Does anyone have the .6x Century wide angle lens?
- Thread starter Film it
- Start date
Buck Forester
Well-known member
I have the .55x Century adaptor... I'm lovin' it!
CherryTime
Well-known member
Cool. What kind of work do you use it for, and could you perhaps upload some short test footage?
Thanks
Thanks
hi film it,
yes, with the Century .6, there is vignetting on the ex1. pulled all the way back with no zoom its *almost ok*. ill even say that i dont notice it at a glance. if i zoom in just a little then its obviously there on all corners and it isnt pretty. if you zoom in a bit further it pretty well clears up again and of course there is no "zoom through" with the .6.
i have the .6 for my DVX100a and it is great. very sharp with no loss of light. for what its worth the Century 1.6 is also a pristine piece of glass. also no loss of light and very sharp. it does make the camera extremely front heavy though. this is not a "zoom through" lens either.
i would have sent the .6 back but i waited to long to try it out after buying it so now i am not stuck with it. if i use it i just dont zoom. on my glidecam i wouldnt usually zoom anyway.
ill be interested to hear of other options for wide angle glass.
david
www.davidprobst.com
yes, with the Century .6, there is vignetting on the ex1. pulled all the way back with no zoom its *almost ok*. ill even say that i dont notice it at a glance. if i zoom in just a little then its obviously there on all corners and it isnt pretty. if you zoom in a bit further it pretty well clears up again and of course there is no "zoom through" with the .6.
i have the .6 for my DVX100a and it is great. very sharp with no loss of light. for what its worth the Century 1.6 is also a pristine piece of glass. also no loss of light and very sharp. it does make the camera extremely front heavy though. this is not a "zoom through" lens either.
i would have sent the .6 back but i waited to long to try it out after buying it so now i am not stuck with it. if i use it i just dont zoom. on my glidecam i wouldnt usually zoom anyway.
ill be interested to hear of other options for wide angle glass.
david
www.davidprobst.com
The .55x is like a fisheye though right?
Last edited:
rhett
Active member
It's really the best of both worlds - it's not nearly as pronounced as other fisheyes out there and thus can be used, depending on your framing, as just a typical wide angle lens or, if you play things out closer to the lens you get some artful distortion that doesn't scream "fisheye!" I've had mine for a few months now and love it - I use it for a lot of different applications. It works perfect for those slow dollies in on horizontal landscapes, tracking shots with an enhanced sense of movement or scenes with multiple axis positioning (someone in the right foreground, someone else in the left background, an edge of a desk in the center). It gives those images that extra pop that they need - I can't be without it!
Buck Forester
Well-known member
I also have the Sony .8X, which just makes the fixed lens a little wider but it looks great.
With the .55x, rhett nailed it. They call it a fisheye adapter but it's more like a really wide lens that distort on the sides, a semi-fisheye, depending on the angle you're shooting. I don't have any footage online yet but here's a guy (Steve Cahill) who has photos of the lens on the EX1 and some sample footage, which also shows you can exaggerate the effect or shoot to minimize it.
http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Stev...2008/7/15_Schneider_Fish_Eye_for_the_EX1.html
With the .55x, rhett nailed it. They call it a fisheye adapter but it's more like a really wide lens that distort on the sides, a semi-fisheye, depending on the angle you're shooting. I don't have any footage online yet but here's a guy (Steve Cahill) who has photos of the lens on the EX1 and some sample footage, which also shows you can exaggerate the effect or shoot to minimize it.
http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Stev...2008/7/15_Schneider_Fish_Eye_for_the_EX1.html
I have the .6x and have seen no vignetting at all. I looked again today, just to be certain. My EX1 (new in 3/08 #103XXX) has been back to Sony for the battery upgrade and whatever alignment they do when you send it in, so perhaps that is why some are seeing vignetting with this adapter and I'm not.
With the .6x there is a small amount of CA on the edges, there's also some edge distortion, more noticeable when there are vertical lines, but both are within acceptable limits IMO. Admittedly, I haven't extensively tested the other WA lenses, but the shear weight of the .75x was enough to put me off of it. (not to mention that it cost 2.5x as much). In a showroom demo, I wasn't able to see any difference in image quality between the two. The .6x is not zoom through, so it is only useful for approx. the first 40% of the zoom range.
As with any WA lens, dust appearing on the front lens element is an issue, so I've had to be more fastidious about keeping it clean. I did purchase the clip on MB from Century that helps a little in this regard and also provides a slot for one 4x4 filter. The .6x and MB together weigh 15oz.
BTW, I'm not working for Schneider/Century. If people are having issues with vignetting, perhaps a call to them will sort out the problem.
Important to note, after fiddling around for a while, I discovered the following: the EX1 lens cannot be in the manual focus mode, Macro must be ON and use the menu setting: Camera/Wide Conversion/ON. Otherwise, the image is all screwed up (my technical term).
Given it's limitations of zoom through and some expected image degradation, it's a useful wide angle adapter and a significant increase in the angle of view, as seen in the "with and without WA lens" kitchen photos below. Hope this is helpful.
With the .6x there is a small amount of CA on the edges, there's also some edge distortion, more noticeable when there are vertical lines, but both are within acceptable limits IMO. Admittedly, I haven't extensively tested the other WA lenses, but the shear weight of the .75x was enough to put me off of it. (not to mention that it cost 2.5x as much). In a showroom demo, I wasn't able to see any difference in image quality between the two. The .6x is not zoom through, so it is only useful for approx. the first 40% of the zoom range.
As with any WA lens, dust appearing on the front lens element is an issue, so I've had to be more fastidious about keeping it clean. I did purchase the clip on MB from Century that helps a little in this regard and also provides a slot for one 4x4 filter. The .6x and MB together weigh 15oz.
BTW, I'm not working for Schneider/Century. If people are having issues with vignetting, perhaps a call to them will sort out the problem.
Important to note, after fiddling around for a while, I discovered the following: the EX1 lens cannot be in the manual focus mode, Macro must be ON and use the menu setting: Camera/Wide Conversion/ON. Otherwise, the image is all screwed up (my technical term).
Given it's limitations of zoom through and some expected image degradation, it's a useful wide angle adapter and a significant increase in the angle of view, as seen in the "with and without WA lens" kitchen photos below. Hope this is helpful.
