You're right, they do look identical.

http://www.exco.it/pagine/cavision/video/dwc05x58.htm

So what problems did you have with the 0.5X Cavisions?
Was there really a wider angle of view than the
Tecpro S? Would you recommend I just stick
with the S and forget about the Z?

I do know that Cavision changed their source after Tom tested them.

How long ago was this change, Bryan?

It looks like the only distributor is the
Cavision company, atleast outside of Europe.
I'm gonna try to get a price on that lens.
Probably isn't cheap.

I asked them about the lens last may. The price list is on it's way, check your email.

At the Video Forum in London in February I was told that Cavision no longer had a distributer in the UK, but I must admit that I haven't done a search to find out if it's true. I would suggest that the Tecpro 0.5s might very well suit you Dave. Two other guys have bought the lens on my recommendation and both were very pleased. Mind you - you have to rather like barrel distortion, and I'm not one of those.

Cavision do make some good lens hoods though (as shown on the link you posted Dave). Strange thing is I found the deeper and more efficient hood made for their 0.65x converter worked well on the 0.5x and didn't vignette the image at all.

tom.

So here's what I know.
Cavision never sent me the requested price list, but
Bryan sent a copy. The price on the 0.5X wide is
$200. With a lens hood it's $250. With a lens hood
and a pouch it's $300.
I did receive a correspondance from someone at
Cavision. I had asked if the vignetting would be viewable on a TV. Here's what I got:

"We have not had any problems with vignetting
with 0.5X w.a. adapter with the PD150. Could you
elaborate on vignetting on a TV screen?"

So I've heard about three different stories about
the vignetting with the "Z". What is appealing to
me is that the Z "0.5X" supposedly gives a much wider
angle of view than the S "0.5X", with less distortion.

Dave - although there are production tolerances at work here - if a lens calls itself a 0.5x converter then it should be just that. Maybe we can accept a + /- tolerance of (say) 0.05x, so a 0.5x lens could in fact be a 0.45x or a 0.55x and still be legally sold under the 0.5x label.

But unless the manufacturer is lying, all 0.5x converters will give viewfinder pictures that look the same. The Z and the S will ''see as wide'' but one may distort more that the other.

tom.

Anyone know a way I could get this lens? I'm in the USA.

Dave
The person you've been talking with at cavision is Jason. He has very little experience in video . The Company owners don't speak english very well either. John Anthony used to work there but he's gone on to bigger and better things. He was well versed in all segments of the industry.

I have the TecPro .5S lens here in the US. It does not vingette and is fully zoom through unless you put it on in addition to another filter between the lens and camera then it is slightly soft at the max zoomed in only. It most definately is not the same lens as the Cavision! It does not even look the same. Email me at AndysCam@aol.com if you are interested in obtaining one.

Well, I took the plunge and decided to go with the
0.5S.

I'm sure you'll like it Dave. For the money it's good and powerful and very sharp. Being a two element means there's less likelihood of internal flares, though it's still worth getting the Cavision LH-100P 3:4 lens hood for it, which fits a treat.

Unlike Bob (above) I've not seen the slight softness he refers to when using the Tecpro on top of my 58mm skylight filter. If you unscrew it to leave the powerful macro lens on your camera, be shure to shoot at pretty small apertures to bring the corners of the frame up to scratch.

tom.

So for you, Tom, it maintains sharpness on full zoom in?

Yes. Of course when fully zoomed in you're effectively shooting at a focal length of 36mm if you have the Tecpro in place. If you now remove the Tecpro and shoot at the same focal length (now in the middle of your 12x zoom's range) the pictures will be even better. Less distortion, chromatic aberation, flare and even greater sharpness. This is the same for all add-on lenses of course, and is not a criticism of the Tecpro alone.

tom.

How are the coatings on that S? Is the lens
prone to flare, or not too bad?

At the price point the coating isn't too bad, though not the best - which is why I stress the importance of using an efficient hood.

Ony the front element of my Tecpro is coated, whereas with more expensive lenses all the elements will be coated. But the exit pupil is working 'in the dark' so its coating is far less important.

When you get it I'll be interested to hear what you think of the barrel distortion.

tom.

Yer makin' me nervous, Tom. But I will let you know.
I was told by the distributor that, if you were to
zoom in to the same angle of view as the
Century wide, that the distortion is similar
percetage-wise.
I think I can live with some distortion.
Basically all wides distort -- even the
"highly regarded" ones -- from what
I gather. With maybe one or two
exceptions, but there you're dealing
with other trade offs such as sharpness
and price.

Yes, that's probably about right. If you fit the Tecpro and zoom up to the 0.65 position so as to equal the field of view of the Century the distortions will look about the same I'd guess. It's not a test I've done.

My Bolex Aspheron 0.52x doesn't distort but you're right about the price tradeoff. How nice to be without the distortions though. Just last week I was tracking backwards through all these rooms of a grand hotel as the bride and groom followed me. The door frames, the hanging pictures, the walls and windows were all composed of straight lines - just as they are in real life.

tom.

Tom, you are correct, It was not the lens cousing the softness at max zoom it was the combination with the filter I had on. I was curious after your post as the TecPro did not show that on my other 2000 or my DSR 250 - I have one on each cam. I changed the filter and it is verry sharp allthe way zommed in. My Bad! And I sell these lenses - I was thinking I was being 100% honest but instead I was just dumb! Oh well!

