On/off switch for Fujifilm S5500

SOURCE: conversion lenses & filters

These screw on the front of the plastic lens adapter and adjust the focal length. On the side of the adapter lenses it will quote the ratio. My wide angle says 0.66x so just multiply the range of focal lengths by this figure and you will see that it adjusts the camera zoom accordingly - making the image wider and probably also increasing the depth of field (what is in focus). Similarly a 1.5 tele will inrease the range of focal lengths to make the lens "longer" eg higher magnification , useful for astro photography - shots of the moon and terrestrial long distance work but detracting from the depth of field, eg the range of distance over which objects are in focus will be reduced.

The wide angle will allow you to come in close and get WIDE objects fully in-frame- hence "wide angle", while the telephoto will give you better overall maginification of the image but will probably increase the MINIMUM focal length - eg you may not be able to focus on objects closer than >2m (instead of ~1).

The screw-on adapter lenses I found were cheap in a Jessops sale use a 52mm thread, while the S5500 provides a 55mm internal thread. I use an appropriate 55mm to 52mm step down ring adapter. There is slight vignetting (shading around the edge of an image) at certain combinations of zoom, but generally these are very useful accessories.

As these are adapter lenses on the front of an already powerful 10x zoom that must be optically compromised at the price of this camera, there maybe some colour fringeing around bright images. If you want a better solution you really need to get a DSLR. Overall a good solution for the price.