What about this lens on an A80?

[shaggybill]

http://www.bugeyedigital.com/product_main/ckc-cvs8.html (http://www.bugeyedigital.com/product_main/ckc-cvs8.html)

Be sure and look at the A60 comparison shots. They look pretty good to me, but I'm still pretty new at photography, so there might be things about it that I dont notice...

[eastcoast909]

Well actually I feel that I can comment on this as I bought one for my S45.

The lens and adapter from CKC power do exactly as they suggest. It is not a "great" lens but for $150.00 you get what you pay for. I must admit that I thought this was a huge amount when I bought it. :lol: :lol:

The biggest problem that I find with this is just exactly what is it you expect to be able to do with this lens once you get it? I bought this in order to take pictures of my son's graduation from University. It did work but just so - so inside the venue.

What I did not take into account was the amount of light that this lens will need to allow you to take pictures indoors with a reasonable shutter speed.

I am not steady enough to use this lens hand held. I must put it on a tripod or get unacceptable camera shake. Unless you go to a high shutter speed then this will occur. Also remember that you are going to lose at least one if not 2 f-stops when this is put on the camera.

It will not allow you to have a fast zoom lens like the ones you will find on a DSLR. You must first focus the lens then try and focus the camera. I found it very difficult to try and get a good focus using the lcd screen on the camera. I finally went to a procedure of using the lens as a monocular to focus then attaching it to the camera for a zoom shot. This does not allow you to take fast shots but if you have the time does work.

I'm sure that there are other things that I have forgotten about this, if there is something in particular you want to know, please ask.

I did not intend this to be so negative, merely trying to give you some other points to consider before you buy it. It will really depend on what you expect out of the lens and how you expect to use it as to whether this iwill be good lens for you to get. As always, what is a "good" lens for me or you may not be a "good" lens for someone else.

[shaggybill]

Thanks for the reply. I should have said in the original post that I intend to use this for wildlife photography, and probably some limited landscape. I dont need it for macro use, as the macro mode on the A80 works really well for anything that I would want it for.

"Also remember that you are going to lose at least one if not 2 f-stops when this is put on the camera."

How will this affect the performance? I know that f-stop affects the focal length, but I dont understand what it will do in this context.

Do you have any pics that you could post where you used it? Are the comparison shots on the website accurate?

Thanks

[Bodryn]

When I decided to improve on my A70's zooming capabilities I did two things: I bought a Canon S1 IS and also bought a 3x auxiliary telephoto lens. Between those two choices by far the best idea was purchasing the Canon S1 because it has a built in 10x optical zoom and you can see EXACTLY what you are getting through the viewfinder. The A70 viewfinder is partially blocked by the telephoto. Also the S1 has image stabilization so that even at 10x you don't need a tripod. With the A70 and 8x I think you'd pretty much need a tripod. And then there's the inconvenience of putting on and taking off that telephoto. :(

[Jon]

"Also remember that you are going to lose at least one if not 2 f-stops when this is put on the camera."

How will this affect the performance? I know that f-stop affects the focal length, but I dont understand what it will do in this context.
"Losing two f/ stops" means that there will be 1/4 as much light getting onto the sensor, so you'll need 2 steps slower shutter speed to take a picture than you would without it. Slower shutter speeds mean that the picture's more susceptible to camera shake, so you're going to find more pictures coming out blurred. Not something to look forward to!

[eastcoast909]

Sorry about leaving you hanging. I had to do a long search to find some sample photo's with this as I had a system meltdown a while ago and have not reloaded a lot of old images.

Here are two pictures one with and one without the crystalvue. These were taken without a tripod but were steadied on a railing. One of the other problems I had was that it was very difficult to focus using the LCD during daylight. Remember you cannot use the viewfinder as it does not show what the add on lens is doing.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/eastcoast909/Boats/ycm0036.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/eastcoast909/Boats/ycm0034.jpg

Although these two pictures are of the same boat they are not taken at the same time but are (as much as I can remember) about the same distance.
Hope that this helps.