DPReview.com is closing April 10th - Find out more

58mm Lens attachments question (fisheye, wide angle and macro attachments)

Started Feb 17, 2014 | Questions thread
ForumParentFirstPrevious
Flat view
IFM New Member • Posts: 3
58mm Lens attachments question (fisheye, wide angle and macro attachments)

I’m a current owner of the “Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8” and planning on getting the “Voigtlander f/0.95 17.5mm” both with 58mm attachments where you can screw in filters and other things (Not sure of the term).

Currently I’m focusing my efforts on getting a fisheye lens to extend from my 58mm threaded lens. The reason I’m not going straight for the 7.5mm Samyang Fisheye is because I like to film in low light and f/3.5 isn’t quite suitable. In the long run I’m hoping to screw a fisheye attachment onto the Voigtlander f/0.95 and get fisheye in incredible low light. I know it’s not an ideal way of doing things adding extra glass onto another lens reduces the quality but I believe the result would be beyond passable.

Some of my ideal attachments include:

$240 – Polaroid Studio Series 52/58mm 0.3x HD Ultra Super Fisheye Lens (it says it’s for professional camcorders and makes note of SLR’s only on the Amazon listing more official companies like bhphotovideo only mention camcorders) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005CR8WJC/

$80 – Opteka X-TREME 58mm 0.3X HD Super Fisheye Lens for Video Camcorders http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Opteka-X-TREME-58mm-0-3X-HD-Super-Fisheye-Lens-for-Video-Camcorders-Open-Box-/190810797820

One of those two are my ideal attachments as they are low profile and particularly the expensive Polaroid looks all-round good quality but sadly I couldn’t find any reviews. The Opteka doesn’t mention whether it supports SLR type cameras while the Polaroid only mentions it on Amazon. Amazon UK looks pretty promising it says “For The Panasonic Lumix”.

It seems the cheaper, bulkier models mention they are for DSLR type cameras. I know we are working with Mirrorless here but I assume they are quite similar in terms of which attachments you can use. Like the;

$35 - Opteka 58mm HD2 0.35 Wide Angle Macro Fisheye Lens for Digital SLR

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Opteka-58mm-HD2-0-35x-Wide-Angle-Macro-Fisheye-Lens-for-Digital-SLR-Open-Box-/190810798850

$25 – Xit Elite Series 0.38x Fisheye Lens

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Xit-Elite-Series-0-38x-Ultra-Super-High-Def-Panoramic-Fisheye-Lens-52-58mm-/121259222578

Now I’ve pretty much made up my mind. I’m looking forward to picking up a “Polaroid Studio Series 52/58mm 0.3x HD Ultra Super Fisheye Lens” while its pricey it’s made by a reputable brand looks high quality and low profile though I read it’s a pretty heavy lens at 500 grams. It’s disappointing that there are no reviews but I’ll hopefully change that provided everyone here thinks it will work alright.

One concern I have is that I seen a video on YouTube when the bigger Opteka was put on a camcorder you could see a circle with the fisheye effect and black everywhere else and the operator had to zoom in to take all the black corners out. I noticed you cannot zoom in on a Voigtlander as it’s fixed at 17.5mm. Am I going to have any problems with this?

If there is a problem I assume I can use a magnifying close-up attachment then put on the Fisheye?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/58mm-Close-up-Macro-1-2-4-10-Lens-Filter-Set-for-Canon-700D-600D-550D-500D-LF59-/181279170398

If you’ve gotten reading this far I thank you very much for your time and patients. I’m hoping I can be given some guidance before I fork out on a fisheye attachment I don’t know much about.

ForumParentFirstPrevious
Flat view
ForumParentFirstPrevious
Keyboard shortcuts:
FForum PPrevious NNext WNext unread UUpvote SSubscribe RReply QQuote BBookmark MMy threads
Color scheme? Blue / Yellow