I just shot my kids xmass video and have realised I can't get a good angle in my living room to get all the shot I want. I also shoot in my basement alot with the same problem. What wide angle lens should I buy for the A1? How will they effect the lens hood? I like the little door it comes with and would hate to loose it if I don't have to.

Get a Sony VCL-HG0737X or VCL-HG0737Y. Latter is bigger than former, and is silver, but they both do essentially the same excellent job. 0.7x magnification, 37mm thread.

And yes you will lose the A1 hood, nothing much you can do about that. (Obviously you can still use the hood when you're not using the wideangle.

rgds

The latter in actually black, to match your HC1/A1. I own it and it is amazing. I believe that the increased lens surface area will also provide a little better resolution and low-light performance; it makes sense. The lens is a tad heavy, which I actually like as it gives the camcorder more stability. I would stick to SONY lenses, they seem to provide superior results than most other. You can get it off of Amazon for $136.80. It's the cheapest according to www.shopping.com:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009Y2WRQ/ref=nosim/002-7960880-5328845?n=502394

A company actually made a lens hood that fits the "Y" lens. It was manufactures by Cavision and it goes $54. I don't recall the model or anything.

I am using a Canon WD-57 0.7x wideadaptor with my HC-1, as it was a leftover from my old GL1. With a step up ring it it delivers razor sharp images. When used with a QM91 battery the camcorder is also nicely ballanced.

Thanks to all who replied
I see that these are "adaptors" and "conversion lenses" is this better than getting a whole new lens?

There are no interchangeable lenses in the HC1/A1, the most you can do is buying a conversion lens with 37 mm thread. The adaptors are to adapt other diameters (e.g., 59 mm) to these 37 mm.

I'd also like to sing the praises of this wide angle lens on the HDR-HC1. It is more compact and completely lacks the barrel distortion the Kenko KNW 05 Pro (52mm lens, 82mm frontside) I used on my Canon ZR to get about the same horizontal coverage. I shot some footage on a tripod and could see no noticable loss of resolution closely examining on my 50" 720p Sony display. The tests were without-full wide, vs with and zomed to same coverage.....full tele with the converter vs without at same coverage. I leave it on all the time. Don't forget to go into the menu and inform the IR/autofocus that you have attached the wide converter. I just wish it had a frontside thread.

It does make the camera even more front heavy so I cut a 25x100mm piece of thick Aluminum strip to attach the tripod block forward at the balance point. If you are careful on locating the mounting hole close to the loading door side and relieve the underside of the strip, you can open the tape loading door without having to remove the bracket/tripod block. Now the camera does not flop forward on its fluid head and the block is a sort of pistol grip. I use the Manfroto/Bogen Carbon One 3444 and a 3126 micro fluid head...the only thing I'm willing to carry on vacation.

Take a look at the Raynox lenses.
The link below shows comparisons of their diferenent wide angle lenes (pics and video).


http://raynox.co.jp/english/video/hdrhc1/index.htm#hd5005

Century Optics also makes a wide angle lens for the 37mm thread but it is not as good as the Sony one. The Century Optics one has quite a bit of distortion at it's widest setting.

hi all,
some of you guys mentioned sony X and Y wide adapters for use on hdv cameras. I just discovered among my bits'n pieces a brand new (bought some time ago though) sony wide adapter with an H instead of the X / Y. would that be acceptable for my A1e so far as definition is concerned ? as I do not have a hd TV I am unable to tell picture quality etc. do hdv optics actually have properties designed especially for hdv or is it simply that sony/zeiss are better quality to start with. thanks HH

Does anyone know where detailed specs for the sony wide angle adaptor can be found? Or has anyone done resolution tests with theses lenses? I'm curious as to how they compare to other conversion lenses like the raynox ones. The raynox 7000pro claims a res of 540 lines/mm. Does anyone know how this compares with sony?