Customer Reviews:
 Great Lens coupled with excellent service June 12, 2009
D. Riley (East Coast, RI)
I order the Raynox DCR-1540Pro only two days ago (on Wednesday). It arrived on Friday (Hands down, this is the fastest that I have ever received a product that I ordered off the internet) ; and I could not wait to begin testing this new lens with my Canon S5IS. Well to put it simply, all the reviews that I have read are right on the money. This lens gives exceptionally clear pictures. I even took a number of test pictures with the camera's natural optical/digital 48x magnification; and they came out perfectly. Although I have to admit, I am an amateur photographer and might not have the discerning eye of a professional. Now I just have to figure out how to adjust for my own camera shake; but even with that, most of my test pictures showed only slight blurring of the test subjects. Insofar as auto-focusing, I have had no problem in most lighting conditions. I would definitely recommend this lens to any owner of a Canon S5 to enhance picture taking.
Great teleconverter, and I actually own one... December 7, 2006
C. Krucke (SC)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I've owned this product (unlike the alleged reviewer below, who doesn't, and who I reported to Amazon many months ago...) since July 06 and use it with a Canon S3. I didn't buy from Amazon though, for convenience I got it from Lensmate at the same time I bought an adapter. I've had very good service from this lens and it works well. I posted crops from a couple pictures to demonstrate it's resolution. The trick is holding it still, fully zoomed, freehand is tough unless you are in very bright light. Sometimes it can be a little touchy about auto-focusing, mostly in low light, and because it is a converter, you can't just manually focus to infinity for far away subject. On my moon picture, it was set at about 10 or 11 meters. Overall, I'm very satisfied, I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.
A very nice, high quality converter August 25, 2006
Chris Carter (Greensboro, NC United States)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I bought this converter after seeing it on Lensmate online, and I must say that I am very happy with it. In contrast to the previous user, I have had nothing but good luck with it. I am using a Canon S3 with the 52mm Lensmate adapter, and it fits quite snugly. There is a noticeable amount of vignetting at the low end of the magnification range, but since this is a zoom lens of course, you really shouldn't be using it that low anyway. It is at the high zoom levels that this lens shines. I must admit, there wasn't a huge difference in magnification from the camera's onboard zoom, but it was at least noticeable when I compared two test images. Also, it seems like the zoom pictures taken with the Raynox had a more evenly applied focus across the picture as a whole. That may just be a perception on my part, but it seems like that is the case, at least with my particular setup. The lens itself is solid, but not terribly heavy, and looks to be very well made. At the highest magnification power, lens shake becomes more of an issue than normal, but the image stabilization feature on the camera helps with that. A tripod will be absolutely necessary when in low light conditions to be sure. It comes with a little drawstring foam bag, which in my opinion is fairly useless. I bought a small Tamrac lens holder that attaches to my camera bag, and it fits quite nicely in there. Overall, I am pleased with my purchase. There is not as big a difference in the magnification as I had hoped, but it is at least giving me tighter images, and there is no noticeable image degradation from using the lens, at least to my eye. I would recommend the lens as a perfect complement to the 52mm Lensmate adapter. Not sure how well it would work with the standard Canon adapter and a step ring, but Lensmate's website has a good amount of information on the product.
A very nice, high quality converter August 25, 2006
Chris Carter (Greensboro, NC United States)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I bought this converter after seeing it on Lensmate online, and I must say that I am very happy with it. In contrast to the previous user, I have had nothing but good luck with it. I am using a Canon S3 with the 52mm Lensmate adapter, and it fits quite snugly. There is a noticeable amount of vignetting at the low end of the magnification range, but since this is a zoom lens of course, you really shouldn't be using it that low anyway. It is at the high zoom levels that this lens shines. I must admit, there wasn't a huge difference in magnification from the camera's onboard zoom, but it was at least noticeable when I compared two test images. Also, it seems like the zoom pictures taken with the Raynox had a more evenly applied focus across the picture as a whole. That may just be a perception on my part, but it seems like that is the case, at least with my particular setup. The lens itself is solid, but not terribly heavy, and looks to be very well made. At the highest magnification power, lens shake becomes more of an issue than normal, but the image stabilization feature on the camera helps with that. A tripod will be absolutely necessary when in low light conditions to be sure. It comes with a little drawstring foam bag, which in my opinion is fairly useless. I bought a small Tamrac lens holder that attaches to my camera bag, and it fits quite nicely in there. Overall, I am pleased with my purchase. There is not as big a difference in the magnification as I had hoped, but it is at least giving me tighter images, and there is no noticeable image degradation from using the lens, at least to my eye. I would recommend the lens as a perfect complement to the 52mm Lensmate adapter. Not sure how well it would work with the standard Canon adapter and a step ring, but Lensmate's website has a good amount of information on the product.
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