VX2000 Owners ????
 

So I just got my WA converter lens and normally I just shoot with a UV lens and a ND6 filter. So I take these off to put on my WAlens and I notice a silver lens that says MACRO in red letters under my UV . So my ???? is does this lens come with the VX2000 ? or did my friend who I bought the camera from put it there? In my ameatur days (5 months ago) I may have just overlooked it due to my lack of knowledge of lenses.

By the way I been lurking on the boards for a year now just soaking up the free wisdom. and would like to thank all you who post such great info.

Hi Bigo, glad you took the plunge and made your first post. I'm a little confused though.... why do you have an ND6 filter on your VX-2000? You shouldn't generally need that. The internal ND's can handle most situations except really bright sunlight perhaps.

I have no idea why there would be a macro lens on the camera, it doesn't come with one. Generally speaking you don't want to "stack" filters and it sounds like you had an ND6+UV+Macro. That must have been affecting the quality of your image. The UV filter can be helpful in protecting the lens when needed, but each piece of glass you place in front of the camera's lens will cause some internal reflections and quality loss (especially cheap filters). Try not to use these unless you have a good reason that you understand.

One possibiliy regarding the macro is that some wide angle lenses are made of two separate parts. You can unscrew the front, larger section and use the smaller rear section as a macro lens. So perhaps that's what happened. When the previous owner went to remove his wide angle adaptor he only unscrewed the front part. But leaving a macro on the camera would generally cause everything to be out of focus unless it's really close to the camera.

I Concur with Boyd
 

I concur with Boyd. You must have had some real distance focusing problems, whether you were on auto focus or manual. If you have shot some far away stuff, check it out, and shoot new stuff without it on and compare.

Chris Barcellos VX2000 owner

well I like using the ND to open up the IRIS (dont know if I explained it right) and while the built in ND's are Great for outdoor use ,inside they are much too dark for getting the soft look I prefer. and I generally use TIFFEN filters and lenses . but yea I was just wondering if it was an original part or if I got visited by the lens fairy. the footage I shot with it was excellant but I'm now going to reshoot and see how much of a difference there is. thanks for the quick response guys.

My Tecpro 0.5S wide-angle converter comes apart and leaves behind a lens marked 'macro'. You don't say what w'angle lens you have on your VX Bigo, but it could just be a Tecpro.

I agree that using an ND6 outdoors in bright light - and in combination with both internal NDs) will force you into wide aperture mode - great for selective focusing. Not quite sure I understand your reasoning behind getting softer footage, but the custom preset menu (button at the base of the top carry handle) will allow you to turn off the electronic picture sharpening and gives a beautifully soft, smooth effect.

Keep experimenting lad - it's the way to go. Video is *the* great teacher.

tom.

well dont I feel silly. Its like you and BOYD said the wide angle was in two pieces LOL. also I do turn down the sharpness 2 notches . and my reasoning is I dont want my video footage to look like video. I bought my first cam in June 2005 (PVGS65) that kept me busy for 2 months till my buddy offered up my current VX2000. but like I said I been lurkin here before I even had a cam cuz I been interested in video for a year now.

Well, this is no joke, I get visited by the Lens Fairy every now and then. I'll open my accessory bag and there'll be a filter or a step-ring or even a telex lens, that I'm sure I never bought. I find such things in drawers and I know I didn't put them there. Actually, I think this fairy may be a trade-rat, because some of my gadgets just disappear, even though I haven't taken them out with me. When I was much younger, this fairy only rarely bothered to visit me.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lou Bruno