PDX10 accessories
 

Having made my choice of camera (PDX10... thanks for all your advice) can you please give me some advice on "must have", "nice to have" and "dont bother" accessories.

Eg: Wide angle, Tele converter, Polorising filter, spare battery etc

Also are the accessories on the TVR950 the same as for the PDX10?

Cheers!

Hello,

Must have- neutral density filter.. (the camera does not have one built in like many Sony's do) Also get the big battery, I think it like the NP-91.. this sucker last a long time when shootin.. its great.. nice to have -would be a wide angle adapter, as the camera lens does not go to wide..


Mike M.

What he said ;-)

I got the NP-QM91 battery and it does last quite a long time, several hours. I believe this is the biggest one the PDX-10 will take, and it also helps to balance the camera better IMO. Have not run it all the way down yet. I'm a bit disappointed that there doesn't seem to be anything comparable to the NPF-960 on the VX-2000 which will give you 8 hours though.

An LCD hood is also nice. Sony was offering a free Petrol hood if you did some paperwork as a promotion. I got mine a couple weeks ago and it's nice. Take a look on their broadcast/pro website to see if the promo is still in effect.

Get the widest lens you can. I have a .45x which I like, it cost a bit over $100. The wide lens hood which comes with the camera works like a charm with this adaptor.

Actually I have several different ND filters, you will want a pretty dark one for working in bright sunlight. And you will probably need separate filters for both your wide adaptor and regular lens. If I add the adaptor on top of the ND filter on the camera I get vignetting. So make sure your wide adaptor has front threads for filters; mine uses 49mm filters.

The nice thing is that these 37mm filters and adaptor lenses are pretty inexpensive compared to the 58mm variety used on the PD-150, etc.

What wide angle converter are you talking about there?

Guustaaf

This was covered pretty thoroughly here

Sorry, just noticed that thread didn't give the model number of the lens I'm using. On the box it says:

Digital Optics
0.45X
Night Vision High Resolution
Video Recording
Professional Auto Focus
Infrared Compatible
Wide Angle Lens
Super Compact
Titanium Series
item #7401T-37

It also doubles as a macro lens by unscrewing the front element. I got it from Beach Camera in Northern NJ for a little over $100. Possibly not a great deal, but it seems to give nice results. There is a bit of barrel distortion but I don't mind that effect of a curving horizon, and would much prefer the .45x to a .70x since the PDX-10 has a narrow standard lens.

Just yesterday I was in Circuit City, and they had the Sony .70x wide converter with 37mm threads for $40. Seems unlikely that is is the high quality lens mentioned in that other thread, considering the price. But for $40 it might be worth checking out...

Thanks for the info Boyd. I must say that my favorite accessory for my PDX10s is the Porta Brace bag model # CS DV3. Having really nice bags like that makes all the difference.

Guustaaf

Camera Bags
 

Hi Gustaaf

I am in th market for a case for my PDX10. You recon the Porta Brace bags are good ?

Any other companies making similar stuff for the PDX10?

Have you seen/tried the rain slickers (by Porta Brace)?

Regards

P

Hi Patrick,

The Porta Brace bags are working out really well for me. I haven't tried any other ones. I have seen the rain slickers, but have not tried that either.

Guustaaf

Rain slicker
 

I've got the PortaBrace rain slicker for my PDX10. It's a pretty adaptable bit of rag - it has velcro-closed flaps that open up to give access to
1 hot shoe (the one on top of the XLR adapter),
2 the lens-side jackfield,
3 tape loading door,
4 handheld strap, battery (adjustable for that big battery),
5 the focus control switches on the left of the lens,
6 the five aperture/whitebalance/etc swicthes on the rear of the body,
5 and a really effective LCD hood/tunnel arrangement that lets you press all the buttons hidden under the LCD, and also open it so that the light can get in (please tell me why?)

It works with or without either of the standard lens hoods, and works fine with my Sony w/a adapter.

The only downsides I've found are:
1 it looks really silly without the top mounted XLR mike (without the mike and XLR adapter you have a great tent of fabric waving in the wind),
2 I find it awkward to use with my Vinten Pro 5 tripod - the tripod plate and the bottom velcro fastening of the rain slicker somehow don't quite work together without a bit of pushing.

All in all it's very flexible - I use mine as a dust jacket for sandy shots on beaches too. Just a little expensive for its size though (mine cost £120).

Julian

For a bag I'm using a Lowepro Vidcam 5. I've tried several different bags, including a Sony. The PDX-10 is really bigger that one might think when you consider the xlr box, mike, wide angle lens, LCD hood, large battery, bunch of filters, wide lens hood, tapes, etc. All this stuff fits comfortably, but very little room to spare.

