hey guys, can someone please recommend a good quality wide angle lens for my trv 950? Its 37mm threads and i was looking for something in the range of a 0.4 - 0.5X lens. I think a little distortion around the edge is okay, but not too much, its for a travel documentary iam shooting.
Also i would like front threads for a hood...i've had no luck finding anything on any sites or stores in my area.
cheers!

Hi Jeff,

I'm already smiling :) quite a bit actually :) :) :)
Because it has almost become a running joke in this forum about this question.
I think it is an excellent question - no dout.
I think it is the most asked question in this forum, Boyd may correct me on this one.
It has been asked by nearly all of us before, thus the smile, but it is the burning question all of us have at some stage.
Here are a few of the threads that have appeared before. - a search will find more.
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=37063&highlight=Wide+Angle+Lens

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=39271&highlight=Wide+Angle+Lens

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=29139&highlight=Wide+Angle+Lens

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=10273&highlight=Wide+Angle+Lens

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=25739&highlight=Wide+Angle+Lens

Heh, yep that's a pretty common one. Most of the discussion has been related to the PDX-10 though. Of course the same lenses work on both cameras, but you need a WA even more on the 950 because it doesn't used the full CCD width like the PDX-10 (in 16:9 mode, that is).

.4x is going to be pretty extreme. The only one I've seen close to that is my old "digital optics" lens which is mentioned in some of those threads. Unfortunately I lost it. It was OK, but nothing all that great.

I believe Century made a .5x and people were not happy with it. When they contacted Century they said it was made for cheap camcorders with 37mm threads which didn't have enough resolution to show the defects...

I use this one from B&H. A bit pricy but has very good definition with only a little barrel distortion. It's also zoom thru
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?ci=1&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=SearchBar&A=search&Q=*&shs=CEDSHR6537&image.x=4&image.y=7

Many of us wondered some time....I use the Sony wide angle lens VCL-HG0737X. I bought a Jessop foldable rubber hood of rather great size, I think it was 65 mm, maybe bigger, used a knife to cut away the screw mount, and put it on. Works well, I think. Before that I used the Sony VCL-ES06A 0.6X Wide Angle Lens. Waste of money...

out of interest I have been wondering for a while whether I sm able to add a uv filter to the vcl-hg0737x....looking at the edge of the lens barrle it looks like there is a thread?....anyone put a filter on it. Also hoods are mentioned for the W\A lens due to flare.....I have a large lens hood that mounts normally to the pdx10 but will only reach 10mm past the end of the wide angle barrel. I suppose having the hood mounted to the pdx is not right as there would be a high degree of vignetting if it continued past so I suppose off the w\a barrel is the way to go?

regards

Kyffin

Yes, attach the hood to the front of the wide-angle converter if you can, and check that the full frame (rather than just the masked-down TV image) isn't being vignetted.

Remember that any hood is better than no hood at all. The circular hood is the least efficient, so it's always better to go for aspect-ratio hoods or petal hoods (they're the ones with big cut-outs for when you zoom to wide). The very best hoods are aspect-ratio shadowed hoods, where a mask up front causes the interior of the hood to be in shadow. See the one supplied with the VX2k/PD150 Sonys.

tom.