Wide angle adapters for HVX200

Bob Fagan

Bob Fagan

Well-known member
I've read the posts on the Century .7 adapter that seems like a good bang for the buck, but has anyone had any experience with the Red Eye? http://www.vfgadgets.com/RedEye.htm

Seems to have some advantages over the Century. There is also a 16X9 adapter too which I've heard little about in previous posts.

My shooting situation is this: I am doing some swimming training videos and the pool we are shooting in is one of those Endless Pools which are about 12 X 15 feet. I am putting an underwater housing (Epic) in the corner to shoot one angle and another HVX on a crane above the swimmer. I have about 2 feet distance to the subject. The underwater camera will be full wide so zooming vignettes should not be a problem, but barrel distortion might.

Thanks for any experience info with these three adapters.
 
I've got a century .6 for my hvx that I have really liked. Its not zoom through, but it sounds like that wouldnt be a problem for you.
 
Thanks Jeff. Yes zoom through should not be a problem in this situation. I'm more concerned with barrel distortion which seems inherent in most adapters. I'm leaning towards it because it's about $100 cheaper than the Red Eye and has a bit wider angle (.6 vs .7)...just like the idea of the Red Eye's ability to have the lens hood still attached.

You find the image sharp and no chroma aberrations?

Thanks.

-Bob
 
well what do you mean by no chromatic abberations :) There's definitely some, but not enough to keep me from using it for corporate b-roll and such. It cuts fine with the non w/a footage and no one notices it when its projected on a 10 ft screen but I can see it. But I'm also looking for it. The sharpness is great and the barrel distortion isnt only slight that I've noticed, but I havent done much testing of that specifically.
 
Okay...not "none"

Okay...not "none"

Thanks Jeff...yeah, I'm being overly optimistic (ie: stupid) to think there would be none in an adapter. Nature of the beast. But your review assures me it will work well for what I want to do. I just didn't want it looking too weird against the normal HVX footage.

And what do you mean I have no name with my signature? I see my signature in my posts with my URL...what do you see?

Here...I'm typing my name: Bob Fagan....www.usiavideo.com
 
haha - that is my signature :) Just an encouragement to others to do what you've already done. I can see your sig just fine :)

Yeah if you're just worried about it cutting with standard HVX footage I doubt you'll notice. Especially if the wide shot is underwater. I wish I knew more about the redeye adapter, but I dont. I know it gets alot of use in the skydiving community but size and sleekness (lines getting tangled on parachutes blows) outweigh image quality many times. That and most are shooting with consumer sd cams.
 
To me, the fact that you can't zoom thru is completely void argument...that's my opinion. I mean, you have a WA to make the shot WIDER. If you don't want a wide shot, then spend the 15 seconds to take the darned thing off and put it back in the camera case. I tried the .7x zoom thru, and it just wasn't wide enough...plus it cost more. Again...my opinion...
 
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