Canon RF-S 3,9mm f/3.5 STM DUAL Fisheye VR lens announced

Tuesday 11 June 2024, 17:17 by Elja Trum | 1,966 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Canon has announced the Canon RF-S 3,9mm f/3.5 STM DUAL Fisheye today. This lens lets you create footage for virtual reality headsets. It also works for photos, but in practice it will mainly be used for video.

Dual fisheye lenses contain two separate lenses placed next to each other to simulate people's eyes.

Each lens captures an image from a slightly different perspective, creating two separate images that correspond to the view of the left and right eye. This stereoscopic effect makes depth perception in VR possible.

I currently have its bigger brother, the Canon RF 5,2mm f/2.8 Dual Fish-eye, in for review. It is great fun to work with, but also a bit more complex than normal photography or filming.

Combined with a VR headset, such as a Meta Quest 3, you can create some really cool experiences. You see everything with depth, and it feels as though you are really there.


The lens is made for cameras with an APS-C-sized sensor, such as the Canon EOS R7. However, that camera only has a 4K video resolution.

That is actually too little for good VR footage, as the 4K is divided between two eyes. Future cameras will surely also support 8K and higher resolutions.

The new 144-degree angle of view offers a smaller field of view than VR180 footage, which its bigger brother can produce. A possible advantage is that it is easier for the viewer to keep their attention on the subject that matters.

You will also be less likely to have a foot, lamp or tripod leg in the frame. So you can look around less far, but there is often very little interesting to see at the edges anyway.

There are also improvements compared with its full-frame counterpart. The RF-S 3,9mm f/3.5 is Canon's first 3D lens with autofocus and has a One Shot Autofocus (AF) setting. That is more useful than you might expect, because it is difficult to judge the focus properly with the 2x fisheye image.

The lens also has a filter holder positioned at the rear for both screw-in and gelatin filters. This is new as well.

Price and availability

The Canon RF-S 3,9mm f/3.5 STM DUAL FISHEYE will have a recommended retail price of 1,319.99 euros. It is not yet known when it will become available.

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