wide angle convertor lenses options??

gotta pentax fit new digital camera with 2 lenses BUT want a wider one. (My
old SLR lenses were never wide or close enough!). What options are there for
the wide angle adaptor lenses that screw into the lens filter nowadays
please? In the past they caused light loss and could have a bit or barrel or
pincushion distortion - are modern lenses like these wide angle adaptors
still as bad or has the technology improved during the last 20 years?

What wide angles lenses are there out there? Current lens is 18-55mm zoom.

Merci

CarMan wrote:

gotta pentax fit new digital camera with 2 lenses BUT want a wider one. (My
old SLR lenses were never wide or close enough!). What options are there for
the wide angle adaptor lenses that screw into the lens filter nowadays
please? In the past they caused light loss and could have a bit or barrel or
pincushion distortion - are modern lenses like these wide angle adaptors
still as bad or has the technology improved during the last 20 years?

What wide angles lenses are there out there? Current lens is 18-55mm zoom.

Merci



Well, I'd start on one of the many Pentax-specific sites. Here is one I
joined, this is their intro page for lens info.

http://www.pentaxforums.com/index.php?page=lenses

I see lenses down to 15mm there, and a wide selection and variety.

What model did you get? The K10D, K100D, K110D, *istDS? All have the
same mount, so you can use the entire selection across the lens lineup.
Some make it easier to use the old manual lenses, some it's a bit more
work.

You can still get the adaptors (sounds like you used to have the M42
screwmount lenses), plus teleconverters and extension tubes, and all
sorts of other gear.

Jim

"CarMan" wrote in message
...
gotta pentax fit new digital camera with 2 lenses BUT want a wider one.
(My old SLR lenses were never wide or close enough!). What options are
there for the wide angle adaptor lenses that screw into the lens filter
nowadays please? In the past they caused light loss and could have a bit
or barrel or pincushion distortion - are modern lenses like these wide
angle adaptors still as bad or has the technology improved during the last
20 years?

What wide angles lenses are there out there? Current lens is 18-55mm zoom.

Merci
The converts are made for cameras that dont have interchangeable lens and as
a rule small sensors and a small filter thread. some having only a 43mm rear
element so on your lens you would get a lot of Vignation

I bought one for my fixed-lens Olympus and it performs well enough, but I
would never consider putting one on an SLR.
But then, I don't know how horribly expensive wide-angle DSLR lenses are.
"J. F. Cornwall" wrote in message
...
CarMan wrote:

gotta pentax fit new digital camera with 2 lenses BUT want a wider one.
(My
old SLR lenses were never wide or close enough!). What options are there
for
the wide angle adaptor lenses that screw into the lens filter nowadays
please? In the past they caused light loss and could have a bit or
barrel or
pincushion distortion - are modern lenses like these wide angle adaptors
still as bad or has the technology improved during the last 20 years?

What wide angles lenses are there out there? Current lens is 18-55mm
zoom.

Merci



Well, I'd start on one of the many Pentax-specific sites. Here is one I
joined, this is their intro page for lens info.

http://www.pentaxforums.com/index.php?page=lenses

I see lenses down to 15mm there, and a wide selection and variety.

What model did you get? The K10D, K100D, K110D, *istDS? All have the
same mount, so you can use the entire selection across the lens lineup.
Some make it easier to use the old manual lenses, some it's a bit more
work.

You can still get the adaptors (sounds like you used to have the M42
screwmount lenses), plus teleconverters and extension tubes, and all
sorts of other gear.

Jim

Its a Samsung with a 52mm thread onthe filter. My old slr kits were based
onthe Minolta XD7 series (plus the old faithful Yashicmat 126G of course)
and I had many articles and photographs published in magazines in U.K. and
Europe.

This is the sort of easy thing to think on....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Super-WideAngl...QQcmdZViewItem


Thanks for info so far folks.


