Customer Reviews

Digital Concepts 0.45X Professional 43mm Wide Angle HD Lens with Macro

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Length:: 4:20 Mins

It's OK....I mean, what do you really want / expect for $13? I just bought it and tested it out a bit. Seems like it'll be useful for indoor shots where you want to get a group of people or a whole room in the shot and don't want to run out of room backing into the corner of the room. There is one serious limitation. The vignetting is so severe that it makes this into basically a special effects lens and not something you'd leave on the camcorder on a regular basis. I mean, that amount of vignetting cannot be used on a regular basis, so I'm still gonna have to get a good-quality wide angle lens at some point. As far as whether it is .45x or .8x as discussed in other reviews, I don't know the numbers, but I've posted a video here that demonstrates what it can do - in this case, expand the horizontal field of view at 4.5 feet by 18 inches, which seems like a lot. Actually, I'd be pretty happy with the whole deal if not for the vignetting, which is just awful. But, 4 stars because how demanding can you really be for this price?

I purchased this 0.45X Wide Angle accessory lens to attach to my HV30 Canon HD camcorder. For a lens under $30 (my price) it was more of an experimental purchase with little confidence that such a cheap piece of glass would compliment a $600 Hi Def camcorder. I am still in shock after performing a wide variety of test footage and stills over the past several weeks. In a nutshell, if I scratched or damaged this lens to make it unusable I'd have another on order as soon as I got back online.

There are many generic accessory lenses out there to fit the Canon HV30 43mm threads. And many have proven to be worth the equivalent of a fishing sinker with multiple problems like lens barrel vignetting, halo'ing, fringing, fisheye, blurring at the edges, inability to create sharp focus, and about every other performance flaw you can imagine. Its the old adage "You get what you pay for." This BUCKS the rule~! This lens, identified by the brand name Digital Concepts and made by Sakar in China (although the lens barrel says JAPAN) is everything those others are not.

I have filmed (video mode) recent ice carving sculptures and can't tell the difference between the HV30 normal lens and the sharpness and color reproduction of this wide angle lens nor can "blind tests" with my friends viewing the footage tell the difference. Corner to corner, side to side, ZERO Vignetting in full wide angle and no fisheye'ing, and oh what a pleasure it is to have so much additional "real estate" in the frame. The fireworks display I shot that night was no different than the normal lens quality except I had a much wider field of view of the bursts. Clear, sharp, colorful imagery. Absolutely no distortion of any kind.

Ranging through the Wide Angle to full Telephoto settings provide accurate focus, sharpness and no imaging problems except at full telephoto where a soft focus look was apparent. Backing off just a tad on the zoom setting put the scene immediately back into crystal sharp focus. This really is not much if any problem because you are getting the lens for WIDE ANGLE usage and so to use telephoto/zoom with it is contrary to its best use.

Even with a 62mm UV filter and a flower pedal lens hood/shade on the end I had NO vignetting of any kind in VIDEO mode. Switching the HV30 to Camera Still Frame mode showed some minor concerns that were correctable. Because the still photos taken with the HV30 have a wider view than the Video framing, there was some vignetting of still frames in the corners when at full wide angle. BUT this ended up being due to the UV filter and lens hood added to the front of the lens. A slight zooming will eliminate this vignetting. But when the lens hood and UV filter ring were removed, the still frames taken, even in wide screen 1920 x 1080 were sharp, clear, and clean with no vignetting or sharpness problems. When wanting to take still frame 3.1 MP photos, you just need to remove the hood and UV filter and shoot to your heart's content. BTW, when the flash is not needed for exposure, the HV30 will shoot 3.1 megapixel stills in high speed continuous mode at 10 frames in about four or less seconds. Pretty cool for shooting fast action sports for great still captures.

I've shot traffic intersection scenes in video mode at 1/8th sec. shutter speeds in low light with this lens with remarkable effect of motion blur and sharpness of static non-moving images at the same time. In MACRO mode, with the outer barrel removed, it will at least double your effective close up framing with absolute clear, sharp focussing no different than the normal lens.

Sorry for the long winded review. But this particular lens has far exceeded any expectations and with PERFECT performance. As I said, I'd buy another in a second if anything happens to this one. And because this lens has a 0.45X wide angle view, it FAR EXCEEDS the 0.7X CANON WD-H43 wide angle view which is 5 TIMES the cost of this lens. If you want more real estate in your frame, this is the one to get. IF I get the time in the future I'll try to do a Video Review so you can see for yourself. Be FOREWARNED....the 2X Tele Extender lens by the same company is a piece of crap and I had to send mine back. It was as useful as viewing through the bottom of a coke bottle bottom on the HV30~!

Length:: 2:47 Mins

Figured I would make a quick video showing how this lens is actually not a rip off and is worth way more than the price. The Fisheye Effect has been known to happen with this product, but it doesn't happen on my camcorder (JVC GZ-HD30) Enjoy!

