Digital Concepts 0 45X Professional 43mm Wide Angle HD Lens with Macro

liDigitalConcepts Brand!liHD Digital Lens; Optimized forMegapixel Photographyli Straight fit 43mm,no adapters needed for 43mm camcordersli Takes62mm filters; 43mmmount threadli Multicoated Optical Glass;High speed Auto Focusli InfraredCompatible; Includes Carrying Case Capsli LightweightSteel Barrel Design Accepts 62mm filtersli SilverTitanium High-Speed Auto - Focus li Anti-ReflectionCoatingli Heavy Duty Constructionli LifetimeWarrantySpecial design for digitalcameras and camcorders with 43mmfilter thread. This lens accepts 62mm filters.This0.45x 0.45x High Definition Professional Wide Angle lens fits rightover your camera’s existing lens system and affects the full zoom rangeof your camera’s lens.This lens can be separated in twopieces (unscrewed): macro part and wide angle part. So you can use itboth ways: as wide angle with macro together and as macro lens (withoutthe wide angle part). So please notice, this lens consists of twoparts: macro part and wide angle part and for the price ofonly ONE lens you are getting TWO!2-in-1Macro and Wide Angle!This wide-angleconverter MORE THAN DOUBLES your angle of view, allowing you to gettwice as much in the picture, include more of the landscape, includemore people in group picture, and interiors show more of the room. Yourtelephoto setting also becomes wider, this converter brings everythingcloser.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Great product quality at an amazing price!
I was very scared about ordering this wide lens, since I have seen many users with other brands having issues and regreting their purchases. Not here. This is a great quality wide lens. Best of all, does not distort the image, does not cause vignetting and the price cannot be better. I can’t talk about the Canon wide lense, since I don’t have it or seen it. But for the price difference, this one should be a no brainer. If you have cash to throw away, and want to go with a name brand and a good wide lense (from reviews I have read) then buy the Canon. If perhaps, you are tight on budget, but still want a great quality wide lense (and a macro as well), then buy the Digital Concept Wide Lense and you won’t be dissapointed at all. I am so happy I found this review on amazon and it was dead on!!

5 Stars Biggest Quality Surprise Ever
I purchased this 0.45X Wide Angle accessory lens to attach to my HV30 Canon HD camcorder. For a lens under $30 (my price) it was more of an experimental purchase with little confidence that such a cheap piece of glass would compliment a $600 Hi Def camcorder. I am still in shock after performing a wide variety of test footage and stills over the past several weeks. In a nutshell, if I scratched or damaged this lens to make it unusable I’d have another on order as soon as I got back online.

There are many generic accessory lenses out there to fit the Canon HV30 43mm threads. And many have proven to be worth the equivalent of a fishing sinker with multiple problems like lens barrel vignetting, halo’ing, fringing, fisheye, blurring at the edges, inability to create sharp focus, and about every other performance flaw you can imagine. Its the old adage “You get what you pay for.” This BUCKS the rule~! This lens, identified by the brand name Digital Concepts and made by Sakar in China (although the lens barrel says JAPAN) is everything those others are not.

I have filmed (video mode) recent ice carving sculptures and can’t tell the difference between the HV30 normal lens and the sharpness and color reproduction of this wide angle lens nor can “blind tests” with my friends viewing the footage tell the difference. Corner to corner, side to side, ZERO Vignetting in full wide angle and no fisheye’ing, and oh what a pleasure it is to have so much additional “real estate” in the frame. The fireworks display I shot that night was no different than the normal lens quality except I had a much wider field of view of the bursts. Clear, sharp, colorful imagery. Absolutely no distortion of any kind.

Ranging through the Wide Angle to full Telephoto settings provide accurate focus, sharpness and no imaging problems except at full telephoto where a soft focus look was apparent. Backing off just a tad on the zoom setting put the scene immediately back into crystal sharp focus. This really is not much if any problem because you are getting the lens for WIDE ANGLE usage and so to use telephoto/zoom with it is contrary to its best use.

Even with a 62mm UV filter and a flower pedal lens hood/shade on the end I had NO vignetting of any kind in VIDEO mode. Switching the HV30 to Camera Still Frame mode showed some minor concerns that were correctable. Because the still photos taken with the HV30 have a wider view than the Video framing, there was some vignetting of still frames in the corners when at full wide angle. BUT this ended up being due to the UV filter and lens hood added to the front of the lens. A slight zooming will eliminate this vignetting. But when the lens hood and UV filter ring were removed, the still frames taken, even in wide screen 1920 x 1080 were sharp, clear, and clean with no vignetting or sharpness problems. When wanting to take still frame 3.1 MP photos, you just need to remove the hood and UV filter and shoot to your heart’s content. BTW, when the flash is not needed for exposure, the HV30 will shoot 3.1 megapixel stills in high speed continuous mode at 10 frames in about four or less seconds. Pretty cool for shooting fast action sports for great still captures.

I’ve shot traffic intersection scenes in video mode at 1/8th sec. shutter speeds in low light with this lens with remarkable effect of motion blur and sharpness of static non-moving images at the same time. In MACRO mode, with the outer barrel removed, it will at least double your effective close up framing with absolute clear, sharp focussing no different than the normal lens.

Sorry for the long winded review. But this particular lens has far exceeded any expectations and with PERFECT performance. As I said, I’d buy another in a second if anything happens to this one. And because this lens has a 0.45X wide angle view, it FAR EXCEEDS the 0.7X CANON WD-H43 wide angle view which is 5 TIMES the cost of this lens. If you want more real estate in your frame, this is the one to get. IF I get the time in the future I’ll try to do a Video Review so you can see for yourself. Be FOREWARNED….the 2X Tele Extender lens by the same company is a piece of crap and I had to send mine back. It was as useful as viewing through the bottom of a coke bottle bottom on the HV30~!

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