Anybody know where to get an inexpensive 15 (or so)mm lens for the Canon EOS line?

My wife uses the 7E and I use the XL-1 (with the XL/EF adapter). Unfortunately the adapter adds 7.2 mm to the equation thus jumping my 55mm lens all the way to over 390mm! It sucks, I know, but its the only interchangeable system out there. I have heard that there are adapters that add "0" to the focal legnth (although you lose autofocus) but I haven't come across any yet...if anyone has any ifno it would be much appreciated...

In the meantime I am apt to follow the advice contained on the XL-1 Watchdog site (http://www.dvinfo.net/xl1.htm) and the instructions in this article in particular ("Rack and Follow Focus Workaround for the XL1 by Michael Pappas" on the Watchdog site). They call for the before mentioned 15mm lens and, from what I've found, they are pretty expensive.

Anybody has any ideas (cheap lens or a nother workaround)?

Thanks for reading,

Richard cruserichard@hotmail.com

-- Richard Cruse (cruserichard@hotmail.com), June 09, 2001

Answers

Good wide lenses are not cheap. Canon's 14mm is about $2000. They have a 15mm fisheye for about $700. Since your XL-1 is only using the center portion of the image you wouldn't notice the bending of straight lines from the fisheye effect too much I suppose, but they wouldn't really be straight either.

Sigma makes a decent 14mm f/2.8 lens for $800. The old version was an f/3.5 and would probably be a better buy, but you'd have to find one used. Check Ebay, that's where I sold mine. For a while, after the new version came out, they were being discounted to about $400 new. Even less used. They seemed to have gone up now that the new old-versions have disappeared.

For the cheapest way to go you can get either a T mount or 42mm screw mount lens with EOS adapter. Then adapt that to the XL-1. You would have only manual focusing and a manual aperture, but I imagine it would work. You can get Russian screw mount 16mm fisheye lenses with EOS adapter for less than $200. You can also get old 17mm rectilinear (non-fisheye) screw mount lenses for less than $100. All on Ebay of course.

-- Jim Strutz (jimstrutz@juno.com), June 09, 2001.

I bought a Tokina 17mm for canon fd (manual focus) which is pretty good. They may offer the same thing in auto. When you get down to 17mm and below, it's tough to get a lens sharp at the corners without some barrel distortion. This only gets worse the closer you focus. I bought the Tokina becasue it's about half the price ($229 new)of a used Canon lense in moderate used shape. I figured I'd be using the wide angle more for the dramatic effect than edge-to-edge sharpness.

-- jarred swalwell (j_swalwell@hotmail.com), March 20, 2002.