Wide Angle Converter?

[goatee]

I have an EOS 300D, and elected not to pay the extra for the kit lens (partly because I bought the body second hand). I am using a Canon USM Mark III 28-80 lens with it, and am very happy with the results, but am wondering if it's possible to get a wide angle converter (maybe even one that screws into the thread on the front of the lens).

I've had a quick trawl / search through, and couldn't find any threads discussing them (although found an amusing one discussing the merits of Nokia camera phones vs 10Ds) - is this because they don't exist?

Thanks

Big G

[rdenney]

I am using a Canon USM Mark III 28-80 lens with it, and am very happy with the results, but am wondering if it's possible to get a wide angle converter (maybe even one that screws into the thread on the front of the lens).

The only screw-in wide-angle converters I know of for still cameras are the cheapie fisheye converters, which seem to have severe loss of sharpness as you approach the edges.

There are screw-in wide-angle converters for video lenses, but it should be noted that video has extremely low resolution compared to still cameras (about 1 megapixel) and therefore a low requirement for lens sharpness. And I can see loss of sharpness even on video from those converters, particularly at the edges.

You could not have a wide-angle converter at the back of the lens as you do with telephoto converters. The latter take the rays of light project back from the lens and spread them, increasing magnification. A wide-angle converter would have to compress them, but it would run out of light rays at the edge of the frame and wouldn't be able to provide full coverage. That's why the wide-angle converters are usually configured for the front.

But the problem with putting the converter on the front is that the converter would really need to be part of the wide-angle design to avoid mismatches between the design of the lens and the converter. This is why they degrade image quality so much.

Lots of digital point-n-shoots have such attachments, but putting them on a camera like a 300D would undermine the advantage of having six megapixels.

If you need wider-angle than 28 (which is a normal lens on a 300D), then get a wider lens. The 18-55 kit lens would be vastly better than any screw-in converter, and you can get those pretty cheaply (cheaper than the better converters for video cams) from people who are upgrading. The kit lens's worst reviews come from use at the long end, and you could use your other lens to cover those focal lengths.

Rick "thinking the DSLR's have interchangeable lenses for a reason" Denney

[goatee]

Thanks for that Rick - I normally don't have need for a lens wider than 28mm, but it's not great for landscapes, and it would be nice to have the option of taking nice landscape shots. I may just save up for a wide angle prime lens, since most of the time I'll just want to use my 28-80 - unless of course there's a reasonably priced 18-70 type lens which doesn't suffer from the softness that the 18-55 demonstrates.

[Hellashot]

Thanks for that Rick - I normally don't have need for a lens wider than 28mm, but it's not great for landscapes, and it would be nice to have the option of taking nice landscape shots. I may just save up for a wide angle prime lens, since most of the time I'll just want to use my 28-80 - unless of course there's a reasonably priced 18-70 type lens which doesn't suffer from the softness that the 18-55 demonstrates.

I have the EFS 18-55 and I find it "demonstrates" no such softness. You'd be better off paying $60 or $70 for the kit lens that you can probably buy for that price on Ebay or from someone on here through the Marketplace forum.

[Andy_T]

Rick,

for the first time, I disagree with you :)

There are high-quality wide angle lenses available (like the Olympus WCON-08 and the Canon WC-58 ) that can be used on high-quality P&S cameras with more than 6 MP with no visible distortion to the image. Prices for such lenses are in the 150~250$ region. Cheap by SLR standards, but not for compact digicams.

You can also use the cheapie fisheye adapters on those, but they are not in the same quality league.

The problem is that these lenses are not calculated to be mounted on an SLR lens.

I tried to use my Olympus WCON-08 on my 18-55 kit lens in order to get a true wide angle lens, and it just did not work very well.

I got a fair share of distortion and chromatic aberration on the corners of the image that made the image unusable. Now this might be because an 18 mm lens is already very wide and has a demanding construction, so it might not be as bad on a 28 mm lens.

So ... as the 18-55 kit lens is a lot cheaper than a quality wide angle converter, I would definitely suggest to get the kit lens. I find it *very usable* when stopped down to f/5.6 or f/8 (on the wide end).

Look at the attached (downsized) examples.

This is the shot with 18-55 lens @ 18 with wide angle converter


Best regards,
Andy

[Andy_T]

Second image is the shot with 18-55 lens @ 18 (without adapter)

And the last image is a 100% crop from the image with the converter.

Best regards,
Andy

[goatee]

Hellashot - I'm not saying that the 18-55 lens is rubbish - but I do not have one, and am just going on stuff I've read in reviews, and in forums that say that the 18-55 has a tendency to be a bit soft. If you're happy with yours, then fantastic. I'm just looking for a way of getting some wide angle shots, because at the moment I'm shooting with the equivalent of a 45mm-128mm lens.

Thanks for the samples Andy -to be honest, they've convinced me that either I will need to stitch photos together a la http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-panoramas.shtml or I'll have to get a wide angle lens - I may even end up part xing my 28-80 for the 18-55!

[rdenney]

There are high-quality wide angle lenses available (like the Olympus WCON-08 and the Canon WC-58 ) that can be used on high-quality P&S cameras with more than 6 MP with no visible distortion to the image.

You are right--there were high-quality screw-in supplemental lenses for the Nikon Coolpix, too. And I have a good one for the 35mm normal lens for my Nikonos (for underwater use only). Yashica used to make one that wasn't that bad for use on the Mat 124. In each of these cases, however, the supplemental lens was specifically designed for a particular primary lens.

In any case, none are available for Canon lenses that maintain that kind of quality, as you example shows. You can do some things with it, but within limitations. I'd much rather spend less for the 18-55 kit lens and learn to use it properly to attain reasonable wide angle than spend more for a high-end supplemental lens and try to adapt it to a Canon lens, unless image quality is a secondary requirement (as it sometimes is).

Rick "who thinks the kit lens is a good deal at the wide end and well stopped down" Denney