Wisdom of step up ring for WA lens
 

Am upgrading to a (used) VX2000, and would love to keep my Raynox wide angle lens from my trv-950, but this would mean getting a step up ring for that lens - the lens was meant to fit on a 52mm thread, and the VX is of course 58mm.

What's the wisdom of doing this? Any opinons? Caveats?

Thanks so much

Hi

I expect would would get vignetting, going in that direction. If you were going from a larger size to a smaller (say70 to 58) then you would have no difficulty.

Martin

Re: Wisdom of step up ring for WA lens
 

<<<-- Originally posted by Maureen Futtner : Am upgrading to a (used) VX2000, and would love to keep my Raynox wide angle lens from my trv-950, but this would mean getting a step up ring for that lens - the lens was meant to fit on a 52mm thread, and the VX is of course 58mm.

What's the wisdom of doing this? Any opinons? Caveats?

Thanks so much -->>>
--------------------------------------------

A smaller WA lens will cause vignetting at some point in the zoom range. Even the use of a step-ring will add to the problem, as positioning the lens farther out will increase the vignetting. You'd be best to find a WA lens with a matching 58mm mounting thread.
I have an old, 58mm Telesor .5X WA lens. It has a 72mm outer diameter, but is only 47mm deep. It doesn't vignette at any point in my VX2100's zoom range. The wider the outer barrel and the shorter it is from front to rear, the less likely it is to vignette.

Light levels will also affect vignetting. In dim light, the iris is open farther and will show edges of an add-on lens that might not be visible with a narrower iris opening. Typically, vignetting is a bigger problem in indoor shooting than in the generally better-lit
outdoors.

You say you have a 52 mm attachment threaded w/angle converter Maureen, but your TRV950 has a 37mm filter thread. So presumably you're using the Raynox at the moment with a step-up ring from 37 to 52 mm?

I had the 52 mm Raynox 6600PRO for my TRV900 (52 mm thread) but it did vignette the very corners of the image when used on the VX2000. Raynox make a special version of this lens for the VX2000, which has its attachmnet thread forward of the rear (exit) pupil, so you have to be very careful how you put the lens down, or you could damage the protruding rear element.

So I'd say you were going to have trouble, and even if you do fit a 52 to 58mm ring, as Stephen says, you'll vignette the image at full wide. Beware though - as the v/finder and side screen are TV masked. It may appear ok on the v'finder but vignette the full frame as shown on your PC monitor.

A word with Stephen now. Using a w'angle converter at different shooting apertures doesn't affect the focal length. Generally small taking apertures show up vignetting worse that wide apertures, simply because the wide aperture blurs the edge of the lens cylinder.

tom.