Gotta love Amazon!! The order was received in 2 days with free shipping (I'm a Prime member)...and the product is exactly what I wanted. It takes the 18-55mm kit lens for my daughter's Canon T3i (which is equivalent to a 27mm film lens) and makes it basically a 10mm lens, ideal for any occasion where a wider angle lens is needed. A friend of mine owns a Nikon 12mm lens he paid $2,500 for. It's really nice. But I paid 100 times less, and the results from mine are really nice too!
Why did I buy it?
I do real estate marketing for a living (design and printwork) and I bought my daughter the Canon for Christmas. She's got a great eye for photography, and I wanted to introduce her to real estate photography. Well, she had her first photo shoot last Saturday, and the photos came out really well. However, I could tell that the images we took, weren't as wide of an angle as those taken by professional real estate photographers. So...I asked one of my favorite photographers about his equipment (he's the one with the $2,500 Nikon lens). He told me what my options were, and I searched on Amazon for what I thought would be a good fit.
This lens obviously caught my attention because it gives me the same focal length for a ridiculously low price (actually a little wider than his Nikon). When we first got it, I couldn't wait to try it out. So we opened the box, saw the leather pouch it comes in, took it out and screwed it onto the Canon. When I turned the LCD viewfinder on, I almost couldn't believe it! It's not quite 180 degrees....but if you stand in the doorway of a small bedroom, let's say, you'll absolutely have every part of the room showing in your lens. Amazing! It also captures much more of the "floor-to-ceiling" so it expands things both horizontally and vertically.
I wish we had purchased it prior to last Saturday's shoot, as I think the photos we took would have been much better (even though they were already good!) I'm almost thinking about driving back out to the property as a favor to my customer and re-shooting the house. The wider angles work really well for real estate photography...and it would've given all of the images a much more professional look and feel.
If there's any caution with the lens...it's this. At it's widest angle, you will definitely get vignetting (the corners turn black)...however that happens with basically ALL wide angle lenses (most especially with fisheye lenses). I just back off the widest setting slightly, and the black corners went away. Still though, you'll need software to help correct for the lens distortion where things curve around the edges (in other words, the left and right walls will be curved when shooting a room). GIMP does a pretty decent job of that with its lens distortion filter, and their software is free.
All in all, I couldn't be more pleased with this lens! I haven't used the macro aspect of the lens yet, as it was purchased primarily for the wider angle requirements....but I'm fairly certain the macro will be great too! The lens feels very high quality (heavy, and doesn't feel cheap at all.) It screwed onto the camera with no effort at all (but as with photo filters, the threads are VERY fine so you have to make sure you've got it on correctly before tightening down. You don't want to strip the threads.) Mine went on perfectly, and smoothly.
Oh, one more thing I noticed. If you use the built-in flash on the camera (it's forward facing)...you'll get a small "half-circle" shadow at the bottom of the photo. That's because when you have the lens added to the standard kit lens, it adds a couple inches in length. The flash is ever-so-slightly blocked at the bottom of the photo, but the same thing would happen with a telephoto lens. Again, all you have to do is zoom in a little closer...or buy a flash that sits a little higher (on the shoe instead of the lower-sitting built-in flash).
Just buy it....you won't regret it at all.
Dave
Altura Photo 58MM 0.35x Fisheye Wide Angle Lens (w/ Macro Portion) for DSLR Cameras EOS Rebel 70D 77D 80D 90D T8i T7 T7i T6i
4.1 | 2,196 ratings
Price: 39.99
Last update: 12-24-2024
About this item
LENS ATTACHMENT: Easily screws on to the front of your lens, and instantly expands the field of view for breathtaking fisheye photography. Features a detachable macro lens for extremely high-resolution close-ups of small objects.
