wide angle lens in low light

[Denny Gay]

Got a question about wide angle lens use. I recieved a sony wide angle lens that attaches to my hc-7 camera. Its a great lens. I was able to put it to use on a wedding recently. We used like cameras, Sony hc-3 and hc-7 HDV, however the camera that had the wide angle lens seemed to perform worse in the low lighted scenes. The other camera that was not using the wide angle did admirablly well in the low light.

So does the wide angle lens typically lower the video quality in low light scenes or do i maybe have a different problem.?

[Ryan Avery]

Originally Posted by Denny Gay

Got a question about wide angle lens use. I recieved a sony wide angle lens that attaches to my hc-7 camera. Its a great lens. I was able to put it to use on a wedding recently. We used like cameras, Sony hc-3 and hc-7 HDV, however the camera that had the wide angle lens seemed to perform worse in the low lighted scenes. The other camera that was not using the wide angle did admirablly well in the low light.

So does the wide angle lens typically lower the video quality in low light scenes or do i maybe have a different problem.?

There are generally two reasons for a wide angle to reduce image quality in low light:

1) The camera has a very sensitive AF function or special sensor that is blocked by the wide angle.

2) The wide angle causes just enough light loss to cause the camera to use a higher sensitivity (if set to an auto mode) and therefore increase the gain or other lowlight "enhancing" exposure features.

[Frank Genus]

General rule of thumb: More glass = less light reaching the sensor. Somes lenses are worse than others in this respect.

[Denny Gay]

thanks for the response's.

[Peter Ralph]

couple of other things - the WA lens will show dirt/dust/lens flare more readily.

if you are using auto settings then the WA lens may tend to underexpose more often due to highlights at the edges of the frame.