Bicycle Touring 101: Using an Add On lens with your Compact Point and Shoot Camera

Front and back shots of my telephoto and wide angle add-on lens
Click to enlarge.

My enjoyment of photography dates from my tour around Lake Erie when I discovered how nice it is to have pictures of my tour to look at long after the tour is over. I've now taken well in excess of 17,000 pictures using my Pentax Optio 33WR camera including many when I've been touring, commuting, off road riding with friends, kayaking and even windsurfing.

Lately I've been seriously considering adding a Digital SLR camera so that I can have a bigger zoom range for pulling in far off wildlife, a wide angle lenses for capturing more of the scenery in a shot and more manual settings so that I can attempt to capture the beauty of the moon and stars while out on the road.

The biggest problem with an SLR for me is related to the "Will I have it with me when I need it question". With my current primary camera I can and do take it with me everywhere that I go. This means that I've captured many, many pictures that I would have had to ignore if I didn't have the camera along.

Lately while visiting camera shops to research the various SLR cameras that are available, I've discovered that there are lenses that you can purchase that might give some extra capabilities to your camera. While it's not the same as having the wide range of capabilities that an SLR camera will give you it could make a difference for some shots.

I am referring to something called "Add-on" lenses. So far I have discovered two kinds.

A picture taken with (right) and without (left) the wide angle add-on lens. There is some distortion at the edge of the picture but check out how much more of the view you get. Even after cropping the picture you would still be ahead.
Click to enlarge.

One is a magnetic add-on that requires you to attach a metal ring around your camera lens. With the ring in place the add-on lens uses a magnetic attraction to stay attached while you take a picture. Two companies that make these are Optex and Croken.

The second, made by ProTama, uses spring loaded hooks to hold the lens in place. These metal hooks sit inside your lens housing and seem to work well to hold the lens in place as long as nothing else gets in the way. (I found this out the hard way when I attached one while my protective neoprene case was still on the camera. The case interfered with the hooks and when I went to adjust the add-on lens by removing it, the hooks slipped, the spring activated, the lens bounced off the ground and then over the bridge railing and into the middle of a fast flowing river. Say goodbye to some money but say hello to a valuable lesson learned. The lens attachment is firm without the neoprene cover in the way. I went back and purchased another wide-angle lens following this adventure).

A picture taken with (right) and without (left) the telephoto add-on lens
Click to enlarge.

I purchased the second type and far prefer it to the magnetic ring option. On my camera that ring is likely to interfere with the view finder which is where I take well over 90 percent of my photos. Although I need to frame my picture using the LCD for both type of lenses the view finder is again available to me once I remove the ProTama lense.

So why did I bother purchasing these add-on lenses anyway? They weigh very little and take up a small amount of space in my camera pouch so I am likely to have them with me whenever I want them. They are also relatively inexpensive (about the same as a high end lens filter for an SLR) and they give me a few more options when it comes time to take some pictures.

I'll try these devices out on my next tour and see how well I like them. There is likely an SLR camera in my future but it's still undecided if I will ever take one on tour with me.

Using an "Add On" lens with your Compact Point and Shoot Camera