Fisheye Lens
 

Can any one recommend a good fisheye lens for the Z7.

I found a whole bunch of them brand new on eBay, from primarily 3-4 stores. Just search for "72mm wide angle." They all seem to be about the same. I bought one for about $70 and love it so far. Good luck!

I think Brian was referring to a fish-eye lens, not a WA. BH has this century optics fish-eye, but the price is hefty, guess you gotta pay for quality :-P

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...pter_Lens.html

Wow, at 3.58 lb that's a lot of weight hanging off the front lens.

I'm not sure what the technical definition of "fish-eye" is, but most of the results on eBay for "72 mm wide angle" were actually identified as and appeared to be fish-eye (.4x-.5x) lenses. The word "fish-eye" just wasn't in the titles. In fact, I found the "wide-angle" titles to be misleading, as I had trouble finding what I would consider to be "real" wide angles (.7x) on eBay. Good luck!

I thought the difference was that fish eye was to give that bubble look on an image, where you would see the distortion because of the curvature of the lens, whereas wide-angle is simple just stepping down the magnification to give you a larger view in your composition? Someone correct me if I'm wrong, because then I definitely have my terminology backwards.

Here's an entire video shot with what I've always called my fisheye lens. It's not totally bubble-like, but it's pretty clearly distorted. What do you think - "fisheye" or no?

http://www.indyvisual.com/2008/02/tr...ot-111207.html

But here's what you're probably thinking of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4rlY1SYeKE

It feels like both of them are fish-eye lenses, although clearly in order for a wide-angle to work, it must be convex to capture more data. I'm beginning to think that the terms are interchangeable, but when it becomes extremely bubble like (youtube link), then it should be referred to as just a fish-eye. btw, your footage is great, what magnification is your wide-angle at?

Thanks. That "fisheye" is .5x, I think... Shot with the V1U.

Oh, goodness, I just checked and saw that it's .3x! I just used the new eBay one (72mm .45x) with my Z7U and did notice that it wasn't quite as distorted as I was used to. Now I know why. Duh... So I guess that's as "fisheye" as the common ones on eBay (search term "72mm wide angle") get. The .3x one is a Raynox 58mm that I got for about $130 at B&H.

Brian,

We are currently evaluating various options for creating a fisheye lens for the Z7. Sony wouldn't cooperate with us on obtianing a pre-production unit so we are forced to develop one just recently. We make all of our Century lenses for each camera specifically and the new optics in the Z7 require us to design a new attachment. I will keep all posted on developments of this product as I get more info from my Engineering department.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics

Thanks Ryan
Also let me know if you have a fisheye for the XDCAM EX

The Super Fisheye for the EX1 should be available late this week or next. I am on the road and haven't talked with the Factory in Van Nuys in a few days.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics

I tried the lens out at NAB looks good Ryan let me know when it is available for purchase.

It looks like we are going to have this lens shipping to customers around the end of May. We are currently working to produce as many units as possible.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics

Wait to see what Schneider Comes Out With
 

I've been in touch with Schneider (Century Optics) on this issue.

"Regarding the Z7U, we anticipate .6X adapter and a 1.6X tele-
converter to be available in sixty days. The wide angle converters and fisheye's will not be available for some time as they require a re-design of our optics to work properly."

I would wait to see what they develop before plopping down your duckets. This company is great. I recently though I had a scratch on one of my lenses and sent it to them to see if they could do anything about it. I expected to hear the worst. Within a couple of days I was notified that something had splashed onto the lens and dried. They were able to clean it and sent it back at no charge. Schneider rocks!