LENS COMPATIBILITIES: Popular 58MM Lens models including Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/4-5.6 IS STM, Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM, Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM, Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, Nikon AF-P DX NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3G ED VR, Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G, Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G, Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R, Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm f/2.8 II
CAMERA MODELS: Canon EOS Rebel T7 T7i T6i T6 T6s T5i T5 T4i T3i T100 SL3 SL2 SL1 90D 80D 77D 70D 1100D 700D 650D 600D 550D 7D Mark II 6D Mark II 5DS 5D Mark II 1D Mark II M3 M5 M6 M10 M50 M100 M200 R RP
NOTE: PLEASE VERIFY YOUR CAMERA'S LENS THREAD SIZE BEFORE ORDERING. This Fisheye is compatible with 58MM lenses only. Lens sizes vary regardless of camera brand or model. Your camera's lens thread size will be marked somewhere on the lens barrel or printed underneath your lens cap. This number is always preceded by a ''Ø'' (diameter) symbol. For example: Ø58 = 58mm lens thread size.
LENS COMPATIBILITIES: Popular 58MM Lens models including Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/4-5.6 IS STM, Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM, Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM, Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, Nikon AF-P DX NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3G ED VR, Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G, Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G, Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R, Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm f/2.8 II
CAMERA MODELS: Canon EOS Rebel T7 T7i T6i T6 T6s T5i T5 T4i T3i T100 SL3 SL2 SL1 90D 80D 77D 70D 1100D 700D 650D 600D 550D 7D Mark II 6D Mark II 5DS 5D Mark II 1D Mark II M3 M5 M6 M10 M50 M100 M200 R RP
NOTE: PLEASE VERIFY YOUR CAMERA'S LENS THREAD SIZE BEFORE ORDERING. This Fisheye is compatible with 58MM lenses only. Lens sizes vary regardless of camera brand or model. Your camera's lens thread size will be marked somewhere on the lens barrel or printed underneath your lens cap. This number is always preceded by a ''Ø'' (diameter) symbol. For example: Ø58 = 58mm lens thread size.
Product information
| Product Dimensions | 3.78 x 3.91 x 3.91 inches |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 8.8 ounces |
| ASIN | B008YFXNE8 |
| Item model number | GJ0058 |
| Customer Reviews |
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars
(2,196)
4.1 out of 5 stars |
| Best Sellers Rank | #2 in Camcorder Lenses #33 in Camera Lenses |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Date First Available | August 16, 2012 |
| Manufacturer | Goja |
| Country of Origin | China |
Top reviews from the United States
David DanielsPerfect all the way around!!
Package was 2 days late but it did arrive . All was there and was packaged very wellAwesome lens
EGreat fisheye lens without breaking the bank
E
Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2017
Even though the product description states otherwise, in my opinion, you'll need to set your camera to manual focus and manual mode to use this lens properly. Be willing to learn how to use this attachment. When using the fisheye, you'll have to make adjustments when composing your shots. The fisheye effect is nice and it's clearly visible when used properly, but it can vignette badly. As a side note, you can use the macro and the fisheye together (as I did in the coin and billiards photos), or the macro alone (as I did in the housefly photo), but you CAN NOT use the fisheye without the macro.
You will experience some focus drop off and vignetting around the edges as illustrated in my snapshots, but you'll get that to some degree with any fisheye or macro lens. Remember, you're paying 20-30 bucks for this lens as opposed to hundreds or even thousands. In my opinion, you get much more than you pay for. All in all, this is a great attachment and it works as it should. It's affordable, useful, it's worth having around when you need it and it doesn't take up too much space. Mine came with a cap for both ends and a "leatherish" carrying bag. I'd recommend this product and I'd buy it again.
PROS:
-sturdy and well made
-works well (with a little practice)
-easily attaches to lens
-adds a nice effect to your photos
-macro lens can be used without the fisheye
-comes with caps and a case
CONS:
-significant focus drop off at edges
OVERALL:
Great buy
Great quality for the price
Great choice for beginner/intermediate level
Images in this review
Dennis E. Franklin