Wide Angle with the XL1?
 

I am working on a new short digital film and need a wide angle lens for the XL1. I have looked at the Canon's 3x Wide Angle Lens, but for $1300... I have also looked into the Century Optics Adapter. Which one of these would be suggested? Which one is more worth the money? Is there any other way for me to get a widescreen shot with a 40% more field of view? Also --> if the film was released for actual Motion Picture Screening, would one of these take away the quality of my picture? Please help!

Thanks,
the halfbaked cameraman!

One quick note... the subject of this post was originally titled "Widescreen with the XL1" but since it's asking about wide angle lenses and adapter, I changed to avoid confusion.

Widescreen refers to 16:9 anamorphic, whether it's done with optics or electronics.

Wide angle refers to the Canon 3x lens, the Century WA adapters, etc.

Also, be advised I may tack this on to an earlier thread as this topic has come up before. Hmm, I need to do some housecleaning I guess...

halfbaked,

I got my Canon ExtraWide Angle 3x Zoom Lens for XL1s from ebay and got a good deal. I got it for $800 in mint shape.

I seen this on there now for a bid of $650. You should look at this and bid on it like 30 sec's before its over.

I love this lens its very wide you can't go wrong with it, Here it the link for it there is like 10 hours left before the bid is over. Keep your eye on it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1302343623

I've been using the Century 0.6x adapter. It is partial zoom through (about half the range) and works well for me. But I've not studied large screen projections to look for quality issues so I cannot say whether or not you would see unacceptable performance. BTW: believe that the adapter will fit the Canon manual lenses for the XL1 as well. Details at: http://www.centuryoptics.com/products/video/prodv/prodvlenschart.html

Wide Angle Lens with XL1 and XL1S
 

When I got my XL1 about 2 1/2 years ago I got the 3x wide angle lens with it. If you're shooting video and you want something like the flexibility of the pros I find the wide angle lens to be indispensible in certain situations. Confining yourself to just the standard lens can give the viewer claustrophobia--you know, the old tunnel effect. Your video takes on a very different, much more open look, with the wide angle lens, and I assume a good wide angle adapter will give you the same effect. One thing I'm looking forward to using with my 3x lens is a circular polarizing filter. Without such a filter, or at least a haze filter or a contrast reduction filter, contrast problems seem to be made worse with a wide angle lens, I suppose because it is gathering considerably more light than the standard lens. Have any of you used the wide angle lens with a circular polarizing filter? What kind of results have you gotten. I would be interested to hear your experience. I'll probably get my circular polarizer around Christmas time. If someone doesn't give me one as a present, I'll give one to myself! I would have gotten one by now if I'd been more knowledgeable. It took a shoot some distance from my home where I really could have used a circular polarizer to impress upon me the need to have one handy.