fish eye lense

[Zac Stein]

Hey all,

I am about to purchase an xl1s (pal) camera, and require a fish eye lense for a production i will be producing/shooting soon.

The camera will be propped on a dishboard of a car , smack in the center looking into the car and is hoping to capture 3 passengers, 2 in the front and one sitting in the center in the back.


I guess there are 2 main reasons i want this, one is to aquire a far wider view, being able to capture the cabin... windows and all...

two is because i love the look of a fish eye.

I was looking for some suggestions of what to look for ( i know very little about lenses) like .3 means nothing to me, unless u explain of course.

I am also extremely budget crunched... if u could even put me onto a used source would be great too..


Ohh one more thing... what is mini35 in relation to exchanging lenses on the xl1s, is that a stupidly expensive thing? i would imagine using some pro lense system might allow freedom otherwise not available with a standard lense.


kermie

[Barry Goyette]

Kermie

Here is a couple of link to Century's fisheye. The .3 refers is a multiplier...take the minimum focal length of the xl1s lens multiplied by .3 to get the new focal length...essentially its about 3 times wider than the stock xl1s lens. The century model is not a zoom through, but as they say who needs it when you are using a fisheye. I think this is about the only product available for the xl1..maybe optex has something.

http://www.centuryoptics.com/products/prodv/xl1/chart.htm

http://www.precision-camera.com/newstuff/video/accessories/century/fewa-xl1.htm

Barry

[B. Moore]

My suggestion would be to go to a really good photography store and ask if they have any make of fish eye about 12mm for a 35mm camera. Try it on the 35mm camera and try to create what you're looking for. see if you like the effect. Big noses may not be the only thing you see. if acceptable, than go for the .3
At least you'll be prepared.

Bruce

[Adrian Douglas]

The Century Optics is probably the best way to go. If you use a 35mm still camera lens you will lose a lot of the fish eye effect as only a small portion of the center of the lens is used. This is due to the difference in size of the CCDs, which are much smaller that a 35mm film plane.

[Dylan Couper]

"Ohh one more thing... what is mini35 in relation to exchanging lenses on the xl1s, is that a stupidly expensive thing? i would imagine using some pro lense system might allow freedom otherwise not available with a standard lense."

Basicaly it's an adapter that lets you use cinema prime lenses on the XL1.
Yes, it's stupidly expensive. :)
$8000-ish US about double the cost of a new XL1s.
Not including lenses, which is another $4000 for Nikons, to $15,000 and up for a set of used primes.

Is it worth it?
Hell yes.

However, if you can't afford it, don't worry about it.

[Rik Sanchez]

That fisheye adapter for the XL-1 from Century you are talking about will give a 19mm SLR lens look if you use it with the stock 16X lens that comes with the XL-1. If you had a 3X Canon wide angle lens, and use the fisheye adapter, then you will get a 11 mm fisheye look, that's the super fisheye look I was hoping go get. I have the stock 16x lens that came with my XL-1, so at least I'll get a pretty wide look with the fisheye adapter. I ordered it last week and it's been fed-exed to me already.
check out this link for the century adapter charts:

http://www.johnbarry.com.au/century/prodv_series/prodv_fitspec.html

when I get the fisheye adapter, I'll start a post about my impression of the adatper, I looked through the SLR camera of a friend, he had on a 20mm wide lens on it, it gave a great look to it, so I have a good idea of how wide that lens adapter will be. I currently own the .7X wide adapter from Century, but I wanted little bit wider angle so I bought the fisheye adapter. Got the .7X adapter as a present so I only had to pay for the fisheye adapter. I ordered it from ZGC, great staff, Chris called up Century, made sure they had them in stock and sent it by fedex the moment she got it from Century. paid about US$450 for the fisheye adapter.

[B. Moore]

Rik,
I'm glad you understood what I was saying in my post. I was not telling you to use a 35mm lens on the XL-1. I was suggesting that you try to duplicate the effect, so you could have an idea what it might look like before you invested in the Century gear.

Fisheye attachments/lenses can be expensive ( especially when you consider how often you use it) have very limited use and if over used, become annoying and loose their intended effect.

Good Luck

Bruce

P.S. Perhaps after you use it for your effect, you can rent it out to recoup your cost,

[Zac Stein]

hmmm Hace mucho tiempo desde he hablado espanal, pero todo el tiempe estaba en madrid las chicas alli querian mi chorizo :)

'ta luego :)

[Rik Sanchez]

bruce,
the lens was actually pretty cheap, a friend and I put our money together and we got it for the short movie we will make, but I have lots of plans for it, I'll make that money back on the first job I use it on, plus another friend of mine here has an Xl-1s so when he needs that fisheye look, he can borrow the lens whenever he wants to. When I looked through my friend's 20mm lens, when I panned the camera around, it had a cool effect since it was so wide, can't wait to shoot stuff with it, I shoot alot in small crowded clubs, will have to try hard to not film the whole night with that lens adapter on, same thing when I bought my first DV camera, shot more than half the show with the slow shutter on, learned real quick to lay low on the special effects.

kermie,
durante la Copa Mundial en Japon, estaba un groupo de mexicanos tomado video por una estacion Mexicana y les prejuntaron a todos los japoneses pasi les gusta el chorizo Mexicano. Mi amigo en Tejas miro esas entrevistas y se rio mucho. Cuando yo estuvo en Yokohama tomado video de la Copa Mundial, estuve buscando esos mexicanos pero no les encontre. Como se dice en una de mis cartas de negocio, "In Chorizo we trust".

[B. Moore]

O Sanchez Sama,
Hai!
Wakarimasu

Bruce

[Rik Sanchez]

sanchez-kun to rik-chan demo ii yo, sama wa chotto puraido okiisugiru, Nihon de sundakoto atta? boku no nihongo wa sumahen, nihongo o zenzen benkyohen. :-)

[B. Moore]

Honto no

[Zac Stein]

por favor, hablais ingles o castellano, no entiendo japones :)

[Andrew Hogan]

The XL1s is quite long to be stuck on a dashboard. Are you gonna kick the windscreen out first? Because with the length of the camera (depending on car size too) won't it put the front of the lens too far into the cabin. It might be easier and cheaper to buy/borrow a small MiniDV camera and a wideangle attachment for the shot?

sorry for using English

[Rik Sanchez]

English is the perferred language, most common for all the members, although Chris speaks good spanish, but if someone doesn't speak english, there are members who will help out in the translation.

You're right about the xl-1 in the car, it won't work on the dashboard, even with a 3X wide lens and a fisheye, you'll get a 115 degree view.

one way you could get this shot is to not use a car but get a minivan, the kind with 3 rows of seats, rig up a stand with a steering wheel on it on the row behind the driver, have the camera on a tripop on the front seat, have the passengers on the third row, with the standard 16X lens and the fisheye, you could compose the shot so it looks like the camera is on the dashboard, getting part of the steering wheel as well, having it mounted on a stand will keep it steady and it won't look like the driver is holding it and he keeps bobbing it up and down, steering wheels don't bob up and down so mount it to something so he can use it like the real thing. this is one idea that worth a try, hope you get your shot.

I just got my fisheye adapter, very nice lens adapter, very wide, and it has that bending of the walls effect that I wanted to have.