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WD-58 - Please Finalize

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Todd Moore

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All,

I have exhausted this board and have probably read evey message pertaining to WA converters. My intent in posting this is not to start a mile long debate over optics but rather get a few facts rather than opinions.

I purchased the B300 due to the research that I found within this forum and there is no doubt that is the best lense according to the threads of this forum and my experience with it. I thought I had done the same by researching this board to find the best overall WA so I purshased the WD-58 today thinking I would get the same results as I did on the B300. Keep this in mind: I do not claim to be an expert in photography or optics but I am a very picky person about some things and the "obvious" errors are un-acceptable. In other words " I do not want to know how the watch works (in this case), I just want to know what time it is".

Unless I am doing something totally wrong, the WD-58 presents the following visual problems to me:

Picture clarity around the edge is bad
Center clarity is somewhat bad
Bad barrel effect overall.

When I say bad, I mean I would expect the quality that I am seeing to be un-acceptable by anyones standards.

Where I am confused is that this converter got huge praise from most on this board and I am lost on why it performs soooo bad.

I am asking anyone to jump in with any suggestions or facts about my above comments and maybe guide me towards a solution or suggest that the lense needs to be returned.

Also keep this in mind: I have autofocus on, I am not zooming in, etc.....As far as functionality of the camera goes, I know what I am doing....

Thanks
 
jgaddy said:
All,

I have exhausted this board and have probably read evey message
pertaining to WA converters. My intent in posting this is not to
start a mile long debate over optics but rather get a few facts
rather than opinions.

I purchased the B300 due to the research that I found within this
forum and there is no doubt that is the best lense according to the
threads of this forum and my experience with it. I thought I had
done the same by researching this board to find the best overall WA
so I purshased the WD-58 today thinking I would get the same
results as I did on the B300. Keep this in mind: I do not claim
to be an expert in photography or optics but I am a very picky
person about some things and the "obvious" errors are
un-acceptable. In other words " I do not want to know how the
watch works (in this case), I just want to know what time it is".

Unless I am doing something totally wrong, the WD-58 presents the
following visual problems to me:

Picture clarity around the edge is bad
Center clarity is somewhat bad
Bad barrel effect overall.

When I say bad, I mean I would expect the quality that I am seeing
to be un-acceptable by anyones standards.

Where I am confused is that this converter got huge praise from
most on this board and I am lost on why it performs soooo bad.

I am asking anyone to jump in with any suggestions or facts about
my above comments and maybe guide me towards a solution or suggest
that the lense needs to be returned.

Also keep this in mind: I have autofocus on, I am not zooming in,
etc.....As far as functionality of the camera goes, I know what I
am doing....

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
jgaddy,

What aperture where you using?
Trying something smaller than F2.0.

John
jgaddy said:
All,

I have exhausted this board and have probably read evey message
pertaining to WA converters. My intent in posting this is not to
start a mile long debate over optics but rather get a few facts
rather than opinions.

I purchased the B300 due to the research that I found within this
forum and there is no doubt that is the best lense according to the
threads of this forum and my experience with it. I thought I had
done the same by researching this board to find the best overall WA
so I purshased the WD-58 today thinking I would get the same
results as I did on the B300. Keep this in mind: I do not claim
to be an expert in photography or optics but I am a very picky
person about some things and the "obvious" errors are
un-acceptable. In other words " I do not want to know how the
watch works (in this case), I just want to know what time it is".

Unless I am doing something totally wrong, the WD-58 presents the
following visual problems to me:

Picture clarity around the edge is bad
Center clarity is somewhat bad
Bad barrel effect overall.

When I say bad, I mean I would expect the quality that I am seeing
to be un-acceptable by anyones standards.

Where I am confused is that this converter got huge praise from
most on this board and I am lost on why it performs soooo bad.

I am asking anyone to jump in with any suggestions or facts about
my above comments and maybe guide me towards a solution or suggest
that the lense needs to be returned.

Also keep this in mind: I have autofocus on, I am not zooming in,
etc.....As far as functionality of the camera goes, I know what I
am doing....

