Wide Angle Lenses

[Don Berube]

If I am not mistaken, it may be that the Panasonic adaptor is manufactured by Century Optics. Not 100% sure though!

- don

[Brian Cupini]

Hi all,

Anybody used the Panny wide angle lens (part # AG-LW7208G)? B&H has it for $389, and I was thinking of getting it instead of spending the $649 on the Crystal Optics .7 wide angle adapter.. Is the Panny wide angle a good lens, or should I just bite the bullet and make the investment on the Crystal Optics .7? Can anybody give me an idea of the differences between the two? Thanks in advance for the advice.

- Brian

[Barry Green]

There are three major differences between them.

1) the Century Precision Optics .7 is twice as expensive.

2) the Century lens attaches with a quick bayonet system, whereas the Panasonic screws in. The Century is very quick and easy to attach or remove, the Panasonic takes longer, but the Panasonic will work on any 72mm-thread camera whereas the Century will only ever work with the DVX.

3) The Century is wider, at .7x instead of the Panasonic's .8x.

You can see pictures of each lens in action at www.icexpo.com/dvx100/index.html and www.icexpo.com/dvx100/century.html.

Faced with the same choice, I ended up going with the Century .6x. It's much wider than the Panasonic, it's less expensive than either, it seems to be quite sharp. The only drawback is that it isn't full zoom-through, you can zoom in to about Z70 and everything's fine but after about Z70 it loses focus and can't be used. But I figured that it was less than half the cost of the .7X, and if I wanted a wide angle, I wanted a WIDE angle, so the zooming didn't matter so much. It is a bit annoying though that you can't just leave the lens on all the time, because sometimes you do want to zoom in and you can't.

[Brian Cupini]

Thanks Barry, that helps a lot! I think I will get the .6 to start, and see where that takes me.

[Darrell Hinton]

I was wondering if anyone with any experiece with this adapter could tell me if there is any noticable picture distortion with the addition of this adapter?

[Barry Green]

There is mild barrel distortion, but then again, there's barrel distortion in the DVX's stock lens without any adapter added to it.

See pictures of the various wide-angle options at:
http://www.icexpo.com/dvx100/century.html

[Darrell Hinton]

Thanks for the response Barry. The link with the .BMP's of the different adapters was very helpful.

[Tom Hardwick]

The .6x full wide and the .7x full wide seem to have got transposed.

[Nate Chai]

Hey Brian, you're orginal question was the same as mine. Was wondering if you are happy with the panasonic wide angle adaptor?

[Dale Anthony Smith]

I got the .6 Century WA and love it! One thing I noticed recently is that you have to go into "macro" focus when using it. When I did my initial testing... I was switching between 60i and progressive modes, so the auto focus was setting it up. Now in production, I am shooting exclusively 30P... I need to manually focus but it isn't always maximum macro and needs to be tweaked for each shot. hmmmmmmm!

[Michael Estepp]

Dear DVX 100 users
I am curious as to what options this camera has with interchangable lens'. I speffically need a wide lens. I have done some searching and the only one I can find looks cheap. I really like the canon 3x wide lens for the xl1... I even really like that camera. Can you use the 3x wide lens from the xl1 for this camera? They both are 72mm... so I would assume so.

When i go to purchase my camera, i must decide between the xl1 (which I have used before), the DVX100 (Which i will test first) and the new JVC HD camera. Any thoughts?

I want to get as far away from the video look as possible with the greatest depth of field, for the cheapest. I just don't know.

Michael Estepp

[Chris Hurd]

Hi Michael,

Please review the product brochure for the DVX100 -- you'll see that the lens is built-in, that is, it's integrated right into the camera body just like the Canon GL2 and the Sony VX2000. Since it's not a "removeable lens" this means that the Canon 3x XL-mount lens is not compatible with the DVX100 or, for that matter, any other camcorder other than a Canon XL1 or XL1S.

When you point out that both the DVX100 and the Canon 3x wide angle lens are 72mm, you're referring to the filter thread diameter on the front of both lenses. This means that a 72mm UV filter will work with any 72mm lens such as the built-in lens on the DVX100 or the 3x wide-angle or 16x standard lens on the Canon.

You can attach a 72mm wide-angle adapter to the front of the DVX100 lens -- there are several 72mm wide-angle adapters to choose from, including Century Optics for example -- but be aware that the built-in lens on the DVX100 *already is* a wide-angle lens. In fact this is one of the unique selling features of the DVX100.

In my opinion you will be most satisfied with the DVX100 or the new DVX100A.

Be careful how you describe depth-of-field. To say that you want the "greatest depth-of-field" would indicate you want deep focus and a very broad focal plane. Video already has that. Many people who are trying to get away from "the video look" are actually seeking the smallest, not geatest, depth-of-field with a shallow focus and a very narrow focal plane. Hope this helps,

[Michael Estepp]

Thank you, I read and read about this stuff, and it just doesn't stick. Just one more example me being a person who needs to do things to learn. I need DOP :-)

[Jinghong Chua]

Hi all,

Just wondering if there is any alternate wide conversion lens out in the market other than the pricey Pana's version?

Search the web but seem to be very little info on the massive 72mm lens filter thread other manufacturers have.

Thanks

[Ken Tanaka]

By "wide coversion lens" do you actually mean an anamorphic lens?