Opteka 10x HD² Professional Macro Lens for Canon PowerShot A570 A590 IS Digital Camera
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A 10X Macro Lens For The Vado HD
I purchased this 10X Macro Lens for my Canon 590IS, but I'm currently using this lens as part of my external lens set for my Vado HD Pocket Camcorder...Sweet!...although it is a tad heavy for my unique setup on the Vado HD, but, in the meantime it will do..for now.
Very Good Lens
I purchased this lens to use with my Canon A590IS camera in order to take full-frame photos of thumbnail-sized mineral specimens. My choice was between the Canon 250D macro lens and this Opteka macro lens. Considering that the price of this Opteka lens was one-third that of the equivalent Canon lens, I wondered about the Opteka lens quality; but ultimately decided to take a $30 gamble and purchased the lens. In short, this was a good purchase.
This Opteka lens comes with front and back friction-fit lens caps and an adaptor that allows the lens to be mounted on the camera (note for the Canon lens, the adaptor has to be purchased separately). To use the macro lens on the A590 camera, you first remove a decorative metal ring (a bezel) from around the camera's built-in lens. The Opteka adaptor is clicked into place on the camera where the bezel was removed by means of a twist and click bayonet mount. The Opteka macro lens is then screwed onto the front of the adaptor. You then change the camera's "converter" setting to "250D" and you are all set to take close-up photos. The front of the Opteka lens is threaded to permit the use of filters, if desired.
The Opteka adaptor ring, which sticks out a little less than two inches from the camera body, partially blocks the camera's viewfinder, flash, and autofocus sensor. This is not the fault of the lens (the Canon adaptor does this, too), but rather is due to the compact design of this consumer-grade camera. You'll want to use the LCD screen instead of the viewfinder, turn the flash off (you'll probably want to use custom lighting for close-up photography anyway), use manual rather than automatic focusing for the sharpest image, and use manual aperture settings to control depth of field.
The result: I am very pleased with this lens (although please see my comment about the adaptor ring below). Given the low price, I expected to find some faults; however, there is no chromatic aberration (no color fringes near the edges of the images), the focus is flat across the full width of the image, and straight lines near the edges of the field stay straight on the image (no fish-eye effect). This was a good purchase.
Based upon my positive results with this macro lens, I've decided to purchase both the Opteka wide-angle lens and telephoto lens for my A590IS camera.
===== Update =====
I am adding this to my review following the purchase of an Opteka .45x HD2 Wide Angle lens. My experience with the wide-angle lens has some bearing upon the macro lens that I reviewed above.
First, about the adaptor ring: The adaptor ring shipped with the wide-angle lens is the same part number as the adaptor that was shipped with the macro lens and, theoretically, should be the same. Although the adaptor that shipped with my macro lens was fine (good, snug fit on the camera body), the (allegedly) same adaptor that came with the wide-angle lens was loose when mounted onto the camera, allowing the lens to move around a bit. Examination of the adaptor revealed that the flanges on the adaptor which couple into the camera's bayonet mount were thinner than the first adaptor. This means that quality control of the adaptors is lacking. This also means that, if you purchase a macro lens, the adaptor you receive may not fit snugly onto the camera body. This is not a defect of the macro lens per se, but warrants calling 47st Photo for a replacement adaptor if the one you receive is loose.
Second, regarding the macro lens itself: The .45x HD2 wide-angle lens is actually two lenses in one. If you remove the front part of the wide-angle lens, you are left with a macro lens on the front of the adaptor. In fact, this component of the wide-angle lens is actually labelled "MACRO" on the lens itself, and the instructions that come with the wide-angle lens describe removing the front part to gain the use of a macro lens. Knowing this, you may be tempted to ignore the macro lens that is the subject of this review and use the macro lens that comes with the wide-angle lens instead. Don't.
Although the macro lens that comes with the wide-angle lens provides slightly greater magnification (13/16" of subject matter across the width of the frame at greatest magnification) compared to the standalone macro lens that is the subject of this review (1" of subject matter across the width of the frame), the wide-macro lens produced significant chromatic aberration (color fringes at the edges of the frame) whereas this standalone macro lens produced almost no chromatic aberration. I tested this by photographing a crossword puzzle (a grid of black lines on a white background) at maximum magnification with both macro lenses. With the wide-macro lens, blue and orange color fringes were very noticeable on opposite sides of the black lines. No so with the standalone macro lens.
So, bottom line: My original review of this standalone macro lens still stands. It is a very good lens. I just have two cautions. First, make sure that the adaptor ring that you receive fits your camera snugly (if not, return it for a replacement). Second, don't be tempted to use the macro lens that comes with the .45x HD2 Wide Angle lens instead of this standalone macro lens. The standalone macro produces images of much higher quality.
I'm loving it!
I should start out by saying I'm not a professional photographer, nor do I know anything about lenses. I wanted to be able to take some pictures of my flowers and seedlings this year, so I purchased the lens. At first I was having some issues getting my pictures in focus. I didn't even realize my camera (A570) had a manual focus feature. Once I figured that out (went back and read the camera manual) I've been able to take some really cool pictures. It was delivered this morning, and I've already taken several hundred pictures because it's so addicting. The price is definitely worth it too.
I should mention the folks at 47th street photo included an adaptor with my lens. I didn't order one because I didn't realize I would need one. Whether they do this for every order I don't know, but you might want to check. The one they gave me is a silver aluminum Opteka one.
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