Raynox Lenses

[MackRoe]

A while back I found a site online for Raynox Lenses, http://www.raynox.co.jp/english/digital/egdigital.htm, which are compatible with the G3. I ordered three lenses, the DCR1850 Pro Telephoto, which gives a 1.85X or 259 mm (in 35MM comparisons) the DCR-5000 0.5X Super-Wide Angle lens, and the DCR-250 Super Macro/Close-up lens. While I've found some really super results with the Telephoto & Macro lenses, I've yet to much use the Wide-Angle lense due to its fisheye effects. Most of my shots with the above two lenses have been positive, but I get some of what I believe is known as "barrel distortion" with the telephoto set at its widest angle position, and an inability to focus it at its most telephoto position. The macro lense has taken some extraordinary shots, but it must be used with a small tripod and the G3's remote, with a good measure of patience thrown in.
These lenses appear to be made of high quality Japanese glass, they do require an adapter like Canon's LADC-58B or another 3rd-party vendors adapter to fit onto the G3. I'm still learning so much of the G3's systems, I feel like a newbie, but I've gotten some pretty good results, and would post them here if I knew how to. Also, is there anybody out there who has tried aftermarket lenses such as these, who could give me a comparison with Canon's lenses, whether its better to go with Canon's lenses since they were designed with the G3 in mind as a platform. Thanks for any assistance, and I hope the Raynox site is helpful.

[Biko]

I've got the raynox DCR - FE 180 pro wide angle and pleased with it as I do 360 x 360 panoramas, It is heavy and get some vignetting. Got the canon DC58N and not noticed much difference between the two in terms of pic quality.

MackRoe, to show a pic upload to some webspce and if you put url into img tags pic will appear on page, click on help shoiws how

[MackRoe]

Biko.....Thanks for your response, but I'm still unsure how to post a photo to this venue..somewhere ? Also is it normal to get some problems on each end of a telephoto lens such as I describe, like barrel distortion at the wide angle setting, and inability to focus at furthest telephoto setting ?? I am badly in need of the original size instruction manuals that came with the G3 for the camera itself and the ZoomBrowser software. I've downloaded Canon's pdf file for the camera manual, but it prints out at 8 1/2 x 11 inches, so 200 pages of that puppy requires a binder notebook as big as a suitcase. Any suggestions would be major league appreciated.........Take care, dude.....Stephen Hill

[Biko]

You need to get webspace, free ones include http://www.boomspeed.com which is easy to use and you get a free 1mb account, there are others about as well.

Just upload pics to it and insert image tags, [ img ]]http://www.yourpic.jpg[ /img ] without the spaces I created between brackets.

I don't have a focussing problem with the Raynox on telephoto, as for barrel distortion yes it is noticable but I use photovista panorama tool which corrects this. If you have photoshop you can download Helmut Dersch's free tool http://www.dpreview.com/learn/Image_Techniques/Barrel_Distortion_Correction_01.htm

[vdb007]

Hi Mackroe,

I would appreciate if you could tell me where to buy these raynox lenses ???

Thanks !!!

[Biko]

Do a google search Raynox for your country and see who sells them, I live in the UK and only 1 company sells them.

[vdb007]

Hi Mackroe,

In addtion to the Canon adaptor did you buy the raynox RA5258 adapter as well ??? coz when you look at the lens it suggests to buy RA5258+Canon LA-DC58B adapter and when I searched the RA5258 it says it compatible with Sony and for G3's they are suggesting RT5246GI.

I am a bit confused now, hope you could advise. Thanks !!!!

