Best Wide Angle for EX1

[Annen James]

Thinking of going with 16x9's .6. Am I going to lose a lot of quality. Filming sports up close. Thanks for any input!

[Kelly Langerak]

I'm looking for the best wide angle adapter for the EX1r. Any suggestions?

[Dave Morrison]

I have the Century .6 and I've been fairly pleased with it. I'm really curious to know how you like the 16x9 if you get one. My only reservations about the Century are the curvature of straight lines and the need for absolutely spotless lens surfaces. ANY dust you have on any of the lens surfaces will be way too easy to see IF the sun strikes the surface of the glass. Just my $0.02.

[Matt Davis]

Edge to edge sharpness, zero chromatic aberration and no distortion? Without spending $25k? Nope.

EX1 lens suffers distortion when wide as it stands, and any wangle will simply enhance that.

Looked at the 16x9 and red-eye, but found the Century on a good offer at a trade expo. I believe all at this level will be around the same. Have a couple of other Century lens adaptors and have been happy with them.

The Century x0.6 makes for a great effects lens and it's small enough to have in your pocket all the time. It will fit inside a few matte boxes too (it does in my Genus). With a bit of practice it's easy to whip off the lens shade and whack on the wangle, switch out of manual, switch on Macro and switch the Autofocus to Manual, push AF button and you're set.

Only one or two short shots from the wangle combo will make it into my productions, so cannot make a business case to switch to EX3 and buy $12k fujinon yet, but if you want your horizons and your architecture straight, whatever the cost, that's the way to go. Unless you get a Canon and a tilt-shift lens.

Tried the 0.75 adaptors, and most of the time you can step back 12" and get the same effect. A colleague swears by them and leaves his on most of the time. It is, undeniably, a better quality than the 0.6 adaptors, but it's not wide enough for me and I'll trade that wide look for a little bit of quality.

And yes, keep it spotless. I filmed a smoker driving his car, lots of shots tarnished by bits of cig-ash inexorably sucked towards lens. Way it goes...

[Dave Morrison]

Matt, which Genus do you have? I've been wanting to get one but have held off because of concerns about mounting the mattebox when the WA adapter is in place. Does the Genus attach itself to the outside of the Century or does it screw into the thread? That French Flag could solve my dust problems too as it would shade the glass surface from stray rays of light.

[Matt Davis]

It's this one: True Lens Services - got mine with French flag and filter pack but not the bars.

I bought it specifically because it's a push fit to the Century 0.6 adaptor and (with the adaptor ring supplied which does screw in) the base lens. It's a wide angle matte box, and specifically works with the Century.

The truth be told - I rarely use it at the moment. Interviewees don't like it, lots of autocue work recently, and interior shots don't really need it. Looking outside right now, if I needed to shoot exts, I would slap it on. Mandatory for the 0.6 in sunlight.

[Dave Morrison]

Matt, is it this particular one:

Genus Wide Angle matte Box

I was wondering if the rails are an absolute necessity with this box?

[Matt Davis]

Yes, that's the one.

I don't use rails/bars. Yet. Just the screw in adaptor ring for the lens as-is, and by removing the 'donut', it will slip over the Century and you tighten the clamp screw as necessary. But I'm not ruling the rails out completely.

[Annen James]

Went with the 16x9.

So am I suppose to use the Macro focus and Full Manual Focus? Any other settings or suggestions on basic use? Thanks!

[Matt Davis]

If it is like the Century, you have to rely on Macro focus to get sharp results. That means you have to switch out of Full Manual and use the Quasi-manual setting with Macro enabled. That means the image is in focus at a setting other than Infinity.

So: lens ring to auto, focus to manual, macro to on.

Other than the cardinal sin of setting the lens to 'autofocus' rather than 'manual assist', it's pretty bulletproof.

[Annen James]

What about leaving on the IR filter with the wide angle?

[Matt Davis]

Haven't got one yet, but if it's a 4x4 T1, it will work.

[Dean Sensui]

Originally Posted by Matt Daviss

Tried the 0.75 adaptors, and most of the time you can step back 12" and get the same effect.

True. But I'm on a boat when I need it most. And another 12" puts me outside where there's no place to stand. :-)

I have my Sony WA adapter on full-time and haven't found any appreciable reduction in image quality. There is the other problem of not being able to reach out as far on the tele end with the WA adapter in place, but that's seldom a problem for the kind of shooting I usually do.

It's a good idea to take the WA adapter off routinely and clean the rear element of the WA adapter as well as the primary objective of the camera's lens to clear off any haze that might build up.

[Jonathan Bland]

Does anyone have anything to say in comparing these:

Century Precision Optics
0HD-06WA-EX1 0.6x Wide Angle Adapter Lens

16x9 Inc.
169-HDWA6X-EX EXII 0.6x Wide Angle Converter Lens

Cavision
BWA06X86B-EX1 0.6x Broadcast Wide Angle Adapter Lens

I don't really care about zoom through.... I just to have nice clean wides.

I seem to remember reading somewhere the After Affects can reduce some of the bowing/ curving.... anyone know about this?

Also does any have any recommendations on a hood?

Big thanks!

[Boyd Ostroff]

Any .6x wide adaptor is going to give you a lot of barrel distortion I'm afraid. The EX1 lens all by itself has quite a bit on the wide end, and an adaptor lens will make it worse. Here are some tests that I did with the Century .75x - I'd expect the distortion to be even more extreme on a .6x. I have the .6x Century lens for my Z1 and it has pretty severe distortion. http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachme...distortion.jpg