 Sachin |
Choosing Extreme Wide-Angle Lens I have an F80 Nikon camera with a 28-80 lens. Recently, I bought a Titanium 0.45X wide angle cum macro lens. It is heavy. Pictures taken are not at all sharp. The object at the center is somewhat OK, but the peripheral is totally blurred. I cannot afford to buy a Nikon wide-angle lens. Can you suggest another one which can fit the F80. Thanks.
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Jon Close |
As you found out, the wide-angle and fish-eye adaptors that mount to the front of another lens cannot produce very high-quality results. Designing and making good fish-eye or extreme wide-angle lenses is a difficult technological task, and the lenses tend to be fairly expensive. About the most economical alternative available are the manual-focus, Russian-made Zenitar 16mm f/2.8 semi-fisheye wide angle, and Peleng 8mm f/3.5 fisheye. See http://www.rugift.com/photocameras/nikon_cameras_lenses.htm for descriptions from one dealer (there are other sources of these lenses).
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Dev Mukherjee |
Sachin: You could choose a third-party wide-angle zoom -- the 19-35 variety -- which are within US$200, much less if you're willing to buy them used. -- dev.
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Sachin |
Thanks for your response. Is Titanium a bad quality lens? What is the meaning of 0.45X in terms of 'mm' i.e. 15mm or 20mm. Is there any way I can use this wide angle lens properly or should I discard it? Sachin
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Dev Mukherjee |
Sachin: Zoom lenses typically are designated as 2x, 3x or 5x; each number really is the spread of the focal lengths. Mathematically, it is the quotient of the longest focal length over the shortest one. So, a 35-70 zoom is a 2x zoom (70/35 =2); a 70-300 zoom is a 4.3x zoom (300/70 is roughly 4.3). I am not aware of the Titanium brand, so I cannot comment on it. However, sharpness in a photo is dependent more on your technique than the lens. Most every lens will produce sharp results at the middle apertures (f/8 and f/11) if you are careful and prevent camera shake. Besides, wide-angle lenses have greater depth of field, so, there should be apparent sharpness over a greater area of your composition, when compared against a normal or telephoto composition. So, I am not sure what is contributing to the lack of sharpness in your pictures. If you place your F80 camera on a tripod and trip the shutter using the self-timer (from under the dial on the left), you will eliminate a lot of camera shake. Stop your lens down to f/8 or f/11, and try to see if your pictures are sharper -- before you discard the lens totally. Hope this helps. -- dev.
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Jon Close |
The Titanium 0.45x is, I think, made by Sakar, and is one of those converters that screw onto the front of a lens. It effectively reduces the base lens's focal length by the 0.45x factor, so the 28-80 zoom is about 13-36. It is intended more for use with tiny sensor digital cameras that have built-in zooms that only go as wide as maybe 38mm equivalent. Used on a 35mm film camera, it'll give a very wide angle to fisheye effect. But the center of the frame (the portion the digital sensors would use) will have just acceptible sharpness, but will get worse toward the outer portions of the film frame, and may exhibit vignetting or light-fall off at the edges as well.
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Dev Mukherjee |
Thanks, Jon. Now that makes sense, as to why the center is sharper than the edges. I think the better option for Sachin is to invest in a wide angle zoom for his F80, instead of using one of these converters which are optimized for the smaller-sized sensors in digital cameras. Wouldn't you agree? Regards, dev.
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