So I picked up a new toy attachment for my camera today – a Canon WC-DC58A wide-angle lens adapter.

I had wanted one of these for a while – I always feel like my indoor photos don’t quite capture the “scope” of some of the places I’ve been.

So, when the opportunity arose, I picked one up. If you do a little searching, you’ll find that these adapters aren’t cheap – they range from $150-$175, depending on where you go. And that price shows in the packaging – the lens comes in its own protective bag, with a cover for both the front and back of the lens. It’s also quite heavy – but then again, there is quite a bit of glass in this little lens!

This fun little device screws onto the front of the Canon LA-DC58E Conversion Lens Adapter, which itself snaps onto the accessory ring around the front of the Canon Powershot S2, S3, and possibly other S-series models’ main lens. And I have to say, it looks quite impressive there!

Though, the weight of the lens makes me worried, since the conversion tube is plastic after all… but I think as long as you’re not unnecessarily rough with it, it’ll be fine.

Of course, the most important aspect of the lens is not how it looks, but how it performs! So, I had to try it out.

Fortunately, I have a very useful test subject right here – my home office. My office is quite small & narrow, so it’s a perfect place to try out some wide-angle action.

Here’s a reference shot of my office, standing in the doorway to the rest of the house:

With just the stock lens, you can’t really see much of my office at all – the view is just too narrow.

Now, here’s a picture from the exact same position, but using my new wide-angle lens adapter:

As you can see, you can… well, see a lot more of my office (except for the floor, which is dark, because the light in my office is terrible).

In the first picture, you can only just see the very edge of my computer’s monitor, while in the wide-angle shot, you can see the whole monitor (and a little bit beyond). Also, you can see the bookcase on the left-hand side, which really helps show how narrow/cramped/small my office is – something that’s lacking from the first picture (where you might think the office is much bigger, and you’re just seeing a corner of it).

There is a very slight amount of distortion around the edges of the photo, but I had to look for it, because I didn’t see it at first.

All-in-all, I’m quite pleased with the results – and I can’t wait to give it it a try someplace more exciting than my home office!

I recently went on a photo shoot with some friends up to Franconia Notch in New Hampshire’s White Mountain region. While I did come back with some very nice photos (see my Flickr album if you’re interested), I may have gone a bit overboard with trying to be “artistic.”

Or maybe not… I do rather like the effect, and we all know I love seeing my name in print, so maybe it’s not that bad.

Still, I’m just glad I was able to get that effect I’d been going after so well!

I couldn’t help but notice the other night that the full moon was out – and it was really, really bright. So bright, in fact, that I decided I could hand-hold some photos of the moon!

In retrospect, I probably still should’ve used a tripod – after all, I was taking these photos at maximum (12x) zoom. Still, the moon was SO bright that I was able to take them with a relatively fast shutter speed.

They didn’t come out too bad; although they aren’t very interesting – there was nothing near the moon for a background or foreground or whatever.

Still, I’m pleased with the way they came out.

This last one is a shot of the moon without any zoom. It’s really amazing how small the moon is – or, to put it another way, how large it seems to our easily-tricked eyes!

I spent some time the other day with my telescope and the half-moon, but didn’t get any photos – although the view was spectacular. Once I figure out how to use my camera with the scope, perhaps I’ll have something I can share here. Until then, this is the best I can give!

The latest addition to my camera gear collection has finally arrived – a circular polarizing filter! Yay!

And here it is, in all its glory.

Almost makes my little (well, medium-sized) camera look like one of those big honkin’ DSLR cameras! Maybe now I can get the “big lens” effect – where people just “assume” you’re important if you have a big camera and lens (the same way people don’t question you in certain situations if you’re carrying a clipboard – you can imagine several others).

Here it is – a 58mm circular polarizer, mounted to the end of my Canon Conversion Lens Adapter.

I knew from the beginning that my Canon PowerShot S3 IS had the ability to add accessories like this via the adapter, and that was one of the main reasons I bought it instead of a “real” DSLR (the other reason was price – at the time, there was still a big difference between the S3 and the lowest-end DSLR). Now, I know it’s always going to be a compromise with this camera – after all, I can’t actually change the lens itself; I can only “add on” to it – but hey, we all gotta make some compromises, right? (Unless you’re rich and have an unlimited budge for photography, in which case why are you here?)

I must say, I’m looking forward to trying it out! I especially can’t wait to try it on water… or, since it’s winter, some nice snow shots. Should be fun!!

Some new toys have begun to trickle into my hands… starting with this:

Not quite a Digital SLR, but it’s close enough for what I do. That’s my venerable Canon PowerShot S3 IS with my new toy – a LA-DC58E Conversion Lens Adapter (58 mm mount) and LH-DC40 lens hood.

Although this won’t let me change the lens on my camera, it will let me add on things to it – such as wide-angle lenses, macro lenses, and telephoto extenders. And that will open up a whole new world of creative possibilities – and isn’t that the point?

(Oh, and sorry for the blurry photos – obviously, I had to use another camera to take these – my old and slightly-broken Fujifilm FinePix A330.)

I also picked up a Cokin A-series filter holder (for trying out those ND Grad filters I hear so much about in landscape photography). It’s a little hard to see in the above photo – mostly because I don’t have any filters for it yet! It seems as though the A-series isn’t in production anymore, so filters are a little hard to come by. D’oh!

I had originally picked the A-series because it was the “right” size for my lens (which is not that big). Fortunately, lots of places still have A-series filters and such – they just aren’t making any new ones anymore, it seems.

Still, with a 58 mm mount on my conversion lens adapter, I can add on anything that was made for a 58 mm lens mounting. So if I can’t find what I want, I suppose I could just move up to the P-series (although it’ll look a little silly on my poor little camera).

Speaking of silly – I’ve also found out that with the right filter, my camera can be used to do near-IR photography (that’s near infra-red). Although I don’t know much about this, it might be interesting to try it out. We’ll see!

Of course, now that I have this extended lens barrel… I’m going to need a bigger camera bag! Ahh, it never ends, does it?

Stay tuned!