This is a very basic and inexpensive soft bag without fancy compartments or padding. But I've been very pleased with its larger brother, a Lowepro Vidcam 6 which I use for my VX-2000 and assorted junk, so this

Re: Rain slicker
 

<<<-- Originally posted by Julian Luttrell : I've got the PortaBrace rain slicker for my PDX10. It's a pretty adaptable bit of rag - it has velcro-closed flaps that open up to give access to
1 hot shoe (the one on top of the XLR adapter),
2 the lens-side jackfield,
3 tape loading door,
4 handheld strap, battery (adjustable for that big battery),
5 the focus control switches on the left of the lens,
6 the five aperture/whitebalance/etc swicthes on the rear of the body,

All in all it's very flexible - I use mine as a dust jacket for sandy shots on beaches too. Just a little expensive for its size though (mine cost £120).

Julian -->>>

Hi Julian

Where (in the UK) did you buy the Porta Brace equipment ?

Thanks P

Buying portabrace in UK
 

They have a dealer here - Pyser SGI at www.pyser-sgi.com. They carry the whole Portabrace range and more...

They don't put all their products on the web site, so try calling them on 01732 864111.

Regards,

Julian

Hey there Rookster...l hope you are going to enjoy your PDX-10
Well l hope you get some wonderful shots in 16:9 of the Sydney Harbour....lol....
Yours truly your DVcam bud.......
P.S Hope the 37mm lens will do the trick...lmao...
Sorry dude....couldnt resist......yep your snigerring PD-150 pal
Yes l know, l am a cheeky bugger aren't l !!!!!!!!!!

Century Optics 0.5x problems
 

Since people have been asking about wide angle adaptors, I thought this might be of interest: http://www.dv.com/forums/showReplies...2&tid=93400014

Boyd, thanks for the info.
On their site Century explicitly recommends these 0.5x convertors for TRV950, even now.
Either they are intentionaly misleading the customers or I don't understand something.
I'd like to see at least one more confirmation from Century users.

century DS-05CV-37 0.5x converter
 

I too wanted to cry after screwing on the century DS-05CV-37 0.5x converter ($170) to my pdx10. I even tested it against my sony 0.6X Wide Angle Lens?VCL-0630S ($80). I put both lenses on my sony pc101 and noticed the much cheaper sony lens was obviously clearer. I emailed century and got this:

"The .5x was good for the single chip lower res camcorders but with the introduction of the PDX10 we found very quickly that the performance of the .5x was not good enough for this camera. You will be much happier with the .65x."

He is refering to the replacement 0.65x "high rez " lens (DS-HR65-37 around $200) and also says:

"For the PDX-10, we recommend the DS-HR65-37. This unit is made specifically for this camera because of the higher resolution output of this camera."

I'm gonna go to BH to test this lens against the higher end sony 0.6x which is cheaper. As of now century isn't impressing me although the construction of the lens itself was a work of art, plus it was very compact, too bad is sucked.

I found this site add with all kind of acessories for pdx10. Not advertising for them but I am wondering if any one using an 15hr-hour Lithinium batterie as it said? I did not found this battery when purchasing this camera less than 6months ago.

I recently called Century Precision Optics because I also was interested in what lens accessories were available for the PDX10. The sales engineer told me that they did indeed have complaints about the DS-05CV-37, and that those complaints resulted in their new, higher quality 0.65x converter (full zoom-through), the DS-HR65-37. They said it was designed specifically for the PDX10. If I decide to get the PDX10, the DS-HR65-37 would be my choice for the wide. For the tele end, I spotted the Sony VCL-HG2037X 37mm "high-grade" 2x telephoto converter on B+H's site for $134.

My largest complaint about the (expensive!) 0.65x Century adapter I bought for my VX2000 is the extreme barrel distortion. I rarely use it. Bryant, I would love to hear your comments of the amount of barrel distortion you observe in the DS-HR65-37 when you see it at B+H mounted on the PDX10!

I got a relatively cheap .45x converter from "digital optics" and have been very happy with it. I like the extreme wide angle effect and the barrel distortion doesn't really bother me.

I also recently got the VCL-HG2037X - that's a good price, I paid more at my local camera store. It's really nice. I've found that the 24x digital zoom actually produces an acceptable image as well, and when you combine this with the telephoto adaptor you can get some pretty impressive results. I am able to clearly see craters on the moon - its disk completely fills the 16:9 frame vertically. Was playing with it at the shore and could see ships on the horizon that were only specs to the naked eye.

However at first I thought it wasn't working; the infinity focus setting on the camera is blurred. You need to manually focus and it's fine. Autofocus works under some situations, but manual gives better results.

It does not have filter threads, however I've been using ND filters under it without problem.