On Sun, 14 Jan 2001 16:33:48 -0800, "ved" wrote:

>I'm going to order some wide angle lenses for my Sony TRV-8 Mini DV. Before,
>I had researched a little and made a few calls and some stores had offered
>some good prices in ordering 2 or 3 lenses at the same time. Something like
>a Wide angle lens and a Teleconverter together for about $150 or $200. Am I
>incorrect with this idea? If not, what stores are out there to order from?
>I've tried the ADS on the Videomaker Magazine, but when I check their
>websites they're just too confusing. Please Suggest! Sorry I'm not
>experienced in this! Thanks for getting this far!

$150-200 sounds like WAY too much for all but the top-end
Sony or Century converters... Converters generally not
only vary in inherent quality, but in matching to your
particular camcorder lens, so it is hard to get a good one
by "blind" buying. If you are interested in WA particularly,
and don't care about the ability to zoom with it on (it
snaps off, if need be...), the only WA converter that I have
seen (I have tried a LOT of them!) that is reasonably sharp
on everything I tried it on (LOTS of camcorders, with
mounting threads from 30mm to 58mm) is the Sony VCL-ES06
(about $75?). The second most likely to work well (several
camcorders didn't match well with it, though) on 30mm-52mm
threaded lenses is the Raynox Pro .5X (and you can zoom
with it on). Step-up/step-down rings are often needed to
fit your particular lens' thread size to the converter's
thread size (all but "Bower" rings seem to be good of the
ones I've used, which is LOTS ;-).