Barrel distortion on wide angle lens

[Yapo]

I've been thinking of getting a cheap ~2x tele lens and adapter off ebay for my G10 as i sometimes feel the zoom is a little lacking. Maybe the G9 might have suited me better...Ive seen some deals with tele + ~0.5x wide lens so i was wondering if it would be worth paying abit more for the wide lens as well.

Ive seen a few sample photos with some wide lens where there is significant barrel distortion which i find looks terrible...no offence but i'm not sure why people use fish eye lens so please enlighten me!

But i also looked at the samples from lensmate.com which had no distortion as far as my eye could tell. So do the more expensive lens from lensmate.com really have significantly less barrel distortion than cheap ones or have they been edited?

[Madweasel]

I don't have direct experience, other than in optics you almost always get what you pay for. I would certainly expect less distortion from a more expensive adapter. Cheap ones will definitely compromise your image quality.

[WMDunkin]

I have the canon wide angle and I haven't had any major distortion with it.

these where shot with my wide angle on, also I have a g9

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3247/3096513187_c16d07e3c8.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3201/3096512225_2e7e7ca41f.jpg

with WA
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3213/2888962568_1afce9673d.jpg

without WA
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3088/2888961880_6bea72ed4d.jpg

[denncald]

Here are some more Canon wide angle (x.75) lens shots from a G9. This would be 26mm equivalent;

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3206/2888255683_094babaf83_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3128/2889088814_75ca954365_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3309/3188867928_df1b702988_o.jpg

Dennis

[Yapo]

Thx for the great photos! i guess i wont bother with the cheap wide lens then...not that i really want wider than 28mm anyway. I hope the cheap tele lens doesnt degrade/distort the image too much though!