[MackRoe]

007......If you will go back and read my 1st post to this Forum and click on the URL (Raynox website) it will take you to the Raynox site. From there, make a decision which lenses you need, then call this company in New York that I ordered them from. The outfit is called Digital Distributors at 800 774-7282, you can ask for a guy named Sam. Anybody that answers can help you, but he was very helpful to me. Don't say I said so, but they will negotiate the price of the lenses if you order 2 or 3 lenses like I did, I just complained about the cost and said I needed a break on the money, and they cut it a little bit. As far as adapters, I got mine from another company I found on the web, but then had to go get step down rings, ect...it was quite a hassle, just ask Sam what you need to make the lenses fit onto a G3. Hope that helps you, man.......Later.....MackRoe

[MackRoe]

007....Hey, my friend, I just remembered what company I got my adapters from, its a company called LensMate,
at http://www.lensmateonline.com/g3.html. Their adapters are aluminum, not plastic like Canon's adapter, and they cost less, too. The lady I dealt with there was Susan Doel, she hooked me up and was very nice. Tell Susan what lenses you are buying from Raynox and what the thread millimeters are, and ask her if you will step-down rings. If you need those, I used B & H in new York, but Digital Distributors also has the. Hope that helps as well........MackRoe

[Man-Fai Wong]

Errr... Are you sure you're talking about barrel distortion at the wide end for your Raynox tele?? I'd think you get very bad vignetting problem anywhere near the wide end -- too much to worry about any barrel distortion.

OR are you actually talking about your Raynox wide converter?

_Man_

[MackRoe]

Fai-Wong....I believe your questioning what I am calling "barrel distortion" is right. I've found out tonight while surfing that what I thought was barrel distortion was actually something else. What happens when I pull my telephoto lense to its widest-angle setting is that I actually see a dark circle on my LCD screen, and if you shoot a shot with it in that configuration, your picture will show the dark circle as well. Maybe what I' seeing is the adapter, but I'm unsure. What exactly is vignetting...dark corners on the edges of your shot ? I'm wondering if the Canon Telephoto lense would give me the problems I'm having with this Raynox lense. The "out of focus" situation which arises when I try and use the digital zoom setting (14x) with the telephoto lense, will go away if I come back to a 11X setting. Perhaps with the Raynox or any telephoto lense, the digital zoom shouldn't be used. Any suggestions will be most appreciated..........MackRoe

[Man-Fai Wong]

MackRoe wrote:
Fai-Wong....I believe your questioning what I am calling "barrel distortion" is right. I've found out tonight while surfing that what I thought was barrel distortion was actually something else. What happens when I pull my telephoto lense to its widest-angle setting is that I actually see a dark circle on my LCD screen, and if you shoot a shot with it in that configuration, your picture will show the dark circle as well. Maybe what I' seeing is the adapter, but I'm unsure. What exactly is vignetting...dark corners on the edges of your shot ?

Yes, what you're seeing is vignetting. I believe it's the lens barrel blocking the light needed for wider angles. This is typical of tele converters. Most tele's won't let you zoom out more than a couple steps from the full tele end before vignetting begins to show (as dark corners that increase to the "dark circle" effect as you keep zooming out).

I'm wondering if the Canon Telephoto lense would give me the problems I'm having with this Raynox lense.

The Canon tele (at least the 1.75x) is better than most in this regard. It lets you zoom out maybe 5 steps from full tele before vignetting begins to show up.

It also helps a little to avoid the need for any step-up/down rings that add distance between the G3 lens and the tele itself. You might get an extra step or two in zoom range by avoiding step rings.

The "out of focus" situation which arises when I try and use the digital zoom setting (14x) with the telephoto lense, will go away if I come back to a 11X setting. Perhaps with the Raynox or any telephoto lense, the digital zoom shouldn't be used. Any suggestions will be most appreciated..........MackRoe

Try to avoid digital zooming beyond one or two steps. Digital zoom is just interpolation. It's just taking the center of the CCD and blowing it up, which is why it looks "out of focus". You can do some sharpening in post-processing to help, but it won't ever be as good as strictly optical zoom w/ good lenses.

If you add a 1.85x tele converter and use just 1 digital zoom step, you'll already exceed 10x zoom overall. At 2 digital zoom steps, you'll be at ~13x zoom.

Also, at these long zooms, you'll be more susceptible to handshake problem. Not sure if that's part of your "out of focus" problem, but it might be if you're not using a tripod.

_Man_