"dingleberry" <dingleberry_pinksock@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:28b9720d.0309141045.45b6d979@posting.google.com...

> Can anyone recommend a moderately priced wide-angle lens for the Sony

> DCR-TRV cameras? Do non-Sony brands work, I recall having a mounting

> issue with another Sony model where the lens threads didn't line up

> correctly with the camera.

There are several makers of good WA converters: Sony, Canon,

Raynox, and sometimes Kenko are the best. Fitting a WA converter

to a camcorder is a bit of an art (optical matching with a particular

camcorder lens can be as important as the inherent quality of the

WA converter). You can match mounting-thread sizes with

stepping rings (mostly step-up rings, to avoid vignetting, but

sometimes a smaller thread-diameter WA can be fitted to a larger

thread-diameter lens front). WA converters with moderate viewing

angle increases often work the best, and even "poor" .8X converters

can be sharper at the edges than "good" .5X converters. Converters

also come in "non-zoom-through" (little zooming possible away

from WA, but these can be cheap, compact, and excellent),

"zoom-through", and also "fisheye" (extra-wide and often sharper

than other types, but with considerable curving of off-center subject

straight lines - and these are generally not zoom-through). The Sony

TRV-series cameras have 30mm or 37mm (or 52mm, in the case of

the TRV900) thread diameters, but most 37mm (or larger) WA

converters can be fitted. The best (which will fit all the TRV-series

Mini-DV camcorders) is the Sony HG0737 .7X 37mm-threaded

converter, but it is fairly heavy and large. The .6X 0637 is OK for

many purposes, and it is lighter/smaller/cheaper. I like the

cheap/light/compact/excellent ES06 non-zoom-through, but it

requires added spacing between the converter and most lenses

for best results. The Raynox Pro works well on most camcorders,

also...

--

David Ruether

d_ruether@hotmail.com

http://www.David-Ruether-Photography.com