View Full Version : Century Optics .3 fisheye lens


Greg Harris
August 25th, 2004, 06:32 AM
I have had this lens for about 10 months now, and i'm getting sick of the vignetting. Does anyone know if century plans on making the lens just like the vx2 or gl2's fisheyes.
Thanks

James Gleason
August 25th, 2004, 07:27 AM
I've been looking at buying this lens and I guess I'm a bit confused by your post. Being an ultra fisheye, isn't it supposed to have the extreme barrel distortion of vignetting? What is it that you don't like?

Jaser Stockert
August 25th, 2004, 09:02 AM
i used to own the .3 version for my vx1000 and it did not vignette...james, if you zoom in until no vignetting occurs, is there still a pronounced amount of barrel distortion or does the fisheye lose its effect? i'm debating whether to go w/ the .3(based on your feedback) or just go w/ century's regular fisheye which has less barrel distortion but does not vignette. there's always the do it yourself w/ the raynox fisheye lens...

Aaron Shaw
August 25th, 2004, 09:41 AM
Aren't there plenty of filters floating around the net that will correct barrel distortion?

Greg Harris
August 25th, 2004, 12:22 PM
It has GREAT distortion, but the vignetting comes up on the TV in the lower left corner. the .3 ultra fisheye for the gl2, and vx2100 dont have any vignetting at all and still has great distortion. Century needs to step it up.

Jaser Stockert
August 25th, 2004, 12:31 PM
greg, how is the barrel distortion once you zoom in enough to avoid vignetting? i agree...for a $700 lens, i would expect no vignetting!

Greg Harris
August 26th, 2004, 05:59 AM
yeah i called century last night, and they said there are no plans for a new lens with out any vignetting. I said to the guy, " it looks very unprofessioal, and its very annoying to see on a TV corner. It's 2004 not 1991. If i zoom past the vignetting, it looses a TAD BIT quality. If you guys can just put in a 1 minute phone call to century and give them some suggestions that would be great.

Jaser Stockert
August 26th, 2004, 09:14 AM
greg, what do you mean by "quality"? as in loses it's fisheye effect or softens the image as you zoom in? thanks...

Greg Harris
August 27th, 2004, 06:41 AM
well if you zoom in a lot, the picture becomes extremely blurry. So if you just zoomed in a little bit to pass the vignetting, i believe it loses some quality.

James Gleason
August 27th, 2004, 09:19 AM
Greg, is there anyway you could post a picture showing the problem? That would help me understand your complaint more and influence my purchasing decision.

Jaser Stockert
August 27th, 2004, 10:16 AM
james, he's probably referring to something like this:

http://www.skateperception.com/articles/articles.php?article=dvxfisheye

here's some grabs w/ the diy raynox version:

http://www.dvxuser.com/cgi-bin/DVX2/YaBB.pl?board=Clips;action=display;num=1090825247;start=3#3

and here's a frame grab of century's regular fisheye:

http://www.icexpo.com/dvx100/Century_fisheye.JPG