i want one so it protects the wide angle. i guess i would need a bayonet type.

any one know what mm the canon wide angle is or a copmany that makes one?

Good Wide Angle Lens for the GL2?
 

What a good wide angle, cost effective lens for the GL2?

The Canon WD58 is probably the best bet, and not too expensive. Don't make the mistake of buying a cheapo no name off of ebay. You'll regret it.

One of my cameras has the WD58 screwed to it - all the time! Love it!

When you are well zoomed out - WA - be careful of the bending lamposts on archtectural shots - oh yes it'll do it. If I really need "that" shot then I either move camera OR zoom in a bit OR combination of both . . whatever you need. But do take note at the edges of a shot of vertical lines - eg lamposts - and other "impotant" reference points. Unless you do WANT bendy lamposts - of course. ;-)

Grazie

The Canon WD-58 or one made by Century Optics. Canon's is by far the less expensive. I've seen rave reviews from owners of several different brands of cameras with lenses using 58mm dia filter threads. I have always had one on my GL1. It approximates the angle of view one would get with a 28mm lens on a full frame 35mm film camera. That will cause some noticable image distortion of vertical lines. It is a fact of optics.

Vignetting with Century .55X wide adapter
 

I just got the Century reversible .55X wide adapter.

On the fisheye side, I'm seeing severe vignetting on the left part of the image; no problem on the right side. Is this normal? Seems odd that the vignetting is not symmetric.

Works OK on the wide angle side.

John, what's your experience with this (DS-55WA-58) adapter? I recently got that and am seeing:

(1) Severe vignetting on the fish eye side
(2) Mild chromatic aberration on the wide angle side

Wanted to compare notes...

Hey Sekhar,

Yeah I get the severe vignetting with the fish eye as well. I pretty much never use it. I just thought it would be neat to be able to occasionally use it as a fisheye, but I was dissappointed with the amount of vignetting.

I also noticed some chromatic aberration on the wide angle side when I was shooting very bright/high contrast images. I didn't really notice it until you pointed it out and I checked out some of my footage, but yeah, it seems to be there on my camera as well.

The barrel distortion bothers me a lot more than the aberration, which is why I've considered buying the canon WD-58

The surprising thing is nobody (and no review) talked about these problems...I did a lot of Google searching before I bought. May be the lens is still better than other .55x adapters at that price.

Anyway, you can get rid of the barrel distortion completely with After Effects Pro. There is an "Optics Compensation" effect (only in Pro) that works great. 50 degrees seems to work fine with this lens. Using "Optimal Pixels" and then zooming in a bit salvages a bit more of the frame.

If you don't have AE Pro, check out the "Lens Distortion" effect in Premiere Pro. I didn't try it, but may be it's as good, since that's from Adobe too. See http://www.ferrario.com/ruether/pers...correction.htm for a tutorial.

Can anyone tell me the overall length of the canon xm2/gl2 when the wide angle (WD-58/H) is attached? I ask because I'm looking for one that can be attached while the camera is in an underwater housing, but as the housing is built to the camera specs if it's too big I won't get the door shut!

With or without?
 

With or without shade? With or without battery? What Size battery will also increae/decrease length.

Grazie

I do have AE Pro. Thanks for the advice, I was unaware of that feature. I'll have to give it a shot.

HAH! Excellent option! I know Vegas has a "Distort" Fx . . I'll go find this one . . THANKS Sekhar . .thank you for the hint . . .hooooo...!!!


Grazie

DIY wide angle vs commercial
 

I think you can hardly go wrong for the price but I'm just curious as to how it stands up when compared next to other commercial WA lenses for the GL2... I know Neil Slade says it's great but it's his baby so I don't expect less... I'm looking for "independant" reviews of his DIY WA. Has ANYONE built this thing? I can't find anything via searches on here (other than Neil Slade ;) )

I think for $40 bucks even if it's got artifacts it might be useful at times, such as skate videos where any extra bulk is going to be bothersome as I try to skate along with the skaters and shoot the footage.

Any thoughts?

Kevin,

Maybe I'm living in the dark, but I'm not familiar with this home made wide angle solution that you referer to. Please let me know where I can find info about it.

Thank you.