bruce_garrett Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Hi Does anyone have any hands-on experience of the Panasonic DMW-LW55 Wide Angle Converter on the FZ30? I understand this goes out to 24mm (35mm equivalent) and screws directly onto the lens without an adapter. Specifically how is the linear distortion and vignetting and is the image quality acceptable? It seems that most FZ30 owners are using OEM wide angle converters by Olympus and Raynox with an adapter because of the prohibitive cost of the DMW-LW55. Yet in the UK the online price is now around 120 GBP so would this be a wise choice? Any input much appreciated. Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godfrey Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 In general, the wide and tele converter lenses produced by the manufacturer are better matched to the primary lens and perform better than alternatives. Not always, but most of the time. I haven't used the FZ30 or DMC-LW55 combination, but I know that this was certainly true for the FZ10 and its 1.5x tele converter complement, and also true of the Konica Minolta A2 and its ACW-100 wide converter complement. The downside is typically purely cost. Good converters, cost money to design and produce, and are typically relatively low in sales volume. Godfrey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimstrutz Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 I don't know either, but this is the type of question that needs to be raised in dpreview.com's panasonic forum. You'll get plenty of opinions there. You'll have to filter through the comments though. Even more than here, dpreview has a lot of hot air being passed about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harjtt Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Hi Bruce You should take a look at Dr Shene's web page on tele\wide convertors for the best for teh Panasonic/Nikon digicam's. You'll find a very detilaed and thorough review for the lumix's there. I think the LW55 is consindered the best for the FZ30 by the good Dr and if its at �120 then its cheap. Heres a link to his post on Steve's panasonic forum: http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=82624&forum_id=23 "In this indoor short distance comparison, I believe the Panasonic LW55 is the winner of the four 0.7X lenses, and the Olympus WCON-08B and Minolta ACW-100 are the best two of the 0.8X group. However, the ACW-100 does show some very slight CA although not very significant; however, its off-center sharpness is the best." http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/index.html Hope that helps. Cheers HarjTT :o)> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce_garrett Posted March 30, 2006 Author Share Posted March 30, 2006 Many thanks for all the advice. Dr Shene's website was particularly useful when comparing the LW55 to other wide angle converters and it seems to be the best of the bunch. But apart from this review I have yet to find anyone who has actually used an LW55 on an FZ30 in the real world. I am wondering how it would affect the lens at the long end and whether it would compromise any other functions on the FZ30. Presumably the built-in flash cannot be used because of the much wider front element. I have only found the LW55 at online stores in the UK so I might take a chance and see what happens. Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 <p>I bought LW55 attached to my FZ30 for my China trip in Oct 2008, I used it extensively, the results are quite good.<br> <br> <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/8330668-md.jpg" alt="" /> <p> </p> </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 <p>LW55 can only be used on wide setting of FZ30, you cannot use it in anyother zoom lens position, if you do, the resulting image will be fuzzy at the corners. At first I though with<br> LW55 I can turn 35-420mm into 24mm -280mm zoom. Not it does not work that way.<br> There is certain amount of barrel distortion with Lw55, which I corrected easily with Lens Corrector Pro software.<br> <center><br> <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/8205631-md.jpg"><P><br> Fragrance Hill Hotel <P><br> Lumix FZ30 +LW55<br> </center><br> I took about 5000 photos with LW55 attached to FZ30 during that trip </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 <p>LW55 can only be used on wide setting of FZ30, you cannot use it in anyother zoom lens position, if you do, the resulting image will be fuzzy at the corners. At first I though with<br />LW55 I can turn 35-420mm into 24mm -280mm zoom. Not it does not work that way.<br />There is certain amount of barrel distortion with Lw55, which I corrected easily with Lens Corrector Pro software.<br /><center><br /><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/8205631-md.jpg"><P><br />Fragrance Hill Hotel <P><br />Lumix FZ30 +LW55<br /></center><br />I took about 5000 photos with LW55 attached to FZ30 during that trip</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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