# Canon Lens Wide Angle adapter help!



## jvw2941 (Jan 7, 2012)

Hey guys I am in dire need of a wide angle lens adapter for $40-$60.  I plan to attach it to a Canon EF 28-135mm (72mm adapter threads).  My friend said that he bought a Bower wide angle adapter from Amazon but I can't find it anywhere.  I have looked all over the internet and I am unsure of where to purchase one that I know will fit and will have good quality.  I've called all of the Wolf Camera stores in my area and none of them carry adapters.  Please help!

Thank you!


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## dxqcanada (Jan 7, 2012)

Good quality ?? Hmm, I assume that you are on a very tight budget so you cannot afford a lens with a wider focal length ?


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## 480sparky (Jan 7, 2012)

Word to the wise:  Save your money to put towards a _real_ lens.


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## jvw2941 (Jan 8, 2012)

480sparky said:


> Word to the wise:  Save your money to put towards a _real_ lens.



Why would I do that when I can achieve the same effect without spending up to or over $1000??  I don't have the money to possibly spend more than my camera costs on a high quality wide angle lens.  If you want to be a smart-ass don't post on someone's thread who is looking for help finding a specific product to expand their photographic capabilities.


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## HowlingWolf (Jan 8, 2012)

jvw2941 said:
			
		

> Why would I do that when I can achieve the same effect without spending up to or over $1000??  I don't have the money to possibly spend more than my camera costs on a high quality wide angle lens.  If you want to be a smart-ass don't post on someone's thread who is looking for help finding a specific product to expand their photographic capabilities.



But havent you heard? You can only take great photos if you spend thousands of dollars on equipment. All kidding aside i dont think he was really being a jerk. Its hars to filter that stuff out with e-thugs and newb trolls all over the interverse.   Anyhow i wish i could help but thats beyond me. Get the model information on what your friend has if you havent and go from there. Ebay too but im assuming youve already done that. Other then that all i can say is keep searching. in the mean time, step back a few feet and hope for the best.


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## 480sparky (Jan 8, 2012)

jvw2941 said:


> Why would I do that when I can achieve the same effect without spending up to or over $1000??



Do you honestly think there's no difference between the IQ of a $40 screw-on lens and a $1k lens?  Surely you can't be that naive.  If so, then we're all a bunch of putzes for shelling out two weeks take-home pay when we could have achieved the same end result for the cost of dinner for two.



jvw2941 said:


> I don't have the money to possibly spend more than my camera costs on a high quality wide angle lens.  If you want to be a smart-ass don't post on someone's thread who is looking for help finding a specific product to expand their photographic capabilities.



Spend the money on thicker skin then.  I apologize if an honest answer makes you think I'm a smart-ass.  Spend your money on the $60 job, then get back with us with the results.


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## Overread (Jan 8, 2012)

I'm unaware of there being any good quality wide angle lens adaptors on the market. I'm not saying that they are not out there, but that they are not that common and that I'd fully expect their price to be far higher than the budget you are stating. Generally wide angle lens adaptors are poor quality and whilst they'll give you a wider angle of view, they will also significantly degrade the lens performance overall. 


My advice is to first consider saving and investing in a future decent quality lens. It need not cost £1000s, but will most likely cost you a few £100 to get decent quality. 

Secondly consider stitching - that is taking two (or more) shots from a tripod, turning the camera to cover the full field of view over the distance of the shots, whilst also allowing for overlap between them. You then just use software (or manually if you want) stitch the photos together to get a composite photo that shows the full wider scene. 
Of course you'll ideally need a tripod to help with this and also a scene that is mostly static so that you can merge the two shots without problems.


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## SCraig (Jan 8, 2012)

jvw2941 said:


> Why would I do that when I can achieve the same effect without spending up to or over $1000??  I don't have the money to possibly spend more than my camera costs on a high quality wide angle lens.  If you want to be a smart-ass don't post on someone's thread who is looking for help finding a specific product to expand their photographic capabilities.


Because you aren't going to achieve the same results.  And he probably posted that because he was trying to help you by preventing you from tossing that money in the trash.


