Canon 3x wide angle lens

[Michael Nistler]

Hi Tony,

Without disassembling the hoods, a quick measurement shows the hoods are not interchangable. I ran a string around the receptacle for both and found the circumference of the 3X is about 3/4 inch more than the 20X lens.

Sorry, Michael

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

Thank you very much for that information – it really helps a lot! At least it means that there is nothing wrong with the bayonet fitting on my 3X lens.

I’ve contacted Canon UK and had no joy in obtaining a 3X lens hood at such short notice.

It ‘seems’ that the old 16X lens hood will fit the 3X lens, but it could possibly vignette, so I’ll continue to look for an original 3X hood while I’m out in France, or look for another Matte Box that doesn’t vignette.

I doubt if I’ll be able to find a hood that’ll not vignette once a .7x adapter is placed in front of the 3X or 6X lenses, but as I’ll mainly be only using it that wide for underwater work it shouldn’t matter that much – I’ll just use the 3X hood when I’m doing above surface shoots.

Thanks again Gary and Michael.

[Michael Nistler]

Hi all,

I recently purchased a Century fish-eye lense to mount on my Canon 3X lens. I would have thought I had some zoom range but it only seems to focus (in manual) at one zoom point. Is this typical or do you have the ability to change the zoom setting and still be able to focus?

Regards, Michael

[Cleveland Brown]

Mine took a crap as well. One day I tried to use it and nothing happened. The 20x that came with it works fine but I the three x can't be focused or anything. I am pissed. It's just over a year old and I don't even know if they will fix it. @$!$^##!^. I don't need this right now!

[Allen McLaughlin]

I've never had a problem with my 3x but did get a "check lens" error with my 20x. Most certainly a contact pins issue in my case.

Incidentally, wasn't the 3x designed for the XL-1(s) and are the focusing issues related to the non adjustable flangeback in relation to to the minute design differences between the XL-1 and XL-2 ?

[Marko Urbic]

I'm wondering is my 3X faulty or is it just how it is.
I shoot weddings and use autofocus most of the time.
While 20X is very good at it, the 3X is giving me problems- quite a lot of hunting, some times just a bit out of focus which I can't see on the 'nice' viewfinder XL2 has, but when I get home I can clearly see the softness all around.
When shooting on the dance floor (lowlight) the autofocus becomes totaly unusable.
Is this how it is and I should just use manual focus or should it perform better?

[Michael Nistler]

Hi Marko,

First off, you probably know cameras like the XL2 rely on white-black transitions to auto-focus the lens. So in low lighting or a target that doesn't have easily distinguishable transitions, you're better off either using a manual focus and if necessary, press the focus button once while pointing at your target.

Anyway, if you need help focusing with your 3X lens, try first focusing before the shoot - focus on a target pattern that's the same distance as your subject. Here's a freebie BackFocus target that will work if you don't already have something like this to use:

http://www.dsclabs.com/images/BF%20Comp%20060920.pdf

Regards, Michael

[Marko Urbic]

Thanks for the tip Michael, but when shooting weddings it's hard to do these preparations and the situation can change every second.

I was wondering if people are having similar problems with the 3X especially wedding shooters?
Or should I send it on a check?

[Tom Hardwick]

I agree - in a real-time, no second takes wedding situation there's no time for fancy footwork, it must be right first time.

It does sound as if your 3x has a problem though, as the first dance is usually a very high-contrast situation of white dress, black suit, dark background that the contrast induced auto-focus thrives on.

It's odd though as the 3x is a wide-angle lens, and you'd have thought the extra dof would hide the inaccurate focus at times. If you test it in good light, zipping hither and thither in an effort to catch the auto-focus out, how does it perform?

Do you have a wide-angle attachment that you could attach to the 20x, Mark? I'm just wondering if this would show up the fact that the 3x is faulty if tested in low light.

tom.

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

The 20X has very slow autofocus and does tend to hunt in difficult situations (far more than a pro-level stills camera for example) but I've also found the 3X lens to be even slower than the 20X, especially in low light levels.

I rarely if ever have a second chance in obtaining some of my subject footage, so I make sure that I shoot as much manual focus as I do autofocus. (I do however like and depend on autofocus in a few situations).

(The 20X & 3X AF lenses are not as easy to manually focus as the 14 X Manual focus or 16X MF Servo lens, so I prefer to combine some autofocus with manual focus when using the AF lenses). The Push AF button is also a nice feature (absent from the 20X lens).

One thing I've noticed with the 3X lens is that when you are using AF on say, a waist-tight shot of a person in the middle of the frame and autofocus is locked on the face, the focus will shift momentarily if the person's hands move even slightly towards the centre. Often the depth of field is enough with the 3X lens to just manually focus on the main subject and leave it locked on for a lot of the footage, and this will avoid the slight seesaw soft/sharp detail encountered when using only autofocus.

I do like to use the 3X lens a lot even though I rarely zoom and tend to leave it locked in the widest position, but also like to use the 20X IS lens + 0.7X FX HD Red Eye for ultra-steady footage when on choppy boats etc; or even combine the .7X with the 3X for ultra-wide angle stuff (and at that angle almost everything is in focus from tip of nose to mountain backdrop!).

[Michael Nistler]

Rehi Marko,

Sorry I didn't understand you're doing wedding shoots as opposed to a staged video shooting talent (where you could establish a focus). In that situation, I'm in complete agreement with everything Tony stated - well said!

Regards, Michael

[Marko Urbic]

Well, I was hoping mine was kinda of faulty, but seems like that's the way it is.
I realized that in lowlight my only option is manual focus and at good light the AF is not so bad.

Thanks for the reply guys!

[Charles Hurley]

Find your infinity focus. At 3.4mm full wide you should be able to lock off focus and everything over about 4 feet away should be in focus. The only real adjustment on that lens is within about 2 feet(at full wide) from the camera. The AF is hurting you by hunting through the range when it's almost totally unnecessary to do so unless you're right up in someone's face, when you are then push the button. Good Luck, Chuck.

[Marko Urbic]

Yeah, realized that the DOF is really deep so I'm better of doing the focus in manual.
Thanks

[Matthew Jackson]

hey, I just got the 3x wide lens, and I shoot on boats in sunny conditions... and the autofocus definitely requires help... When I pan, it almosts brings the new subject into focus, but not quite... where then I either push the autofocus button a couple of times, or now as I do with the 20x due to the fast pace of filming, use a finger on the zoom and a finger on the focus rings, and as I'm moving about I gently zoom and focus at the same time... I thought there was something wrong with the 3x lens, so I guess it's kind of good to hear of someone else having the same thing.