They may have. However, it clearly says XL1/XL2 right on it.

The blur happens during zoom through on the 16X and goes right back in focus, but the shot is useless.

I also have the 3x which is simply amazing. It was just frustrating in situations where I would need to zoom on something, so I purchased the Century. I almost upgraded to a 20X as I heard that it worked better on that one.

I had to use it for a while and just learned its points of distortion.

Ultimately, I just decided to get an A1 and I'm purchasing the Canon WA this week.

The RedEye .5X seems like a decent choice for a non-zoom in extreme situations. It's light too.

I have the 0.5 red eye and am very happy with it. There is some distortion and softness on the edges but very acceptable levels in my opinion. I also purchased the Cavision wide angle, the 0.6x with zoom through and was very unimpressed. The edges were very soft and the chromatic aberration was huge. Not to mention that the lens hood vignettes at full wide. I returned that and will be try the 16:9 INC 0.7 wide angle shortly.

Patrick

patrick, could you post "before and after" shots using the red eye?
i'd really appreciate it.

i figured as much on the Cavision. Let us know how the INC works out.

My solution for my requirements has been to buy a century 0.8x compact hd converter which will cover most shooting situations, it seems a better option than the canon because it's half the size and even less than half the weight of the canon, however is likely to produce a picture of equal quality, so it just makes sense at the same price. I realise that 0.8x is not very wide, although it will cover most situations and for extreme wide shots I am likely to purchase a red-eye 0.5x hd lens, so I too would appreciate some example shots please Patrick. I am happy with this solution because it keeps the bulk and weight down which is important to me. I certainly did not like the idea of a 720g century 0.7x on the front of a already front heavy camera.

Okay, I made a quick comparision with the stock lens, 0.5x red eye lens and a modded 0.3 $100 clip-on raynox. I should also note that I had problems using instant AF with the red-eye only (it pulses frequently when turned on). I use this on a steadicam so most of the time the AF is a helper. Normal AF works with the red eye though.

Hope that helps.
http://smcouples.com/Samples/wideangle.mov

I've been working on getting Vfgadgets to send me a couple more wide angle lenses so I can do a comparision with all of them, but they are too busy with NAB right now. If you call them, please mention that it would be nice to have a comparision video with all the different options shown.

Patrick

Sometimes I wish I had chosen a less price-demanding line of interest/work. Like painting with fries from McDonalds or something...

Thanks for doing that Patrick.

I think I'm just going to stick with the Canon WA. I ordered it earlier today.

Coming from an Xl1-s with a stock 16X of 5.5mm-88mm
the A1 lens is already wider at 4.5mm. For my needs, .8 should be fine and I know the image will be at its best.

For those of you who are hoping for something that is inexpensive and zoom thru which is wider than a .8X you are bucking a lot of trends. Frankly the manufacturers have almost never gone past .8X with a zoom thru although technically it is possible. There is a technical and cost reason the wider adaptors are not zoom thru and that is because it is very hard to hold the focus over the whole range and relatively easy to just deal with the wide lens. Size and weight also come into play as most zoom thru adapters end up being heavier. If the Canon XH-A1 isn't wide enough with a .8X for you then you might have to sacrifice zooming for wideness or try a different camera. Don't expect any adapters to be the magic bullet anytime soon

I saw a .5x on ebay that is supposedly made by Tokina for around 190.0 It looks like one element group. I wonder what sort of quality that might be? Obviously not zoom through but if it were sharp at all that's pretty inexpensive.

One can often get away with a sloppy converter/adapter if shooting material where the sloppiness is masked by image content. The problems become appaent in stills and side-by-side comaprisons. But they becomes painfully apparent if shooting difficult material, like test charts, resolution charts, etc.

Any adapter that is not equal to or larger than front glass on the camcorder lens is going to have some issues.

Good glass is not cheap, and great glass is expensive. You pays your money and takes your choices.

Push AF Is Innacurate On Wide Shots?
 

I don't know if anyone else has had this experience. When zoomed in PUSH AF seems to focus (reasonably) well on target, but if you're zoomed out and PUSH AF and then zoom in, you find that PUSH AF has come up short of the mark?

For me PUSH AF on wide seems to focuss on random stupid distances well in front of the target.

And yes I'm on a tripod, with the same results on variety of targets, all well illuminated with clear vertical lines, and no I don't have AF on.

Anyone else care to let me know if they have similar experiences?

Well I don't own an A1, but this behavior is similar to my Sony cameras and is probably unavoidable. The problem is that when you zoom way out to a wide shot, the depth of field is huge. It's possible that everything from 10 feet to infinity is all in focus, so autofocus isn't very critical. Then when you zoom in your depth of field become considerably less, so the focus point you set on the wide shot isn't accurate.

Maybe there's something different going on with your camera, but I suspect this is the phenomenon you're seeing...

I can confirm - this is a normal behaviour (on both the A1 and V1).

Thanks guys, at least I know it's not a fault with my model.

Canon WD-72 Wide Angle Adapter
 

Hi Everyone,

I looked high and low and can't find much in the way of any information on the WD-72 aside from a .75 magnification factor. Does anyone know whether it is a "Zoom Through" lens? Long ago I had a Century Optics adapter for another camera and it would not allow you to zoom all the way through the zoom range with the adapter mounted.

Also, does anyone own one of these, and if so, what are your impressions of it with respect to loss of resolution, CA, etc.

Thanks very much,
Richard