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## iresq (Jan 8, 2012)

A quick search shows this for around $500. For something around the price your looking to spend, I'd be very suspect of the quality.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk


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## jvw2941 (Jan 8, 2012)

480sparky said:


> jvw2941 said:
> 
> 
> > Why would I do that when I can achieve the same effect without spending up to or over $1000??
> ...



Thank you and I am sorry for my shrewd reply earlier.  I appreciate all of the additional support and I'll need to remember to be more patient.  I apologize again.


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## Destin (Jan 8, 2012)

Agreed with previous posts. Wide angle adapters don't give very good quality, and the lens that you're putting it on is already a pretty slow lens that has some limitations. The Wide angle adapter on the end is going to cost you sharpness, impair or disable your autofocus, cost you some light, give your photos a harsh vignette, etc, etc. Just not good stuff. 

The lens you have is a $4-500 lens. So there is some decent glass inside of it. Putting a $40 piece of glass in front of it... you may as well have a $40 lens on your camera. 

The lens is only as sharp as it's softest piece of glass. 

It's like putting a go cart engine in a nascar. Not going to deliver the results that the car is capable of.


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## bratkinson (Jan 9, 2012)

I bought a "adapter lens set" on ebay about 8 months ago.  2 screw in lenses - one for macro and one as a 2x multiplier, for less than $50, as I recall.

I decided to try the 2x multiplier lens and found my EF-S 18-135 had a tough time trying to auto-focus at anything closer than 10 feet or so.  So I wasn't overjoyed at that, I figured that "it'll do" if I need it.  

I then unscrewed it from the front of the camera lens and ended up unscrewing its 2-part, screwed-together construction!  One of the 2 lenses inside fell to the floor and didn't break, accompanied by 2 metal circular insert pieces obviously used to properly position the two lenses the adapter was made out of.  After multiple attempts, I gave up and tossed them both in the trash.

Now, the rest of the story...

While I'm not into taking pictures of insects or anything that small, as yet, I did experiment with taking a couple of pictures of flowers with my EF-S 18-135 lens, just to see what it would do.  I had good results from about 2-3 feet away (the closest-focus distance on the lens is 18") and simply zoomed in to fill the frame.  The results with AF turned on really suprised me!  I was outside in bright sunlight at the time.  Depending on what you would like to photograph, this technique (if one could call it that) might be sufficient for your needs.

Should I decide I really want to photograph really small stuff without using this kind of technique, I'd probably go for a 'real' macro lens.  Back in the film days, I had a macro lens but very rarely used it.  Given your limited finances, I'd probably wait and find a good-condition used macro lens on ebay....Not necessarily Canon.  BUT...before buying a used lens, do your research on the lens -AND- the seller before you bid/buy-it-now!  I found two super-mint quality used L's on ebay in recent days for very good prices!


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## jvw2941 (Jan 9, 2012)

bratkinson said:


> I found two super-mint quality used L's on ebay in recent days for very good prices!



Thanks much for your post that was really helpful.  Do you have any links to these ebay items?


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## dxqcanada (Jan 9, 2012)

Wide angle adapters eBay.
I will not vouch for the quality of any of these.
wide angle lens 72mm | eBay


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## bratkinson (Jan 10, 2012)

In as few words as possible, the key to getting a good used lens at a good price is homework, homework, and more homework. If you simply decide you want such and such a lens, look at what&#8217;s on ebay or Amazon or any of the major dealers&#8217; stocks and buy it that day, you may get a good deal, or you may come up with a lot less than you expected. Needless to say, steer away from "if it sounds too good to be true" type listings offering something at ridiculously low prices.

As I see it, the key to buying expensive stuff on ebay is to first check all the 'completed listings' you can find on an item. Of course, the first thing is to make your ebay searches as narrow as possible by excluding key words like &#8220;parts&#8221;, &#8220;for&#8221;, &#8220;2x&#8221;, or even brand names like Sigma or Tamron from the list of what to exclude. Become familiar with ebay search commands that allow &#8216;or&#8217; searching and exclusions (minus sign, parens, and a list). Once the search returns only the lenses and little if any extraneous stuff, add it to your Favorites list. Here&#8217;s one from my saved favorites for the Canon EF 200 f2.8 L I recently made my own:

