Originally posted by TaoMaas Like anything, you get what you pay for. There ARE some good add-on wide angle attachments out there, but they're pricey. They're used quite often in the video world where a zoom lens may cost upwards of $10,000. With that in mind, a $1000 adapter that extends your zoom range is somewhat of a bargain.
I would agree with that. You get what you pay for.
I have seen in front of the lens wide angle adaptors ranging from $50 to about $200.
As I said in my post earlier, most of these are for the P&S market or Home video recorder market,, but they do come with multi coated elements and aside from distortion are not always optically that bad.
You need to really try one out before purchasing it, and some can vignette quite badly, depending on the lens you apply them to. Go to a store, and ask them if they will let you take some trial shots, standing in the doorway. Try several shots, try shooting towards the light (to check for flair) and shooting against a rectangular object to check distortion. Take the shots home, and pixel peep the hell out of them, and then decide for yourself.
Distortion is not too much of an issue, any good photo editor can fix that, vignetting is the main issue.
My adaptor is OK on my 24mm, on my DSLR, but not OK when I mount the same combo on my PZ-1.
Also, vignetting may also be somewhat a function of the front end of your existing lens, and the adaptor. You may wish to get a wide angle adaptor 1 filter size larger than the front of the lens, and use a reducing ring. This may help a little with vignetting.