Sony Wide Angle .8x vs. Schneider Wide Angle .75x
 

Has anyone been able to compare the Sony VCL-EX0877 .8x WA Lens Adapter
Sony | VCL-EX0877 0.8x Wide Angle Lens Adapter | VCL-EX0877

to the Schneider .75 WA Lens

.75X W/A HD CONVERTER EX1/EX3 - Schneider Optics

Are they night and day?

How do they compare in quality of image, sharpness, vignette etc.?

Plus, has anyone used this brand and/or model before? http://cgi.ebay.com/0-4x-HD-Fisheye-...ht_5720wt_1167

Thanks.

I have the Sony but cannot compare to the Schneider WA.

But I owned the 0.7x WA from exactly that ebay seller you've mentioned. He'd sent very fast for good prices. The 0.7x from "DO Vision" is a big lense, larger than that from Sony, well packed - but it did not fit my needs. If I wasn't doing anything completely wrong that adapter was very unsharp all around... I've sent it back just today.
I don't know the quality of the fisheye though...

Kelly,

In the interest of being as impartial as possible in the spirit of this site, I will give you a few quick notes on our Schneider Century .75x for the EX cameras.

The newest version of our .75x does not vignette on the Sony EX cameras. There have been some reports in the past of vignetting in underscan only but that was based on the very first older units which we corrected at the first notification of an issue.

The .75x is obviously wider than the .8x so it has an advantage there.

The .75x has a 102mm front filter thread and a standard 105mm outside diameter which fits many brands of matte boxes like Vocas and Genus. The Sony has a built in shade and therefore cannot be filtered.

Any other issues or opinions I'm sure will come from the other experienced users on dvinfo who have owned one or in many cases both units.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics

Ryan,

I already own a .6 Schneider wide angle for an HDR-FX1. Where can I buy the adapter ring so that I can also use it on my EX1R?

Thanks for your help.

Unfortunately the .6x you have is the same magnification but the element is not large enough to cover your EX series camera. We design each lens specifically to the camera it is intended and the glass is completely different. This is the downside of making high quality professional attachments that are made specific to the camera.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics

Ryan, this has not been my personal experience unfortunately (I tried to contact you via e-mail recently, but perhaps it didn't go through?). I purchased the .75x last July at B&H and the model number is 0HD-75CV-EX3. I assume this is one of the newer lenses? I see vignetting in the upper left corner on my EX1. It can't be eliminated by zooming in, and in fact it appears to get worse. See: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xdc...ml#post1236144. It's especially noticeable here: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachme...-cons-wz15.jpg. Also some discussion on this topic here: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xdc...revisited.html

Do you think that these lenses may be defective, or possibly older stock which is still in the pipeline? I have a number of Century/Schneider products and have been extremely happy with all of them except this lens.

Not my experience either.

I bought an EX1 from Mitcorp in the UK last october, along with the Schneider .75X W/A. I went for the Schneider adapter based on the recommendations of the reseller, past good experience with Schneider products and the fact that I could use it with a matte-box.

Unfortunately I was disappointed, the image was really sharp (impressively so), but it vignetted at fully wide, the vignette vanished as I zoomed in a bit, and then reappeared at about 2/3 zoom.

On research I discovered that vignetting had been a problem with the initial batch, but had supposedly been corrected in a later version - a version that I was assured that I had.

The reseller then tested several of the adapters (including mine which I returned) on several different EX1s and EX3s they had to hand and found the same problem with all of them.

Needless to say they refunded me without quibble and I bought the sony adapter, it's flawed as it has a stupid built in shade and is unusable with a matte box, I'm convinced that the image from the schneider lens was sharper, but at least I now have the option of a wider angle for ENG stuff and no vignetting.

The answer (for the vignetting) that came down the grapevine seemed to put the blame on Sony's manufacturing tolerances, I have no idea if this was true, but no matter what the reason, there is little point in a wide angle zoom though adapter that one can't operate fully wide and can't zoom through.

I have the same issue with my second gen .75 Century WA zoom through for my EX3.

Ryan were there a batch of the new ones where the alignment was off?

-Andrew

Andrew,

The second generation version of this adapter can vignette depending on chip placement from Sony.

The latest generation coming off the line does not vignette on any cameras no matter the normal chip placement.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics