Canon Announces Dual Fisheye Lens for VR Shooting

Canon has introduced the RF 5.2mm F2.8L Dual Fisheye lens, a lens for EOS R5 cameras for 180-degree VR recording. The lens is for sale from December and costs 2240 euros.

The two forward-facing lenses have a 190-degree field of view and project the two images onto the camera’s sensor. The lens’ design provides “perfect alignment and synchronization” compared to dual-sensor systems. The single sensor also avoids ‘subtle variations in image quality and exposure’, says Canon. The distance between the two lenses is 60mm.

The Dual Fisheye’s lenses have a SWC coating to suppress flare and reflection from sunlight. The lens also supports gelatin ND filters and has an aperture of f/2.8 to f/16. For the time being, the lens is only compatible with the EOS R5. This camera needs a firmware update before it can handle the new lens. The two lenses can be focused together at the same time. It is also possible to focus an individual lens with an Allen key. Furthermore, the lens is dust and moisture resistant, it measures 121.1 x 83.6 x 53.5 mm and weighs 350 grams.

In order to use the images captured with the lens, Canon has also announced the EOS VR Utility software and the EOS VR Plug-in for Adobe Premiere Pro. These process the images from rectangles to VR images. It allows users to process and export the VR videos and photos in various resolutions and codecs, with up to 8K files. The software is free for photos and short videos, while videos longer than two minutes require a paid subscription.