Alexander - - have you been using the Zunow lens? Still feeling good about it?
Can you please tell me how much farther out it extends from the EX's fixed lens?
I just spoke with someone at Schneider who said they're working on a replacement for their failed lens (they're hoping it'll come in at .7 rather than .75), but it'll be at least four months and more likely six months.
Cheers, Malcolm

I am with Malcolm and interested on updated info with the Zunow wide angle. Could really use one that works well.

This is not an issue so much with Sony as direct fault. Rather it is a direct design issue with the Fujinon lens. This lens combined with the sensor size on the EX1 exhibits an unusually high level of barrel distortion and laterall of optical axis chormatic abberation. Fujinon has balanced this by creating some type of either spherical or aspheric element. Any accessory optic magnifies the flaws of the existing lens. Remember that even Sony didn't get it right with the first releases of this camera. The first ones did vignette as well. What is more interesting is that I did some tests with a Fujinon 18x ENG lens and the lens did vignette at full wide with a filter installed then went to no vignetting when zoomed in a couple millimeters. Then I zoomed it in a little more and it went back to vignetting. This shows that all optical designs are subject vignette even at some telephoto.

We have tested all of our lenses in stock and they do not vignette. The 1% number I gave was based on actual units recieved by us and proven to vignette. I trust all of our customers that when they say something vignettes that it does indeed do so. However, I cannot base numbers that I report off of speculation unless I see it for sure. Again, if you have an issue with the lens you are welcome to send it back for inspection.

The best solution in any case (Schneider Century accessories lenses or other brand) is to zoom in a little bit. This will increase the optical performance all around. Anytime you use the full margins of a lens at full wide, you will experience worse image quality. This is true of the Fujinon lens in the EX1 and all other lenses out there. Manufacturers design lenses to the limits of what they are capable to do for the money that you will pay. Schneider manufacturs a lens for still photography that is the sharpest lens available for purchase. We make this lens but the cost is very high. Fujinon is very capable of making sharper lenses that perform at much higher levels. In fact they do make such lenses but the cost is prohibitive to most of us out there, myself included. The simple fact is what can they design for what you will pay. Any accessory optic will magnify any design flaws in the lens. Schneider Century attachments are engineered at the highest quality and tolerances we can make them with the same limitations manufacturers have.

We are committed to our customers and their demanding needs. Please consider these recommendations and realize that you will still obtain the widest image with Century attachments at the best quality. If you choose to zoom in a little bit, you will gain much better results no matter how good our optical design is.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics

any news on the fisheye and it's projected shipping date?

tia!

Ryan,

THe problem we have with the 0.6X is that it doesn't vignette too much at full wide, but if you zoom in even a whisker it vignettes badly - so we can't zoom in a bit - which is exactly what I like to do.

Hey guys - Don and Graeme - do you really need to lengthen the thread and soak the bandwidth by including *all* of Ryan's post for your two line replies? Just a thought.

I am also with Don on interest in the Fisheye release?

Fair comment Tom - if I could have just included the little bit of the quote that was relevant I would have.

Hi Graeme, Just click Quote, then edit what you don't want out of the quote (select/delete).
Cheers, Malcolm

I agree with Tom. Maybe I shouldn't be so long winded to avoid the problem altogether but I know that isn't going to happen. :)

Also, to all interested, I have discovered that our .6x attachment does vignette slightly when the camera's image stabilization system is turned on. We do all testing with this off while attached to a tripod and it took testing the camera outside to discover the problem by chance. So avoid image stabilization or zoom in a couple millimeters when it is turned on.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics

This week or next. Your delivery time will vary on when you ordered it and/or which dealer you order from that jumped in line early. I would suspect that we will be able to ship all units on back order.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics