Lens Question...MAJOR ZOOM NEEDED

[Noah Hayes]

Hey, this may seem like a bizarre question but someone I know is looking to pick up a new camera, but needs a huge zoom. He's currently using a JVC500u with a 19x lens with a 2x-doubler giving him approximately 40x zoom which is used contstantly. Seriously the least he's ever zoomed in is like 20X. I was thinking about recommending him the XL-H1 and possibly the EF-adaptor and a L-series Canon lens, but the question is...which one? What is the crop on the XL-H1 (if any), by that I mean on a non-full frame DSLR its a 1.5X crop.

The other camera I had considered recommending for him was the JVC HD110/100/200 group, but to get the 40x lens (19/20x with doubler) would be $1200 for the 1/3 to 1/2" adaptor and then a $6k-$9k lens. the budget is close to $10-$12k but he can go over a little if he needs.

[Holly Rognan]

I believe the crop is 7.9, so essentially it make the lenses telescopes. I don't think that he will be complaining about the range.

[Per Johan Naesje]

Noha, your friend must be doing some wildlife stuff or looking at girls ;-)

Well, to the point. The XLH1 is well suited to use external ef-lenses. The multiplay factor is 7.2 so a 300mm gives you 2160mm while a 500mm gives you 3600mm! One thing to note is with such a focal lenght you will have some haze from the air.

I have been using a Sigma 300mm f/2.8 and a Canon 500mm f/4.0L with good results on my XLH1

Note that high class lenses will give you better results than cheaper one. Also zoom lenses tend to be a bit softer on the telephotoend than prime lenses.

Good luck!

[Noah Hayes]

The Fujinon lens he uses now is a 6.? to 128mm so theoretically a 24mm-105mm L lens would be even more zoom than he's got now? 105 X 7.5 = 785mm so that would be like way more than enough right? He's shooting a stage from about 200-300 feet away

[Johan Forssblad]

Originally Posted by Per Johan

The multiplay factor is 7.2 so a 300mm gives you 2160mm while a 500mm gives you 3600mm! One thing to note is with such a focal lenght you will have some haze from the air.

Well, to stay correct, the focal length doesn't increase. It is the field of view which changes due to the crop factor when you only use the center part of the image because the CCD element is 7.2 times smaller than the 35 mm image.

The 300 mm just looks like a 2160 mm on a 35 mm SLR camera. You can get the same tele lens on your 35 mm camera by cutting the negative with a pair of scissors ...

Noah, A continous zoom range of 40x is huge and expensive. It seems your friend is looking for a long focal length and not the big zoom range. So why not put on a zoom with a smaller zoom factor but long focal length? Then the lens will be much cheaper and better too because those big range zooms are always compromises, especially at the "ends".

[Noah Hayes]

I would do that, but neither he nor I have been able to find any lenses that are telephoto enough. Every 1/3, 1/2, or 2/3 lens I've seen starts at between 6-8mm with varying levels of furthest focal length, hence the prediciment. It sounds like with an EF adaptor, he could get a Canon L-series lens in the $1000-2500 range that would do the job instead of spending like $20k on a camera and lens that he won't use the full capabilities of.

[Jeremiah Thompson]

How much more range would a 500 mm lens give over the zoom lens which comes with the H1?

[Johan Forssblad]

Thats an easy calculation: 500 mm / 108 mm = 4.6!

[Jeremiah Thompson]

Thank you! I didn't realize it was that simple.