A Fisheye adapter for Medium Format?

Hi,

I see there are many cheap fisheye adapters on ebay for 35mm and digital
compact cameras... I'm aware that most of them are crap. But I'm thinking to
buy one for my digital camera (Minolta Dimage A1) just for fun. However, I
own also a Mamiya 6x7 and a 4x5" camera. I'm wondering if there's any of
those adapter lenses can be placed in front of a medium format or a large
format lens. I know that quality sucks, but I'm just looking for some
"holga" style shot with a very wide angle effect. Usually these lenses have
series VII mounting and are sold with an adapter ring from 37mm to 77mm...
My MF and LF lenses filter diameters range from 67mm to 77mm. So, I guess I
can attach the adapter to any lens I own. Question is: will they work on
lenses producing an image circle larger than 35mm?

thank you

the older ones work surprisingly well on medium format, mostly because the
larger negative format and lower enlargement factors tend to mask some of
the optical faults better than when pushing 35mm to its limits (E.g.
8x10"+), IMHO.

see http://medfmt.8k.com/bronfe.html and bronaux.html etc.
I have used the 0.18x fisheye adapter on MF considerably. Seems to work
best with lenses like Hassy normal lens where the rear of adapter to lens
front glass distance is minimal (vs. say kowa 85mm or bronica 75mm).

the other older (1960-70s) wide angle adapters are of several types; the
lower the factor, the less the distortion (but less wide effect), e.g.,
0.6x has minimal distortion compared to a 0.42x which has noticeable
distortion etc. I don't know if the newest small digital oriented adapters
will work as well as the older ones on MF, but suspect the larger glass of
the older ones offers benefits and less vignetting on MF.

the telephoto adapters of modest effect usually result in a bit of
softening, which may be great for portraits. The longer examples (e.g., 4X
afocal 'scope) are usually very slow (bright light only) and vignette
edges on MF normal lenses, but are able to provide pretty decent central
images at low cost, esp. on TLRs. The older binocular or monocular
adapters are pretty similar, but not quite as good as more optics
(erecting prisms) for modest $ required.

given that the majority of MF users have only one lens kit (per industry
sales stats), and some cameras have fixed lenses (TLRs..), these adapters
can offer some options at modest cost ($25 to $50 or so up). Even after
you get a full set of lenses for your hassy (hah!), you might still find
them useful and worth keeping, as the effects are unique (e.g., distortion
of 0.42x is obvious, but much less than fisheye).

The same items can often be used on 35mm too (and digital), producing some
unique effects, such as using the 0.18X fisheye on a zoom lens to produce
a fisheye lens that zooms from say 8mm to 35mm (fisheye), hard to get
unless you have the unique pentax 35mm zooming fisheye lens too ;-)

hth bobm
--
************************************************** *********************
* Robert Monaghan POB 752182 Southern Methodist Univ. Dallas Tx 75275 *
********************Standard Disclaimers Apply*************************

See item 3844500319 on ebay.
These look like a couple of adaptors.
Standing at $5 Aus, which is about two bottle caps.
--
----------------------------
Paul Friday

Thank you both for the answers.

I ended up buying one of the newer fisheye converters on ebay

My only concern is if they will cover full frame in systems larger than
35mm/digital

Thank you both for the answers.

I ended up buying one of the newer fisheye converters on ebay

My only concern is if they will cover full frame in systems larger than
35mm/digital

On Fri, 08 Oct 2004 08:36:14 GMT, "Ronin" (debris)@(email).(it)
wrote:

Hi,

I see there are many cheap fisheye adapters on ebay for 35mm and digital
compact cameras... I'm aware that most of them are crap. But I'm thinking to
buy one for my digital camera (Minolta Dimage A1) just for fun. However, I
own also a Mamiya 6x7 and a 4x5" camera. I'm wondering if there's any of
those adapter lenses can be placed in front of a medium format or a large
format lens. I know that quality sucks, but I'm just looking for some
"holga" style shot with a very wide angle effect. Usually these lenses have
series VII mounting and are sold with an adapter ring from 37mm to 77mm...
My MF and LF lenses filter diameters range from 67mm to 77mm. So, I guess I
can attach the adapter to any lens I own. Question is: will they work on
lenses producing an image circle larger than 35mm?

thank you

Zavod Arsenal in Ukraine makes a 30mm lens that can be used ons everal
medium format cameras ranging from the Kiev-88CM to the Mamiya 645.