Wide Angle View
 

I have researched many forums for an answer or at least a clue as to what kind of 58mm wide angle lens I should buy for my VX2100 and I am confused. The battle rages between the:

Sony VCL-HG0758 for $269 at http://tinyurl.com/3x2u4

and the

Century Precision Optics DS-65CV-58 0.65x for $399.00 at http://tinyurl.com/3bxwp

From what I can piece together the Century is the best of the two. But by how much. I am just an amatuer videographer and do a couple of jobs here and there. Has anyone used either and had good or bad results? I am worried mainly about the amount of viginetting both in unzooomed mode and full zoom. I just want to get a feel for what people are using. I am leaning toward the Sony because of cost but do not want to make a $300 mistake. Any input is welcomed. Thank You

I got that Sony lens about 3 years ago for my VX-2000 and have been very happy with it. Seems to zoom through fine and I don't see much if any distortion. I believe I read that it's manufactured by someone else (Kenko?) and branded by Sony. This makes sense, because I discovered the band that says "Sony" and the model number is actually sort of a thin rubber band in a groove which comes off. The only downside is that it doesn't have filter threads.

For the money the Canon WD-58 works well. I have had no problems with full zoom thru at least with my eyes and little to no distortion. The only downside is its .7 and is screw on with no filter threads. You may also want to look at the Optex .65 bayonet mount. $299 from ZGC.

That's very interesting that the Sony lens is not done by Sony. Could that mean there is an equivilant that's cheaper in price?

I have heard alot about the Canon and did not even consider it until now. For now I think I will go with the Sony.

The closest thing I can come to to protecting the lens is this item:

http://tinyurl.com/3d6cl

But the $$$$$ are tooooo high. Thanks for the input

I think these are probably a lot less expensive...

the kenko pro .65x WA is supposed to be the same thing as the sony WA. what's nice about the kenko is the front filter threads. i tried to buy this a month ago but apparantly is discontinued. you can still find the bayonet mount version on B & H.

i ended up getting the canon wa for my vx2100 and it works great...plus it comes with a lense hood.

Do know how much this lens costs retail?

wide angle price
 

Does anyone know how much the included wide angle for the PD170 costs by itself. Thanks.

The lens costs about $270.00 at B&H Look on their site for the VCL HGO758
You can see it on my camera with a Cavision lens shade at http://www.digitalprods.com/flare.htm

I'd second Wayne's impressions. I have this lens for my VX-2000 and it is quite nice.

agree with wayne - have it on a 170 (came bundled). very nice, but never use it full wide, just slightly off....

I have the exact same lens and I noticed that when I zoom all the way to the end the picture gets slightly soft and little color distorted. When I lower the zoom the picture is as mentioned above wonderful. Is this a defect in my camera lens of am I zooming to far out? I was very interested in hearing how well the lens performed for others but am concerned I am not getting the same results with my 2100. Any input is welcomed.

About $300.

Sony Wide Angle View
 

I have a Sony VCL-HG0758 58mm 0.7x High Grade Wide Angle lens attached to my VX-2100. I notice that when I zoom all the way to the end the picture gets slightly soft and little color distorted. When I lower the zoom the picture clears and returns to normal focus. I have done several experimements using all the manual controls available with the same resilts. Has anyone noticed the same symtoms or is this a defect in the wide able lens of zooming to far in? Without the wide angle lens the camera funtions and records very good. Any input is welcomed.

Re: Sony Wide Angle View
 

<<<-- Originally posted by Gabriel Selmi : I have a Sony VCL-HG0758 58mm 0.7x High Grade Wide Angle lens attached to my VX-2100. I notice that when I zoom all the way to the end the picture gets slightly soft and little color distorted. When I lower the zoom the picture clears and returns to normal focus. I have done several experimements using all the manual controls available with the same resilts. Has anyone noticed the same symtoms or is this a defect in the wide able lens of zooming to far in? Without the wide angle lens the camera funtions and records very good. Any input is welcomed. -->>>

Most wide angles and fisheyes get "soft" or even completely blurred when zoomed in to a certain point.
I've noticed too that it depends on the camera.
I've seen the same lens act differently on different cameras.

I think the point to bear in mind Gabriel is that you've bought a wide-angle converter for increasing your wide-angle coverage. If you can use it at other focal lengths that's a bonus, but I haven't found one yet (regardless of price) that doesn't degrade the image slightly. If you want to shoot at 30mm it's better to take the w/a converter off (though of course more hassle).

tom.

Thanks for the replies, I am more comfortable knowing these results are somewhat consistant. Could I have got something other than a convertor that would produce better results?

Unfortunately, only a pro camera with removable lenses. Then the very wide angle pro zoom lens can cost more than $25,000.

VX2000 loss of sharpness with wide converter
 

I find the widest angle of the VX2K to be insufficient for a lot of work so I've started using a Canon 0.7x wide converter with it.

Despite keeping everything nice and clean I'm noticing a lack of sharpness, particularly in subjects more than a few metres away. In fact it's such that I'm even considering using my old Panasonic DX100 for some shots as that has a wider angle than the VX2K without the lens. But I'd rather not!

Is this loss of sharpness to be expected? Is there anything I can do about it?

My Century does the same. I sent it back to them for evaluation. They said it is normal.

I use it only sparringly because of that.

Yeah, I noticed the same with my Canon 0.7x wide angle converter, which I bought after my Raynox 0.66x exhibited the same. The Raynox is pretty nice, but really goes soft when the VX2000 is at maximum zoom, regardless of focus. I've been experimenting with underexposure
by using f/stops around f/4 for my particular available light. I do not know what is the sharpest f-stop over the zoom range. Using a smaller aperture seems to yield better clarity with the Canon wide angle, although I have not quantified the results.

Both Mike and I were involved in another thread that's somewhat related :

VX2000 : best lens sharpness aperture?
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32105