Any lens suggestions for the VX2000? both Wide and Zoom? are there any vendors that other peeps would recommend using and/or NOT using for the VX2000?

Skater

i've used Century Optics www.centuryoptics.com
i like them more than sony's lenses

Margus

I too like the Century products. I just wish they would furnish a case for the lens. Or at least offer one as an option.

Century has a bayonet mount for it's WA lense. A similar mount is due out for the telephoto. That's a whole lotta glass to be hanging off of those plastic threads.

I assume you mean that the bayonet mount does not use the filter threads, right?

BTW, the threads on the front of the PD-150 are definitely metal.

I'll have to check again, but I would swear that the VX2000 filter threads were plastic. The PD150 is supposed to be the same.

The lens fits into the bayonet mount that the lens shade uses.

These days just about all filter threads, even on inexpensive 1-chip consumer camcorders, are indeed metal. Hope this helps,

Yes there is a thin metal bushing set into the outer lens barrel. The bayonet lugs and outer barrel are a hard plastic. I know all my other cams and lenses have metal filter rings but things are getting strange out there. Some cameras have "composite"lenses.

Kenko makes a pretty impressive .65 WA for the VX2000 that has a bayonet mount as well. It is full zoom through and in my opinion is very comparable in quality to the Century lens. I saw a post somewhere on the web which posted comparisons of images by both and showed little to no difference between the two. It is rumored that THK/Kenko makes the lenses and Century imports them from Japan, slaps their name on the barrel and sells them for double the Kenko prices. Check out the THK site for more info but the lenses are amazingly similar in design. I own one and can't find a single problem to complain about it. It even comes with a leather case too!

Tom, whats Kenko's web site address? I've tried a search but to no avail.

as far as the century stuff in concerned...it's pretty robust...
the lens body is the case...i've seen seriously abused fisheye lenses with no damge to image quality...i've heard claims of having the glass hit very hard and not even scratching, something i am not going to bother testing myself though.

i understand that different colours of light travel through glass at different speed and at different angles...i'm assuming that part of the challenge in building a lens is to make sure that your reds and blues arrive at the same spot and so on...i have a cheap wide angle adaptor which offsets the colours a bit...sort of a neat effect sometimes, but it does make the focus suck a bit.

<<<-- Originally posted by Chris Tsamados : Tom, whats Kenko's web site address? I've tried a search but to no avail. -->>>

this should take you directly to the pro model bayonet lens for the vx2000's

<<<-- Originally posted by Chris Tsamados : Tom, whats Kenko's web site address? I've tried a search but to no avail. -->>>

this should take you directly to the pro model bayonet lens for the vx2000's

http://www.thkphoto.com/catalog/kenkoweb_v2/kenindex.html