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
I don't care for the quality of add on WA lenses, at least from what I have seen from my own tests. I have the WD-DC58, it is a .8x lens. But it is not super sharp and does degrade the image to a degree. So I mostly do not use it unless I need it, and then it is a trade off of getting a wider angle and less image sharpness.
jgaddy said:
All,

I have exhausted this board and have probably read evey message
pertaining to WA converters. My intent in posting this is not to
start a mile long debate over optics but rather get a few facts
rather than opinions.

I purchased the B300 due to the research that I found within this
forum and there is no doubt that is the best lense according to the
threads of this forum and my experience with it. I thought I had
done the same by researching this board to find the best overall WA
so I purshased the WD-58 today thinking I would get the same
results as I did on the B300. Keep this in mind: I do not claim
to be an expert in photography or optics but I am a very picky
person about some things and the "obvious" errors are
un-acceptable. In other words " I do not want to know how the
watch works (in this case), I just want to know what time it is".

Unless I am doing something totally wrong, the WD-58 presents the
following visual problems to me:

Picture clarity around the edge is bad
Center clarity is somewhat bad
Bad barrel effect overall.

When I say bad, I mean I would expect the quality that I am seeing
to be un-acceptable by anyones standards.

Where I am confused is that this converter got huge praise from
most on this board and I am lost on why it performs soooo bad.

I am asking anyone to jump in with any suggestions or facts about
my above comments and maybe guide me towards a solution or suggest
that the lense needs to be returned.

Also keep this in mind: I have autofocus on, I am not zooming in,
etc.....As far as functionality of the camera goes, I know what I
am doing....

Thanks
Click to expand...
--
Shay

My Sony F707 Gallery: http://www.shaystephens.com/portfolio.asp



I miss my camera
 
I was in auto mode testing the WA. still good lighting out so most of the shots where at F4

I will take some at F8 to cover the other end....

Thanks
jilee said:
What aperture where you using?
Trying something smaller than F2.0.

John
jgaddy said:
All,

I have exhausted this board and have probably read evey message
pertaining to WA converters. My intent in posting this is not to
start a mile long debate over optics but rather get a few facts
rather than opinions.

I purchased the B300 due to the research that I found within this
forum and there is no doubt that is the best lense according to the
threads of this forum and my experience with it. I thought I had
done the same by researching this board to find the best overall WA
so I purshased the WD-58 today thinking I would get the same
results as I did on the B300. Keep this in mind: I do not claim
to be an expert in photography or optics but I am a very picky
person about some things and the "obvious" errors are
un-acceptable. In other words " I do not want to know how the
watch works (in this case), I just want to know what time it is".

Unless I am doing something totally wrong, the WD-58 presents the
following visual problems to me:

Picture clarity around the edge is bad
Center clarity is somewhat bad
Bad barrel effect overall.

When I say bad, I mean I would expect the quality that I am seeing
to be un-acceptable by anyones standards.

Where I am confused is that this converter got huge praise from
most on this board and I am lost on why it performs soooo bad.

I am asking anyone to jump in with any suggestions or facts about
my above comments and maybe guide me towards a solution or suggest
that the lense needs to be returned.

Also keep this in mind: I have autofocus on, I am not zooming in,
etc.....As far as functionality of the camera goes, I know what I
am doing....

Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I use the Sony VCL-MHG07 so I can't speak directly to your lens. I'm really happy with mine. A few things. For starters check the following.

-Do you have the camera set to macro, if not then do so

-Shoot some on a tripod with aperature set to f8, that should help. I try to shoot as close to f8 as I can and never below f4 with my wide angle (I'll explain later)
-Make sure your zoom is at full wide.

I shoot with camera set to conversion lens mode, yes its a bit of a pain, but it does a few things. One it puts the camera in macro mode, it sets the camea to full wide and disables the zoom button, and it limits your aperature to f4-f8

As far as the barrel distrion, that is just someting that is part of the lens, but its very easy to use pano tools or other applications to run your photos through a batch process to correct for this. See link below.
http://www.inertia-llc.com/sandbox/magicarm/#distortion

There is some CA on this lens, but I believe that at least some of it is carry through from the CA that exists in the built in lens. I think I am stick with this until I go upgrade to DSLR, and I'm going to try to wait for that until the CCD matches 35mm size so can take advantage of full use of lens. (need wa for architecture and panos)

--
David Goldwasser
http://www.inertia-llc.com
 
This is exactly the type of response that I am looking for....Yes, it my be a good WA for certian setting but it degrades the image slightly.....Is this the case for WA converters accross the board? They are all going to have some quality loss and barrel?

