GEAR TESTS: BACKSCATTER M52 WIDE ANGLE AIR LENS FOR OLYMPUS TG-6

DYLAN SILVER Backscatter Team Member

The M52 Air Lens adds to the Olympus TG series already amazing ability to shoot small and large subjects. Rather than expanding the field of view with glass elements, the air lens protects the camera's original focal length from the narrowing effect of refraction. The result is an extremely sharp and very useful medium width zoom lens.

I had a great time shooting video with the M52 Air Lens. It's very light and still allows you to position the camera within inches of subjects. For the small subjects, like shrimp and nudibranchs, I could use the full zoom through on the lens with no distortion. Users can also switch into the TG-6's microscope focus mode for detailed close-ups.

At the wide end, the Backscatter M52 Air lens maintains the TG camera's nearly 80-degree field of view. It's not the widest lens out there, but it's a practical field of view for filming and photographing a huge amount of subjects we found among the spectacular dive sites of Little Cayman.

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