Cheap wide teleconverter for 14-42 - Sony - VCL-E07A

Hi,
while waiting for the BCL-9 price to get low I decided to do a quick experiment. I bought a Sony - VCL-E07A for 12$ on ebay.
You can find a few reviews around, for example here so I will only talk about the converted 14-42 EZ. The 14-42 R also has a 37mm front thread, and being very similar lenses I think it should work in the same way, but I do not have one to try.

The adapter comes with a 37mm thread so you just screw it on the lens. The external diameter is the same of the 14-42 so when this is closed it looks just like part of the lens. When extended it's a bit odd cause it's larger than the inner barrel.
The adapter is made of two parts: a plastic threaded one and the lens itself that is plugged inside the other one pressing two buttons on the side, like a lens cap. So you can add/remove the lens on the fly leaving the plastic part on, like a small hood.

Auto focus does not work, and manual focus works only at 14mm. This means it works like a 18mm f/3.5 fixed lens. Manual focus works fine but it is very sensitive to the focus ring movement so you have to be precise. Maybe with a smaller aperture could be easier, I didn't try.

There is a lot of barrel distortion, quality on the borders is ugly, but the center is good. Here a quick summary: with and without the converter, with 100% crops from the center and border:



And here are the full size jpeg.

The adapter does not have a cap and there is no front thread, so you can only add a cap that stays on the outside. The lens is really small, a little more than a lens cap, plus a small case.

Conclusions: for 12$ you can get a small, fun toy lens. If you are looking for IQ...well...why are you still reading? If you want to see if the BCL-9 could be worth the money or if you think it's not worth the money this could be an alternative. I'm going to keep it inside the bag.

If anybody is interested I can post a few more sample and do a couple more test.