I know that some will say there are down sides to all lenses but I have yet to find that on the B300. Maybe I set my expectations to high for the WA.

Shay, I trust your opinion on this.....so tell me this: I am a details freak and will not sacrifice quality for quantity. I would much rather have a narrower picture of high quality rather than a wide picture or low quality. You knowing this about me now, would you say that maybe I should just stay back from WA converters? This thing cost me around $200 and I do not mind paying this but not for what I am seeing. I guess basically I want to know if I am wasting my time looking for a overall quality WA converter?

Thanks for your input!
Shay Stephens said:
jgaddy said:
All,

I have exhausted this board and have probably read evey message
pertaining to WA converters. My intent in posting this is not to
start a mile long debate over optics but rather get a few facts
rather than opinions.

I purchased the B300 due to the research that I found within this
forum and there is no doubt that is the best lense according to the
threads of this forum and my experience with it. I thought I had
done the same by researching this board to find the best overall WA
so I purshased the WD-58 today thinking I would get the same
results as I did on the B300. Keep this in mind: I do not claim
to be an expert in photography or optics but I am a very picky
person about some things and the "obvious" errors are
un-acceptable. In other words " I do not want to know how the
watch works (in this case), I just want to know what time it is".

Unless I am doing something totally wrong, the WD-58 presents the
following visual problems to me:

Picture clarity around the edge is bad
Center clarity is somewhat bad
Bad barrel effect overall.

When I say bad, I mean I would expect the quality that I am seeing
to be un-acceptable by anyones standards.

Where I am confused is that this converter got huge praise from
most on this board and I am lost on why it performs soooo bad.

I am asking anyone to jump in with any suggestions or facts about
my above comments and maybe guide me towards a solution or suggest
that the lense needs to be returned.

Also keep this in mind: I have autofocus on, I am not zooming in,
etc.....As far as functionality of the camera goes, I know what I
am doing....

Thanks
Click to expand...
--
Shay

My Sony F707 Gallery: http://www.shaystephens.com/portfolio.asp



I miss my camera
Click to expand...
 
Ok, i have used both too

in fact i've used all of them :)

i used the oly .8 (wc58)
the canon .7 (for the gl1)
the sony .7 07a

the sony is the best one, it has its issues (gotta use conversion mode/ macro mode) but it is the sharpest one and is WIDE. the oly .8 is not wide at all and was a real waste in my opinion.
 
I have the WD-58 and also the Sony VCL-MHG07A. I use the Sony a lot more.

The WD-58 works without the conversion lens/macro mode, and allows zoom-through so you can still zoom in a little to adjust your framing without taking it off - BUT it has very severe barrel distortion, adds a lot of CA, and is warped badly in the corners especially.

The Sony doesn't allow any zooming, and needs to be used in Conversion Lens mode - you could also just turn on Macro, but CL mode also adjusts the exposure so that it never opens to F2 or 2.8, prevents zooming, and sets the ext flash to work without the int flash, because the lens shadows the lower third of the internal flash. The Sony is much better optical quality (less CA and much less barrel distortion, and corner clarity that is a problem at F2 but ranges from good to excellent as you move to more narrow aps.) I've posted comparison images before (no longer on-line) and expressed my surprise that so many people who used F707's opt for the lower quality lens in favor of a slight bit of convenience.

-jeremy

--
Jeremy Birn
http://www.3dRender.com/
 
I don't think it is a waste of time to search for one of high quality, if you find one, let me know ;-)

I have been using just the bare lens lately because the sharpness just isn't as pristine as I would like.

Good to know that the B300 is good from an avowed sharpness enthusiast :-) lets hope we can find an equivalent wide angle.

