Wow, that really is bad!

odd, but easily found in Japan
 

Odd, but I've noticed in my two trips these past two months to Tokyo that all of these wide-angle and tele accessories are available at almost all of the major electronics stores, but hard to find here in the USA.

Best?

Perhaps find the part number off the Japanese website, then order off a dealer on eBay.com who's in Japan (there are a handful). The yen to dollar is good right now, so you can get a nice 15-20% discount that way as well.

(Oddly, even though the lenses are cheaper to buy with USD in Japan, the camcorder prices are still very high - eg.HV10 for 99,000 Yen or about $840 USD at 118yen=1usd; US prices on the HV10 are far lower.)

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Watch out about these wide angle lenses! They are mini-monsters so to speak and are very large in comparison to the camera itself, esp. the one for the HV10! You'd never think it would be that massive until you've seen one, and then it'll make you rethink whether you really want one or not. (eg. for me, it's like no way!)

Ive not seen one of these at all in the UK which is a shame as I'd really like one :(

Another question - Canon WD-H43
 

Is it really worth getting the Canon wide angle adapter for hv20?

What about aftermaket? Any thoughts ....

its costs 20% or the camera price.....

Thanks

Yes, this lens was designed specifically for the HV-20. I shoot 90% of every thing with the HD-43W. I have seen some issues with vignetting with some of the aftermarket products ie...Raynox etc...

quality wise you won't regret it.

Luis

Just ordered one.......

Front threads on wide angle?
 

Are there threads on the front of this lens (for filters and the like)? I'm thinking not...

I can confirm your thoughts. ;-)
There are no threads on the front of WD-H43. I would try to sandwich a polarizer and see how that works though.

Ajit B.

can anyone confirm if there is vignetting w/ the wide angle if a uv filter is attached to the hv20? is it ok to have a uv attached when using the wide angle? thanks.

Interestingly enough, I did find a difference when checking the wd-43 vs. the wd-h43
It was an odd enough result that I had to share...

basically I aimed at a black and white store advertisement, and tried the manual focus.
With the wd-43, when I went in and out of focus, the black print on white would change colors! I think it was between red and blue.

it was odd, I was wondering if it was some sort of chromatic distortioin that I'd been reading about here.

the wd-h43 did the focus just fine... :)

Yes Alberto, it is indeed difficult to find a 0.7x converter that doesn't add to the barrel distortion. I found in test that Raynox's 6600PRO gave the least distortion of a zoom through, but after about 6x zoom the image softenen noticeably (and Raynox admitted to this). The HD7000 is hopefully sharper throughout the zoom, but not sure what its barrel distortion is like, not having tested it.

But hey Javier, to suggest that all Sony wide-angles are no good is going a bit far - the 0.7x they supplied with the PD170 and the 0.8 x made for the V1 are fine converter lenses. OJK, theyre both pretty mild and they both add to the barrel distortion, but you've got to use an aspheric to overcome that. My 0.52x on my Z1 gives no barrel distortion, but only zooms to 6x. Fair trade in my view.

tom.

I've tried the 6600 vs the H43. Although the 6600 gives less distortion, the colour accuracy and resolution seems to be far better on the H43.

Just in case anybody is wondering about the availability of this unit in Canada: amazingphoto have this in stock. I've just bought another two to be resold on eBay :D

Tom & David-I just got my HV20 and have the Raynox 6600 from my SD camcorder. Was wonder how would I go about testing it to see how well it works? Thanks.

I personally would test it by

1. set the HV20 on a tripod
2. take the video indoors, set at 24p for the best saturation and lowest grain
3. set the auto exposure to OFF
4. tape something with and without the Raynox.

If the colour saturation and detail loss is acceptable for you, then use the Raynox. IMHO it brings me back to standard-definition quality. Some details and colour saturation are lost due to the Raynox. Also note that the Raynox seems to be even blurrier if you need to zoom in. Maybe it's a partial-zoom-through lens adapter? regardless, my finding is that the Raynox has more negatives than positives compared to the H43.

The brick wall test is a great way of putting a camera through its paces. Set your camera in auto (w/bal, exposure, focus, audio) and speak to the mics saying what settings you're using. Have the camcorder perfectly perpendicular to the wall.

Now film at full tele, full wide, and with the converter lens on and off. You can count the bricks on your TV later to see if you really do have a 12x zoom, and see if your converter is really a 0.7x as claimed. You'll also see if the lens softens the image, reduces the contrast and at what aperture this happens (turn on your 'display').

Brick walls show up barrel distortion quick as a wink - there's no escape for any lens. You can vary the shutter speeds or introduce the ND filters to let you shoot at specific apertures, or better yet shoot to flash memory in higher res modes.

tom.