Jason my dealer is telling me June for the fisheye but I will post when it arrives.

Thanks Paul. Did you order the Extreme (3500.00 MSRP) or the cheaper one?

Any thoughts on, or pictures from the 1.6X ?

Jason sorry for late reply I am on the road working long hours. I purchased the lower priced fisheye. The extreme is just that too extreme for my shooting. But if you are close I would bet it is great.

Randy the 1.6x for my first few test looked excellent. Sorry I do not have that footage with me and will not be able to post footage until after 4 May when i get back to me edit machine. But I am very pleased. It gives you full frame after 50% zoom. Nice and crisp.

This image is not consistent with anything that we have produced so far and is certainly outside of our typical tolerances. I would recommend that you send the lens back to us immediately for inspection and service. We have shipped many of these lenses without complaint. Speaking to reps from Sony at NAB, they have stated that they were quite pleased with the quality from our attachments for the EX1.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics

ryan,

helllllo!! This post has been going on for 9 days. If you were unable to see this coming, Century needs a new rep. Since Century doesn't post useable examples of their attachments in a timely manner, we have to rely on user samples. If these samples are well below even low consumer levels, professionals need to be very skeptical. I have a Century adaptor which is totally unusable.

Well I'm not that bitter but Ryan did say on February 19th after my request "I will attempt to post some shots from my lenses as soon as I can." Don't wanna bust your balls Ryan but I will say I'm a little disappointed.

A picture is worth a thousand words, seeing is believing, and various other assorted clichés .

- Ray

Ryan I am having a problem with my dealer. He is not a sponsor so I can not post a name. You know who he is from emails we have exchanged. He is not getting me my RMA# saying Century is not getting it to him.

You are correct I have always had great success with your lens attachments and this is the first to give me problems. I will return and hold off on a second WA but keep my telephoto and look forward to the fisheye.

Raymond, I'm not bitter but like you disappointed in Schneider Optics. The adaptor I have from them is for a HVX200 and it is the .6. I know you get what you pay for, but this puppy has more barrel distortion than a fish eye. For the EX1 I made my own from a Bolex wide adaptor (in 35mm camera terms, a 16mm. No barrel distortion but a little soft on the edges.) The point is, it can be done and in this case from a piece of glass intended for an older film camera. With a name and reputation of Schneider Optics, you expect quality.

Sounds like you have a Bolex Aspheron like me Jack. I use mine on my Z1 and have made it bayonet fix following the contours of Sony's lens hood. It now snaps on and off in seconds. I guess you've had an 85 mm special mount made up to fit the HVX?

On my Z1 it matches the 17 mm focal length (horizontally) of my full frame SLR, with like you say - zero barrel but loads of perspective distortion. It's not madly sharp into the corners but if my clients are assessing corner resolution I've lost them. And at least door frames and bride's waists don't bulge outwards as I approach them.

I've put the point to Ryan before about this - that barrel distortion just looks so 'amateurish' and that an aspheric element is the cure, but he doesn't see a big enough market for the considerable R & D costs involved. Fair enough.

Oh, and the Aspheron won't work on the EX1, so my love for the look of the lens means that camera's crossed off my shopping list.

tom.

Your dealer has obviously not called the Office yet. We can issue an RA# in 5 minutes. Please tell him to call us directly. I guarantee anything else is thier internal issues.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics

I appreciate your concern. Unfortunately I have been extremely busy with NAB and I travel to over 27 states for Schneider. I post on this site as a courtesy to you. I have yet to be able to post the images and that is nothing more than a lack of hours in the day to do my job. We have nothing to hide and we deliver the highest quality optic we can for the price that you will pay. Nothing is perfect. The images in question are far below the standards of lenses that we produce and not typical of anything that has come out of our factory here in California to date. Without seeing the lens and performing testing in our lab, I cannot comment on that particular lens anymore.

I apologize for my lateness in posting images but please bear with me as I am extremely busy.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics

Raymond,

See above post and also read the word "attempt". I am doing the best I can and I appreciate your patience.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics

I recently purchased the .6x wide angle from Century for the EX1 and am also having problems. There is some really bad vignetting going on and the only way I am able to achieve focus is by switching the camera to macro. I have owned several Century lenses before and these issues never occurred. I have been trying to be in contact with Century support without luck. Is any one else experiencing these issues with this lens?

I'm pretty sure the Century 0.6x is a single spherical element in a mount Doug, and the only way you're going to be able to focus a camcorder through that is in its macro mode. Most camcorders don't have a macro mode as such these days (the EX1 is an exception) but they automatically focus in the macro mode when required to do so (as when a single negative dioptre element is placed in front of the zoom lens, for instance).

tom.