I am very pleased that Nikon has recently introduced the 8-15mm Fish-eye Zoom lens. This is a great lens to have on your full-frame camera. I used the Nikon’s first 180-degree fish-eye lens in 1966 and have been a follower of these images for decades. I own and have used the Nikkor 10.5mm fish-eye for ten years, but have missed the round 180-degree image. The new 8-15mm fish-eye zoom lens provides many opportunities to capture exciting and unusual images. The zoom capabilities to 15mm provide a wide-angle fish-eye look that fills the frame. I believe this is an important lens to have for a photographer who wants to move beyond the ordinary. Some examples of photographs that I have captured during my first month with the lens includes: An editorial photograph during the first stage production after a four million dollar theater remodeling A portrait of a beautiful young lady who has great self-esteem and was willing to pose for a fun image Photographing from inside a kids “Crawling Tunnel”. I revisited images of Arthur Rothstein, Farm Security Administration, photos of the 1930’s with the new Nikkor 8-15mm Fish-eye Zoom lens. A high school yearbook photograph of a dance team captures at 8mm for a round fish-eye image. All photographs copyrighted by Don Gorzek, 2017

I tested my many ultrawide lenses and was disappointed at how soft most of them were. I was looking for a lens that was good for underwater photography and milky way images. I was most disappointed with the Tokina 10-17 which is in every underwater photographers kit. I have two copies of that lens and both are pretty disappointing. This Nikon is an incredible lens, easily the best fisheye I have owned (I have had the old manual 16mm Nikkor, the 10.5 Nikkor, Tokina 10-17, Sea and Sea 12mm and Sigma 4.5)

I am very pleased with the lens and the lens cover. Does exactly what they say it does. Expensive, but worth it.

I have been using this lens for more than 18 months for topside and UW photography. I'm impressed with how sharp the lens is, including on the edges. The lens is equally useful at 15 mm. A quick turn and now the lens gives me almost 180 degrees. It truly is two lenses in one. Underwater, this lens allows extreme wide angle photography with a very close focusing distance. Of course you must remove the dome port protector to prevent vignetting. I attached a few examples from Fiji. To get most of my images, the lens most be only a few inches from the subject.

I bought this lens primarily to shoot marine life in an underwater housing. I have seen results from other underwater photographers, and the wide angle macro images are stunning. Can't wait to get it underwater in the Maldives this fall.

This lens makes super sharp, beautiful photos. The fisheye effect is really fun. I highly recommend.

How can I stress this enough. TAKE THE LENS HOOD OFF! I was getting a square image, no circle. I started to panic. Couldn't find anything on online about what was happening. I was getting mad. I called Nikon. They were looking into the problem. Then someone on the phone said the words lens hood. I immediately knew the problem. I took the lens hood off and voila! Problem solved. I didn't even think about it beforehand because the 14-24 has a built in lens hood that doesn't come off. Rookie mistake. Felt like a real idiot in front of the entire office. Yes, you may laugh at me. Go right ahead. Hopefully my mistake will keep you from making the same!

Like the cap far better at keeping the lens safe and for what it dose its great.

Excellent IQ. As an exotic lens, the newest Nikon 8-15 Fisheye is an exquisite creative tool. It is supremely sharp, contrasty, and saturated across all focal lengths and apertures. It is extremely sharp in the center at all focal lengths and apertures. Out of the gate, corner sharpness is excellent wide open with slight vignetting (easily corrected). Stop down to f/5.6 and the corner sharpness is outstanding and the slight vignetting is gone.

I made direct comparison in sharpness with the 14-24/2.8 lens when I first bought the fisheye lens. Overall sharpness is on par with the 14-24/2.8 if youre pixel peeping. The 8-15 fisheye has wonderful color rendition. I didnt notice any lens flare in strong lighting.


One weakness is the slight purple chromatic aberration around tree twigs against a bright sky. Good news is that its easily corrected in post with no detriment to edge delineation. The provided lens hood starts to vignette your frame below 14mm - youll have to remove it, and use a lens shade. The lens cap is great and very easy and secure.

Overall lens build quality is very good. Plastic, but light. Color rendition, contrast, sharpness are all excellent. Its the best fisheye Nikon has ever made optically. Theres a learning curve to frame your shots, but remember youre close to 180-degree F.O.V. Itll give you a unique perspective no other wide angle can provide.

This excellent lens has opened up new possibilities for my interiors photography. Typically, I will set the zoom on about 14-15mm which gives a full frame image, but still has the fisheye effect. I use Fisheye-Hemi software to covert to nearly rectilinear and do final correcting in Photoshop using the warp function. Stitching panoramas with a normal, 28mm, wide angle still gives excellent results also but the 8-15 makes it easier to use HDR with difficult lighting.