Olympus Conversion Lenses

Note:
  1. All of these converters are best used with a SLR (single lens reflex) camera. You loose if your viewfinder doesn't get it's information though the very same converter lens than your CCD or film does.
  2. Some combinations of camera and converter may need a stepup ring and/or the Olympus CLA* ("conversion lense adapter") to work.
  3. Most, if not all, of the converters have the ability to block the internal flash of your camedia or IS camera.
  4. While i believe that the MCON-40 is nothing more than a repackaged B-Macro and that the WCON-08 contains the same lens system as the B-28, i cannot be sure. If in doubt: be careful.
    The quality of the "old" converters seems to be at the very same level as that of the newer models.
Jump to:
Fisheye Converters: FCON-02
Macro Converters: 49mm Close-Up | 49mm for 80mm Macro | 55mm Close-Up | A-Macro | A-Life Size Macro | B-Macro | MCON-35 | MCON-40
Tele Converters: 1.4X-A | 2X-A | A-200 | B-300 | C-160 | C-180 | C-210 | D-14.5x | E-1.3x | TCON-14 | TCON-14B | TCON-14D | TCON-17 | TCON-17C | TCON-30c | TCON-300
Wide Angle Converters: A-28 | B-28 | WCON-07 | WCON-07C | WCON-08E | WCON-08 | WCON-08B | WCON-08D
TODO

Fisheye

FCON-02
Details unknown.
Attachment: proprietary. It's unlikely that this device can be attached to any camera not mentioned below.
compatible with:

Macro Lenses

These are achromatic close-up lenses, consisting of more than one piece of glass. The main difference to simpler close-up lenses is that achromatic lenses are built to reduce chromatic aberration, which can be a serious problem for macro photographics. Note that "reduce" _does_ mean reduce. Chromatic aberation will still happen, but it's much more hard to spot.

These 'macro converters' are likely to work with almost any camera having a suitable filter thread and macro abilities. Most of them will also work if used together with a step-down ring, but image quality will go down considerably.
To add some clarity about "almost any": If your camera works with a simple, non-achromatic and cheap close-up lens of X diopters, then it will also work with a X diopter macro lens.

Olympus OM Close-Up Lense 49mm f=40cm
a 2.5 diopter closeup lense, f=400mm.
note that this is not an achromatic close-up lense.
to be used with a 49 mm filter thread.
compatible with:
Close-up Lens 80mm Macro f=170mm
a 5.8 diopter closeup lense, f=170mm.
to be used with a 49 mm filter thread, but may not be compatible with any lense but the one it was designed for.
compatible with:
Olympus OM Close-Up Lense 55mm f=40cm
a 2.5 diopter close-up lense, f=400mm.
note that this is not an achromatic close-up lense.
to be used with a 55 mm filter thread.
compatible with:
A-Macro: IS/L Lens A-Macro H.Q. Converter f=40cm
a 2.5 diopter achromatic closeup lens, f=400mm.
to be used with a 49 mm filter thread.
compatible with:
A-Life Size Macro: IS/L Lens A-Life Size Macro H.Q. Converter Lens
a 7.7 diopter achromatic closeup lens, f=130mm.
to be used with a 49 mm filter thread.
compatible with: Said to work on the olympus OM series, too.
B-Macro: IS/L Lens B-Macro H.Q. Converter
a 2.5 diopter achromatic closeup lens, f=400mm.
to be used with a 55 mm filter thread.
compatible with: Very likely to be compatible with any olympus model having a filter size of up to 55 mm. In fact it's very likely to be compatible with almost any camera having a filter size of up to 55 mm.
MCON-35
a 3 diopter achromatic closeup lens, f=350mm.
to be used with a 62 mm filter thread.
compatible with: It's very likely to be compatible with almost any camera having a filter size of up to 62 mm.
MCON-40
a 2.5 diopter achromatic closeup lens, f=400mm.
to be used with a 55 mm filter thread.
Very likely to be a repackaged B-Macro, including a 43 to 55 mm stepup ring (at least in germany at the time i bought mine). Olympus America only mentions the B-Macro, Olympus Europe only mentions the MCON-40.

