Fisheye on a micro 4/3...ebay?

[Binky]

Are the ebay craptastic "fisheye" lenses worthwhile? How about for a kid that doesn't know any better?

Example for $50 shipped: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wide-Angle-...era_Lenses&hash=item20bf52f455#ht_7751wt_1185

And yes, this does appear to be a lens that fits on top of your existing lens.

Long version:
My 16 year old niece asked for a Rebel T3i for Christmas with an ebay (crap) fisheye lens. Rather than throw $700 down the toilet when she "loses" it, I bought her a Panasonic DMC-GF2 for $300. This is a micro four thirds camera that comes with a reasonable 14-42mm kit lens. Personally, I'd never buy a $30-$50 fisheye lens from a vendor in Hong Kong, for any camera...but this is for my 16 year old niece. She specifically asked for a T3i with a really bad fisheye lens from ebay.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

It's a cheaper option than pretty much any other fisheye. That fisheye look is popular among skaters and surfers where the photographer might not be able to frame the shot perfectly due to having to pay attention to skating/surfing, but the fisheye still lets them get the action in the frame. On the 14-42 at the widest, 0.42 results in roughly 6mm, or 12mm in terms of a 35mm equivalent. This should be pretty good for her uses.

Sometimes those add-on/screw-in lenses can be a really good value. I know that Canon makes some screw-in "close-up" magnifiers that are fairly cheap, but a lot of people use them to good effect instead of a dedicated macro lens. Since it is just a single lens that does not have to focus or zoom, the optic is pretty easy to design. I also have had some success with a Nikkor screw-in fisheye for a Nikon P&S.

Fisheyes also have the benefit of not having to do optical correction like rectilinear wide-angles do, since a part of the fisheye effect is the distortion.

I would go for it, since a fisheye is what she wants.