Canon Wide-Converter 0.7X - A cheap way to true wide angle ?

[luisalegria]

Like a lot of other people with a crop-sensor DSLR, I have been looking for a proper wide angle lens for this thing, yet I have been unwilling to spend a lot of money for it. The widest I have is a Vivitar (Cosina) 19mm, which isn't quite like a 28mm.

So I thought to try one of those wide-converters that are all over ebay, not the 0.45X plastic fisheye things, but a quality one, a 0.7x perhaps, just to adjust for the crop - 1.5 x 0.7 = 1, more or less. This way my 19mm and 24mm's can be their own selves.

Member LucisPictor had a nice test of some of these, very kindly posted after I inquired on the subject -

http://forum.mflenses.com/wide-angle-adapters-0-6x-0-7x-t11972.html

But the quality ones like Raynox are expensive (for a toy), from $70 and up. I lucked out - I found a Canon 0.7x that was internally hazed and I picked it up very cheap indeed. A little (well, it was difficult, I had to drill) disassembly and cleaning and its as good as new. Just right for an experiment.



It turns out to vignette on my 19mm, but its just fine on my SMC Pentax 24/2.8, making it a 17mm, more or less. I took it out on a nice sunny day.

The quality is, frankly, not that good. Actually, on the corners its just plain awful, and it adds lots of the fish-eye distortion on my otherwise very rectilinear Pentax 24. Well, I was warned. On the other hand, the effect on some compositions is quite striking. Not a great solution, but a tool for the kit. The Raynox would probably be better.



















crop center -



crop corner -

[Rob Leslie]

I have a few of these wide converters and for the price some are OK 'For effect'
In that remark I don't include my (Not so cheap) Canon 0.7 converters for the A series and the G5. There could be the problem with the one you have all the Canon converters are made for a specific range of cameras. I don't know if they do one for their DSLRs but I have never seen or heard of one.
On the cheap side I do use three. A Raydawn Delux Super wide .42X which performs well on my Lensbaby. Not a hard task as the edges of lensbaby are always blurred!
I also use a Lenmar Super Wide Semi Fish-Eye on P&S. It is good fun and results are just OK.
Another one I have is a cheap Hong Kong one 'Digital High Definition .42 which is nearer .06 with little distortion and pretty good results (On P&S) in fact it isn't far away from the Canon models which cost 3 times as much.
All of these converters are fun and give reasonable results on P & S cameras and a print size of no bigger than 10 x 8 inches. I have had (IMO) some great wide and fisheye shots from the Canon G5 with them but they are a waste of time on DSLR unless used with a lens like lensbaby.
Buy a Zenitar and a Peleng.

PS At web size I think your results are pretty good. Enjoy playing with it.