Tele converters

1.4X-A
increases the tele range by a factor of 1.4.
5 lenses in 4 groups.
to be used between an olympus OM camera and a zuiko tele lense.
Compatible with: Is said to not be compatible with many other zuiko lenses.
2X-A
increases the tele range by a factor of 2.
6 lenses in 6 groups.
to be used between an olympus OM camera and a zuiko tele lense.
Compatible with: Is said to not fit to many other zuiko lenses, through mechanical differences.
A-200: IS/L Lens A-200 H.Q. Converter 1.5x
increases the tele range by a factor of 1.5.
4 lenses in 2 groups.
to be used with a 49 mm filter thread.
Compatible with:
B-300: IS/L Lens B-200 H.Q. Converter 1.7x
Tele converter, factor 1.7
5 lenses in 3 groups.
to be used with a 55 mm filter thread.
compatible with: Olympus recommended the B-300 for the c-3000z in the c-3000z quick start guide. The design of the optical elements in the camedia c-x0y0 (with x being one of 2 to 4) is quite similar, therefore the B-300 should work with any of these.
The B-300 is rare now (2002-05).
C-160: iS/L Lens C-160 H.Q. Converter 1.45x.
3 elements in 2 groups.
to be used with a 52 mm filter thread.
compatible with:
C-180: iS/L Lens C-180 H.Q. Converter 1.7x.
Tele converter, factor 1.7
4 elements in 2 groups.
to be used with a 52 mm filter thread.
compatible with:
C-210: iS/L Lens C-210 H.Q. Converter 1.9x.
Tele converter, factor 1.9
4 elements in 2 groups.
to be used with a 52 mm filter thread.
compatible with: Vignetting with E-100RS.
D-1.45x: Centurion Lens D-1.45x H.Q. Converter
Tele converter, factor 1.45
52 mm
compatible with:
Note: This one has no screw-in attachment, it is clipped onto the camera.
E-1.3x: IS/L Lens E-1.3x H.Q. Teleconverter
increases the tele range by a factor of 1.3.
52mm.
Compatible with:
TCON-14 aka 1.45 Teleconversion lens
increases the tele range by a factor of 1.45
to be used with 46 mm filter threads.
includes a 43 to 46 mm stepup ring
compatible with:
TCON-14B:
extends the tele range by a factor of 1.45
to be used with a 62 mm filter thread.
compatible with:
TCON-14D:
extends the tele range by a factor of 1.4
???
compatible with:
TCON-17:
increases the tele range by a factor of 1.7
to be used with 55 mm filter threads.
May be a slighly improved B-300 or may simple be a repackaged B-300. I don't see a big difference.
Should be compatible with:
TCON-17C:
increases the tele range by a factor of 1.7
bayonett mount
Should be compatible with:
TCON-30C:
increases the tele range by a factor of 3.
bayonett mount
Should be compatible with:
TCON-300 (sometimes called TCON-300S)
extends the tele range by a factor of 3.0
can not be attached as a filter ring, needs the TCON SA supports arms.
compatible with: Note: The TCON-300 is quite a different beast. The other Olympus tele converts have a front size being at least as large as the rear side, often _much_ larger (look at the B-300), causing the converter lense to cause small or no light loss. The TCON-300 causes a noticable loss of light.

Wide angle converters

IS/L Lens A-28 H.Q. Converter 0.8 x
reduces the wide angle range to a factor of 0.8.
to be used with a 49 mm filter thread.
compatible with:
B-28: IS/L Lens B-28 H.Q. Converter 0.8x
B-28: IS 3 DLX B-28 Wide Angle Lens
(note that this beast has two different names)
reduces the wide angle range to a factor of 0.8.
to be used with a 55 mm filter thread.
compatible with:
WCON-07
reduces the wide angle range to a factor of 0.7.
to be used with a 55 mm filter thread.
compatible with: Likely to by compatible with _many_ Camedia models.
WCON-07C
reduces the wide angle range to a factor of 0.7.
bayonett mount
compatible with:
WCON-08E B-28 Wide Angle Lens (america)
WCON-08 (europe)
reduces the wide angle range to a factor of 0.8.
to be used with a 55 mm filter thread.
This is very likely to be a repackaged B-28 (including a 43 to 55 mm stepup ring).
compatible with: Likely to by compatible with _many_ Camedia models.
WCON-08B
Reduces the wide angle to a factor of 0.8.
to be used with a 62 mm filter thread.
compatible with:
WCON-08D
Reduces the wide angle to a factor of 0.8.
bayonett mount.
compatible with:

TODO

Note: The information on this page has been gathered from official and inofficial sources. Proofreading is still required, so don't bet too much money on any information found here.

Corrections are welcome. Please send them to uwe@ohse.de.

History

2005-01-24
WCON-08D has a bayonett mount, question mark removed.
Added TCON-30C
2003-08-25
The A-28 has a 49mm thread, not 55mm.
The OM-Series close-up lenses are not achromatic.
There is no difference between WCON-08 and B-28 according to ??? (lost it).
Mentioned the "Close-up lens 80mm Macro f=170mm"
2004-05-27
Added tcon-14d, tcon-17c, wcon-07c and wcon-08d.

Thanks to...

Tobias Biernath
for corrections about the OM-series close-up lenses and the A-28, and the information that there is not difference WCON-08 and B-28.