Lens/filter adapter

[Littleshmee]

Photoshop is wonderful, but there's some things that still need filters, and the adapters from the manufacturers are ridiculously priced (for my olympus 5050, the adapter is around $40 CD and the required "step-up ring" another 30). This seemed a bit steep for a metal tube, so I took a look on Ebay, and sure enough you can get a 0.5x wide angle lens, a 2x tele lens, the lens adapter, AND a mini tripod and cleaning kit for $79 USD. That seemed a little suspect to me. The company was 47thst photo and the manufacturer OPTEKA. Does anyone have any experience with this name? I'd imagine anything that cheap can't be any good... anyone used any other third party lenses/adapters with a digital camera?

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

It's just a metal tube. As long as it fits, and the lens doesn't end up crashing against the attachments on the tube, there shouldn't be a problem. Might not look as nice, and might get dings/scratches more easily, but it'll work just fine. Do note the size of the filter thread, just in case you want to use original Olympus accessories.

The 3rd party add-on lenses, however, are probably going to be pretty crap.

[Jason Kravitz]

47th street photo is a reputable store - dunno about the quality of the generic accessories though...