Product Review ~ Opteka Telephoto and Macro Lenses for Sony Cybershot Digital Cameras

Yeah I know, I bought these lenses last September and hadn't even taken them out of their packaging until this past weekend. But in my defense, if it ain't broke, it won't need fixing, right? My photos have been fine. There was no need to change anything.

Up until recently, I really had no use for the Opteka 3.2x HD² Telephoto Lens I purchased. However with the distance I was to a lot of wildlife at Huntington Beach State Park, I figured now was a great time to finally test my lens out. I set out to do that yesterday.

Although a tripod is recommended for product use, I can brace myself pretty well. Combine that with the anti-shake feature on my camera, and most shots, with the exception of fireworks, don't typically give me any problems. This was not the case yesterday though.

My results were less than stellar. All my photos had blurry imagery in the non focal area of my shots. In addition, the color was so washed out and muted in the images, I would have sworn I was using a completely different and crappy camera. I even shot test photos both with and without the conversion lens menu selection ON. There was no significant difference either.

The only selling statement this lens lived up to was that it did increase the range of my camera by 3x what it could do without the lens. It made stuff pretty close. However, what good is that if the photos suck!

I gave this product a 1-star rating over on Amazon and even that is generous. Unfortunitely when I bought this, there were no product reviews at all. Too bad cause I definitely would not have bought it after reading the ones that exist now. Seems most people have the same issues with the lens as I do.

I pretty much deleted all my photos because they were so awful, but I saved a few of them for comparison purposes below.

Cropped Painted Bunting shot with no lens:

Two cropped Painted Bunting shots using the Telephoto lens:

Here's one more example below using non-cropped images.

Full frame shot Egret using no lens:

Full frame Egret using the Telephoto Lens:

I won't be using this lens ever again. I only wish I could return it for a full refund. Thank goodness the purchase was Gather-funded.

Now onto the Opteka 10x HD² Professional Macro Lens. This is actually a decent product, but only if your digital camera sucks at taking macro photos to begin with.

The Cybershot H-line has a fantastic base lens and built-in macro. It doesn't need any help and already allows you to get within 2" of the photo subject. This lens alllows you to get within 4" of the photo subject. So I'm actually regressing by using it. This purchase was a complete waste for me. All it's good for is adding a black ring around my already great macro shots, lol. There was no difference in the actual quality of my images.

My rating of this lens is 3-stars and that's only because my camera already takes great macros. I do think this lens would be an excellent addition for those who have cameras that don't do macro photography well. I mean for $30, you can't beat the results! Again, there were no product reviews when I made this purchase.

Sorry, I didn't bother saving the handful of shots I took. They were simply too stupid to bother.

Thanks for reading how I wasted $90! Hope it saves some other people some cash in the future!