Lenses for SP-350?

[torrey]

Just out of curiosity, has anybody bought any lenses for their SP-350 for land use? I'm thinking about getting the telephoto (TCON-17F) and the wide-angle (WCON-07F) for Christmas, and I'm curious if anybody has any experience with these lenses.

 

[gert7to3]

I don't have the Oly adapter lenses, but I did get similar lenses for a Sony DSC S-70. With adapter rings these lenses were used on a Sony V-1 and now with my SP-350.

The lenses significantly extend the reach of the camera. Though you are hauling around a lot of extra stuff. The adapter lenses don't have much zoom range. So the camera becomes mostly fixed at the maximum 1.7 mag for the tele or 0.7 for the wide angle.

The lenses block the on camera flash, so an external (hotshoe) flash is necessary for flash photography. An external flash, especially used for bounce lighting, can really make these little digital cameras shine for indoor portrait shots. This also extends the camera's battery life since the internal battery isn't powering the flash.

These accessory lenses require the Olympus CLA-9 adapter tube. This tube will partially block the internal flash. Offsetting this is that the CLA-9 adapter tube will protect the lens. You can even put filters or magnification lenses on it. The threads on the CLA-9 adapter are 34mm diameter. Step up adapter rings are available. You can use these, even in combination, to adapt larger diameter filters.

 

[torrey]

Are you happy with the Sony lenses? If so, would you mind giving the model numbers of the lenses and any adapters you had to use to make them work together? I'm not necessarily stuck on Olympus lenses...I just know I don't want to get cheap stuff as I've tried those before and wasn't happy with the results.

 

[gert7to3]

I would get the Olympus lenses. The cost is a little bit less and those lenses are made for the SP-350. The only reason I am using the Sony lenses is that I had them already.

Two other lens makers you may want to look at are Kenko and Raynox. They make adapter/conversion lenses for digital and video cameras. I tried a 3x Raynox lens on the SP-350, but there was a lot of chromatic abberation and focus was soft. I also have a Kenko 0.66x wide angle lens. Performance is better, but there is significant distortion. It's sort of getting into the realm of a fisheye lens. Unfortunately the images lack the artiness of a fisheye and just look distorted. You have to carefully plan your shots with this in mind.

If you go much past the 1.7x increase for telephoto or below 0.7x for wide angle, you are simply exceeding the design parameters of the basic lens system.

For topside use the SP-350 is ok, but it does have a bit of chromatic abberation intrinsic to its design. Any conversion lens will exacerbate this tendency.

If I was going someplace like the Galapagos Islands, I would get a better camera for topside use and confine the SP-350 to underwater use.

Don't get me wrong, I really like the SP-350 for underwater shooting. The bang for the buck equation on this camera is very very good.

 

[torrey]

Thanks for the opinion. I'll keep it in mind.

 

[AndyT]

For what it's worth I have the 5060 / 7070 equivalent of the WCON-07F (WCON 07C). It's a really nice piece of glass both topside and UW. Money well spent - if the 350 equivalent is just as good then it is definitely worth buying

I also have the TCON-17C and TCON 30C . The 17 is a dissapointment - not really enough magnification to justify the expense. The 30 is a little better , but I haven't used it as much.

 

[AndyT]

You will need an external flash to go with the WCON - the FL-20 works OK for short range stuff.