Canon EF 200 L - 50,55,70,80,18,screw,collar,part,parts,mount,oem,mug,cup,repair,wide,macro,conversion,element | eBay

I&#8217;ll repeat the search daily (or more often, if time permits) to see what comes up and what prices they are currently fetching. I also look closely at all &#8216;completed auctions&#8217; as well, to see both the higher and lower ends of what sells and try to figure out why lens A goes for $200-300 higher than lens B. The difference is usually the condition, sellers&#8217; location (China, for example), or, the sellers low rating. I also look at each auction, active and complete, to determine if the lens is in good condition, very good condition, or close to showroom new looking. If I&#8217;m about to plunk down $500, or $800, or more to a complete stranger, I want to be sure I will receive the exact item shown in the condition described. I want to see lots of quality pictures of a lens to make sure it really is in &#8220;great&#8221; or &#8220;like new&#8221; condition. 

I also give strong consideration to the sellers&#8217; rating. Unless there are compelling reasons like an unusually low buy-it-now price AND they are somewhere near (200 mi or less), I won&#8217;t buy from anyone with less than 500, preferably 1000 or more rating&#8230;and few if any negatives (yes, I look at the individual feedbacks, too). If it looks more like someone that&#8217;s selling used baby clothing and this is one of the first camera items, stay clear. Odds are they may not know how to pack it very well or someone has hijacked their account.

I bought a new EF-S 55-250 from a seller this past spring and they had a rating of only 35 or so. The buy-it-now price beat NEW online store prices by 20% or so, as it was the lens out of a kit they bought. Also, they were a new ebay seller 3 months earlier, but lived only 60 miles away. I figured if I had to drive there to resolve a problem, I could. The lens really was new, in the original box with original packing, and they got a perfect 5-star feedback from me.

One of the used L's I bought was from a seller in Japan. The listing had perhaps a dozen pictures in it and the seller had a rating like 30,000 or so. In looking at perhaps 200 feedbacks, about all he sold was cameras and lenses on ebay. I discovered later it was a camera store in Japan. I felt comfortable buying from him and had the lens 2 days later! In New England, yet!

The 200 f2.8 L I bought on ebay I checked daily for 2-3 weeks before I found a really good one up for bid from a lower-rating seller (125 or so) but only 200 miles away from me. Based on the current $230 price for most of that week and the lowest price completed auctions, I figured I could swoop in at the end with a $475 bid and win it. It appeared the lower rating was scaring off bidders. 2 hrs before it closed at 1AM my time, I looked at it and it was already over $500. So I put in $535 and went to bed. It sold for $600 and change. 2 weeks later, one showed up as buy-it-now in super-good condition for $530. I made it mine about an hour later after getting a response to a question I asked him. 

One more thing...I had been watching the bidding and used prices for a 24-70 f2.8 L on ebay for more than a month. But in looking at completed auctions, the better-quality used ones were going for $50-100 less than new at B&H with the Canon rebates in effect. I figured for $100 more, I get a full warranty, and next day delivery, go with the new one, and B&H rang up another sale. 

The moral of the story...when buying on ebay, know the condition of the item, the quality of the seller, and, most of all, know what a good price is and DON'T OVER BID THAT PRICE!


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## davisphotos (Jan 11, 2012)

One solution that hasn't been suggested is to get a lens adapter to let you use older manual focus lenses. For example, you can buy a Canon EOS to FD adapter for $30, and an old Canon 7.5mm Fisheye for $350. It's more than you wanted to spend, and you wont have AF, but the optics quality will be way better. Rokinon also makes an 8mm Canon EF fisheye that sells for about $300


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## greatbuffalo (Jan 13, 2012)

Davisphoto got to this just before I did. I have a T2i that I just bought but have a ton of M42 (screw-on) glass that I've used with my Pentax film SLR for years. Great glass and REAL cheap on ebay. Get yourself a M42 adapter for what ever camera you have and in your in business. The adapters are 12 bucks or less and I saw an asahi (pentax) 10-17 go the other day on Ebay for 26 bucks. That will get you better results than the direction your headed.

I feel your pain man, photography on a budget can be hard but if you take the right advice it can make you a better, more creative photographer.


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