Wide Angle Converters

[Matt W.]

Are any of these not terrible?

Looking for a 0.7X adapter with 52mm threads for a 24mm f2.0 Nikon (only need S35 coverage) and 24mm f1.4 FD L (only need S35 coverage).

Or what about combining an Aspheron with a macro tube?

 

[Matt W.]

So far I've found the ELPCW01 to be the best option. It just barely covers S35 but has a flat field, 72mm threads, and is lightweight given the enormous amount of glass in it. I'm just afraid to screw it onto a 24mm FD L given its value!

 

[M Harvey]

I don’t have an answer, but appreciate your reporting back on what you have learned so far!

Don’t know if you’re setup allows for rod-mount lens support, but that’s where my thoughts go as far as supporting this…

 

[Matt W.]

This is something I've put way too much thought into. Clearly there's a market for high end wide angle converters since you get bespoke glass like Richard Gale's Clavius lenses, 24mm FD L lenses combined with wide angle converters for faux-K35 sets (the original was apparently based on the 24mm FD L too), the 25mm Old Fast Glass f1.5 rangefinder lens, and even back in the day I think the 21mm f2.0 Olympus was converted to a 17mm f2.0 version that covered S35.

But it's a small market.

For 72mm fronts there are a lot of options. Of what I've tried so far:

The Canon Wide Converter WD-H72 is I think what Chris Probst uses to turn the 40mm Kowa into a 32mm (amazing that a 40mm anamorphic lens has 72mm threads in the first place) and it's excellent (concave front element, oddly) but very very heavy. The threads are also deep and need to be machined off to use on most lenses. I broke a 20mm f3.5 Nikkor that's sort of a collector's item using this adapter on it. But it has a nice enough image on both the Nikkor and 24mm FD L (where I supported it by hand). I believe it covers full frame, or almost.

The Epson ELPCW01 is designed for projectors and has poor coverage. It's also enormous. But very lightweight because it's made of plastic. (Including plastic threads that damage easily.) With the FD L (I tried it briefly, cradling it – and yes, I would only use it with a lens support hereafter) it barely covers S35. On the Alexa, stopped down, I imagine the image would begin to vignette very slightly at 2.8k/1080p. However, I see no image degradation besides a bit of barrel distortion. Performance is great and these are dirt cheap. But the coverage is terrible and would be a deal-breaker for most.

Both of these are quite good, but the Epson is lighter, cheaper (used), and in my experience performs better. But it just barely covers S35.

I haven't tried it, but Canon makes a Scoopic wide angle converter that I am trying to hunt down for my Scoopic. The Scoopic has 72mm threads and K35-contemporaneous coatings so I figure it might look great with the 24mm FD L, except it's a single-element aspheron-type adapter and would require a macro tube. But if anyone has one for sale – I am looking for one for my Scoopic and would try it on the FD L too.

For 52mm there are a lot of options too. This is where I'm looking for something for my 24mm f2.0 Nikon lens.

Almost none are any good. The Nikon adapters I've tried have poor corners, the Raynox adapters have poor corners, the cheap Canon ones have poor corners. The more expensive 58mm Canon adapter is probably fine, but it's enormous. The Schneider Xenar adapter with 55mm threads is okay but has poor corners and throws off focus distance. The Soligor 52mm adapter is similar and has 72mm threads on the front, which is nice. I have yet to compare the two. The Olympus 0.8mm adapter (also 55mm threads I think) is enormous and uncoated but optically surprisingly good and maintains focus distance. The bigger issue is the donor lens, the 24mm f2.0 Nikon lens is just not very good in the first place.

There are a lot of bespoke Fuji, Sony, Panasonic, Ricoh etc. adapters designed for compact cameras. I haven't gotten to try many of these.

I've read that the Soligor adapter with 95mm front threads and the Nisi wide angle converter are excellent, but haven't tried either.

The best performers I've found and the lightest smallest option are aspherons. I sold one and probably shouldn't have but the Zeiss aspherons are excellent. However they're also suited only for very wide lenses or lenses with macro capability. With the Schneider and Soligor adapters you can focus past infinity, but it doesn't require a macro tube to reach infinity as the aspherons do on non-macro lenses.

