To me anything more than 32mm is useless for run and gun shooting. In fact, the lack of a native wide angle on the V1 could potentially be a deal killer for me.

So if I go with the V1, the wide angle will be on the camera most of the time. I would love to hear from anyone who has one - how good the wide angle adapter is. Does it reduce sharpness, does it reduce light, does the zoom range hold up, is it zoom through?

Nothing's for free Brett, and any wide-angle converter you place in front of your camcorder's zoom will degrade the performance slightly.

Generally the vignetting is more noticeable, the flare is increased a bit, the sharpness is reduced slightly, barrel distortion is increased and there's a small light loss. This all makes it sound terrible, but the reason you're fitting a widie is to see wider, and this is what you'll get.

Generally zoom-through converters are three element designs (though some are two and four, this is unusual). Most partial zoom-throughs are single element designs, so generally flare less but show greater chromatic aberation.

I'm a lover of the single element converters. They're generally more compact and lighter and yet still allow you to use half of your zoom's original range.

tom.

Just to summarize, would the wide angle adaptor for the V1 be a good purchase ? Does another wide angle lense would do better ?

Thanks

You can believe that the genuine Sony converter will work ok with the FX7 and V1 - the only real downder being the increase in barrel distortion. This doesn't bother some folk - but I'm not one of those people.

That's exactly right, the ground glass screen creates an area that the image can be - essentially - rear projected onto, just like in an SLR, maintaining the lens' FoV and DoF characteristics perfectly.

Just to quickly answer your questions re: 35mm vs 16mm lenses, no - they *are* 35mm lenses! Did a quick bit of research and in fact the widest Zeiss 35mm prime that Clairmont Camera hold is the 10mm T2.1 Ultra Prime - that's bloody wide!!!

Happy shooting Carlos!...

Agh trying not to get too off topic but how well does the raynox fish work? im still trying to toss up between it and paying the price for the century.

Have a look around the Raynox site, Joe - they put more into their demos than any other lens converter manufacturer I know.

I've used and tested two Raynox lenses and found them both to be good.

http://raynox.co.jp/english/video/hdrfx1/index.htm

tom.

Certainly bloody expensive too!!!...

Tom,

Was it you that had used or bought some Schneider or Switar aspherical adapters?

Yes, the Raynox look like a very good bet. Their DCR-7900ZD is costing $230 from Amazon.

The only problem that I foresee is they are still threaded mount, instead of bayonet mount like the Sony or Century.

That's me Carlos. I've used and owned wide-angle converters made by Century, Raynox, Cavision, Tecpro, Kenko, Bolex, Red Eye, Canon, Schneider, Sony and probably some others that I've forgotten about.

Most were ok, some were good but only one is excellent - and that's the single element aspheric made by Bolex for their 16 mm prime Switar lens. It's not cheap, it's hard to find, it needs a special 85 mm to your filter thread size adapter making up and it's not full zoom through. But it is the best I've used.

Look here to see what a 0.5x rectilinear converter can do for you.

tom.

By not cheap, can you say how much? Who's selling it?

Yes, I had seen that comparison of yours before, and it's very revealing. Barrel distortion is a concern for me too, because it shows when you move your camera in any way.

In my case I should get a Z1 very soon, and the original zoom seems to have that BD distortion too. There's a Century .6x WA that I bought too, but that may take longer to get here (Brazil). Will report about it when it does.

The aspheric's test seems to show some chromatic aberrations, like on the vertical lines. Is that so or am I imagining so?

You didn't by any chance do any WA comparison including more lenses, did you?

The subjective information I got on the WA adapters for the Z1 (which should be valid for V1 and FX7), is that one of the best lenses seems to be the Century .7x type, also bayonet, and the .6x a close second.


Carlos

TOm, that looks unbelieveably fantastic! Where in Europe can the Bolex Switar be found?

Lol, yeah that's true!! But they're not really designed to be bought - most DPs will simply rent them when required...

That Switar W/A converter is dead sweet Tom, great info - can you give extra info to make sure anyone buying one gets the right thing? It's marked "Bolex 0.5x", I presume? Any other distinguishing markings?

I virtually never shoot without the M2/Nikkor kit these days, but I might be tempted by one of those for doco/run'n'gun stuff if I can find one kicking about...

Great find!

Well, that might be the case for full-budget producers. I was thinking of something indies could use.

I think I saw something aspheric going around the web sometime, but it was Schneider, if I am not wrong. On above, the mark on the lens should be Switar, never Bolex.


What's your camera?