I've thrown together this page as a test/review page of the Crystal Optics 0.42x wide-angle/macro attachment lens for use on digital cameras.
The page is for two purposes:
1. To display samples of the lens and offer some opinions
2. To showcase the macro capabilities of the Olympus 2020z digital camera with this lens
I have an Olympus 2020 zoom camera and all images below were shot using this camera. Thumber v3.1.5 was used to create the image thumbs adn extract all the
info about each image. The 2020z has a 3x optical zoom, with 35-105mm zopom range (35mm equiv). Different zoom ranges were used as were different apertures.
All images were shot in aperture priority (A) mode, and most were shot on a mini-tripod. The ant image, truck shots, and final 3 lens/box shots were not.
Wide Angle: The lens itself is a 2-piece lens. Together it operates as a wide-angle adapter. The 4 truck shots were shot using the wide-angle option of the lens.
The first two are normal zoom 3x (105m) and wide 1x (35mm). The 3rd and 4th shots are zoom 3x (105mm) and wide 1x (35mm) with the wide-angle lens attached.
I've noticed that it doesn't offer the same clarity as the Oly camera by itself. But it does achieve a wider image. Notice in the 4th image with the camera at
it's widest angle, it creates the "barrel" look of a semi-fisheye lens. A BIG note about using this lens is that you can NOT use the camera's built-in flash.
This results in a large shadow in the lower left quarter of the image.
Macro: Macro is where this lens comes in the most handy. Those who own the Olympus 2020z are well aware of the fact that the camera doesn't have the strongest macro capability.
It's at best a "close-up" capability more than a macro. The closest the lens will focus at 3x zoom is about 7 inches, and at 1x wide-zoom, it can focus down to about 3.5".
Separating the twp pieces and only attaching the macro portion of the lens nets, while certainly not the best I've seen, some pretty impressive macro capabilities.
First, the focal distance is down to about one inch! This, of course, means use of the camera's flash is out of the question. Alternate lighting or a bright environment are imperative. That
and use of a mini-tripod are recommended. Free-hand shots are possible, though. Just look at the ant!
The other thing that caught me almost immediately was the very shallow depth of field. With the aperture on 2.0 or 2.8 (depending on zoom), my depth was a grand total of about 2 millimeters!!!
But up the aperture to F11 and you get about 4mm of decent focal depth. Notice the screw - that's a PC screw that's 5mm wide at the head and 7mm in total length. Even that's not in complete focus.
These macro shots were shot using a variety of zooms ranges, side lighting options, aperture settings, etc. I shota variety of subjects that people can easily relate to as far as sizing and the dramatic
close-up capability this lens offers. The penny, when zoomed in to 3x on, well, HALF of it fits in the image. Likewise with the soda-can-pop-top. The ant was about 1/4 to 5/16's long.
I found that I'd switch between spot and matrix macro focusing so I cound better choose my focal point, particularly in 3-D targets.
Another thing I noticed was that the sharp focus faded as you get closer to the edge of the image. Perfect example of this is the first penny picture with half a dime in it. Notice the penny is pretty sharp and crisp,
but the dime is out of focus and even distorts. Nature of the beast, I guess...
Summary: All in all, I really like the lens. The wide angle is most useful for the funky-cool semi-fisheye capability when combining the lens with the wide angle of the camera. As a normal wide angle attachment
with the camera's lens zoomed higher (2x-3x) it does still tend to distort a little (note the concrete crack at the bottom of the 3r truck image) and doesn't offer the same sharpness of the camera by itself.
I doubt I'll use it too much for it's wide-angle use, other than when I want the fisheye look. Now for macro capabilities, it dramatically extends the capabilities of the Olympus 2020z camera.
Normal macro that the camera offers, the best you'll get is the green matchbox car to fill half the image. The macro lens lets you zoom in on and fill the image with just the back WHEEL!!!
Rating: Being that this lens really is two separate lenses, a wide angle and a macro, I can't rate it with only one rating. Not to mention, based on what I stated above, the wide angle and macro
features fared vastly differently. So here's my rating out of 10:
Macro: 9
Wide Angle: 3
Note that these are based on using the lens with the Olympus 2020z. A camera with different zoom and macro capabilities may result in different outcomes.
Thanks for visiting!
Eric Bowden
email me if you want
All images are transferred directly from the camera, untouched other than renaming them.
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