Lensmate Review


		Short Review of Products from Lensmate Prepared by: Siegfried Seierlein Last Update: 3 January 2008

Lensmate has been a great supporter of the MyCanonG7 web site and Susan has send me a few of their products to use, to test and to write about. Lensmate also supported a flower competition we did on the MyCanonG7 web site. I decided to open this page in appreciation for the good support I had from Lensmate.

One could say that Siegfried you will not be critical about the product supplied to you. Its true but I like to add that the MyCanonG7 web site is not a product review web site but rather a place one can learn about new products, new software photography in general and the PowerShot G7. Normally I include as much as possible pictures to speak for themselves. If a product is seriously not good or under performing I will discuss it as is. I hope you enjoy this page as much as I do and the products discussed here

Super Macro DCR 250 Adapter

I saw this adapter on the Lensmate website and contacted Susan to see if I can test it on the MyCanonG7 website. Within a few days the super macro lens was at my home and I could start to work with it. The lens consist of 2 groups and 3 elements optical glass, weighing 60g. It has a universal lens adapter that can fit a lens diameter of 52 up to 67mm. The actual lens that fits into the universal lens adapter has a threaded diameter of 43mm. The booklet says the super macro has been designed for both video and digital camera work. I tested the super macro on a PowerShot S3, the S5, the G7 and the EOS 350D fitted with a 50mm Macro lens. The results is awesome and I can only recommend the super macro. You can have endless fun with the super macro. See Pictures at the bottom of this page..

Lenscap by Lensmate

Often one has a polarizer or a ND filter or a UV filter fitted to the lens adapter. This lens cap from Lensmate really works great to protect the glass from getting dirt. What is nice is the fitting to the lens adapter so when you take a picture all you need to do is just un-clip the cap and it will hang waiting for you...

Lensmate Lens Adapter

The Lens Adapter looks very much the same as the Lens Adapter from Canon. The main difference between the two is the material used to make the adapters, or that is the first thing one notice. The Lensmate adapter is made from Aluminum and the Canon adapter is made from a different type of material. Before I say the Canon adapter is made from plastic I like you to think of something. The future of many products will depend on the materials used to manufacture them. I do not think the Canon adapter is just a plastic adapter but rather like to think of it as one of the first "other" type material products from Canon. When you touch and feel or work with the Canon adapter then you do not get a feeling of sub standard quality, its light and it works well.

On your left is a picture I received from Lensmate and it shows the manufacturing process of the Lensmate Lens Adapter. Just for interest, I looked at the exif data on the picture when I prepared it for this article. I was pleasantly surprised to see the camera used to take the picture is a G7. One can therefore say, the Lensmate adapter is a product made from a G7 user for a G7 user. Interesting is that one can see it. From a pure ascetical point of view, I think the Canon adapter looks better.

From a fit point of view I experienced the Lensmate adapter to be the better one. Why? The tolerances on the Lensmate is much more accurate and when you fit the Lensmate you notice it. It is not tight but the one I have is a absolute 100% fit. Why is this important? When you hang the Wide Angle converter onto the adapter then you do not want play at the connection points. The Lensmate is like that, there is no play and the camera, the adapter and the WA lens becomes one unit. The wide angle lens is a completely different accessory to the tele converter. The latter I find myself adding and removing depending on the picture I want to take. The wide angle lens just stays on and it is huge fun to use. So the G7 fitted with the WA lens can be round your neck for long periods and therefore the better fit of the Lensmate adapter is important, I think

I asked Tony at Lensmate to give me some background on how the adapters are manufactured, this is what Tony says: Lensmate adapters are all machined from 6061 aluminum tubing on state-of-the-art CNC machinery in a small independent machine shop about an hour outside of Seattle. Though they could be made elsewhere at much reduced cost, we opted to have our adapters made locally so we could keep on top of the manufacturing process. When tolerances are as critical as they are for our adapters, this allows us to Q.C. every part as it comes off the line instead of waiting for days or weeks. Every part is test-fitted, then glass bead-blasted and anodized to give a pleasing finish and desired color.

The Raynox HD – 7000PRO Wide Angle Adapter

The picture on the right was taken with the G7 fitted with the Lensmate adapter and the Raynox HD-7000PRO Wide Angle converter. The Wide Angle converter is physically much smaller than the Canon Tele Converter I have. I believe the Raynox wide angle is also smaller than the Canon wide angle. The model HD-7000PRO high definition Wide Angle converter is made of high index optical glass elements with a new concept of lens design using a three elements or group formula. This new concept in designing the lens makes it possible to achieve good quality from side to side and from top to bottom.




