Make a lens a wider angle

[Joe Clement]

Got my wife a DSLR, and she's complaining that the 14-45 lense isn't wide enough for landscapes. Is there any way to make it wider, that doesn't make it too fish-eye looking?

[Franco Darioli]

Joe
Sounds like you have a screw on wide angle converter in mind.
They work OK (sort of…) with video cameras because of the illusion caused by moving images (they don't need to be very sharp) but I am not aware of one that is any good with still cameras.
Fish eye adaptors up to a point give the desired result but that is not what you are after.
Your solution is something like the Tamron 10-24mm (either 15-36 or 16-38mm equivalent depending on your SLR)
Or of course the version sold by your camera brand.
A not as obvious but cheaper solution could be to use a panorama stitch programme. Most offer tiles as well as horizontal and vertical.
( not for moving subjects….)
BTW, the Tamron is a rectilinear (straight lines) lens.
Franco

[Ashley Brown]

I don't think Tamron makes the 10-24mm in 4/3rds mount (which I assume is what Joe has, given the existing lens is 14-45mm).

There aren't really any good ways of making your existing lens wider. Either buy a new one (wider) or stitch together a couple of shots into a panorama.

Having said that, I'm not a big fan of wide angle for landscape unless the photographer is reasonably experienced. The desire amongst newbies is often to "fit more in" and think that getting a wider angle lens is the best way to do it. Unfortunately this just makes everything look smaller and you end up with photos without impact.

If you're going wider than 28mm equivalent it's always a good rule of thumb to have something interesting in the foreground.

[Joe Clement]

Ashley wins a prize, it is a 4/3 mount. And I had forgotten about the pieced-together panorama, I'll have to call and tell her. I did buy a cheap wide angle lens to screw on a Nikon point and shoot once, and it was terribly blurry, a long way from the edges. Got a bunch of bad pictures with that when we toured Tulum.

[Kyle Hetzer]

Sigma does make a 10-20 mm lens in 4/3 format. Olympus just recently made a 9-18 mm lens for there more consumer grade lenses. They also have a higher grade 11-22 mm lens and a super high grade 7-14mm lens. Although the last is exteremly heavy and expensive. It also does not support the use of filters. I would personally love to see a 12mm tilt sift lens made for the 4/3 formant. Since there is none at the present, Im looking to swith systems only keeping my 4/3 lenses for the Olympus E-P1.

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