Century Optics 16:9 37mm Widescreen Adapter thread.....

C

CRFilms

Active member
For a while now the thought of anamorphic widescreen images....kept calling too me....beckoning.....I've been tormented!!! All the more so when I see the prices of used Panasonic's AG-LA7200. The other ones I see online are no better. Don't want to spend $300 for used 2x lenses, I want the 1.3x damnit!!!

But I'm poor AND cheap so the $275 Amazon had for the Century Optics 37mm adapter was too rich for my blood....and then it dropped to $265. So of course I jumped on it and ordered one. :tongue: Good thing too, since as soon as the order cleared the price jumped back to $275 and now it's $280 with only one in stock at that price.

Thanks to amazon prime, two days later it came and behold the magnificence!!
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/196/37mmana1.jpg/

Here's a size comparison next to an old canon fd 28mm lens:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/706/37mmana2.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/545/37mmana3.jpg/

And the front angle:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/862/37mmana5.jpg/

And the back:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/820/37mmana4.jpg/

Now as you can see the 37mm opening is SMALL. In other threads some wondered, as did I, if it would be possible to remove the rear thread and put a bigger adapter in case some lenses vignetted, but the rear lens element is right up against the thread. Even if you did remove that rear thread, the rear lens itself is small. Doesn't look like you can modify it.

I ordered some step down rings from some ebay sellers, but since they're overseas it will be another week before they come in. I did put it up to a 50mm Minolta MD lens by hand and it didn't look like it vingetted, but I won't know for sure till I get the rings. Either way if you have a GH2 this would work for you in probably all standard lenses if you use the crop feature. I also have a 135mm Minolta lens and it "looked" like it didn't vignette, when I held it up to it manually, but won't know for sure till I have an adapter. It looks like the standard micro four thirds crop on even a Gh1 will work on some old manual lenses. Pretty sure a 50mm and 28mm will work.

Either way if you want to go anamorphic and you want a new lens and the cheapest lens you can find....the 37mm century optic might be for you. But...only one left below $300 at Amazon and the other sellers on Google shopping search are $300+ and some look questionable. Looks like they're selling out. If you want one, better grab one now.

I'll add to this thread as I get more ring adapters and will try to give you some shots, and if anybody already has this adapter, please post your own shots here.
 
I just got a 52mm step down ring and I put the adapter on a Canon FD 28mm f2.8, a Minolta MC f1.7 55mm, and a Nikon E 50mm f1.8. It works with no vignetting, BUT....close focusing is bad.

This is the best shot I got, I think I did it with the Nikon. Just screen caps for now, don't want to add a video till I get all the adapters and can make a full vid.
imageshack.us/​photo/​my-images/​685/​image11kn.jpg/​

This is an example of close focusing problems. This was with the Nikon and that looks way softer than without the adapter. Also the edges are even worse up close.
imageshack.us/​photo/​my-images/​850/​image14xu.jpg/​

Stopping down the lenses helps a bit, but you have to stop them way down to make it better then that could create FPN issues. I've read of some people using achromats or macro/diopters to get a better close image. Anybody know if that would work here? Would I have to put them between the lens and adapter or after the adapter?
 
I've heard without a diopter you can't focus that close. The Eyepatch Productions guy has done various vlogs on using anamorphic adapters specializing on the La7000, but thats out of my price range. He did use a cheap diopter, instead of the $100+ one the guy from EOSHD recommends, and he got good close focus. I asked if any cheap diopter would do and he said yes. I ordered a set of 62mm diopters from adorama, these: http://www.adorama.com/MC62CUS.html Their name brand set and it cost under $25 shipped.

They allowed me to close focus. Not sure the order they'll attach, but these are with an old Nikon E 50mm 1.8 around 4 feet away. Image10 is without diopter. Image9 is with 1+ diopter. And image11 is bare lens no adapter. Shot with poor fluorescent overhead lights and iso 640. Image6 is iso100 with diopter. Lens wide open in each shot.
Image6.jpgImage11.jpgImage10.jpgImage9.jpg
pencil.png
 
I have a century optics 0.3x fisheye that i'd like to use on the gh1, not sure if this is the same type of lens- i can't get an image with mine. I have a canon FD 1.8 prime on the gh1 and a 52mm-37mm step down ring on that, i'm attaching the fisheye (with its 37mm threads) to the step down ring. I only see a blurred image. Is there something else i need to add to get the lens to work with the gh1?

Thanks
 
Rob, That century optics fisheye is probably not going to give you acceptable image quality even if you can get it to work properly. When used with the 50mm, It will basically give you roughly the same FOV as the kit lens at 15mm, but with fisheye distortion, softness, and probably extreme chromatic abberations as well.

These camera's, unlike video camera's, are designed with interchangable lenses so you don't need to use adaptors such as a 0.3x fisheye to get the field of view you want. To put a quality-reducing adaptor in front of your main lens defeats the purpose of having an interchangable lens in the first place.

If you are looking for a wider field of view for you GH1, there are plenty of much better options. For the full fisheye look you can go for the Samyang 8mm which is a very cheap all-manual lens which I believe is now available in a micro 4/3rds mount. Or there are the various kit lenses (14-45, 14-42, 14-140) which can be found pretty cheap espescially on eBay. If you want a fast wide, you can check out the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7, Olympus 17mm f/2.8, or the new Panasonic 14mm f/2.5.
 
Hi, thanks, and yeah i figured there would be distortion etc, but thought it might produce an interesting effect that would be useful for some things, but i like you're idea better, once i'm able to get a decent fisheye i'll look into those, thanks for posting them.
 
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