Lans hood on the MX500
 

Hi All,

Just got my new MX500 and I just wanted to know if the lens hood is required as the lens cap that came with the camera doesn't seem to attach onto the lens hood but it's fine if you take the lens hood off.


In addition to this the UV filter that I have does not attach to the
lens hood but is also fine when you take it off.


Regards

mastiha

If the lens hood screws onto the cam's filter threads, first screw on the UV filter, then screw on the hood to the UV filter's threads.

With my MX300, the lens cap does fit in the hood, but it's cramped/awkward to get the fingers in.

I'm positive the lens cap and any 43mm filter would fit onto the female thread of the lens hood.

The only time you need to remove the lens hood, according to Pany, is when you're attaching a lens converter (wide or tele). Some users are making the mistake of attaching the lens converter on top of the lens hood.

Just checked with Panasonic down here and they said you do you to remove the lens cover to use the lens cap as the lens cap is 43mm and the lens hood is 46mm. They said I would need a third party lens cap to fit over the lens cover.

What??? I've sold 4 sets of MX5000 and I've used/given a 43mm MC protector to each one while testing in order to keep the lens clean.

Perhaps the filter thread size of the PAL MX500 is different.

If that's what Panasonic says, then, it's official?? But it sounds illogical. No (personal) offence intended.

Why would Pana make a lens hood that has a different filter size from it's body? And why shouldn't the lens cap fit the lens hood?

Granted, 46mm filters are easier to obtain than 43mm.

I've seen a MX500 with lens hood on in the shop window (Malaysia), and it says 43mm on the lens hood itself.

Perhaps some MX500 (PAL) user can comment.


Maybe, just maybe, it could be the pitch of the filter's threads. I have a Hoya Circular Polarizer which is very difficult to get threaded to my MX300's lens hood. I have to try really hard to align it properly.

But it goes on easily on my MX300 body's thread. I don't have this problem with my other Hoya filters.

Just found the problem (feel a bit stupid). There was a 43mm-46mm adapter screwed onto the lens cover that I thought was a part of the cover. On closer inspection it could be unscrewed.

Weird that Panasonic couldn't confirm that.

I don't think this has anything to do with Pana, AU.

Mmmm. well what's that adapter ring doing there in the first place?

No problem.. at least you have a free adapter ring in case you want to use a 46mm attachment.

Cheers

Aren't the Kenko adaptors for the MX cams 46mm---so you would need that adaptor ring? Lucky! I guess you got a freebie from the camera shop you bought your MX5 from. (I never get that lucky.)

Nope to a few problems there:

1. Panasonic AU wouldn't know, cam was bought in Singapore.

2. The 43 to 46 adaptor came free with the semi-fisheye, accidentally left behind after testing, not free from the shop or from Panasonic.

3. And the adaptor is not Kenko, but brandless. Very affordable brandless stuff here in Singapore, in the range of $3 to $10 for adaptor rings, lenscaps and other small items.

I would know, I helped Savvas buy the cam in Singapore. I was really shocked at the price that they were charging in Australia. The RRP in Singapore is S$3300 but in Australia it is A$4399. The current rate for S$ to A$ is almost 1 to 1.

Savvas, what's the best price you can get the MX500 for in Australia? In Singapore, the cam can be bought at less than $2400 with about $100 goodies thrown in.

Actually, I didn't even checked if my MX350 has any threads on the supplied hood. To keep my cam short, in order to fit in my bag, I took the hood away the day I bought the cam, put in my adaptor rings and my UV(0) filter. Back then, it was 52mm, now I have moved all my filters to 55mm.

Thanks to Steven Khong for his willingness to take over my entire set of 5 special filters of 52mm, and for a very good price :-).

More shocks from Australia: Savvas' friend, Robert, told me that MiniDV tapes in Australia are about A$30 each! I get them at S$5 to S$6 each. Of course, these are the basic, non premium tapes, but nevertheless still Panasonic and Sony.

$30 AU per tape? Really? I get Fuji tapes for just under $6 CAN.

That's what I heard! Maybe Savvas can confirm this shocking news!

