Hi everyone

It's my first post and I'd just like to say that this site has been of tremendous help over the years, much appreciated.

I bought a Canon XL H1 about 4 months ago and I've recently acquired a couple of lens related accessories; namely a manual 16x lens, a 3x wide lens, a 1.6x adapter and an EF adapter.

I didn't get a manual with any of the accessories... and although they're all quite simple, I did have fun getting the back focus set on the 16x manual lens.

I used an externally-packaged 720p laptop monitor with composite in to calibrate back focus and other stuff and it all seems to be working quite well.

A few questions, though :

1) I've noticed the 16x lens zooms in and out during focusing (I believe this is referred to as breathing)... is it meant to be noticeable on the 16x lens ? or have I stuffed up somewhere ? I'd say the lens zooms in by about 0.3x during focusing. The front glass also rotates during focussing.

2) "HD Incompatible Lens" Is there some way of easily calculating the actual resolving ability of a lens in vertical pixels ? Has it been done already ? I'm really intrigued to find out if these lenses resolve HDV.

I've noticed on the wide lens that there is some colour fringing, primarily on the right side of the lens. It seems to be greatly reduced by zooming in by about 0.5x-1x.

That's about it... all in all a great camera.

All of these lenses are perfectly suitable to the XLH1 camera. However, the 3X lens is probably the lowest grade (optically) for HD work. I did use the 3X lens on a project (this was before Canon released the 6x) and, for the most part, it did the job. However, there was noticeable softening in the corners and some CA throughout.

The 16x lens is workhorse lens. Canon over built this sucker considering it's remarkable cost. It works very well the H1 and and I think the optics hold up for HD resolution. I'm not sure about the "breathing" issue. My 16x lens does not breathe at all.

I'm not sure about the "breathing" issue. My 16x lens does not breathe at all.

Are you kidding? So if you look at the front element of the lens and adjust the focus, you do not see that element move in and out slightly? The same goes for the image in the EVF, it should zoom ever so slightly forward or backward depending on the direction of focus.

I have used 3 different 16x manual lenses over the last 5 years and all of them exhibit this behavior. I don't mind much but I am puzzled to hear that yours does not do this....are you sure that you haven't just become "numb" to it or you don't notice anymore? I'm not trying to be smart but in the big picture it would seem more likely that you are overlooking it than there is a "rogue" model floating around out there without this issue.

Let us know if you are "sure". :)

Ok, Marty. Just for you. I'll pull the 16x out of storage and test it just to make sure. I haven't used the lens since early 2006. So it's possible I don't remember it.

Robert,
If your lens is in storage don't pull it out just for this! I was simply asking because the breathing of the lens was a known issue back before I bought it in 2005. I don't mind it in the least.

If your 16x is in storage what have you been shooting with lately? Red?

Thanks.

No worries Marty. I'm now curious enough about the issue to pull it out.

I haven't shot anything since we wrapped up post-production on our feature. We've been in distribution mode and all the crap that goes with that end of the production cycle. And we're writing our next project.

So I haven't had an opportunity to shoot anything lately. But trust me. I'm itchy as all hell to get back behind the camera.