"CarMan" wrote in message
...
gotta pentax fit new digital camera with 2 lenses BUT want a wider one.
(My old SLR lenses were never wide or close enough!). What options are
there for the wide angle adaptor lenses that screw into the lens filter
nowadays please? In the past they caused light loss and could have a bit
or barrel or pincushion distortion - are modern lenses like these wide
angle adaptors still as bad or has the technology improved during the last
20 years?

What wide angles lenses are there out there? Current lens is 18-55mm zoom.

Merci

"CarMan" wrote in message
. uk...
Its a Samsung with a 52mm thread onthe filter. My old slr kits were based
onthe Minolta XD7 series (plus the old faithful Yashicmat 126G of course)
and I had many articles and photographs published in magazines in U.K. and
Europe.

This is the sort of easy thing to think on....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Super-WideAngl...QQcmdZViewItem


Thanks for info so far folks.


Thats too cheap to be any good. I would expect to have to pay near £100.
I'm thinking of one for my Fuji 9600 but it will only make it 22mm
equivalent if 20mm I would jump straight in.

"CarMan" wrote in message
. uk...
Its a Samsung with a 52mm thread onthe filter. My old slr kits were based
onthe Minolta XD7 series (plus the old faithful Yashicmat 126G of course)
and I had many articles and photographs published in magazines in U.K. and
Europe.

This is the sort of easy thing to think on....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Super-WideAngl...QQcmdZViewItem


Thanks for info so far folks.

Try this...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=250160975526

You'd need a 52-55mm ring (£2?) but by going upsize is helps reduce
vignation.


--
Dave
ex Motorcycle Maintenance Workshop
http://tinyurl.com/4mhaw

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/8...ide_Angle.html
has a pretty good overview of available wide-angle adaptors.

Quality does vary a lot, so if you find a specific one you like, I'd
search for it on flickr or other photo-sharing sites so you can find
actual photos taken with that adaptor.

I would expect a lot of distortion, but I'm tempted to get the 0.3X
Raynox clip-on semi-fisheye as a toy some day.

--
is Joshua Putnam
http://www.phred.org/~josh/
Braze your own bicycle frames. See
http://www.phred.org/~josh/build/build.html

On Tue, 4 Sep 2007 22:37:21 -0700, wrote:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/8...ide_Angle.html
has a pretty good overview of available wide-angle adaptors.

Quality does vary a lot, so if you find a specific one you like, I'd
search for it on flickr or other photo-sharing sites so you can find
actual photos taken with that adaptor.

I would expect a lot of distortion, but I'm tempted to get the 0.3X
Raynox clip-on semi-fisheye as a toy some day.

Check out this interesting review and test of an inexpensive 0.25x fish-eye lens
adapter. At some f/stops its performance even beats dedicated fish-eye lenses
for Nikon cameras or the more expensive Raynox fish-eye..

http://koyaanis.tripod.com/misc/fisheye.html

Test image samples he

http://koyaanis.tripod.com/misc/tests.html

wrote in message .net...
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/8...ide_Angle.html

has a pretty good overview of available wide-angle adaptors.

Quality does vary a lot, so if you find a specific one you like, I'd
search for it on flickr or other photo-sharing sites so you can find
actual photos taken with that adaptor.

I would expect a lot of distortion, but I'm tempted to get the 0.3X
Raynox clip-on semi-fisheye as a toy some day.

I bought it for a video camera (these usually are more tolerant
of so-so optical attachments), and the results were poor, to
put it charitably. BTW, the .24x Raynox (expensive!) was fairly
good on the same camcorder. In my experience (with shelves
full of WA lens converters, tried on numerous video and still
cameras), it is not the WA converter's characteristics that are
the primary concern, but the **compatibility** of particular
lenses and converters that accounts for success (some fine
converters look bad on many good lenses, but the occasional
"el cheapo" converter can work very well). Success with this
is rare - and more likely (but not guaranteed!) if you use a
converter specifically designed for your lens.
--
David Ruether

http://www.donferrario.com/ruether