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Jul 17, 2023

What Are Wide

Wide-angle lens adapters are an affordable way to widen your shot. But they do come with some drawbacks. So are they worth using? Good wide-angle lenses can be expensive, but many companies offer

Wide-angle lens adapters are an affordable way to widen your shot. But they do come with some drawbacks. So are they worth using?

Good wide-angle lenses can be expensive, but many companies offer affordable adapters to make an existing lens wider. These adapters promise ultra-wide shots for your photos and vlogs, but are they ultimately worth using?

Not to be confused with a specialized wide-angle lens, a wide-angle lens adapter typically attaches to an existing lens to convert that lens into a wider focal length.

One of the most popular examples is wide-angle adapters for the Sony ZV-1 point-and-shoot camera that convert its widest focal length of 24mm to a much wider 18mm, perfect for handheld vlogging.

These adapters can range from usage on smartphone cameras, point-and-shoot cameras, and as attachments for dedicated lenses.

To show how these adapters work in the real world, we have examples for each major use case for pairing.

The Sony ZV-1 is rather narrow for vlogging with its 24mm equivalent focal length and crop from active stabilization. Ulanzi and Neewer both have wide-angle adapters that provide a 0.75x zoom factor, turning the 24mm lens into an 18mm one. Similar lens adapters exist for many other point-and-shoot cameras, too.

Here is a handheld shot with the ZV-1 by itself, with no crop from active stabilization. The camera is held with a fully extended arm.

Next, we have the ZV-1 with active stabilization enabled and a crop of about 1.3x. The camera is once again held fully extended.

Here is the ZV-1 with the Neewer wide-angle adapter and no crop.

Last, here is the ZV-1 with the Neewer adapter whilst using active stabilization and a crop of 1.3x.

This adapter's greatest strength is that it makes handheld vlogging much more doable. Active stabilization dramatically improves the quality of video footage, but using it adds a crop that makes the camera nearly useless for selfie-style vlogging. Using the adapter makes active stabilization around as wide as shooting without stabilization, improving your options for vlogging.

Neewer also has a wide-angle adapter for Sony's 16-50mm APS-C kit lens, most prominently used with the ZV-E10 and a6000 series. It converts the 16mm APS-C focal length to 12mm, or a 24mm full-frame equivalent to 18mm, which is now in the ultra-wide range.

Here is a handheld vlog shot using the kit lens at 16mm.

Adding the adapter, the handheld vlog shot becomes a much wider 12mm without a noticeable loss in quality.

Many phones already have wide-angle lenses, such as the 0.5x lens on many iPhones. However, many phones save the highest quality image sensor for the standard lens, and others don't have wide-angle lenses at all. As such, wide-angle lenses such as the one we're testing by Xenvo for phones can occasionally be useful!

Here is a handheld selfie shot using an iPhone 12 Pro Max's standard rear lens with a fully extended arm.

Next, here is a handheld selfie shot using the iPhone's standard rear lens with a 0.45x wide-angle lens adapter—notice the significant vignetting and fisheye distortion.

For comparison, we have a handheld selfie shot using the iPhone's built-in wide-angle lens, which is much cleaner than using an adapter and actually appears wider than the adapter's stated 0.45x zoom factor.

If you already have a smartphone with a wide-angle lens, this adapter isn't particularly useful, but it may help a lot if you're just starting to vlog using an iPhone or another smartphone and need a wider frame.

Conversely, it may be useful if you're using the front camera to obtain a wider shot while being able to preview it. Here is the front camera with the wide-angle adapter, which is much wider than your typical selfie and avoids vignetting if you keep the selfie cropped.

The front camera has a significantly smaller sensor than the rear cameras and quality-wise is unideal for vlogging. However, if you prefer it because of the ability to preview your shot, a wide-angle lens adapter makes it more versatile.

Wide-angle lenses have numerous perks in photography and video. A wide-angle adapter allows for much more flexibility in framing. As seen with how narrow the ZV-1 is with active stabilization enabled, a wide-angle adapter allows for more literal wiggle room in keeping you properly in-frame on handheld shots.

A wide-angle adapter is almost always much more cost-effective than a dedicated ultra-wide lens. One of the perks of shooting with APS-C cameras over full-frame cameras is cheaper lens options. However, high-quality ultra-wide lenses remain pricey even for APS-C camera bodies, with most Sony options well over $500. The kit lens and adapter combo, on the other hand, is under $250 in total.

Adding a lens onto an existing lens almost always has some issues. Most prominent of these are reductions in image quality ranging from reduced sharpness, heavy vignetting, glare, and fisheye distortion.

These issues are most apparent on the smartphone adapters, whereas any quality loss is much more subtle with the Neewer adapters for dedicated cameras. For example, with the Neewer adapter for the Sony 16-50mm lens, we have a photo of a sign with and without the adapter.

First, here is the image of just the lens zoomed in.

Next, here is a zoomed-in image of that same sign using the adapter—notice how the details on the letters are noticeably less sharp. That said, if you need to zoom in to see the issues, the adapter is certainly usable for vlogging.

While adapters are affordable and, especially with dedicated cameras, can improve your options with few drawbacks, they're an additional thing to carry around and for many, not worth the loss in image quality.

These lens adapters allow you to dramatically widen your shot at a low price. They seem most usable when paired with dedicated cameras, as the drawbacks are minimal while the gained width is truly useful. If you need a wider focal length at an affordable price and can bear the drawbacks of the adapter you use, they are certainly worth at least trying.

Andy is a creator, marketer, and writer. His most recent employment was with AVerMedia as community manager for creator operations, handling all things social media, influencer relations, and more—if you have any questions related to webcams, capture cards, or similar devices, he's the one to ask! Technologically, he is passionate about making the most of his gear, including his full-fledged Apple ecosystem (with a Windows gaming PC), and finding new, unexpected ways of using his devices, such as streaming tools for productivity. Some of his additional interests include making content on his YouTube channel, improving his photography skills, learning languages, running, and making music, specifically the Ocarina, with his ensemble Ocabanda.