Zeikos ZE-WA37S 37mm 0.45X Wide Angle Lens

by Zeikos

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 1.9 x 1.9 x 1.2 inches ; 2.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001UE6NGA
• Item model number: ZE-WA37S
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 1, 2009

Product Description

Zeikos 37mm professional, multi coated, high definition, 0.45X Wide Angle Lens. Includes a Macro adapter and a protective case. Adapters are available separately to step up or down for other sizes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazing for the Price, July 23, 2009

By 

Rufus Burgess (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Zeikos ZE-WA37S 37mm 0.45X Wide Angle Lens (Electronics)

Length:: 0:30 Mins

I agree with A. Abram's review. The wide angle lens has a very good build quality and blends well with my Canon Vixia HF200. Pretty much everything in his review is spot on. However, there are a couple things that are somewhat disappointing.

The vignetting in close range means this lens really can't be used for semi-pro work. The strange thing is that on the HF200 you can't even tell that vignetting is occurring until the video is transferred into an editing program. A little zoom will make it disappear. But that is where the biggest problem comes into being. This lens is advertised as a .45x wide angle but with the macro on it is really more of a .8x. If you zoom in much you will lose the entire benefit of a wide angle lens. The cure is worse than the disease.

The detachable macro is a great addition. I'm not really into photography but I can see where this may come in useful every once in a while. Just taking some pictures of a dime were NOTICEABLY better with the macro on. No matter how much I zoomed in without the macro I couldn't get as close or as much detail as with the macro on.

Six 37mm adapters come with this lens (25, 27, 28, 30, 30.5, 34mm). Unfortunately no adapter comes with the lens that makes the wide angle lens (without the macro) fit on 37mm threads. This would add so much more versatility to the lens in situations that require a fisheye view. I give an example in the video and you can see at least another foot of view is added.

When considering buying these ask yourself how much you're going to use them. For $17 these offer almost the same performance as the official canon WA lens at 1/10 of the price. The only problem with performance is when using high levels of zoom (blurred). However, on youtube there are reviews of raynox's .45 wide angle lens that show a noticeable improvement over this lens. At only $30 I'm kicking myself in the pants for not buying it.

(I bought this with the 2.5x telephoto lens from Zeikos and that is worthless while filming. It barely adds to my camera's optical zoom while adding very noticeable distortions.)

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars not really a 0.45x lens (with macro), October 17, 2009

By 

C. L. (SF,CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Zeikos ZE-WA37S 37mm 0.45X Wide Angle Lens (Electronics)

I'm disappointed with it, feels like cheated by the description, it's not really a 0.45x 37mm lens.

With the macro on, the factor is effectively >0.7x, I compared to my 0.7x lens, it's even narrower than that, that's how I know the effective ratio is >0.7x.

There is just no way to use the 0.45x lens without the macro, the lens itself has a female thread of something like ~40mm, only the macro has a male 37mm thread to put it on your 37mm camcorder/camera. There is no other adapter comes with it.

in the end, I had to tape the lens to my 37mm adapter for some other lens in order to use it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quality Wide Angle adapter at a great price, March 26, 2009

By 

A. Abrams (Vermont) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Zeikos ZE-WA37S 37mm 0.45X Wide Angle Lens (Electronics)

I purchased thus for my new Canon HG21 also purchased at Amazon. Build quality of glass and housing is excellent and the optics clearly have an anti-reflective coating on them. Image quality is fine in several minutes of test video I shot and appears to be completely undistorted. Do note that some camcorders (like my HG21 had) may have slight corner cutoff/vignetting at the full wide-angle zoom setting. A slight touch of the zoom away from full wide-angle solves this completely and you do not loose much at all of the (super) wide angle effect that this lens is made for. For under $30 as opposed to the Canon equivalent at about $150 and considering I won't be using it on a routine basis, I'm very happy with the Zeikos. By the way, if you go to their web site, they have many products in their lineup. After buying this lens, i also purchased a 3 piece Zeikos 37mm filter set from Amazon (which included a circular polarizer!) and am very happy with this line overall. Definitely worth the price!!