Images of shaved Samyang (Bower, Rokinon, Walimex) 8mm fisheye lens attached to Sony A7 (ILCE-7)

In the last article I showed the resulting images on the sensor at the different stages of shaving the Samyang (Bower, Rokinon, Walimex) 8mm/2.8 UMC fisheye lens.

The following picture shows one side of the box of the Walimex version of the lens. It also shows the lens hood in its original state.

The Box of the Walimex 8mm Fisheye
The Box of the Walimex 8mm Fisheye

The following images show the lens with already shaved lens hood.

Walimex 8mm/2.8 Fisheye with shaved lens hood
Walimex 8mm/2.8 Fisheye with shaved lens hood
Walimex 8mm/2.8 Fisheye with shaved lens hood
Walimex 8mm/2.8 Fisheye with shaved lens hood

The last image shows the lens attached to a Sony ILCE-7.

Walimex 8mm/2.8 Fisheye with shaved lens hood on Sony ILCE-7
Walimex 8mm/2.8 Fisheye with shaved lens hood on Sony ILCE-7

Author: PanoTwin Jürgen

PanoTwin Jürgen → My Portfolio

15 thoughts on “Images of shaved Samyang (Bower, Rokinon, Walimex) 8mm fisheye lens attached to Sony A7 (ILCE-7)”

  1. Hi Juergen,

    Thanks for posting about the SamYang. I have the same setup and am ready to shave the lens hood.

    If I squeeze the hood a little all the plastic of the hood reacts a bit. So I was thinking if I could break the hood and detach it from the lens. It seems like the hood is not screwed but is just a kind of clamp? If that is true it would be much cleaner and easier to customize the lens.

    Ruud

    1. Well, I’ve tried it but the plastic ring falls very deep into the lens and would leave a huge gap. So I carried on like you did. Indeed a big difference in field of view.

  2. Hi, is it possible to attach the lens cap after you shave the hood? I see there is a small hood left, but is it enough to hold the cap in place?

    1. Yes, I still use the original lens cap. But I put some insulating tape on the inside of the lens cap. I placed it in the area where the lens cap touches the remains of the hood. This is enough to keep the cap in place.

  3. Hello there,

    Nice article, I was wondering about quality of te pictures. This lens is designed for aps-c sensor camera’s, but the sony a7r is a full frame. Do you see any quality loss in the pictures?

    what tripod system do you use for capturing your 360 images? 360 precision has a quick system (atome head). does something similar exist for this lens?

    kind regards,
    jay

    1. Hi Jay,

      the lens delivers great quality images on the A7! Just see some of the resulting panoramas:
      Sculpture Umschreibung – Inside
      Luitpoldpark in February (High Pole Shot)
      Bavarian Ministry of Justice Atrium

      The big PROs of the lens are:

      • Small and lightweight
      • Almost no chromatic aberration
      • Very large field of view when mounted on a full frame camera (over 185° on the long side of the sensor)

      Depending on the shooting situation I use it handheld, or mounted with an ASTAT-NEX adapter holder. This fits by chance both the Walimex 7.5mm and 8mm fish eye lenses quite nice. When you want an integrated rotater you could go for this one.
      Hope this helps,
      PanoTwin Markus

      1. Hey Marcus,

        your photo’s look great, the dynamic range of the sony a7 is really amazing. I’m going for the rotator. thanks for sharing 🙂

        kind regards,
        jay

  4. Hi Juergen and Markus

    Thanks for nice article and comments! I used to have the Samyang 7.5mm FE for m43s, and loved it! Now that I’ve migrated to an A7, I’m really tempted to get the e-mount version too.

    Besides shaving off the hood, do I need to remove the baffle behind the lens as well? Or the vignetting totally disappears once the hood has been shaved off?

    Thanks again, and appreciate your advise!

    1. Hi Francis,

      when you lalready loved the 7.5mm you will also love the 8mm! I have both lenses and like them both very much!

      After shaving the lens hood you are ready to go! No need to do anything else. See the images in the following post to see the result after shaving: http://www.panotwins.de/post.php?p=5142

      Hope this helps,
      PanoTwin Markus

      1. with 7.5mm 43 lens on A6000, I got lens flare where direction of lights comes. Even indoor light makes the picture at the corner soft. Do you get the same?

        1. Yes, in certain angles I also get lens flares. But usually only from a strong light source (like the sun). If it get’s too strong I deal with it in post-processing.

  5. Thanks for the info on the lens. I am considering getting this for my A7 and I was wondering if you have any examples of just images taken with the shaved 8mm – non pano. I cannot seem to find any.

    Thanks, Cory

  6. Hey there,

    Very interesting article. On a slightly different note, seeing as how you have quite a knowledge of this lens, I too have a samyang 2.8 8mm fisheye that I am using on a Fuji Xpro1. I recently discovered that I am having some focusing issues, where it refuses to focus on objects close at wide open apertures. I never had an issue before this realization, and admittedly, I did drop the lens once on carpet. I’m curious if you have ever read anywhere on disassembling this lens, and if there is anyway to calibrate it that you’ve read anywhere. I have seen a pdf that guides you through calibrating a similar lens, but not the 2.8 8mm Samyang. Have you encountered anything on this topic? Any info would be wonderful. Thanks!

    1. Hi Bill,
      sorry, I never came across anything regarding lens adjustments as a DIY project:-(
      Apart from removing one of the distance rings in the Walimex 7.5mm fish eye I myself also never opened a lens.
      Hope you get it fixed,
      PanoTwin Markus

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