Review: Soligor adapter tube 52mm for G7/G9

[Piet]

Hi folks,

inspired by Bobs posting here i ordered one Soligor adater tube with a 52mm front thread for use with any 52mm converter lense or filters without a step ring.

It's made of black metal (aluminium, i think) and the design fits to the G9's body. The bayonette mount fits smooth and strong, even slighty better than the lensmate adater (which is very good).
Unique (for me) is the design with an additional ring, which enables you to scale the adapter for full tele setting of the lense (picture 1) or to full wide setting (picture 2). Of course you are not able to zoom out the lense with a converter screwed on in "wide mode"...

What's missing is the grip of an lensmate adapter. And it's really expensive with about 40 Euros. So one has to decide if he needs the extra functionality... I'll give it a try in July for the holiday trip.

[cagatay]

Does it cause vignetting or other problems?

[Piet]

Using the lense not at full zoom with the adapter at full length causes the same problem as any other adapter. In wide angle you'll have less problems if you shorten the adapter (pic 2), but don't touch the zoom control...
Finally, the adapter could not resolve or produce any vignetting cause by the used converter lense.

[maxwolfie]

Piet, thanks for this review. I really like the idea of having an additional ring, to reduce the overall length of the tube. I wish the 58mm lensmate had something similar to this!

[wilsonch]

Great stuff! This is the only adapter I have seen that can be unscrewed the front part! One question for anyone using something similar. Can I unscrew the tele part (leaving my G9 at full wide), then I attach teleconverter lense?

Reason for being so is that I want to save as many apertures as I can, while being able to shoot at distant!