On Thu, 12 Apr 2001 16:15:07 -0700, "milkes productions" wrote:

>no responses to my fisheye lens question: who makes one besides century
>optics. century optics wants 895.00 us. bucks for the pd150. and 495.00
>us. bucks for the gydv500. looking not to spend so much. any other
>manufacturers of this lens?? tia e.j.

The answer is not simple...
MANY cheap fisheyes have been made and offered under many
little-known brand names, and a few of these work quite well
with some camcorders. I have a collection of these, and only
one works well with my VX-2000s, but not in "full-frame"
mode (most of a circle appears on the screen, with top and
bottom cut off and the edges black - rather nice, with VERY
sharp results). I'm still looking for a good, inexpensive
full-frame fisheye for the VX-2000 (similar to the PD150).
The best alternative so far: the Sony VCL-ES06 with
58->52mm step-down ring. Quite wide (about equal to a
.5X, though rated .6X), but not quite fisheye - but with
good sharpness and small size, weight, and price.
A frame-grab using it can be seen in my VX-2000 review at:
http://www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/sony_dcr-vx2000.htm
and again here, with a method for removing the curvature:
http://www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/perspective-correction.htm
(not that one would want to...;-).