Hardware Review: Opteka High Definition II Lenses for Canon PowerShot A650 IS

I wonder how many A650 components I’m going to review before I write about the camera itself? Last week I was thinking about my upcoming weekend in Duluth and how I’d like to get some quality skyline/harbor photos while I’m there. If you get up onto the hills just east of downtown, Duluth offers a nice open landscape with an incredible view of the mighty Lake Superior. I knew that if I wanted to pull off something special I would need a good wide angle lens.

The Canon PowerShot A650 IS is a unique camera because although it’s technically a high end point-and-shoot it offers many features and options you would find on a typical DSLR. One of these options is the ability to add proprietary lenses and filters to the camera which surprisingly isn’t as “proprietary” as it sounds.

Canon offers a number of lenses and accessories for the A650 and all of them come with a not-so-cheap Canon price tag. Fortunately there are a number of other name-brand manufactures that make aftermarket lenses and parts for the A650 and Opteka is one of them. I was able to purchase an Opteka wide angle lens, macro lens and filter adapter on Amazon for less than half of what Canon wants for the same parts and there was no sacrifice on quality.

Opteka currently offers what they call the High Definition II line of lenses which include .45x Wide Angle, .42x Panoramic Macro (fisheye), 2.2 and 3.2x Telephoto, along with a few other special purpose lenses. For my first lens buying experience I went with the .45x Wide Angle which should be perfect for those landscape shots I plan to take next weekend.

The lenses have a nice rugged quality to them, light-weight aluminum but heavy enough to not feel cheap. Opteka’s motto is “Your pictures are only as good as the glass in your lens.” and they may be onto something as I found them to be very clean with no visible imperfections. My only gripe about the wide angle lens is that its physical size is so wide it actually blocks part of the flash on the camera which tends to show up on indoor photos. However, I think that’s going to be bad design on Canon’s part as the flash on the A650 is located in a somewhat odd spot and unfortunately (and surprisingly) there isn’t an ability to use an external flash on this camera.

Overall, if you have a DSLR, Film SLR, or Digital with the ability to attach lenses and you don’t want to pay the premium price companies like Canon, Sony, and Nikon charge for accessories I highly recommend looking into the products Opteka has to offer.

A side note for Canon A650 IS owners – If you are looking at buying an Opteka lens you will find that they are sketchy on the details about the converter that actually makes the lens fit the camera. A separate converter is required for the lenses and filters and it can be found Here.