Out of all the fisheye lenses on the market, the Canon 8-15mm f/4L comes out on top. This may surprise you as it is an old lens. But its optical quality, solid build, and zoom function make this the perfect fisheye lens. Nikon has an almost identical lens, the Nikon AF-S FX 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5, so not to worry if you are a Nikon user!
Best Fisheye Lens in 2023
Here’s a quick roundup table of the best fisheye lenses in 2023. We have included a range of options from high-end to budget options. We have fisheye lenses from many brands and for many cameras and formats, so one of these will be the best fisheye for you. The Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L is the best fisheye lens available today, even though Canon made it some years ago. The second option on this list, the Nikon AF-S FX 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5, has the same focal range. And it came out a few years later. But the Canon fisheye lens still takes the upper edge. This is thanks to its amazing optical sharpness, great build, and durability. One of this lens’s main features? You can use its zoom to switch between a circular or full frame fisheye view. You will also notice it is part of Canon’s L-series, which is their flagship professional range. The Canon 8-15mm fisheye lens focal length is as wide as you will find in any photo lens. The lens has an easy-clean fluorine coating and a quiet and fast autofocus motor. Overall, it is the sharpest and most secure fisheye lens you will find on the market for full frame cameras. The Nikon AF-S FX 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5 is extremely close to its Canon rival. This fisheye lens also has a zoom function. It allows both circular and full frame fisheye shooting. These fisheye lenses also have similar specifications like sharpness and performance. But the Nikon fisheye lens deals with flares and ghosting more efficiently. You get an extra half of an aperture stop, which may be the deciding factor for some. And the fisheye lens gives sharp results from edge to edge, even with its widest f/3.5 aperture. I am a big fan of the minimum focus distance of 16 cm. This allows even more creativity and experimentation with photography. You can get right up to your subject and view it differently. If you have one of Nikon’s full frame cameras, you will enjoy using this lens. Tokina’s 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 DX is small and light, and you can find a mount for the major camera brands out there. Be aware that it is for crop sensor cameras. The price is why this lens places so far up our list. It isn’t too expensive. And it allows you to experiment with the fisheye effect without shedding a lot of money. The zoom function gives you a full frame fisheye throughout the various focal ranges. Having a zoom helps you crop your composition to the perfect frame. You can even get close to your subjects as the lens allows you to focus up close. It is not as durable as the top two fisheye options, and you must ensure it doesn’t get knocked about too much. The lens also does not have autofocus for Nikon camera bodies that do not have a focus motor. If you’re looking for the best fisheye lenses for cheap, this is a great option. The Nikon DX 10.5mm f/2.8G is another small, light fisheye lens for crop sensor cameras. And it has amazing abilities. The prime lens seems to include the whole world in the shot when you look through the viewfinder, especially as it has the diagonal fisheye effect. Its 180-degree field of view and full frame cropping makes it a spectacular fisheye lens. The lens allows for a minimum focus distance of 14 cm. This is as close as some specialist macro lenses allow you to get. You can use these extreme close-ups in many effective ways to make exciting photos. The wide f/2.8 aperture makes it ideal for shooting in low-light situations. The Nikon 10.5mm fisheye lens was the first ever fisheye Nikon made for DX cameras. You can tell the developers spent a lot of consideration over this lens. There hasn’t been another Nikon lens like it to come out since it hit the markets. The Samyang 8mm f/3.5 is one of the widest prime lenses on the photographic market. It is extremely small and light. So it won’t tire your arms when stuck on your DSLR. Samyang is a third-party camera brand, so you have the option to buy a different lens mount for your crop sensor cameras. The lens is light but includes 11 elements for the best optical performance. And there is a six-diaphragm blade aperture. This ensures smooth bokeh when shooting at wide apertures. Playing with depth of field becomes much more emphasized on a fisheye lens, so this is important. You can also control the aperture directly from the lens ring. This can be helpful for quick shooting where you don’t want to look away from the viewfinder. The manual focus ring works smoothly and is wide enough to give you added control. This can be helpful when trying to get up close to your subjects. Sigma comes onto this list with its digitally optimized full frame Sigma 15mm f/2.8 fisheye lens. Sigma spent time refining its multi-layer coating to reduce ghosting and flares. This coating is prevalent in fisheye lenses. The Sigma lens also has a minimum shooting distance of 15 cm. This allows you to take close-up macro photography. An interesting aspect of this lens is that it has a gelatin filter holder at the rear. It lets you use some filters on a fisheye lens. The front element is normally curved on fisheye lenses. So it’s very hard to use regular filters. The Sigma 15mm is another small, light lens you can pick up for cheap. I am a fan of Sigma optics and find they are great for producing products like this fun fisheye lens. The Samyang 12mm f/2.8 fisheye is a spectacular diagonal fisheye lens. Its bright and fast f/2 aperture is its selling point. It gives photographers the extra stop of light that may be crucial in certain situations. The lens also features