisheye lens for Canon and more
Photo ideas: Capture powerful sports portraits with a fisheye lens
The best fisheye lenses

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James Artaius
Editor

The editor of Digital Camera World, James has 21 years experience as a journalist and started working in the photographic industry in 2014 (as an assistant to Damian McGillicuddy, who succeeded David Bailey as Principal Photographer for Olympus). In this time he shot for clients like Aston Martin Racing, Elinchrom and L'Oréal, in addition to shooting campaigns and product testing for Olympus, and providing training for professionals. This has led him to being a go-to expert for camera and lens reviews, photo and lighting tutorials, as well as industry news, rumors and analysis for publications like Digital Camera MagazinePhotoPlus: The Canon MagazineN-Photo: The Nikon MagazineDigital Photographer and Professional Imagemaker, as well as hosting workshops and talks at The Photography Show. He also serves as a judge for the Red Bull Illume Photo Contest. An Olympus and Canon shooter, he has a wealth of knowledge on cameras of all makes – and a fondness for vintage lenses and instant cameras.