On Wed, 02 Apr 2003 22:24:50 GMT, Erik Harris <n$wsr$ader@$harrishom$.com> wrote:

>On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 04:54:21 GMT, d_ruether@hotmail.com (Neuman - Ruether) wrote:

>>>Are Sony's lenses good for the price, or can I do just as well or better for

>>>less money by going with a third party lens?

>>None that I've seen but for the Raynox .66X...

>Are you saying that the Raynox .66X is as good or better quality as the Sony

>VCL-HG7037X in your experience?

No. It fits larger-fronted cameras, and on these it

is excellent (with +/-'s compared with some others);

on small camcorders, it tends also to be very good,

but with cameras both fit, the .7X 37mm-threaded

Sony HG is better... (makes me tempted to try the

expensive 58mm-threaded version...! ;-).

>>>If Sony is my best bet, what is

>>>the difference between the VCL-HG0737X lens that lists for $190 and the

>>>VCL-MHG07A that lists for $145? Both claim to be high-grade wide angle

>>>lenses, and the Sonystyle.com page has almost identical descriptions for the

>>I wonder if the HG stands for "High-Grade" (it does),

>>and the MHG stands for "Medium-High-Grade"...;-)

>I had thought of that, though the descriptionss on www.sonystyle.com are

>pretty much identical. Both are referred to as high-grade lenses and have

>the pretty much the same specs, except that the cheaper one requires a

>step-up ring (which is included).

Dunno - haven't seen it...

Make sure it is not the single-element non-zoom-through

I think it is (blue-rimmed, I think, and quite flat).

If so, this is an interesting converter I haven't tried

yet, but for nearly the same price, the 0737HG is

excellent *and* zoom-through, so......;-)

>>I had not heard of this second, but have tried the first,

>>and the .6X zoom-through. The .6X is wider and far cheaper

>>(and lighter), but not as "snappy" at the edges as the

>>really-sharp .7X HG (about $145 at B&H vs. $50...).

>I don't suppose you'd know of any place on the net that has comparative

>pictures? Your page that you linked to includes a Raynox .66X and a Sony

>.6X, but not the HG Sony lens.

No - but it *IS* good! ;-)

It would make the PC100 very front-heavy, though.

If you buy from bhphotovideo, you have a 7-day

return ability - I would buy the .6X zoom-through

(not the ES06, which is not) and try it. If it is

not good enough, go for the other...

>>>If I'm just as well off going with another brand, what brands are good or

>>>bad? I don't want to save $20 or $30 just to find that the edges of my

>>>footage are fuzzy or have color problems.

>>The HG showed color-fringing at the long end on my

>>TRV30, but not on others, and it is really good on

>>the TRV900 ([!!] Yes, it does work, with a home-made

>>52mm->37mm step-down ring...!).

>Can I take this to mean that you haven't tried the HG0737X lens, which is a

>37mm lens to begin with?

?????

The 0737HG is 37mm-threaded, and is the one I have...

It should be the same as the HG0737X, I think...

>>>Any suggestions, or pointers to websites would be appreciated.

>>There are some WAs that can fit, compared at:

>>www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/WA-converters.htm - though

>Thanks for the link. Even without the info on specific lenses, I learned

>some stuff here. I didn't know enough to fully understand the zoom-through

>vs. non-zoom-through issue (though it's basically what I guessed it was), or

>the correlation between that and multi- vs. single-element lenses.

Single-element lenses are never zoom-through (they may

zoom well enough for about 2X range, though), and the

best are aspheric (making up some for their having only

one element). The ES06 is one of these, and being plastic,

it is quite light. Zoom-through converters (which

permit zooming at least over most of the camera's range)

are always multi-element (though fisheye converters

tend to be multi-element, but not zoom-through, just

to confuse things...;-). Single-element converters take

advantage of the camcorders' focus range, which is

greater than normal, both for close and "beyond infinity"

focus - and when installed, change the the lens focus;

multi-element and fisheye converters when installed

do not change the lens focus, permitting the possibility

of zooming in MF without focus shift (more than normal,

anyway...;-).