Customer Reviews

Zeikos ZE-WA58B 58mm 0.45X high definition Super Wide Angle lens with Macro attachment, includes lens pouch and cap covers (Life Time Warranty)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Length:: 0:24 Mins

Ever since I picked up my Canon VIXIA HFS10 camcorder, I've wanted to add a wide angle lens converter. Of course, the macro converter that Canon sells (the WD-H58) is pretty expensive and since I wouldn't use it very often I couldn't justify the cost.

Then I noticed this Zeikos lens and thought at this price it was worth a try. I'm pretty happy with it.

First, it looks great on my camcorder. It doesn't look cheap, and matches the style and look of the Vixia HFS10 very nicely. It comes with a "fit on" cap for the Wide Angle end of the lens and a "screw on" cap for the attachment side.

It does what I was looking for, expanding a bit on the angle I can capture up close and extending the range of imagery that's in focus on a longer shot. The main thing I wanted was to be able to shoot a bit wider up close, since I sometimes use a green screen in my office and can't get my camera back very far from the screen. Though I was hoping it would go a bit wider than it does, this definitely helps.

I'm not exactly sure what the .45x means, since as far as I can tell (based on measuring the relative size of objects with and without the lens on) this really gives about .8x magnification. I assume it may have to do with the fact that what you really have here is a "Macro" lens + a .45 Wide Angle lens and the net effect is to give a .8 magnification. What I didn't know when I bought this is that the "Macro" component of the lens and the "Wide Angle" component are separable. With the "Macro" filter alone you can get VERY close to objects like flowers and insects - and you can ONLY focus on things that are very close (between an inch or so to about half a foot). If you wanted to fit only "Wide Angle" component onto the Vixia HFS10 you'd need another adapter. Anyhow, the roughly .8 magnification of the whole set up is not quite as wide as I'd hoped but it does mean there is pretty minimal curvature effects around the edge of the frame - if you look closely at the attached video you'll see there is SOME curvature at the edges, noticeable on the right and left hand sides when the converter is attached.

Anyhow, I wondered why Canon only sold a .7 converter when you could get an inexpensive .45 converter from another company - I assumed to begin with that was because .7 is as far as you can go without vignetting (change in light levels from the center to the periphery) or fisheye-like curvature, and so I worried a bit that this lens would show those effects. Luckily it doesn't show them to an unacceptable degree, but what my tests suggest is that this lens with its roughly .8 magnification is probably pretty close to what you actually get with Canon's own lens, and their numbers likely assess the "true" conversion rate of the lens as a whole, whereas the .45 only applies if you were to use only the "Wide Angle" portion of the lens. (If anyone knows more about this than I do I'd love to read about it in the comments.)

One thing that is probably evident from this footage is that with the lens on there seems to be a slight loss in the light levels. That's to be expected, but it's something you can compensate for in the settings. I can't compare this to Canon's own lens, but since I picked this up at less than 10% of the cost, and it does most of what I wanted from it, I'm not complaining.

Length:: 2:32 Mins

For $12.50 I wasn't expecting much. This lens is awesome for the price... and it will get quite a bit of use... the optical quality is good and it doesn't feel cheap.

I have owned this for a few weeks now. I've used it a few times with my Canon HF S10. Just recently I used it for a 2 hour tour de force real estate shoot. I filmed indoors and outdoors, low light and bright light, fixed on a tripod and hands free with panning.

The final cut (10 minutes) can be viewed on youtube if you search for "Colonial Square Model Twin Home Complete!"

Issues I've noticed include dark shadows in the upper right and left corners when at full wide (zoomed out all the way). Chromatic aberration (red, green, and blue halos around things) is particularly bad. The barrel distortion (curve of straight lines near the edges) actually isn't too bad but blurring is very noticible everywhere except the dead center of the shot.

The lens is alo extremely suseptible to lens flaring. If there there is a light source in front of or above you... you will have lens flare garanteed. The wide lens is threaded so you can use a Multi Coated UV filter to kill the lens flare.

Overall I found the quality of the video captured with this lens on to be noticably degraded.

That all said I have to agree with the video review that the build quality is spectacular. It integrates and blends with the HF S10 body very naturally. It's solid metal and glass, built like a tank. The snap on lens cap is a great inclusion. And weird as it may sound it adds enough extra weight and viewing area to the camera that it substantially reduces the amount of perceivable camera shake in my shots. If you need to go wide in some hostile environments and need a lens that can take a beating but won't make you shed any tears if it dies this would be worth having in your arsenal.

All things considered for $10 I would buy this again without hesitation. It's alright as a fail safe in the event that I absolutely have to go wide and can live with the issues the lens brings with it. Or in situations where I'm afraid the camera and the lens may be taking one for the team in the name of extreme cinematography. It's also a fantasticly cheap way to play around with different lens styles without breaking the bank.


If you're not shooting in 1080p the chromatic aberration, blurring, etc, may not be noticable. But if you need to do a lot of professional HD grade wide angle filming look to the Raynox or Canon 58mm wide angle. And be prepared to pay A LOT more.

Okay, for only 11 bucks (plus shipping), what an incredible deal. Even the Amazon.com price is phenomenal. BUT, you need to know the pros/cons of this product.

1.)The build quality is great. Looks 15x more expensive than it is. Integrates well with camera.

2.)It's actually a set. This isn't at all clear from the description. You get a macro lens, and a wide angle converter. The two screw together to create a macro/wide angle converter combo. I'll discuss each one, below.

3.)The Macro Lens: Great. By itself, worth the price. Macros are used for close-ups, and it's all this is good for. Tried it against a much more expensive model in a camera store, saw no difference. Used it for a human eye close-up and some ladybugs, and it looked fantastic. Small and compact.