<<<-- Originally posted by Yow Cheong Hoe : Savvas, what's the best price you can get the MX500 for in Australia? In Singapore, the cam can be bought at less than $2400 with about $100 goodies thrown in. -->>>

The best price for the cam was $3400 AUS with just the items that come within the original box. However, most of the sotes sell it for $3799. YowCH helped me to buy one in Singapore for around $2400 (after taxes removed) with quite a few extras. Keep in mind that the exchange rate of AUS and SGD is almost 1 to 1, for $2400 I got:

1 x MX500
1 x extra genuine battery
12 x Panasonic tapes
1 x camera bag
1 x UV filter
1 x fisheye lens

and it came with a 1 year limited international warranty so I can still get it serviced in Oz if required.

<<<-- Originally posted by Frank Granovski : $30 AU per tape? Really? I get Fuji tapes for just under $6 CAN. -->>>

That's right. They start from around $20 for the low end taps and move up from there.

Sony Premium tapes are ?8 including sales tax in Ireland so about ?6.50 without.

Your camera prices are great in Singapore...

Yes, when you convert the Irish Pound to Canadian, it comes to about the same price here in Canada.

Hey, we are all Euros now bar our friends in the UK. The symbol didn't translate into the forum.

6.50 euros = 10.50 CDN

But I must say that the SGD$6 tapes are the lowest quality types from either Panasonic, JVC or Sony. I haven't seem Maxell or Fuji MiniDV tapes here, though.

I would guess that prices of tapes are about the same in Malaysia as in Singapore. Steven?

Oops. Not too long ago I had a bus stop chat with an Irish gal, and she did tell me they used Euros instead of the Irish Pound.



-------------------------------------------------
The brain's the first thing to go.

Normally cultural differences are something I love, I always enjoyed working with different money in Europe. But the euro really opened my eyes to value differences across europe.

A Sony VX2000 was 200 euros dearer in Stuttgart than Dublin, a fact which surprised me.

But the recent dollar fall has meant that DVD-R drive cost about 250 euros... and importing from the US became competitive again. I know quite a few Irish who go to NYC to buy camera gear.

Hi, Yow!

The price of tapes in Singapore that you mentioned, $6 Singapore - that's quite low. Are they the 90LP / 60 SPs? Did you have to bargain for them?

Anyways, in KL, the listed sticker price for SONY 90LP / 60 SPs (without the digital chip built in) can be quite high in comparison: about Malaysian RM 28 = Singapore $15 = USD $7 or so. Cut throats! :( :(

I know this place in Sungai Wang that can get you Panasonic 90LP / 60 SPs for about Malaysian RM 15 = Singapore $8 = USD $ 4, after bargaining. "Cheapest place in Klang Valley" was their boast.

Hmm... looks like you can get cheaper consumables in Singapore. Oh, the price, Singapore $6, does that include tax? Mine is already including tax.

After getting familiar with the seller, and buying many things from him, I get Sony 90LP/60SP non-chip tapes (red packaging) at $6.00 each, and sometimes at $5.50 (when you buy more, like 10 pieces). Panasonic 90LP/60SP non-chip is about $5.50, and $5.00 if you buy more (like 10 pieces). These are the basic, beginners' tapes, but I have no problems with them, so far. In any case, most of my tapes are used only once for recording and playback a few times during editing and viewing.

All prices quoted are in Singapore Dollars. Tax included.

Steven: when you need tapes, maybe I can get a bunch of them and pass them to you.

Is it better for me to get the MX500 from Malaysia or Singapore ? Please give advice (Steven & Yow) !!
Has anyone got any still pictures taken from MX500 ? Please send some to me, cause I want to see if its really a 3 Mega Pixel quality ! thanks !!

The pictures are REALLY 3MP.

But they are also grainy 3MP. If you print to 4R (6" x 4"), you'll probably not notice the grain, though. After a little touching up softening in Photoshop, I'll say that you'll probably end up with about 2MP equivalent in sharpness and details.

My Fuji S602Zoom is a real digital still cam with SuperCCD (whatever, blah blah) and I shoot at 3MP. I'll say that Fuji's SuperCCD is already inherently noisy, but the MX500 is still noisier.

On this topic of video vs still, in low lights, the still cam exposes longer (sometimes keeping the shutter open for up to 15 secs!) but the video cam can only have shutter of 1/25 sec at the lowest, so any lower light, it'll use digital gain, which is about the same as changing the ASA/ISO upwards, ie equivalent to using more sensitive film, which will inevitably be more grainy and noisy.

