The widest wideangle with no BD?

[Rafael Lopes]

What is the widest 72mm wide angle lens around with no barrel distortion? Is there anything that could be similar to a 20mm photo lens or am I asking too much? Zoom through and front thread would be good pluses.

[Steve Wolla]

I have never seen one without some barell distortion, especially a .5 like you would need to appproximate the field of view of your 20mm photo lens. Never seen a .5 with zoom thru either, although I may have missed it.
Photographic lenses will have better correction than video, especially when talking about wide angles and adapters. Still, quality wide angle adapters are very worthwhile additions to your video bag. I have the Canon "72" for use with my XHA1, and love it. It zooms thru, but does not have front threads, and it does have some minor barrell distortion. it warrants a good look, in my opinion.
Century and 16X9 also make good ones, in varying magnifications (.6, .7, etc). be realistic in your expectations. These are all adapters. As such, do not expect them to be as nice as a Canon dedicated 20mm still photo lens.

[Rafael Lopes]

Yes, I've been toying with the idea of buying a WD-H72. I'd like to get some more opinions though. I've read couple of reviews about different WA but nothing too insightful. Right now i have a cavision 0.6X and the barrel distortion is REALLY big.

[Benjamin Hill]

Considering the A1/G1's stock lens is already quite wide, if you need to go wider the WD-H72 is a very nicely manufactured, albeit large and heavy, adapter. As Steve said it does distort slightly at the widest angle- but that can be a trade-off when you can get a tight shot.

It does make the camera considerably front-heavy, but the weight actually helps dampen movement when you are shooting handheld.

[Rob Stoner]

i bought the wd-72 as an afterthought thinking that maybe i would use it every once in a while but it turns out that is has saved me more than a few times. i do wish that it had filter threads on the front but it hasnt been a huge issue for me.

[Peter Jordan]

You might check out the Century .8x if you need a front thread (86mm). The barrel distortion seems pretty minimal to me, considering the stock lens already has some distortion in it. And it's smaller and lighter than the Canon.

[Ryan Avery]

Originally Posted by Rafael Lopes

What is the widest 72mm wide angle lens around with no barrel distortion? Is there anything that could be similar to a 20mm photo lens or am I asking too much? Zoom through and front thread would be good pluses.

Check out our .6x. Sample footage of the attachment going on and off the camera is available under the Samples tab.

http://www.schneideroptics.com/ecomm...=1385&IID=6219

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics

[Jack Walker]

If you notice the lense on the XH-A1 has some distortion at the wide angle.

I have the Canon .8x and the Century .6x.

They both distort. People in the center of the frame look good on both of them.

The amount of distortion seen in either one depends on what is being shot.

The .6x is very nice quality and works well with the Merlin (at Max weight) because is so light.

The Canon .8x is quite heavy, though produces nice video, though with some distortion.

Even slr lenses have distortion. This can be taken out with a product like PTLens:
http://epaperpress.com/ptlens/
I don't know if there is a similar product for video. (Or if PTLens might be able to batch process video frame by frame if the video is converted to a sequence.)

[Andy Gordon]

The best thing I've found is the Aspheron, 0.52 with very little distrtion, you can zoom in to z65, chroma separation is noticeable but for very wide non distorted it's the best option I've found. The WD72 gives a better image but it's a large chunk of glass for not much wider a view. Really depends what your priorities are as to which is your best bet. Some sample shots here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=99117

[Jack Walker]

Originally Posted by Andy Gordon

The best thing I've found is the Aspheron, 0.52 with very little distrtion, you can zoom in to z65, chroma separation is noticeable but for very wide non distorted it's the best option I've found. The WD72 gives a better image but it's a large chunk of glass for not much wider a view. Really depends what your priorities are as to which is your best bet. Some sample shots here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=99117

That definitely looks like it answers the original questions.

Here's a thread with a lot more information on the lens:
http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=67992

Is it possible for the Aspheron to screw in? Or must some kind of adapter be made, as discussed in the thread I reference above?

Do you have a link to the Aspheron new? I can't find anything.... I think I found it on the Bolex site:
http://www.bolex.ch/NEW/?p=6#12

[Andy Gordon]

Yep item 150001 is the one. I got mine new from Bolex for cheaper than the second hand one I was bidding on went for on ebay. If you contact Bolex and ask for a quote you may be able to get it cheaper than list price as I did.

I had a screw on adapter made exactly as per that other thread by SRB Griturn in England, it was 45 quid or so, they have all the dimensions to make them already. Problem is on the A1 it doesn't quite hold the Aspheron close enough and the hood is visible in the corners on the right hand side of the image, cos the CCDs aren't exactly centred on the lens on my A1. Maybe you'll get lucky and have yours lined up, but a better option would be to have a bayonet mount machined for you that attaches to the 85mm thread on the Aspheron, that will get it closer to the camera. I could cut a couple of notches in the hood to get them out of the image but I don't think it's worth it since I normally crop vertically for cinema ratio anyway.

BTW the Aspheron has no front threads, but you'd need something like a 110mm filter on there. Main problem I have is that every spec of dust on the Aspheron glass shows up in the image since everything is in focus.

You can also use After Effects to take out lens distortion, with the Raynox 0.3 BD corrected it produces some freaky wide results. You don't want to go wider than 0.5 IMO as the distortion at the edges gets a bit severe.