a Nano Coating System. Samyang developed it specially for this lens. It dramatically reduces flares and ghosting. The lens gives you a less dramatic diagonal fisheye effect than lenses further up this list. It does make lines converge at the edge of the frame. This means it is the perfect lens for a landscape lover, as the fisheye effect won’t be so noticeable. It is also best for those who want the fisheye effect to be manageable. My favorite aspect is the smooth focus ring. A smooth focus ring goes a long way to make photographing in tricky situations easy. Sigma has added to its ultra-wide angle lenses with this Sigma 8mm f/3.5 EX DG circular fisheye lens. It is also one of the only full circular fisheye lenses on this list. Its f/3.5 aperture is fast for a wide-angle lens but doesn’t compare to the Samyang at position five in this list. Again, the lens features a multi-layer coating to reduce flares and ghosting. Sigma claims this fisheye lens is great for scientific applications. That’s because the circular fisheye lens can photograph such a wide area. They claim it’s great to make solid angle measurements of cloud distribution over the sky. Or it’s ideal for capturing the vegetation distribution of a rainforest canopy. It is a great option to pick if you like Sigma lenses. As the Samyang lens above is cheaper, I suggest going for that lens. But the Sigma 8mm still produces amazing fisheye photography images. 7artisans lenses are known for being fairly basic. They have no autofocus abilities. But they always produce amazing optics. This is the same for the 7artisans 10mm f/2.8 fisheye lens. This fully manual lens is specifically designed as a third-party lens for mirrorless cameras. Build quality is another factor people mention when talking about 7artisan lenses. The 10mm is built entirely out of solid metal parts. Surprisingly this doesn’t make the manual focus lens feel too heavy, but it may be one of the heaviest on this list. The lens elements make for superb image quality for an ultra-wide angle lens. Honestly, the lack of autofocus features isn’t even a dealbreaker. Focusing with a wide-angle lens is easier and more meticulous than with a telephoto lens. You may even find it enjoyable and that it adds to the creativity offered by the best fisheye lenses. The Panasonic 8mm f/3.5 G is a fisheye lens for those with a Panasonic Micro Four Thirds camera. This lens allows photographers with this camera system to access a fisheye lens. The only downside is that this fisheye lens is quite expensive. But it does have an amazing optical performance. The Panasonic lens is quite light and well-built. This means it will suit your Micro Four Thirds camera well without being too front-heavy. The lens doesn’t feature a distance scale or focus limiter. But this usually isn’t too much of an issue. One aspect that you may miss is image stabilization. Overall, it is a great diagonal fisheye lens and fills a gap for any Panasonic Micro Four Thirds photographer. The price dampens things, but it is worth it if you want this particular effect.
What Is a Fisheye Lens?
Fisheye lenses produce a unique effect found in ultra-wide angle lenses. And you can use a fisheye in many genres, from landscapes to fashion and action or sports photography. A fisheye lens is great in the kitbag if you want to add more creativity to your shooting. A fisheye lens is an ultra wide-angle optic that gives you the largest field of view available. A fisheye lens should give you at least a 180-degree field of view. The interesting aspect of a fisheye is that it isn’t a panoramic view you are trying to photograph. Instead, the straight lines converge and warp in a circular pattern. This phenomenon is usually called “barrel distortion.” You will often read about how lenses do their best to minimize this effect. But a fisheye lens embraces this distortion and pushes it to the max. This means you should avoid fisheye lenses for official documentation. And don’t use it for photos where you want real aspect ratios to match up. But this makes them perfect for the artists and creatives out there.
Circular or Full Frame Fisheye lenses?
You will notice that fisheye lenses come in two formats—circular and full frame. These formats tell us how our images will look when we shoot fisheye photography. A circular fisheye lens will have a black border around a circular image in the middle of your frame. Full frame fisheye lenses cover your entire frame like a normal lens. The full frame effect can be referred to as a diagonal fisheye effect. These two fisheye formats are circular or full frames, depending on their construction. Any photographic lens provides a field of view for the camera sensor to see. Although we think of pictures as rectangles, the light comes through a circular lens. So a circular covering power is projected into the camera. But the camera’s sensor is rectangular. So you always see a rectangle. If the lens covering power is smaller than the sensor size, you get a circular fisheye effect.
Conclusion
There are a few options available when looking at the best fisheye lenses. Consider your budget and camera format before buying. The top two options are the best all-rounders for full frame cameras. That’s because you can flip between a circular or full frame fisheye. You can apply the fisheye effect in many situations. But as a commercial photography lens, it also falls short. It can’t achieve an accurate depiction of a situation that commercial jobs often need. So before you buy, be conscious about what kind of photographs you will take. If you are a skate photographer, a fisheye is a must-have, so don’t delay picking one up. Overall, the Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L fisheye “takes the bait.” It has amazing optical quality and features. Choose this lens if you are a Canon photographer with a big budget. The Nikon AF-S FX 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5 fisheye lens is equally good if you are a Nikon photographer.