However, I don't own an MX500, I have merely downloaded a file from MX500 on the net (EXIF still intact, so it should be original file) and played around with it.

Why don't some MX500 users here send Eric some pictures!

About buying in Malaysia and Singapore, the diffrence in probably too small to make a trip. Last hear was sub RM5000, and in Singapore it's SGD 2300. That's about 2% difference at the most!

About getting the cam in Singapore or Malaysia....

If you are living in Malaysia most of the time, and hardly go to Singapore, then you're better off buying in Malaysia.

Try going to Boeing Electronics in Sungai Wang, KL (oh, I'm assuming you're staying in KL / PJ!) and they can get you a good price. Then you can also build a relationship with them, so that you can get other stuff next time for cheaper.

If you get it in Singapore, you have to service it in Singapore. It's no joke & might not be worth the trouble - unless you're always going to Singapore.
If you send it down to Singapore for repair, I hope you have an agent that is a reliable techie capable person who can check the cam after it's repaired before sending it back to you in Malaysia.

Besides, I think the MX300 & MX350 may be better off for you, if you think you will be working in low lights i.e. evening light or even a room with a single florescent light, or perhaps a wedding banquet where they use dim yellow lights, which the MX500 is not good at (just too bad, what a waste!)

All the best on your decision!

Are the low light/high resolution MX300 and MX350 still available?

<<<-- Originally posted by Frank Granovski : Are the low light/high resolution MX300 and MX350 still available? -->>>

Well, the MX300/350 is not a low-light performer, just better than the MX500. The resolution of the MX500 is certainly better then the MX300/350, at the rated 540 lines, max for MiniDV.

The 300 has been off the shelves for over a year in Singapore. Occasionally, you can still see the MX350 on the shelf of Harvey Norman (a large chain store) here. But Harvey Norman sells at almost RRP, which will be SGD3800 for the MX350 and SGD3300 for the MX500. You can still bargain a little for teh salesman to lower his own commision, but that's about limited to 10% to 15%.

Thanks, Yow.

What I meant was that the MX300 and MX350 requires less LUX than the MX500. I just mentioned that they were good low light performers because the other member mentioned, "I think the MX300 & MX350 may be better off for you, if you think you will be working in low lights i.e. evening light or even a room with a single florescent light, or perhaps a wedding banquet where they use dim yellow lights, which the MX500 is not good at (just too bad, what a waste!)"

Personally, I don't think the MX300 and MX350 are good either in low light conditions, say in shooting a wedding reception, with the lights turned down. There's always video light though. That'll help with cleaner close-up shooting. It's too bad you can't get the 1/25 manual shutter setting. That would help make a difference!

Every now and then a ghostly reflection of the lens fills my screen... never noticed it shooting but when I hooked up a monitor.

I realised that it is the UV filter reflecting the lens.

I thought that it might be due to the sequence on my MX300: Lens - Hood - UV filter. The gap might be exacerbating the possibility that this woudl occur. But there was no way to hook the Hood on once the UV filter was attached directly to the lens.

Any thoughts?

Over in Malaysia, if you look hard enough, you will see some MX300's over in QS Citifoto shops in big malls, Jusco MidValley, KLCC i.e. Best Denki. Though I've last seen them there in January of this year, selling real cheap i.e. 20% discount of the reccommended price of RM 8200.

In Sungai Wang & QS Citifoto you can still get the MX350.

Though I wouldn't gaureentee that they'll still be there...

These guys may want to palm off their stocks of MX300 & MX350 before stocking up on MX500s.

<<<-- Originally posted by Tom Weir : Every now and then a ghostly reflection of the lens fills my screen... never noticed it shooting but when I hooked up a monitor.

I realised that it is the UV filter reflecting the lens.

I thought that it might be due to the sequence on my MX300: Lens - Hood - UV filter. The gap might be exacerbating the possibility that this woudl occur. But there was no way to hook the Hood on once the UV filter was attached directly to the lens.

