Review on Olympus FCON P01 Fisheye Converter 14 42Mm by Justin Jefferson

Designed for 14-42mm II and II-R lens ONLY, not for 14-42mm version 1 lens It is visually excellent but a bit heavy so handle with care. It's very sharp in the center but a bit soft around the edges at maximum aperture; When you stop, it's better at the edges. I gave it 5 stars because it does what it's supposed to do very well. According to Olympus, this is a .74x converter. Because it's a fisheye lens with traditional barrel distortion, its field of view is approximately 120 degrees. It's not the ultra-wide 180-degree field of view of Panasonic's pricier but excellent 8mm fisheye lens, but for less money it gives you good performance. It's small enough to carry and set up in your pocket when you need a wider view. It has a special bayonet mount which I hate - why does Olympus do that? I believe the reason for this is that this fisheye lens has a small aperture that needs to be positioned correctly for each effect, so the bayonet mount comes in handy. But the bayonet mount limits this fisheye converter to 14-42 II and IIR lenses. It would be much more versatile if it had a 46mm or 52mm thread so it could be used with other lenses like the 9-18mm lens. This bayonet mount is also used on two other optional lenses for the Olympus 14-42 II lens, namely the WCON wide-angle lens and the MCON macro lens. Why? I suppose this is useful if you're really clumsy and can't put the lens on. This allows you to quickly attach and detach the lens. Overall this is a great secondary lens, despite my quibbles about the bayonet mount.