Comparing image crops of Sony LA-EA2 and Sony LA-EA4 on Sony ILCE-7 (with Sony SAL70200G @ 200mm)

Today I did some tests with the two lens adapters Sony LA-EA2 and Sony LA-EA4, which can be used to adapt a lens with a Sony A-mount to a camera with an Sony E-mount. In another article I already compared looks and weigth of the two adapters. In this article I focus on the different image crops when you use the two adapters on a full frame camera with E-mount. I used a Sony ILCE-7 for my tests. On a Sony ILCE-7r the crops are the same, but you get a higher pixel count.

I only tested the Sony 70-200/2.8 (SAL70200G) at 200mm. I used the lens collar of the lens to attach it to a tripod. The lens, the tripod and the subject were not moved after that.

The first image shows the result when using the LA-EA4. The resulting image is the full resolution of the sensor.

Image when using the SAL70200G with LA-EA4 on a Sony ILCE-7 (@ 200mm)
Image when using the SAL70200G with LA-EA4 on a Sony ILCE-7 (@ 200mm)

For the second image I only exchanged the LA-EA4 with the older LA-EA2. For this image I used the following configuration of the camera: Menu → Custom Settings (gear icon) → 5 → APS-C Size Capture → Off. You can clearly see the shading of the LA-EA2 on the sensor. The maximum manual crop is marked with the green rectangle.

Image when using the SAL70200G with LA-EA2 on a Sony ILCE-7 (@ 200mm, maximum crop)
Image when using the SAL70200G with LA-EA2 on a Sony ILCE-7 (@ 200mm, maximum crop)

For the next image I only changed one setting in the camera: Menu → Custom Settings (gear icon) → 5 → APS-C Size Capture → On. The resulting image showed an even larger crop than the second image but no shading of the adapter. In postprocessing I superpositioned the two images to be able to mark the camera crop in the second image. This is the result.

Image when using the SAL70200G with LA-EA2 on a Sony ILCE-7 (@ 200mm, camera crop)
Image when using the SAL70200G with LA-EA2 on a Sony ILCE-7 (@ 200mm, camera crop)

In the last image I used the first taken picture and marked the three different crops. The red marker is the LA-EA4, the green marker is the LA-EA2 with maximum manual crop and the blue marker is LA-EA2 with cropping enabled in camera.

Comparison of image crops when using LA-EA2 and LA-EA4 in a Sony ILCE-7
Comparison of image crops when using LA-EA2 and LA-EA4 in a Sony ILCE-7

The maximum manual crop (which is equivalent to the unshaded area of the sensor) will differ when you use a different lens. And it also differs with different focal lengths of a zoom lens. But this needs some more testing.

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

Shaving the lens hood of the Samyang (Bower, Rokinon, Walimex) 8mm fisheye lens for usage on the Sony E-mount with full-frame sensors

The Samyang 8mm/2.8 UMC II fisheye lens is available for several camera mounts (Canon M, Fujifilm X, Samsung NX and Sony E). It is designed as a full frame fisheye which covers 180° from corner to corner on these aforementioned mounts with their respective sensor sizes. But since the introduction of the Sony cameras with E-mount and full frame sensor there is an interesting new option for panoramic photographers.

In all the featured examples of this post I just took a picture of a white piece of paper bended around the lens which I converted to a black and white image afterwards.

If you mount the lens in its original state on a Sony ILCE-7 (or ILCE-7r) then you get an image which looks something like this.

Samyang 8mm/2.8 UMC Fisheye on Sony ILCE-7 (original lens hood)
Samyang 8mm/2.8 UMC Fisheye on Sony ILCE-7 (original lens hood)

You can clearly see, that the lens hood shades a good part of the image. Which is of course a bad thing if we want to shoot a spherical with this lens.

In the next example I therefore used a side cutter to remove the plastic lens hood on the longer side of the sensor.

Samyang 8mm/2.8 UMC Fisheye on Sony ILCE-7 (lens hood of long side shaved)
Samyang 8mm/2.8 UMC Fisheye on Sony ILCE-7 (lens hood of long side shaved)

And in the final example I removed as much of the lens hood as I could. This is the final resulting image.

Samyang 8mm/2.8 UMC Fisheye on Sony ILCE-7 (lens hood completely shaved)
Samyang 8mm/2.8 UMC Fisheye on Sony ILCE-7 (lens hood completely shaved)

In this state the lens covers approximately 190° on the long side of the sensor. With three or four images easily covering the full sphere the final equirectangular is 10000 pixels by 5000 pixels in size on a Sony ILCE-7.

You can already find a daylight, blue hour and indoor example from Markus which were all shot with a shaved version of the lens and a Sony ILCE-7.

Additional remark

The shown images were produced with an Samyang 8mm/2.8 UMC II fisheye lens on a SONY ILCE camera with a full frame sensor. You can gat a nearly identical result if you use the Samyang 7mm/3.5 UMC fisheye lens with a SONY ILCE camera with APS-C sized sensor and an micro 4/3 to E-mount adapter.

Bavarian Ministry of Justice Atrium

This panorama shows the atrium of the Bavarian Ministry of Justice in Munich.
[pano file=”https://www.panotwins.de/wp-content/panos/MMatern_20140107_1741_Justizpalast_Halle.xml” preview=”https://www.panotwins.de/wp-content/panos/MMatern_20140107_1741_Justizpalast_Halle.jpg”]

Geotag Icon Show on map






QR Code Business Card