The Red Eye aspheron did not hold up. Barrel distortion, poor edges (soft and full of CA).

The Bolex 4mm aspheron requires such a large macro tube to reach infinity focus that it just kind of cancels out and doesn't work if I remember correctly.

It appears that the 10mm standard speed and 18mm K35 are likely other focal lengths fitted with aspherons.

This is a pretty insane pursuit considering Rokinon lenses or CN-Es vastly outperform K35s and cost much less. I would like to get my hands on Richard Gale's wide angle adapter he designed for the Helios 44-2. I think this is really cool what he did building a whole system around one lens like that.

 

[Zack Birlew]

You have quite a bit of options for wide angle converters, everything from SD video camera adapters to more modern HD versions and then there's old broadcast lens converters that still hold up pretty well. Some newer adapters are out there but you have to kind of look for reviews and make your own judgments depending on what you can live with image quality wise and functionality such as infinity focus or macro focus limitations. I've tried to find a nice big all-in-one adapter and I haven't found anything (yet) that quite outdoes the size to performance ratio of the Canon wide angle adapters and the WD-H72 Matt mentioned is pretty nice and can be used as a normal screw-on adapter by using a spare empty UV ring or getting a dedicated threaded spacer/extension ring or two (depending on your method and brand, look on Amazon). I haven't looked into machining the excess metal off of the WD-H72 but I could see that as an option if you're adventurous or need that extra sliver of wide angle coverage.

As for using them on already wide lenses like the Nikon 24mm 2.0, there is a give and take versus just buying an even wider angle prime lens as, again, you're wrestling with the quality of the taking lens versus the glass in the wide angle adapter and in my experiments there has been quite a trade off compared to switching to a wider lens in general. However, keep in mind that this can change by the taking lens being used! If nothing else, as long as the wide angle lens covers without vignetting, you should be fine for the most part but remember to keep in mind that you may not be able to find a suitable 0.7x and might need to settle for a less wide but more technically proficient 0.8x which some HD adapters opted for.

The main issue with wide angle adapters, above anything else really, is that they can be just as expensive as buying a wider angle prime lens. Just now while looking up options to suggest, I saw some interesting adapters by Fujinon that could fit the bill for what you're looking for, however the price was nearly $400 and up and for that you could very well buy a Rokinon 14mm 2.8 or similar option. Others like 16x9 EX II adapters can be cheaper and work just as well but then again, it depends on your lens combo so trial and error could be a factor. Keep in mind as well that there are certain wide angle adapters that may require a specific thread adapter or clamp, particularly with the Century Precision Optics brand of converters, and this can factor into the cost of the wide angle lens as well. Lastly, look closely at each adapter and make sure you're not getting something that is in a bayonet mount for a particular video camera or lens, I've made this mistake before but thankfully mine turned out to be DVX100 based so I can use those on my retro DVX100 video experiments.

 

[Matt W.]

Thanks for the feedback – that's a smart idea using a spacer ring for the Canon adapter. (I paid like $20 to get it machined but I was lucky to find a good machinist nearby.)

I should mention I started down this path because I wanted something faster than the 18mm f3.5 Nikon or 20mm f2.8 FD. f2.8 or f3.5 isn’t a great complement to a set that’s otherwise f2.0 or f1.4/f1.2. I wanted something that maintained a vintage “look” that the rest of the shared but was faster and only had to cover S35.

(24mm is wide enough for me on FF.)

This goal isn’t totally crazy – the Old Fast Glass 25mm Canon Rangefinder lens, the 10mm Canon Optex lens and likely the 10mm standard speed, the 18mm K35 (the original and some of the remakes), Clavius line, etc. employ wide angle converters or aspherons to turn full frame still lens designs into wider lenses (that in some cases only cover S35, in some cases full frame). And Zeiss and Arri sold aspherons and panspherons back in the day that worked amazingly well. There was one for the 18mm t1.3 super speed I think that turned it onto a 14mm t1.3 with great performance (and a huge front element). I'm still trying to hunt down a Century aspheron for the 9.8mm Tegea.

So it’s not so much about saving money as trying to fill a set that has a look I like with a fast wide angle....

But the 16mm f2.0 Rokinon exists and performs much better but doesn’t look that different…. So….. yeah....