This month’s cover of Montana Magazine features a fall image of mine created with one of my favorite and least used lenses that I own. This shot reminded me of  how cool a perspective Canon’s 15mm 2.8 Fisheye Lens gives you and how it can make a somewhat ordinary scene take on a whole new look.

If you’re not familiar with Fisheye lenses, they have been around forever and are more of what’s considered a specialty lens due to the extreme distortion and wide angle they give you. Canon’s 15mm Fisheye is an older lens with excellent image quality, but a somewhat dated autofocus motor. Aside from the autofocus, this lens is very sharp and has excellent contrast. This particular Fisheye lens fills the whole image with a 180 degree angle of view, so in tight quarters you can fit an awful lot into the scene. I tend to use this lens for almost all types of photography I do from not only landscapes, but to commercial work, and even some unique portraiture. However, it’s one of those lenses that only comes out for those right moments which seem far and few between and that’s why it may be one of my least used lenses, but absolutely one I would never part with. One thing for sure, the results are  always stellar when I use it.
Canon has also released an update this year to this lens with their new 8mm-15mm Fisheye  which gives you the choice of having a unique circular image or one that fills the whole frame. It also has been updated to Canon’s “L” status for superior optics. However I still consider the older 15mm to be a real gem and probably wouldn’t upgrade unless mine bites the dust.

So if you’re looking for something new to inspire  your photography, I highly recommend taking a look at this awesome little lens. It can turn a sometimes mundane scene into something a little more lively.