Like many ratings, I purchased this lens for a canon HV30 camcorder. both the lense and the camcorder were ordered at the same time ground shipping and the lense got to me a day before the camcorder, so kudos on the order processing! I have only noticed a slight blur on the edges when using the optical zoom at full zoom, since this is a wide angle lense, I don't intend to use it for zooming often! For affordability and common sense, I don't see the point in ordering a 150 dollar wide angle lense when this is a perfectly workable product, at a great price, and processed at lightening speed!

I bought this for my Canon HV20. Despite what the other reviews state, there are clearly two problems with this lens.

1. There is significant barrel distortion at the edges of the frame, although this is unlikely to be noticeable if the objects in this part of the frame are not too close to the camera,
2. There are undoubtedly very soft edges at the telefocal end of the zoom. I was extremely disappointed with how bad this is, having read the other reviews. I'm not kidding, this is like some super cheap soft focus effect from the 70s, around a substantial part of the frame.

Despite these problems, the lens clearly has uses.
1. The wide angle is completely fine in terms of barrel distortion, as there are few situations where it will be really noticeable. And even the times when it is, you may find this distortion is a price worth paying.
2. Try to avoid zooming beyond about half way. The blurring around the edges is awful.

In summary, you can't really beat the price, so unless you can afford to pay the $150 for the canon wide angle converter, this is a reasonable alternative. I thought about 4 stars, just because the price is soooo cheap, but kept it at three because of the problems. But this is definitely not a keep-attached-at-all-times accessory. It should only be used at wide angles.

I purchased this lens as a wide angle/fisheye for my hv30. Its cheap which is awesome, it screws on nice, and has the option to be either a macro or a wide angle. Though i do not have much use for a macro personally, it works fine. The problem is the .43x claim. If i honestly had to give a true to life measurement i would say its more of a .8x. With a standard .43 I can get way closer to subjects and still have them fit on screen. But with this lens i only get about 5 feet closer to my subject before I am too close. If youre looking for more a "fisheye" type lens, I'd look elsewhere.

***Important*** Zoom through is limited to 1-4x. similar to the raynox 6600 wa lens. Blur is definitely there past 4x. I recommend you purchase with the understanding that you may be limited to using it with max wide angle only for the sharpest shots. However, when you do zoom out past 4x, the blur on the peripheral is a neat effect.

For $13, you can't go wrong, just understand the limitations. I did not consider the canon wa lens because it is not threaded for a filter. A plus is that this lens is a two part lens. The first part is a macro that enabled me to get a very close shoot of my 4 month old son's eye. clear color too. when I back away to include both eyes, it does begin to get out of focus. So it is a tight range of focus. This could come in handy. It came with a step up ring, 43-52mm.

I would definitely buy this again, even if it broke. Pics can be seen on the avsforum site. camcorder section, "canon hf m41 owner's thread".

Length:: 1:35 Mins

For an amateur, like myself, this lens does what I need it to do. I haven't seen any videos that use the lens, so I decided to post one where I used the lens in almost 90% of the shots. I'll let the video speak for itself. Go to this link to watch the video in 720p since Amazon's compression rates are terrible.

Let's get one thing straight...it's NOT a .45 lens! At best, it might be .8, but really, for under $25, who cares?! It definitely gives you more real estate for the canon HV20/30, and is about $75-$100 less than the canon wide angle lens. I noticed no barrel distortion or softening of the image, and thankfully the macro actually works on the back end of it. Made of surprisingly sturdy glass and metal, it feels solid in your hand but doesn't weigh down the front end of the tiny camera. I noticed a little problem with autofocus when zoomed in midway, but that's more due to the mediocre AF on the camera than the lens.

Let's face it, if you're shooting seriously with the HV20/HV30, it's because you don't have the budget for a higher end HD camera. If you have the money, the canon wide angle is definitely a wider viewing/recording angle (as my co-worker shot a short film with it. that thing is truly a .45 angle). But if you are on a budget, or are just a hobbyist, this is an outstanding value. I was able to get an extra 2 feet of space on either side of my subject, which may not sound like much but definitely helps when shooting in tight quarters.

I deducted 1-star for the mislabeled viewing angle and the fact that if you screw it in too tight, you'll have a heck of a time taking it off the camera without detaching the macro from the front (had this happen twice already). Just screw it slowly, and don't worry, it needn't be airtight. :p

I agree with all the other positive reviews of this lens. I use this with my Canon Vixia HV30. I'm an amateur when it comes to this stuff but at least I can say it does give you a wider viewing angle. I see no reduction in image quality when I use this except when zoomed in completely which I do very rarely when using this lens. I'm very happy I got this. It's avery good addition to any camera kit for the price.