So lets begin a list of lenses that are nice and sharp:

Teleconverters:
---------------------------------
Great Sharpness
Olympus B300

Ok but not great
n/a

Terrible
n/a

Wide angle lens:
----------------------------------
Great Sharpness
n/a

Ok but not great
Canon wd58
Canon wd-dc58

Terrible
n/a

--
Shay

My Sony F707 Gallery: http://www.shaystephens.com/portfolio.asp



I miss my camera
 
Shay Stephens said:
I don't think it is a waste of time to search for one of high
quality, if you find one, let me know ;-)

I have been using just the bare lens lately because the sharpness
just isn't as pristine as I would like.

Good to know that the B300 is good from an avowed sharpness
enthusiast :-) lets hope we can find an equivalent wide angle.

So lets begin a list of lenses that are nice and sharp:

Teleconverters:
---------------------------------
Great Sharpness
Olympus B300 and TCON 14B

Ok but not great
n/a

Terrible
n/a

Wide angle lens:
----------------------------------
Great Sharpness
VCL-MGH07A Sony 0.7

Ok but not great
Canon wd58
Canon wd-dc58

Terrible
n/a

--
Shay

My Sony F707 Gallery: http://www.shaystephens.com/portfolio.asp



I miss my camera
Click to expand...
--
If you don't snap it, nobody will snap it for you ...
Kafrifelle (Yves P.) Owner of DSC-F707,
No BFS, No hassle but strong vignetting on left
VCL-MHG07A, HVL-F1000 and some close up lenses ...
http://www.pbase.com/kafrifelle
 
In particular when you use f8, and in conversion lens mode it is capable of vary sharp photos. Sure its not pefrect, and its use requires more setup. As it goes through the built in lens, and Im jsut adding more lens, it can't get better than built in, its a matter of how much clarity and sharpness is lost. Nothing can replace SLR intercangable lens approach.

The photo below is thre shots stitched, but about two wide (50% overlap hand held, bright, but windy day)



This next link is to single shot of architectural interior. If I get time i may post details on my site with full size blow ups of corners on shots take of brick facade or something with texture and detail. I have corrected for distortion using pano tools. Keep in mind this is only f4, not f8 and monopod.
http://www.photosig.com/viewphoto.php?id=238870

I steve's digicam quality review site of lens would be great, but the trick is have to really review lens on camera by camera case. OK some just have optics that suck, but even the good ones may have issues on some cameras. Even on the Sony adding or not adding filters behind the lens affect its quality and FOV.

--
David Goldwasser
http://www.inertia-llc.com
 
I believe WD-58 is a camcorder converter, thus the quality is not as good as camera converters.

On the other hand, WC-DC58 is for digital cameras, it's 0.8x but has better quality.

Just my 2 cents.
jgaddy said:
All,

I have exhausted this board and have probably read evey message
pertaining to WA converters. My intent in posting this is not to
start a mile long debate over optics but rather get a few facts
rather than opinions.

I purchased the B300 due to the research that I found within this
forum and there is no doubt that is the best lense according to the
threads of this forum and my experience with it. I thought I had
done the same by researching this board to find the best overall WA
so I purshased the WD-58 today thinking I would get the same
results as I did on the B300. Keep this in mind: I do not claim
to be an expert in photography or optics but I am a very picky
person about some things and the "obvious" errors are
un-acceptable. In other words " I do not want to know how the
watch works (in this case), I just want to know what time it is".

Unless I am doing something totally wrong, the WD-58 presents the
following visual problems to me:

Picture clarity around the edge is bad
Center clarity is somewhat bad
Bad barrel effect overall.

When I say bad, I mean I would expect the quality that I am seeing
to be un-acceptable by anyones standards.

Where I am confused is that this converter got huge praise from
most on this board and I am lost on why it performs soooo bad.

I am asking anyone to jump in with any suggestions or facts about
my above comments and maybe guide me towards a solution or suggest
that the lense needs to be returned.

Also keep this in mind: I have autofocus on, I am not zooming in,
etc.....As far as functionality of the camera goes, I know what I
am doing....

Thanks
Click to expand...
--
http://www.pbase.com/ken0624700/misc
 
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