Is the Wide Angle Lens worth it?

I own the R1 and I love shooting wide... really wide...

Ive been looking at the wide angle conversion lens...

Its expensive (OVER $300), it needs an adapter and it only takes the 24mm to about 19mm

who has it and thinks its worth it? Examples?

Are the other brand wide angle lens complete trash? They sell for much cheaper, but at what lose of quality?

Is there any way to go wider then 19mm... like 14 or even 12?

thanks in advance guys and gals

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RidzDesign
Film.Design.Animation.Photography

http://www.ridzdesign.com - http://www.myspace.com/ridzdesign

The 19mm you are considering will expand your angle of view from
the 74 degrees of the 24mm to about 86 degrees. Is that enough
to justify the expense? That is your call. Another way to go wide
is to shoot multiple images and stitch them into panoramas.

--
When a hammer is your only tool, all problems begin to look like nails.

...if it were me, I'd walk into my local camera store, pick up a DSLR and put a xx-24mm equiv zoom on it and spend 20 minutes walking around zooming back and forth between 19 and 24 to see.

good luck
dave
--
Amazing what we can do with just three crayons, red green and blue!
http://diamondmultimediagroup.com

It is really up to you. There are a number of people on this forum that really like the wide angle add on for their R1. I will probably get it at some point, but don't need it right now. I just got the tele-extender, and already have plans for it. Yes, it's not the most convient setup, but it's a good option for the camera I have to shoot what I want in the quality I have come to expect. I got my stuff from Amazon. The tele-extender was $285 (so the wide angle) and the adapter was $60.

Will the price of these ever go down... I just feel that 300+ dollars for 5 mm isnt worth it...

But i would like those 5 extra mm... But not at that cost

--
RidzDesign
Film.Design.Animation.Photography

http://www.ridzdesign.com - http://www.myspace.com/ridzdesign

RidzDesign said:

I own the R1 and I love shooting wide... really wide...

Ive been looking at the wide angle conversion lens...

Its expensive (OVER $300), it needs an adapter and it only takes
the 24mm to about 19mm

who has it and thinks its worth it? Examples?

Are the other brand wide angle lens complete trash? They sell for
much cheaper, but at what lose of quality?

Is there any way to go wider then 19mm... like 14 or even 12?

thanks in advance guys and gals

--
RidzDesign

Click to expand...

Hi Ritz,

I didn´t buy the Sony R1 tele converter because, for the same price, I could by another complete camera with a zoom range two times greater.

On the wide angle side, however, there was no way around, so I bought the Sony WA converter. It is really very good. Practically as good as a prime lens.

Here are some posts with somre of my shots:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=19870919

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=19988076

JJDiniz, from Brazil

.

Thanks man those look real cool...

But is it a large difference between the WA Converter and without?

From somebody who has it and uses it what have you found?

--
RidzDesign
Film.Design.Animation.Photography

http://www.ridzdesign.com - http://www.myspace.com/ridzdesign

Great examples. Thanks for sharing them. I'll have to make sure I add the WA to my Christmas and Birthday lists.

RidzDesign said:

Thanks man those look real cool...

But is it a large difference between the WA Converter and without?

From somebody who has it and uses it what have you found?

--
RidzDesign
Film.Design.Animation.Photography

http://www.ridzdesign.com - http://www.myspace.com/ridzdesign

Click to expand...

Hi Ritz,

I feel that the difference between using and not using the WA converter is very big. And since I decided that I would NEVER have an SLR again (I had two during the days of film), Sony R1 with the WA converter became the only alternative to a good wide angle.

The difference between using and not using the TELE converter is not so great. After all, you can crop a photo taken without the converter, and it will look like the one taken with the converter. Of course you will lose resolution, but at least you took the picture.

The same way around is not as easy with the wide angles. You can stitch two or more photos together, but that is not good with moving subjects, and usually requires a tripod.

This was handheld, with the WA converter, at 5Mp, no post processing (large file):

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/1923/dsc01307ss2.jpg

An usefull information: when the Sony WA converter is attached, you can use the camera zoom from 24mm to about 44mm, resulting in equivalent 35mm focal lenghts of 19mm to about 35mm.

JJDiniz, from Brazil

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