Conversion lenses?

[Colin Jones]

Anybody have any sample footage showing the results of using conversion lenses on the XL2 20X lens? I am looking to see what kind of quality to expect from a converter. Both wide and tele sample would be appreciated. Along with comments on your satisfaction with converters.

Thanks,

Colin

[Chris Bottrell]

To be honest mate the reason that no one has posted screen shots is that most people dont use them, i have seen shots using the wide angle converter and it isnt pretty! you get a round picuture and nothing seems straight, i think that plain filters are good as long as you get a good quality set not cheap ones. Not to sure about a tele converter though. But i would recomend the 3 x canon lens i saw one go on e bay for £300 last week.

[Colin Jones]

Originally Posted by Chris Bottrell

To be honest mate the reason that no one has posted screen shots is that most people dont use them, i have seen shots using the wide angle converter and it isnt pretty! you get a round picuture and nothing seems straight, i think that plain filters are good as long as you get a good quality set not cheap ones. Not to sure about a tele converter though. But i would recomend the 3 x canon lens i saw one go on e bay for £300 last week.

Thanks Chris,

I suspected as much. I have used conversion lenses in the past when I first started using 35mm gear some 30 odd years ago. The results were not good then but I didn't know if technology had improved the newer ones.

Colin

[Dale Guthormsen]

colin,

I use a 2x century on a gl2 and a 1.6 canon on my xl2. I prefer the century to the canon. I use them most everyday.
the converters are a little better than 30 years ago. I film wildlife and in my opinion the front 3/4s of the conversion you get a much sharper image than in the last quarter where the image does become softer.
If I had the money I would get the adapter and go with a manual lens as apposed to a duplex.
If you like I could take some grabs and email them to you.

[Richard Hunter]

Hi Colin. I'm using a Century Optics 0.7X converter for most of my shooting, because I find the standard lens on its own just doesn't go wide enough. The picture is fine, except for some barrel distortion at the widest settings which is not very nice when the vertical walls of buildings are in the shot.

Some others have reported chromatic aberration at the edges with this converter, but I find it is only there if you go looking for it and it is not a problem in practice. Depends on your needs though, I suppose.

I like the 0.7X because it is zoom-through, but some XL2 users prefer the image of the 0.6X converter even though it is not zoom-through. I might also buy the Canon 3X lens sometime, but the limited zoom range makes it not very attractive for me and I have read (on these forums) many reports of problems with this lens (e.g. back focus out-of-adjustment, fuses blowing).

Sorry I don't have any place to post samples right now, but hopefully these comments are slightly useful.

Richard

[Colin Jones]

Did you know you can post grabs to the forum now? I found out about it last week. There is a Manage Attachments button in the Additional Options section when you post a message. To see the images you need to enable them in your control panel otherwise they will show up as links only.

If you want to post grabs that would be great.

Colin