58mm .45 Wide Angle Lens for Canon 5D 20D 30D Rebel XTi

by Red Hot Buys

Product Details

• Shipping Information: View shipping rates and policies
• ASIN: B0013TK3JA
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 8, 2008

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars You get what you pay for, not bad for the price, September 14, 2008

By 

Allison Lombardi (Eugene, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 58mm .45 Wide Angle Lens for Canon 5D 20D 30D Rebel XTi (Electronics)

I purchased this lens from Red Hot Sales. I was surprised what came was a Digital Concepts lens made in china not a Merkury Optics lens. All the specs were the same so I wouldn't be surprise if they are made in the same factory anyway. The lens has very good build quality and threads fit my lens with 58mm filter size nicely without any adapter rings necessary.

For my purposes I mounted it on a Canon 50mm f1.4 lens. The autofocus remained fast and sharp and the minimum focusing distance was decreased to about half. I'm taking shots on a Canon 40D with a 1.6 crop factor so my main goal was to turn my awesome 50mm lens into a great 22.5mm. After taking a lot of test shots in different shooting environments I am a little disappointed by the results. Color and contrast remain about the same but image sharpness suffers. In the center the sharpness is comparable but quickly becomes soft in all directions if stopped down below f11. For the price its hard to complain but it's no replacement for a good wide angle lens. At the 50mm length of my lens the .45 conversion caused very little distortion and CA was not increased from what I noticed. I got full sensor coverage no circular pattern or light fall off. I suspect with a wider angle lens this would be different.

Screwing on just the macro ring gave me some really stunning up close shots. It works only for extremely close focusing. The entire effective focusing range on my 50mm was reduced to about 2 through 4 inches from the end of the lens. I was able to get my autofocus to work some of the time but manual is better at those distances. DOF was extremely shallow. Hand holding a shot is very difficult but can be done. I was more impressed with the macro than the wide angle.

All in all this is a fun lens, for the price it does a nice job. Make no mistake though this is not going to give you professional results, or take the place of a high quality wide angle or fish eye.

I hope this helps someone not understanding how these lenses work, they are kind of like a filter you screw it on the end of an existing lens. Results will vary based on the lens you start with.