I have owned this for a few weeks now. I've used it a few times with my Canon HF S10. Just recently I used it for a 2 hour tour de force real estate shoot. I filmed indoors and outdoors, low light and bright light, fixed on a tripod and hands free with panning.
The final cut (10 minutes) can be viewed on youtube if you search for "Colonial Square Model Twin Home Complete!"
Issues I've noticed include dark shadows in the upper right and left corners when at full wide (zoomed out all the way). Chromatic aberration (red, green, and blue halos around things) is particularly bad. The barrel distortion (curve of straight lines near the edges) actually isn't too bad but blurring is very noticible everywhere except the dead center of the shot.
The lens is alo extremely suseptible to lens flaring. If there there is a light source in front of or above you... you will have lens flare garanteed. The wide lens is threaded so you can use a Multi Coated UV filter to kill the lens flare.
Overall I found the quality of the video captured with this lens on to be noticably degraded.
That all said I have to agree with the video review that the build quality is spectacular. It integrates and blends with the HF S10 body very naturally. It's solid metal and glass, built like a tank. The snap on lens cap is a great inclusion. And weird as it may sound it adds enough extra weight and viewing area to the camera that it substantially reduces the amount of perceivable camera shake in my shots. If you need to go wide in some hostile environments and need a lens that can take a beating but won't make you shed any tears if it dies this would be worth having in your arsenal.
All things considered for $10 I would buy this again without hesitation. It's alright as a fail safe in the event that I absolutely have to go wide and can live with the issues the lens brings with it. Or in situations where I'm afraid the camera and the lens may be taking one for the team in the name of extreme cinematography. It's also a fantasticly cheap way to play around with different lens styles without breaking the bank.
If you're not shooting in 1080p the chromatic aberration, blurring, etc, may not be noticable. But if you need to do a lot of professional HD grade wide angle filming look to the Raynox or Canon 58mm wide angle. And be prepared to pay A LOT more. Zeikos ZE-WA58B 58mm 0.45X high definition Super Wide Angle lens with Macro attachment, includes lens pouch and cap covers (Life Time Warranty)
I ordered this as a basic test to expand the wide end of my Canon EF-S 18-55mm IS lens for video mode on a hybrid DSLR. This adapter is made up of two pieces: a wide-angle portion, and a macro portion. With the macro adapter screwed onto the back of the wide-angle adapter, it fits a 58mm lens, but the threading between the macro section and the wide section has much smaller threading. Therefore, if you are expecting to get a true .45x magnification factor, you will be dissappointed, as the wide-angle section alone has threading somewhere around 51mm and cannot be used on a 58mm threaded lens without some kind of adapter. This makes it nearly useless without the macro attachment since the vignetting would take up a good portion of the 58mm circle.
Having said that, it does give the effect of approximately .7x magnification with both pieces assembled, so it isn't completely worthless. It is a solid metal build, but the transparent material (whatever it may be) isn't perfectly even. The threads don't appear to be of the best of quality, either.
I won't give this 1-star because it does work well as a .7x adapter for medium definition work. I've held equivalent adapters for 7 times this price. You just need to know about the above mentioned issue before considering a purchase.
Okay, for only 11 bucks (plus shipping), what an incredible deal. Even the Amazon.com price is phenomenal. BUT, you need to know the pros/cons of this product.
1.)The build quality is great. Looks 15x more expensive than it is. Integrates well with camera.
2.)It's actually a set. This isn't at all clear from the description. You get a macro lens, and a wide angle converter. The two screw together to create a macro/wide angle converter combo. I'll discuss each one, below.
3.)The Macro Lens: Great. By itself, worth the price. Macros are used for close-ups, and it's all this is good for. Tried it against a much more expensive model in a camera store, saw no difference. Used it for a human eye close-up and some ladybugs, and it looked fantastic. Small and compact.
4.)The Wide Angle Converter: Useless. Kind of produces a weird distorted fish-eye effect, but the visual garbling/distortion is awful and unattractive. No idea if this is supposed to have any function on its own, but if so, then it fails at it.
5.)The Wide Angle Conveter/Macro Combo: Moderately useful. First, it's compact. Much more so than a "true" wide angle converter like those offered by Sony or Canon. It is barely wider than a 58mm barrel. It opens up the frame a bit ... maybe .9 to .85 ... not sure. It makes a difference, but don't expect to turn into David Lean
The problem is with zooming. At minimal to zero zooms, I saw no image problems, and it did its job well. At 5x+, color problems and distortions appeared. As you get close to 8x+, the lens became useless. So much distortion you could barely tell what you're looking at. So, basically, don't use this if you expect to zoom at all! But, for its pricepoint, if you know the limitations it's a great deal. - Filters - Photography - Canon Vixia - Wide Angle'
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