Any thoughts? -->>>

You are right that the flares are caused by the filter being too far away from the lens. I will suggest that you get a good filter (super multi coated, anti-reflection, non-flaring, whatever) and attach it nearest to the cam. Good coated filters can be up to 4 times the price of un-coated good filters.

Then get a third party rubber/plastic hood, if the hood is really so important. I have been shooting on my MX350 without my third party rubber hood except for tele onto far objects with the sun nearby. Also, blow your filter to clear off the dust often, try not to wipe too much as wiping will spoil the coating.

With regards to the ghostly image, it's reflections.

The same will happen if you stand in front of a window with sunlight streaming in: the window will contain a reflection of you, like a sort of mirror. The angle of the sun & angle of the window to you also plays a part. The reason for the reflection is that the light goes through the window, hits you, lighting you up bright enough so that the window picks up your reflection.

If the window is multicoated, then the reflection is still there, minimized because it is no longer white, but perhaps green or pink or orange depending on the multi coating properties- so that reflections are not so obvious.

Even with my Hoya Super HMC filters (allows 99.7% of light to pass through without reflections, the top of the line most expensive range of Hoya filters) at the most extreme angle (sun far off to the extreme sides) there will be some reflection - but it's not that bad compared to normal uncoated filters.

The cheapest solution is to somehow manuever yourself so that the light doesn't hit your cam lenses or filters, so less reflections. BUT that may ruin the angle of your shot though.

What the pros do, in addition to having a lens hood, is to put a little "flag" - an external piece of cardboard that blocks out the light source's rays from hitting your cam lenses & filters. They actually get some hands to hold the flag.

If you don't have the luxury of extra hands - you can make a piece of square cardboard attached to a wire attached to a "crocodile clip" which then clips on to your cam i.e. lens hood.

Or use your own hand to block the light. Your hand can be moved dynamically unlike the flag. Watch out that your hand doesn't peek into the picture!

These tricks can also help you avoid that vertical "spear of light" (a shaft of light coming from the very bright light bulb, that stretches from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen) that appears when you vidcam a bright bulb - as long as you don't have the bulb in the picture or somehow shade it you'll be ok.

Hope that helps!

<<<-- Originally posted by Steven Khong :

These tricks can also help you avoid that vertical "spear of light" (a shaft of light coming from the very bright light bulb, that stretches from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen) that appears when you vidcam a bright bulb - as long as you don't have the bulb in the picture or somehow shade it you'll be ok.
-->>>

Good advice from Steven. The 'spear of light' is known as streaking, extremely common in camcorders and most noticed in Sony's Carl-Zeiss lens (one of the reasons why I am not inito Sony cams).

Lens hood is a must, but at wide angles, you really have not much choise but to position your shooting angle wisely.

I use my hood, plus my hand and sometimes I'll rip my Australian leather 'cowboy' hat off my head and use that as a shield.

Thanks both of you. I will check out a more expensive UV filter and a 3rd party hood...

hands to the ready...

Tom,

I bought a very expensive Heliopan slim line UV filter for my MX300. I first was going to buy a Leica UV. It was even more expensive. BUT..., the darn thing wouldn't screw on! The Leica filter threads are at a different pitch! So I ended up with the Heliopan instead. One problem though.

The Heliopan smears like crazy. It seems like that the light bounces off the MX Leica lens and stops on the filter. Crazy. Anyways, I then bought an inexpensive Cokin UV, and now everything works fine. I'm sure the Hoya and Tiffen are good too.

Frank, the UV filter I got with the cam was a pretty cheap Hama at about 10 EU.

I will probably want to change the lens hood first for one that comes with a 43mm thread so i can try it with the UV filter closer to the lens. Maybe a lens hood with a bit more depth also.

Yes, a good lens hood is a must. I find. I always have one screwed on my Nikon (on top of the filter). One thing that really sucks is that no where in town can I find a 37mm thread lens hood for my DVL9500s. One of these days I'll have to order one from that lens hood .com place (something like that). I've lost their link, though, and I have to use a computer other than my home computer since last time I was there, the coding locked up my computer. Does anyone recall that website which sells hoods? Thanks.

Stepping up for hood is fine, you can get a 37 to 49mm step up then use a 49mm hood, which should be quite readily available.

Here's that website I was trying to recall:

http://www.hoodmanusa.com