		The lens adapter and WA converter fitted to the G7 looks great and as I said I find myself walking around like that. The camera is bigger with the lens fitted but still smaller than the EOS 350D with a 10 - 22mm lens fitted. I took two pictures, one with the 350D combo and one with the G7 combo and the G7 is not as wide but it is not that far away either.


	As you can see from the picture, the WA converter is much "smaller" than the Tele converter. At the back left is the lens adapter.



		Here you can see the 350D with 10 - 22mm lens fitted. This is a beautiful lens and generally regarded as a good lens. The first thing you notice with this lens is the lovely contrast and the distinct colors you get from using his lens. For example the sky has a lovely deep blue to it with this lens fitted. With the above WA fitted to the G7 my first reaction was, wow it looks similar to the 10 - 22mm. When you work more with the G7 combo then you see its not 100% the same.

I did notice when using the Raynox HD-7000PRO on the G7 that one get a small amount of vignetting. It is not at all four corners, on the combo I have it is on the top left and sometimes bottom right. I could remove it in most cases using Photoshop.

As said when I started with this article, this web site does not give ratings to products. The Raynox HD-7000PRO does have a small amount of vignetting at its widest setting. It is also true that this lens goes a bit wider than for example the Canon WA adapter. Therefore with one step forward zoom, then the combo will be very much the same as the Canon standard combo. When you decide to go a little wider setting then be prepared for some Photoshop work.

A few words on the Company Lensmate.

Lensmate was started in 1999 by Susan Doel, making lens adapters for the Kodak DC265 (with a whopping 1.6mp), which was then considered a leading edge consumer camera, but had no means of attaching filters or lenses. A year later the Canon G1 was released. It was truly a class leader with features like an articulated LCD, RAW support, fast F2. lens, and a hot shoe. As the years progressed, Canon's consumer line expanded and so did Lensmate, now making lens adapters in one or more sizes for the Canon A, G, and IS series. At Lensmate, we think PowerShot users can appreciate the effort made to create an adapter that complements the design of the camera as well as enhancing its functionality. Lensmate also tests several wide-angle and telephoto conversion lenses for the same Canon cameras. Test samples can be seen at their web site – www.lensmateonline.com. Some of these lenses are available for sale, along with filters, memory cards, batteries and other accessories.




		Again this picture was taken with the WA fitted and the G7 was set on ISO 800. I did not do any noise reduction on this picture, it is as is. As with any wide angle or fish eye you will have to take note of light, the sun or any other source of light. These type of lenses are open to flair and you quickly get light marks on your picture of you not careful


	General comments Somebody asked the question if one can still use the optical view finder (OVF)? The WA lens is very much in the way and one does not have a clear view. I have found a similar situation with the Tele adapter or lens from Canon. The OVF is very sensitive. The picture on your left was taken in the plane while sitting next to the window. Normally one cannot do this, with the WA fitted one can keep the camera close to the window without disturbing the guy next to you.


	PowerShot S5 IS fitted with Lensmate Wide Angle adapter. This combo worked exceptionally well and different to the G7 no vignetting was found on the wide end of the focal range. The general sharpness of this lens is great. I found the 7000PRO to be a comfortable walk around lens.


	The above picture was taken with a EOS 350D fitted with a 50mm Macro lens. The super macro lens was then fitted on the macro lens and off you go. The little white flower is approximately 1.5mm in diameter. I used the Speedlite 580EX with indirect flash when taking this picture. The 350D was handheld.




					The above picture was taken with the PowerShot G7 and the Super Macro lens. This picture was taken in the house and I used the window to supply natural light for the picture. The G7 was on a Tripod and the IS was switched off.



					The above picture was taken with a PowerShot S5 IS fitted with a Lensmate Lens Adapter and the Super Macro onto the lens adapter. Lensmate has to lens adapters available, 52mm and 58mm. They manufactured from aluminum and the fit is absolute 100% on both the S3 and the S5. The picture was taken outside with natural light being the source. The S5 was hand held.



		The above panorama was taken with a PowerShot S5 fitted with a lensmate lens adapter and the Raynox 7000PRO wide Angle lens supplied by Lensmate. The panorama was stitched using Zoombrowser and the Canon stitch program...