EF 8-15mm Panos compared

Every panographer need this!

The EF 8-15mm is a genius idea by the folks at Canon. Fits a fullframe camera, full circular fisheye at 8mm and 15mm at the other end. Are they guys at Canon shooting a lot of panoramas?! cos’ this is elegantly engineered like all Canon L Lenses and is just great fun to shoot with.

The Sigma 8mm has been our primary working lens for a while now and is generally great lens shooting 4 shots panoramas but thetime do come when higher resolutions panoramas is requested. For displaying on larger displays, projected…and shooting 4 shots even with a 5D MK2 of 22mp seemed lacking.

That’s when we bring out the Canon EF 15mm f/2.8

Below: The 2 lenses.

With the 8-15mm, you can shoot 4 shots around to freeze busy areas for panoramas and 6 shots around at 15mm for higher resolution when needed. All with a single lens! Nodal point set to the same. No adjustment needs on a Nodal Ninja 3! Time saving much! Below:  Sigma 8mm and the Canon EF 8-15mm with the lens hood on.

Below: Sigma 8mm with the 360 Precision Atome lens ring attached. All hoods removed.

Below: The AF button placement on the Sigma and the Canon

Panorama Compared All below shot with same lens on a 5DMK3.

Click image to launch panoramas. 15mm 6 around, 60 degrees each shot
– PTGui reports 14,620 x 7310 pixel as Maximum output allowed
– Image is output as 10,000 pixel x 5000 pixel

15mm 8 around, 45 degrees each shot
– PTGui reports 14,428 x 7214 pixel as Maximum output allowed
– Image is output as 10,000 pixel x 5000 pixel

On a 5D MK2

15mm 6 around, 60 degrees each shot

15mm 8 around, 45 degrees each shot

Summary

Allowing panos to be shot at 8mm or 15mm or anything in between for that matter, allows a panographer to be travelling light leaving more to concentrate on shooting than worrying about the weight and at times, distances needed to cover a single location. Lugging around all those gears will just be inefficient.

All above shot with a Nodal Ninja 3 and a RD8 rotator allowing easy changing of the click stops with just a few spins of the knob to loosen then another few spins into the desired degree clicks (90, 45, 60) It allows a panographer to decide on the spot to shoot 4 shot pano. Allowing freezing of the scene when there’s a lot of movement of people or objects or shoot at higher resolutions of 6 shots at 15mm.

It’s a good, flexible and valuable arsenal in any panographer’s bag. Buy it, no matter the cost!