Add on lenses for Canon A40

[Saint]

Does anyone here have experience with using the add on zoom (telephoto) or wide angle lenses with the A40?

I'm going to Australia for 8 months and I wonder if these would be worthy investments.

My specific questions:

1. How much "zoom" does the lense add? Right now it's a 3x optical zoom, what does this add?

2. Is it really neccesary to use the Canon brand telephoto lense? I see many lenses being sold on eBay that don't appear to be the Canon branded version.

[Rustle]

1. Powershot.com says that the teleconverter adds 2.4x to the existing 3x zoom. This means that the teleconverter is 1.8x, giving a total zoom of 5.4x and a 35mm equivalent of 35-189mm, which is decent.

Keep in mind that the effects of camera shake are magnified along with your zoom power. So, to use the zoom effectively at 5.4x, you may need a tripod. Before purchasing anything online, you might want to find try out the lens adapter and some teleconverters in a local shop.

2. Since the Canon lens is designed for the camera, you may find it to be better than alternative lenses. Whatever you purchase, you'll need the LA-DC52B lens adapter. I popped over to eBay and found out that it has 52mm threads, meaning you should be able to attach any matching lens. Just don't get anything so big that it puts a lot of weight on the front of the camera. As well, you might want to consider getting some filters. Here's a good article about that:

http://www.megapixel.net/html/articles/article-filters.html

Russ

[bmwracer]

FYI:

One other thing to remember about the 2.4X tele adapter: There is vignetting from full-wide to about mid-zoom... Not too bad if you keep your subject centered in the LCD screen, but the vignetting IS there...

[brutal]

I have the adapter and have 4-5 lenses (52mm) that work great with the adapater. It seems pretty strong, but being plastic with plastic tabs to hold it on, Im not sure it could hold the larger zoom lenses.

I wish canon made the adapter like my EOS camera with a metal to metal fit, but its still great.

[Dingo]

Is it worth spending the money on the extra lens? I don't know about your prices or duty free components but the cost in Australia is quite expensive. (And besides there are so many kangaroos, you don't need a zoom extender)
But I guess Ayres Rock may need the Wide Angle converter.

[asier]

Hello, I have bougth a digital canon A40. I would like to know if Rustle has the adapter and the tele, and his comments are with real knowledge. I dont understand why not the tele (2.4x) plus the optical zoom(3x) is 7.2x, and you say it's 5,4x.
I wold like to know what is the vignetting.
Finally, I wolud like to know if anybody has the adapter with the tele and other filters.
Your comments have mean much for my, and I want to
thank all your comments.
Bye

[justint]

I had teh same question about vignetting and found a good answer here: http://www.vanwalree.com/optics/vignetting.html



asier wrote:
Hello, I have bougth a digital canon A40. I would like to know if Rustle has the adapter and the tele, and his comments are with real knowledge. I dont understand why not the tele (2.4x) plus the optical zoom(3x) is 7.2x, and you say it's 5,4x.
I wold like to know what is the vignetting.
Finally, I wolud like to know if anybody has the adapter with the tele and other filters.
Your comments have mean much for my, and I want to
thank all your comments.
Bye