4.)The Wide Angle Converter: Useless. Kind of produces a weird distorted fish-eye effect, but the visual garbling/distortion is awful and unattractive. No idea if this is supposed to have any function on its own, but if so, then it fails at it.

5.)The Wide Angle Conveter/Macro Combo: Moderately useful. First, it's compact. Much more so than a "true" wide angle converter like those offered by Sony or Canon. It is barely wider than a 58mm barrel. It opens up the frame a bit ... maybe .9 to .85 ... not sure. It makes a difference, but don't expect to turn into David Lean

The problem is with zooming. At minimal to zero zooms, I saw no image problems, and it did its job well. At 5x+, color problems and distortions appeared. As you get close to 8x+, the lens became useless. So much distortion you could barely tell what you're looking at. So, basically, don't use this if you expect to zoom at all! But, for its pricepoint, if you know the limitations it's a great deal.

I ordered this as a basic test to expand the wide end of my Canon EF-S 18-55mm IS lens for video mode on a hybrid DSLR. This adapter is made up of two pieces: a wide-angle portion, and a macro portion. With the macro adapter screwed onto the back of the wide-angle adapter, it fits a 58mm lens, but the threading between the macro section and the wide section has much smaller threading. Therefore, if you are expecting to get a true .45x magnification factor, you will be dissappointed, as the wide-angle section alone has threading somewhere around 51mm and cannot be used on a 58mm threaded lens without some kind of adapter. This makes it nearly useless without the macro attachment since the vignetting would take up a good portion of the 58mm circle.

Having said that, it does give the effect of approximately .7x magnification with both pieces assembled, so it isn't completely worthless. It is a solid metal build, but the transparent material (whatever it may be) isn't perfectly even. The threads don't appear to be of the best of quality, either.

I won't give this 1-star because it does work well as a .7x adapter for medium definition work. I've held equivalent adapters for 7 times this price. You just need to know about the above mentioned issue before considering a purchase.

I recieved this lens a week ago, and shooting with it has been one fantastic week. I use a Canon Rebel T3i and this lens is the perfect addition to the stock 18-55 kit lens. it looks great, and takes even greater shots. on top of that, it makes shooting video in a crowd magnitudes easier and more stable. I couldn't recommend this lens more.

I bought this for the kit lens (18-55mm IS) for my Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12.2 MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens (Black). As others have mentioned, you can expect shadows in the corners when fully zoomed out. They can be reduced somewhat by removing any filters, such as the UV filter I leave on the kit lens most of the time. You do see an improvement in field of view with this lens, I don't know if it is .45 or not.

One thing I am extremely pleasantly surprised with is its macro capability. I am new to macro photography, but that said, I am impressed with the image quality with a fully zoomed-in (55mm) shot at extreme close range (1-2 inches). The auto-focus hunts at the very short end of the usable focus range, probably due partially to the difficulty of getting enough light with the lens so close to the subject, but you can get a truely impressive picture with manually focusing at the closest range. See my (intentional!) thumb shot for an example.

It's hard to imagine getting better value for your money than this lens.

This almost works. It shows the black ring on my 18-55mm EF-S but worked fine on my 28-80mm EF. Removing the UV filter helps a little but its still not usable on my main EFS lens. But it was cheap.

Was a little skeptical about purchasing the Zeikos lens but after reading the reviews on it, I decided to give it a try. After all, how could a $12 lens begin to measure up to a $300 plus Canon lens?

I have to say, I was really surprised when I tried it out for the first time. I am impressed in the quality of pictures and video both that I get with my Canon Vixia HF-S200 high definition camcorder. I record a lot of indoor scenes as I play bluegrass music and I needed the wide angle lens so I didn't need to back away from the subjects so far. I get a better sound quality because I am closer to the subjects. Also helps out when recording stage shows because I like to set up close to the stage and it's easy to film the whole group at once.

As for extra weight to the camera, I mean...get real...the lens adds 8 onces to the camera. If that's too heavy to carry around, just stop and think of the old VHS camcorders of yester-year. Most of the time when I'm using the lens, it's for up-close subjects and I have the camcorder on a tripod. I don't use the lens for far away subjects.

I have tried zooming in and noticed no difference on picture quality but I haven't zoomed in very far because of recording close subjects. I guess if I plan on doing a lot of zooming in, then I don't need the lens at that time.

Again the picture quality is excellent. I have never tried the Canon lens....I'm sure it works great but if you don't have the $$$ don't be afraid to give the Zeikos a try. I still can't imagine how they can do it for 12 bucks!

I would definitely recommend this lens but make sure it is compatible with your camera first.

Different vendors on Amazon.com supply this 58mm wide angle adapter under several brand names. They appear to be identical. The 58mm wide angle adapter is designed for moderal wide angle lenses, such as the 36mm equivalent lense of the Canon S3 and the Canon S5. It converts them from a moderate wide angle of 36mm to a significantly wider 28mm lense. And, it does so without any loss of contrast or saturation, and only a modest and hard to detect loss of sharpness.

This adapter will NOT work well with wide angle lenses that are much wider than 35mm. If it is used with a 28mm or 24mm equivalent lense, there will be a darkening of corners and notable bending of straight lines.

Most Canon Rebel DSLR's are supplied with a zoom lense that is the equivalent of 36mm at the wide end. If those lenses have a 58mm filter thread, this adapter will convert them to a 28m lense.

NOTE: The adapter is designed to be used as a FIXED 28mm wide angle lense. If you attempt to zoom up from 28mm, you will get dark corners and blurry, unfocused photos.

Good wide angle lenses can cost hundreds of dollars. The fact this adapter converts a 35mm or 36mm lense into a 28mm wide angle lense for a trivial price makes it one of the great bargains in photo equipment.