Best 0.6X Wide Angle for EX1?

[Derek Reich]

Boyd is exactly right, that is the shade (the first one). Great build quality for the money and very easy to pop it on and off. It does have to be EXACTLY level when mounted however, or it will vignette. I just look at the display when putting it on to get it just right. I have also heard of some people rounding the corners off the shade to eliminate this, but I did not find that necessary.
Note that it does NOT come with a filter tray, which is an additional $125. I discovered that the Century filter tray is the exact same tray as used in my Chroziel sunshade matte box, so I just swipe one out of there when using the Century shade.
I should also mention here that along with the fantastic quality of Schneider/Century products, the Schneider rep Ryan Avery has been remarkably accessible in assisting people with questions, helping find retailers, and providing a wealth of information that is surprisingly refreshing in an era where it's not easy to even get an e-mail response from a manufacturer's website form. He really helped me out when I needed an IR cut filter in a hurry. That kind of customer service goes a long way with me.

So Jonathan.... where exactly IS way far away? (just curious)

[Derek Reich]

Okay, Jonathan-
Here are some very quick frame grabs. I was basically too lazy to set up any lighting, so I apologize for the available light setting... it's kind of hard to see some detail where the whites are blown out. But you'll get the idea. I tried to shoot something with lots of horizontals and verticals to give you a good idea of the barrel distortion. (The top right and left windows have a sharp angle on them, so don't attribute that weird shape to the lens!)

The first one is the stock Fuji lens full wide at f8. Next is the Century adapter at full wide, same setting and position. The next shot shows the Century zoomed all the way in until just before it loses focus, at about 24mm. That shows you how much latitude you have with framing with this lens. Not too bad!

I then taped up a resolution chart I printed off my computer and did the same series of shots, (again, sorry no light here) the first is the Century at full wide close enough to fill the frame with the chart. At this position, the camera is only 3.5" from the chart. The next image is from the same spot at full zoom with the Century adapter, then one more at full zoom with the camera backed off until the chart fills the frame. I repeated the same shots with the stock Fuji without the adapter. I did not alter the grab frames in any way, other than to downsize them into smaller jpegs. No crops or other altering whatsoever. I did not notice the vignette at all in the capture frames, and the adapter looks quite sharp edge to edge. I realized after I did this that my camera was still set to an interlaced resolution from my last shoot... I don't know how much this affects the frame grabs.
I hope this helps! I probably should have put some text on each image to make it clearer which is which, but you can probably tell at least which are the full wide with adapter. Only the first image and the last two are without the adapter. I know it would have looked better with some adequate lighting, but as I said.... kind of lazy plus recent surgery on my hands prevented me from getting too ambitious!

[Jonathan Bland]

Derek..... you my friend.... are a star!
A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and effort on this.... to you as well Boyd.
Once again the power of community shines...... :)

PM sent.

[Buba Kastorski]

i have 0.6 schneider and like it, but want to go a bit wider,
does anybody have any experience with this one?
0.4x HD Fisheye Lens fo Sony PMW-EX1, PMW-EX3, PMW-EX1R on eBay.ca (item 110496559559 end time 20-Mar-10 14:27:23 EDT),
I can't find anything on the net about it
any info would really help;
many thanks