HPX170: Can I get some more zoom on?

[TheReverend]

I did a test run with the HPX170, and everything was great! Expect for the zoom :/ I'm gonna need about 17x-20x zoom, but I really would love to stick with this camera! Any suggestions on lenses or adapters or anything to get me some more zoom?

On a side note, I'm really looking into the 35mm adapter scene, love the DOF improvements. Would a 35mm adapter be a good way to be able to increase zoom through being able to use telephoto 35mm lenses?

 

[Barry_Green]

Not that much, because the wider field of view of the 35mm adapter is going to cancel out a lot of the advantage of going with the longer lenses...

The only real practical solution is going to be the Schneider 1.6x teleconverter. That'll give you the equivalent long telephoto reach as if you had a 21x zoom. But, be aware you won't have the full range of a 21x zoom! With that converter attached, you'll probably only have about 5x of usable zoom range, because if you zoom out too far you'll start to see the inside barrel of the teleconverter. It's made for long telephoto stuff; you'll have a little range at the long end but not a whole lot.

 

[TheReverend]

Sounds like exactly what I'm looking for! The longer the zoom the better, as we are trying to shoot close up video of a pastor from over the top of a fairly large crowd. I did some quick looking on B&H, and notice Century Precision Optics and Raynox for a bit cheaper. Would you imagine a significant quality loss from different lens brands? Sorry, on a church budget here