sony pd170 2x converter

[Ian Thomas]

Hi

Does anybody know anything about 2x converters for the pd170 and if they are any good, the last one i owned a sony, on my trv900 didn't give very good results it was very soft on the the outside or are they all like that.

many thanks

Ian

[Tom Hardwick]

No, they're not all like that. You can pay a lot of money for a Century 2x and you'll probably be suitably impressed, or you can pay less for a less powerful 1.4X (say) and still be impressed. What will dissapoint is probably the cheap 2x. And all of them vignette the image as you zoom back, so they make your 12x zoom into an 8X or so.

tom.

[Ian Thomas]

Thanks Tom

I do alot of wildlife shooting and have been useing the XL1 with a tamron 35mm lens, which gives me about 48x zoom, unfortunatley due to my budget the XL1 has to go and as the pd170 is abit more portable ie for weddings i need to find a good 2x converter is century the best?

thanks

Ian.

[Ian Thomas]

Thanks Tom

I do alot of wildlife shooting and have been useing the XL1 with a tamron 35mm lens, which gives me about 48x zoom, unfortunatley due to my budget the XL1 has to go and as the pd170 is abit more portable ie for weddings i need to find a good 2x converter is century the best?

thanks

Ian.

[Tom Hardwick]

If you're using a PD for weddings I can't for the life of me think why you'll need a 2x converter. A 0.5x wide-angle, yes...

The bayonet-on Century is a goodie I'm sure (though I don't have one) but there are other respected makes out there like Canon, Raynox, Kenko that are worth a look at.

BTW, I'm sure it's a typo and a Tamron lens isn't giving you a 48x zoom. A zoom is a variable focal length lens that maintains focus as you zoom, so a 3x zoom is (say) a 6mm to 18mm lens.

tom.

[Ian Thomas]

No I don't need the converter for weddings, and i have a wide angle lens that came bundled with the pd.

It's just that because iam parting with the XL1 iam going to use the sony for wildlife and just wondered if there was a good 2x lens to increace the optical zoom, as i said inthe last post the sony 2x lens i had before was not to clever.

Thanks
Ian.

[Tom Hardwick]

Just to be the ever pedantic tom, I must point out that the 2x converter will actually *decrease* your optical zoom Ian, due to the vignetting that will occur as you zoom back. It will surely increase your maximum focal length though, and the PD170 will go to 144mm. What's also nice is that the dof will also be reduced at these extended focal lengths as the maximum aperture of f2.4 remains largely unaffected. Though (as you know) you'll need a good and steady tripod to make use of such focal lengths.

tom.

[Gale Smith]

Sony makes a great, high-grade 1.7x extender lens that will fit right on the pd170. I can't remember the model number, but it's something like HGL58.

[Ian Thomas]

Thanks for that Gale i will look into that.

Regards

Ian

[Gale Smith]

Ian-

If you go to the bhphotovideo.com website, you will find the sony vcl-hg1758 58mm 1.7x telephoto lens. I personally use one on my pd150 and it works great with no distortion. There is some vignetting, but that will be the case with all front-mounted telephoto lenses. Hope this helps.

[Ian Thomas]

Thanks Gale

I will take a look, and thanks again for all you on the forum for your help

Regards
Ian.

[Ian Thomas]

Iv'e now bought the raynox dcr 2020pro and have found it to be very good, it gives a very clear image.

[Tom Hardwick]

For reference Ian, can you tell us how far you can zoom back before vignetting takes place? Check out the little 'zoom bar' in your v/finder - can you go to half way with this Raynox in place?

[Ian Thomas]

Tom, no you have to be about 3/4 zoomed in to clear the vignetting, thats the only set back and its only good for close up work.

Iam useing it for filming close shots of deer and as i say its only good for close work, but the image is very good.