This small and beautiful lens was one of the first Samyang lenses produced for micro 4/3. I say beautiful because it gives really outstanding quality for the price and for many years has been the only cheap alternative to have a diagonal fisheye on micro 4/3 cameras.
This lens is NOT TO BE CONFUSED with Samyang 8mm f2.8, which has a larger image circle and was made for APS-c sensors.
The lens has been rebranded also by Walimex and Rokinon, depending on the importer of each country. Was available in black or grey paint versions, beware the gray paint nicks easily leaving you with a visibly plastic and ugly lens.
A video geared version is available too, named Samyang 7.5mm T3.8 Cine UMC Fish-eye presenting a quite more modern finishing and declicked aperture.
Lens conversion:
This nice and sharp lens has its use in panorama VR photography too. If the mount could be converted and the hood removed, you could use it as cropped circular fisheye on APS-C sensors making a panorama with 4 shots around only… Well, a micro/43 to Sony E converter does exist. A bit flimsy but it was all what we had
Nodal Ninja came to help, making a full DIY adapter
from Fanotec Nodal Ninja page
“It is found that when adapted to a camera with APS-C (larger) sensor, it will give a 180 degree coverage along the width of image sensor with high sensor area utilization and high image quality. Only 4 shots around are necessary to complete a spherical panorama. It is very small and lightweight. Together with a matching pano head such as Nodal Ninja R1 and R10, it is the ideal portable set up for making quick single row spherical panorama.”
So Nodal Ninja offers a modification kit, for Samsung NX, Sony E, Canon EF-M, and Fuji-X. The kit includes the tools, the mount, the socket with Arcaswiss mount, the rear cap, and a special hood thatstill allows the use of the original front cap. Removing the mount socket and the front hood is really easy, and the only word to define this DIY kit is CLEVER, complete, nothing left to case and fully reversible.
THINGS TO LOOK AFTER CLOSELY:
1: Not all cameras are compatible, have a look to the compatibility tables.
2: Some conversions have a special release button when the conversion could obstruct the reach of the camera release button
3: you can also just buy the bayonet part and the modified hood if you prefer to use another panohead or a 3rd party adapter.
links
- dpreview announcement, sep 2011
- manufacturer’s page
- NN conversion kits EU (Panosociety)
- NN conversion kits USA (Freedom360)
- Tomshot 360 lens rings
