Dimage 7Hi Telephoto lense

[newbieX]

Anybody hear anything about this lens? I found it on ebay. Would like to know if someone has tried it and has vignetting or not.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=48540

Thanks in advance

[KevinG]

There have been numerous comments online about the poor quality of the 'Digital Optics' and 'Titanium' lenses (which are not made of titanium, btw .

I saw a Digital Optics 2x lens behind the counter at a local shop while I was looking for a telephoto, and the clerk behind the counter (whom I had been talking to for quite a while) told me NOT to buy it. He wasn't trying to steer me to something more expensive, because he didn't have anything else in stock. He actually told me he would rather have me go find something somewhere else than to sell me that one, it was that bad.

Based on comments by others in this forum, the best tele lens available is the Oly Tcon-17. A step below that are the Tiffen 2x and Kenko 2x, and probably the various Raynox lenses as well. The crystal optics, digital optics, and others off e-bay are the bottom of the heap as far as quality.

I would recommend checking around at local stores to see if you can find something that you can try first, on YOUR camera. I found a 3x kenko lens (Kut-300HI) at a local shop... supposedly the 'HI' indicates that it is from their higher-quality line. Although there are decent samples from this lens on the web, when I tried it on my A70 the color fringing was terrible. I aimed it at some white sales tags on the camera bags on the shelf, and they all appeared to have a thick blue border on one side. This particular lens was either defective, or it was just a poor optical match for my camera lens.

Good luck...
Kevin

[newbieX]

Thanks KevinG...appreciate it. Only thing I wish I had was stores where I could go try them out myself on my camera but I live in Kansas and the number of stores that sell stuff like these are very minimal. Have to keep looking I guess.