The AF-S FISHEYE NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED lens was announced and shipped in late May 2017. It is designed for use with both full frame (FX) and cropped (DX) sensor cameras, offering differing 175° to 180° field of view on an FX camera and 110° to 180° on a DX. On FX, this makes it possible to achieve full circle fisheye with ports that have shades that can be removed.

On DX, the equivalent focal range is (potentially) 15 to 22.5mm. However, the lens vignettes at a focal length of 10.5mm or less, so this portion of the zoom range is unusable unless you are prepared to crop the vignette out.

The lens has 15 elements, in 13 groups. Of these 3 feature Extra-low Dispersion (ED) glass elements and two are Aspherical (AS) which combat chromatic aberration and color fringing for improved sharpness and contrast. It also has Nikon’s antireflective Nano Crystal Coat (N) on internal lens elements which helps to reduce ghosting and lens flare.

The front and rear elements of the lens have Nikon’s protective Fluorine coating and the lens barrel is dust and moisture resistant. It is supplied with a 2 piece lens hood and lens cap, both of which can be removed if required.

Fisheye lenses are very much a staple lens choice for underwater use, so the release of a new top end version is very relevant to underwater photographers.

Wetpixel were fortunate enough to get hold of a lens very early, and have been testing it extensively since. Many thanks to Dale Photographic for pulling out all the stops out to get one in our hands.

We have undertaken testing in fresh water and the pool in the UK, along with a weeks of testing by Alex Mustard in the Egyptian Red Sea. We do plan more testing so will be adding more comments about the lens both here and on the extensive thread about the lens on the Wetpixel forum.

Page 1: Introduction.
Page 2: Nikon 8-15mm Red Sea Portfolio by Alex Mustard.
Page 3: The Nikon AF-S FISHEYE NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED on FX cameras.
Page 4: The Nikon AF-S FISHEYE NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED on DX cameras.
Page 5: The Nikon AF-S FISHEYE NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED: Working Conclusions.