Thanks, Don

...very good clarification and since it's not a huge difference, I guess I'll stay with the sony WA. No reason to throw money away when I can be spending on something else I really need.

Actually, the Sony .75 lens is a real quality piece of glass, and if you are having a problem with sharpness, there may be a problem. This lens is what is known as a "zoom through" which means it will hold focus through the entire length of the zoom range. There are other less expensive lens adapters that will only allow you to zoom through a portion of the range before they go out of focus. But you should have no problem with the Sony. The major problem with the lens is the additional weight, and the large front element is a real flare catcher. You might want to invest in a hood for it, or a "Flarebuster," from www.flarebuster.com.

Many shooters find the wide angle indispensible, and leave it on the camera all the time. If you are certain you have a focus problem with it, you should have the camera and lens looked at by a qualified tech.

Wayne Orr, SOC

no wayne,
I'm not certain - and the more I read, the more I think its in my head. I've just seen so many posts that say the Century Optics or the Canon or this or that is light years better than the included Sony WA.

From my perspective, I don't want to have a great camera with an add on lens that makes the shots worse than without it. If thats the case, Id rather take the thing off until I can get a quality one.

Brandon,
While the Sony may not be quite as good as Century Optics there is nothing wrong with it. If it was a piece of junk Sony would be stupid to include it as no one would use it and everyone would piss and moan about how bad it is, so all in all I say use it and have fun with it.

As for the "focus" problem keep a couple of things in mind. 1st-anytime you add more glass in front of the prime lens things sometimes "look" different-softer, and 2nd, as Wayne stated, the lens is a zoom thru but as I said before when you push any WA to its far limits it will look a bit soft on the long end. If you need to do that kind of zooming in then either don't use the lens OR walk in on the subject if possible. Like I said, even my Century Optics WA goes a bit soft on the long end of the zoom.

The WA attachment can be a complete bust or the greatest thing since sliced bread IF you understand that it is another piece of glass in front of the prime lens, it will go somewhat soft on the long zoom and might cut off the corners a little bit BUT it will get you shots that you might not get otherwise or will let you get a BETTER shot than you might have gotten without it.

Use the Sony in good health,
Don

thanks for the advice Don - well taken.

I love my Sony wide angle lense. One thing a lot of people don't realize is that Sony makes a lense hood especially for this lense: the LSF-S58. It is bayonet mount and works over the screw in Sony Wide angle lense. It looks just like the stock lense hood only bigger. I have one and really like it. Check it out here:

http://www.discountcell.com/cellular...-S58,1c,pr.htm

Thanks Laurence,

The S58 lens hood actually came with my 170, however I don't have a clue what its means when they say in the description in the link, "The Lens Hood also serves as an excellent viewfinder and framing device".

huh???

I'm played around some today with the WA and I am really starting to like it - it just takes some getting used to - and even with a 970 battery on the back, it is HEAVY!

Are you saying this lens hood is large enough to fit over (or) on the wide end of the VCL-HG0758? If so, that's just the item I'm looking for!

Thanks!

Dave,

thats exactly the one you need - I took it off and checked for you to make sure.

Yes, I have the VCL-HG0758 and the LSF-S58 lense hood completely covers and protects it. It is a tight enough fit that it really doesn't act as much of a sun shade, but it's just so darned practical that I don't even care. I use it 100% of the time. I also want to say that I have no problem zooming in with this lense. Focus is good throughout the range.

That LSF-S58 looks quite good, and I wish my personal camera (PDX10) also had one that could be used with WA lenses and actually shade.

IMO everyone should get that shade AND the Flare Buster. When I was at B&H I couldn't find anyone to understand what I needed when I described what the Flare Buster was. The problem was I didn't remember the name. They showed me several shades, but all were too large and heavy for the PDX10.


Carlos

Pixelation with Sony Wide Angle?
 

I shot video of our Pastor during his sermon yesterday for the second week to get in more practice with my 170. I used the Sony wide angle on it for the first time standing about 30-40 feet back from the pulpit and zoom through was between 60-80%.

Only potential problem I see is that after capturing the video, I see a lot of pixelation in the picture on my monitor. I didn't notice any of this from what I shot with the original lens last week and I thought you could pretty much zoom completely through with the Sony WA without much quality loss.

Could it possibly be anything else? I haven't changed any settings in camera that I remember, and I'm using Vegas with Magic Bullet editors to edit on.

The wide angle is the only thing I can think of, and if it is, I'm dissapointed because I really like using it much better than with the standard lens.

The wide angle adaptor is an optical device and can't cause "pixellation." If there's a zoom-through problem it would be out of focus (blurry) or maybe distorted (straight lines being curved). I have the Sony wide angle adaptor for my VX-2000 and have used it a lot with the full zoom range. Have never noticed a problem like this. I'd have a look at your editing software. Or if you're seeing big blocks, like a mosaic effect, that's a symptom of bad tape, dirty heads, or a head alignment problem.

You weren't shooting 16:9 perhaps, were you? That can produce a pretty ragged picture on PD-170...

Boyd,

It looks like fairly big "blocks" like you said. May be a bad tape even though it was brand new. The 170's brand new so it shouldn't be a head alignment issue. I haven't had any past issues with Vegas either so I guess I'll shoot with a new tape and see.

First...thanks for the information on the LSF-S58. I was wondering what that was for (came stock with the 170). Took me a few to figure out that it is actually two pieces that have to be seperated in order to install it.

Second...my WA does not hold focus when I zoom with the rocker arm located above the tape deck on the camera. It does hold focus when using the zoom controller on the handle. The former zooms much quicker than the latter. So obviously the solution is to just zoom slower. But....I was hoping there may be a setting or an adjustment I could make to solve that problem as most of the time when I zoom I want to do it in a hurry.

I know it's a shot in the dark, as someone on this thread has already mentioned you're putting glass in front of glass, but I'm hoping there may be some hidden knowledge.