They are on eBay as well as new for about US$270

www.kievcamera.com

THOM

On Fri, 08 Oct 2004 08:36:14 GMT, "Ronin" (debris)@(email).(it)
wrote:

Hi,

I see there are many cheap fisheye adapters on ebay for 35mm and digital
compact cameras... I'm aware that most of them are crap. But I'm thinking to
buy one for my digital camera (Minolta Dimage A1) just for fun. However, I
own also a Mamiya 6x7 and a 4x5" camera. I'm wondering if there's any of
those adapter lenses can be placed in front of a medium format or a large
format lens. I know that quality sucks, but I'm just looking for some
"holga" style shot with a very wide angle effect. Usually these lenses have
series VII mounting and are sold with an adapter ring from 37mm to 77mm...
My MF and LF lenses filter diameters range from 67mm to 77mm. So, I guess I
can attach the adapter to any lens I own. Question is: will they work on
lenses producing an image circle larger than 35mm?

thank you

Zavod Arsenal in Ukraine makes a 30mm lens that can be used ons everal
medium format cameras ranging from the Kiev-88CM to the Mamiya 645.

They are on eBay as well as new for about US$270

www.kievcamera.com

THOM

On Fri, 08 Oct 2004 08:36:14 GMT, "Ronin" (debris)@(email).(it)
wrote:

Hi,

I see there are many cheap fisheye adapters on ebay for 35mm and digital
compact cameras... I'm aware that most of them are crap. But I'm thinking to
buy one for my digital camera (Minolta Dimage A1) just for fun. However, I
own also a Mamiya 6x7 and a 4x5" camera. I'm wondering if there's any of
those adapter lenses can be placed in front of a medium format or a large
format lens. I know that quality sucks, but I'm just looking for some
"holga" style shot with a very wide angle effect. Usually these lenses have
series VII mounting and are sold with an adapter ring from 37mm to 77mm...
My MF and LF lenses filter diameters range from 67mm to 77mm. So, I guess I
can attach the adapter to any lens I own. Question is: will they work on
lenses producing an image circle larger than 35mm?

thank you

Zavod Arsenal in Ukraine makes a 30mm lens that can be used ons everal
medium format cameras ranging from the Kiev-88CM to the Mamiya 645.

They are on eBay as well as new for about US$270

www.kievcamera.com

THOM

Ronin wrote:

Thank you both for the answers.

I ended up buying one of the newer fisheye converters on ebay

My only concern is if they will cover full frame in systems larger than
35mm/digital


Unless the converter's lens cell vignettes the field of view of the lens
you're putting it on, it should cover any frame that the underlying lens
covers. What the converter essentially does is afocally compress the
scene into a narrower view, and then present that view to the lens; as
long as the presented view covers more angle than the lens accepts, the
film will be covered just as it would with the uncompressed scene.
Since the lenses for which these converters are designed are typically
relatively wide (commonly around 35-40 mm on a 35 mm format, for
instance), this shouldn't normally be a problem as long as you use it on
a "normal" lens.

Where you might see problems is if the rear diameter of the converer is
smaller than the front diameter of the lens on which you wish to mount
it; this will cause vignetting the same as a too-small filter or shade.

--
I may be a scwewy wabbit, but I'm not going to Alcatwaz!
-- E. J. Fudd, 1954

Donald Qualls, aka The Silent Observer
Lathe Building Pages http://silent1.home.netcom.com/HomebuiltLathe.htm
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Opinions expressed are my own -- take them for what they're worth
and don't expect them to be perfect.