Close focusing of A1
 

What is the minimum distance that the A1 lens can be focussed at?. What is the magnification (approximately) at that distance.?

The manual does not say anything about this.

The manual has information on TELE MACRO. Without TELE MACRO set to ON, the minimum distance is 2.5 ft. With TELE MACRO set to ON, then you can focus on something as close as 48cm (19in.)

Pg. 25 of the Manual

view the whole manual if you need to:
http://www.vasst.com/?v=HDV/hdvportalnew.htm

Thanks. I made a mistake in formating my question. What I really wanted to know was the magnification at the minimum distanse. It is not in the manual.

Maginification at the smallest distance? Now I'm confused. =/

Maheel

Well since the lens is at max. telelphoto, this is equivalent to a 480mm focal length (in 35mm-equivalent speak) and since 50mm (in35mm) is supposed to equate to 1x magnification, my educated guess is that the mag. is 9.6x.

In other words, it's really no different to the magnification you get when at max.telephoto but not in telemacro mode. Telemacro mode simply *allows* the camera (via whatever mechanism) to focus that close.

Alex - you studied film at University i hear, so I'd have thought that you'd have been able to at least hazard a guess at this. Hmm..

Stu,

You are refering to the zoom factor compared to a standard lens in the 35 mm format. In the macro/close up photography magnification refers to the size of the actual object and the image on the CCD/Film.

For example if the object size is 4" and the image on the film frame is 1/2" the magnification is 1/8.

Maheel

well why don't you do a simple test. Take an image at max. telephoto of a known object, maybe a coin, which you can measure the diameter of.
The sensor on A1 is 1/3rd in. and aspect ratio of 4:3 so you can look up on variou sites the x/y size of the sensor. (dpreview.com has some good sensor size info).

Then measure what proportion of the width (or diameter) of a full-frame image the coin has taken up and you can easily calculate the answer to your question.

Yes Stu,

The problem is I do not own an A1. I own an FX1. In fact I thought of buying the A1 because of the advertised macro facility. But looking at the samples shaon in the manual it seems the so called macro does not go beyond 1/10 magnification,which is not macro but close up photograhy.

I just recorded a short snippet of macrozoom on my HC1.

http://www.apollologic.com/movies/test/macro.wmv

It's quite shaky but I just wanted to give you a rough guess of what it looks like. You probably now the size of a standard R6/AA battery. It's taken on a half metre distance. I think it's the same closeup on 1 metres distance.

Thanks Frederik,

I only had time to visit the site today. apologies for the late response.

Does the A1 has better macro.

No I think the macro is the same for A1 as HC1.