Vintage lens experts – what is this Canon 80ø aspheron/wide angle attachment?

[Matt W.]

I was looking for a Scoopic wide angle converter and bought two of these:

https://elokuvakonepaja.com/product/canon-macro-wide-angle-x0-75-o80mm-2/

It turns out, it's not the same thing. It's for 80mm ø lenses, not 75mm.

Curious if anyone knows what this is and if it's useful for anything? Seems to be a vintage 70s or 80s aspheron/macro type attachment with good performance and vintage coatings.

Unfortunately, it also seems to introduce quite a bit of barrel distortion, inconsistent with my experience with Zeiss and Kern aspherons.

Wondering if I should keep them.

 

[Matt W.]

 

[Dan Kanes]

I don’t think it’s Aspheric. But it certainly is a wide angle. Probably works pretty well with a Kowa 40mm (if you want even more distortion and can tolerate that)

 

[Matt W.]

Thanks, Dan. It's the Macro focusing style so not sure how it would work with an anamorphic lens. But same size front.

I figured it was for K35s but they have apertures in front, not sure they have standard 80mm fronts so not sure what it is for. Thought it was for a Scoopic but that would be 75mm I think.

I tried it in front of a 24mm FD L and at 0.3m it focused about to infinity, so would work with a macro tube or 250D would be ideal.

That said, the barrel distortion is pretty severe. Why is it that my Kern and Zeiss aspherons seem to keep things rectilinear and this doesn't?

I'm trying to figure out what Canon put in front of the 24mm K35 to get the 18mm t1.5 K35. Starting to think there's no off-the-shelf solution.

I paid $100 apiece, might just return them. Never seen anything like it though. Has those nice 70s 80s Canon coatings.

 

[Nick Gardner]

Most likely for Canon broadcast video lenses. We used to use those a million years ago. Not particularly good as the cameras they were designed for were SD cameras with about 12 pixels ;-)

Nick

 

[Matt W.]

Most likely for Canon broadcast video lenses. We used to use those a million years ago. Not particularly good as the cameras they were designed for were SD cameras with about 12 pixels ;-)

Nick

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. It looks JUST like the Scoopic adapter (what I was originally looking for) from the 1970s, but was probably for a broadcast lens from the same era.

Looks similar to the C-8 adapter, too, which I also doubt is aspherical.

Anyone have any idea what Canon put in front of the 24mm K35 to make the 18mm K35? I assume it's an aspheron, but probably not a widely available one. I don't need FF coverage.

 

[Zack Birlew]

I've experimented with some different wide angle and telephoto converters before, these look like some adapters I tried to get at a broadcast company closeout auction not too long ago but I didn't win them so I couldn't say if those were any good or not. I did get a hold of some "vintage" broadcast adapters that were actually really cool for the right lens combo but then I've also gotten some stinkers including a recent no-name 72mm wide angle adapter that was tossed in a camera lot and was reflective and ghost-y as all get out despite actually doing a nice 0.6x wide angle conversion. All you can do is test and see if these things are any good or not and if they work for your setup.

 

[Matt W.]

Thanks, Zack. I think that's what it is.

The performance is good, great build, etc. but lots of barrel distortion. Not the worst I've seen, but more than I'd like.

I was originally trying to hunt down an aspheron-type converter to turn a 24mm FD L into something resembling an 18mm K35. But learned that the K35 is actually an original lens design so this whole project is kind of over. I think it's an Angenieux adapter that is being used in the "K35+" faux-K35 sets, but I wouldn't risk hanging one of those off a stills lens and ruining the helical and I don't have the budget for rehousing right now.

The 0.8 72mm Canon adapter with a concave front is is actually quite good but very heavy.