Canon KH20x6.4 No Good? How about KH13x4.5 KRS?
 

I’m doing my research on a lens to will buy for the new PDW-F335. I’m a Canon fan and have had good success with an SD model that we have used on our old DSR-300 for years. I would not be totally opposed to a Fuji lens if there is a clearly better option though.

It seems that the KH20x6.4 is not really well liked by what I’ve read so far. I did have a chance to compare Fuji and Canon lenses at NAB 07 on the camera and I liked the KH13x4.5 KRS. I’m no lens expert so advice is welcome. This 13x lens produced a nice image and was able to go really wide. I shoot mostly indoor talking head stuff and over the years, I’ve never had an occasion that I needed more telephoto than my 18x lens could provide, but I’ve had plenty of occasions when I could not get wide enough. This KH13x4.5 KRS seems like a good value at a street price around 11,000 US or so.

I would have bought one except that the model number is so similar to the KH20x6.4,
I was afraid that there may be problems with the KH13x4.5 KRS that I am unable to yet recognize. Your experience and comments are appreciated.

Best regards,
Chris

I am very happy with my KH20x6.4. It's not the best lens in the world, but it's the most affordable HD lens out there. I cannot complain about the picture...it is super sharp.

Thanks
 

Hi Phil,
Thanks for your opinion. Is this the lens that you used to shoot the ocean scenes that you posted on your site? The shots with the tobacco filter? If so, they were very nice.

Hopfully we have a user out there that can comment on the KH13x4.5 KRS.

Chris

yep. its my only half inch lens

The KH20 is an OK lens. Having now tried several of the low cost 1/2 HD lenses I think they all have different strengths and weaknesses. I was using a Fuji HD lens the other day and it made me wish I had my KH20!

Kh20
 

Thanks Alister,
The KH13x4.5 KRS looked really good at NAB. Maybe Canon handpicked a good one. I've heard that you can get lucky and get one with nearly the quality of the higher priced lenses.

What am I looking for in terms of a problem? C.A., barrel distortion? Are there any checks I could do on a new lens to determine if it is completely unacceptable out of the box?

I just don't want to realize months later that there is a pretty big weakness that I over looked.

Regards,
Chris

All the 1/2" HD lenses I have tried have exhibited some CA and have been soft at the edges at wide apertures. Indeed all the 2/3" HD lenses I have used have shown CA.

I think you need to be realistic and look at the images the lens produces between f11 and f4. There should be no serious softening at the edges, nor should there be any significant barrel distortion. My KH20 exhibits a little bit of both that you can see when you shoot a test chart, but in actual use it is not apparent. CA is apparent on high contrast objects, its worse towards the edges of the frame and at longer focal lengths, but again it's only really on the odd shot every now and again that you see it. Lens quality is actually quite subjective. I had a Fuji lens the other day that breathed so much when focusing that it was very noticeable, yet in other respects the lens performed well. Did this make it a bad lens? Depends on the shoot.

Good points
 

These are all great bits of information that will help me. I will check all of theses points when I get the lens. I guess no lens is perfect. It's just whether or not the lens is good enough for the $9000 US that it costs.

Regards,
Chris

Same applies to my Fujinon lens. Breathes a lot. Ditto on the other comments.

-gb-