Customer Reviews

Olympus WCON-07 0.7x Wide Angle Lens for Various Olympus Digital Cameras

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
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I have a Nikon Coolpix 8700, and the 35mm max wide angle was really limiting the shots I could take. So I bought this lens plus an adapter, and it really expands the range of my camera. I was recently at the Statue of Liberty, and from the base I was able to get my friend, the entire base, and the entire statue all in the same shot.

The lens is also quite light, and pretty durable. However, it is quite large, and doesn't fit so well into camera bags.

The extra view with this lens means I can shoot indoors and not have to worry about getting a good shot... When I don't need a flash. The only drawback is the lens is large, large enough that the flash on top of the camera is blocked.

Otherwise, I can find so little distortion that I rarely have to correct for it in PhotoShop and at least with my setup there are no additional artifacts or fringing that I've seen on screen or in 5 x 7 prints.

It does not work well into the 12X telephoto range of my camera (extreme tunnel vision and visably soft edges), but the FZ-5 has a quick disconnect lens adapter, so if I need to switch it's not an issue.

I've been using this lens for about 2 years now. Being in Colorado, I shoot a lot of wide angle outdoor shots. This lens is great for my purposes. I did buy an external slave flash so I can use flash with this lens, as it's so big it blocks the internal flash of my Olympus C-5000.

I have an Olympus camera and this product can be used but it requires an adapter as well. The reason I bought it is for my Panasonic DMC FZ30. It fits directly and takes great pictures.Very good lens.

My journey to transition from film to digital photography began in earnest in July of 2002. That is when I bought my first high-grade digital camera, which was an Olympus C-700 UZ. I found myself taking indoor shots in close quarters, but not being able to get everyone in the frame no matter how far back I stood from the subject. The answer was to have a wider-angle lens, but the lens on this camera was a built in zoom that was not interchangeable,so what other options did I have?

I did some research in mid 2003 and found Olympus offered the answer in the form of the WCON-0.7X wide-angle converter lens. Using a CLA-4 adapter tube I could add this lens to my camera and increase its area of coverage at the wide end of the built in zoom. To install it you screw the CLA-4 adapter tube into the filter threads on the lens of the camera, and then you screw the converter lens into the CLA-4 adapter tube just like were screwing on a lens filter and that is it, you are done. Next turn on the camera and set the zoom back as far as you can. This is what gives you the widest angle of coverage. You can still zoom in if you wish but then you get severe vignetting at the perimeter of the frame and the focus is soft at the edges too.

All in all the WCON-0.7X proved a great way to enhance the capability of my camera at a minimum of cost and give me the wider coverage I needed when shooting subjects in close quarters. One note of caution: the very large diameter of this lens will block the beam from built in flash of most cameras. The recipe to get around this problem is spelled out in my review of the Olympus FL-20 flash. Go read that review to learn what you need to do to overcome this problem. In the end the WCON-0.7X converter lens is still a great accessory to add to your camera. You will be pleased with the results.

While the pictures that the wide angle lens allows me to take are great the effort involved in putting it on and taking it off quickly is too much. You need to screw both the lens and the adaptor tube on. And then off again. Perhaps Olympic could come up with some type of snap mechanism next time.