Quick Hack: How To Add An ND Filter Gel On Rokinon/Samyang Fisheye Lens

Adding an ND filter to a fisheye lens is not always easy and in some cases it might not be possible at all. The good guys from cheesycam came up with a really cool solution which can cost you just a few dollars and produce apparently very decent results.

The Rokinon/Samyang 7.5mm 1:3.5 UMC Fish-eye lens (under $280 on Amazon) for micro four third cameras is a tiny little fish-eye lens with a pretty decent image quality in a very compact form factor. The only drawback – this lens doesn’t support filters (because of its front element). The cheesycam guys came up with an interesting low cost solution – adding a DIY drop filter in the back of the lens (this is a very common way of adding a filter to long range telephoto lenses but typically not to ultra wide angle ones).

All you need is a thin filter gel that you can connect to the back of the lens – the guys from cheesycam used inexpensive Rosco Cinegel 1.5 Inch X 3.25 Inch Swatchbook ($4.5 on Amazon). Now, they claim this will not interfere with the operation of the lens/camera in anyway – this might be true but you are putting something that does not belong inside your camera just in front of your sensor – so please do this at your own risk. Otherwise the demo looks cool and you get an ND filter with supposedly decent quality (at least for video) for under $5.

If you are unfamiliar with the use of ND filters – make sure you check out these videos on the subject here on LensVid.

You can also check out many more interesting DIY photography projects here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.