Found a wide angle adapter for a Yashica 35mm range finder camera I had in a box that a friend gave to me (I tried to sell it on ebay a few yrs ago and nobody wanted it!). It's a 1.4 (inverse it's a .7) convertor. It has 55mm threads so this thing is pretty big. I didn't notice any vignetting in the corners (need to verify with the computer in a captured video) and seems to focus at full zoom! No more barrel distortion than the lens already has. Now I just have to find a lens hood as it picks up ghosts from my lights easily.
Interesting note on camera technique I noticed. I was watching PBS Sunday night Masterpiece Theatre and noticed almost all of the shots were handheld! I don't really care for that much but it was watchable. I know that Friday Night Lights is handheld but deliberately shakey. I can't handle that but apparently they think the kids love that look.
I actually have one of those in my "junk" box. Used it a couple of times on a Hasselblad (ducking from thrown objects, I know...Sacrilege) years back.
Dug it out and used it a couple of times on my Panasonic PV GS500 (for one indoor scene and once for an in vehicle sequence.
I was surprised at how good it looked although I could detect some contrast degradation and definite flare from lights.
I just got a DIGITAL brand 0.45 wide angle adapter and tested it on my HV20, viewed it on a 42" LCD 1080p TV with HDMI connection. I was shocked at how good definition and contrast is, no image degradation until full zoom where I saw some distortion on one edge.
Where did you get he digital brand .45? Does it vignette at all? How is the size compared to the Yashica? I also have the Yashica tele adapter but haven't tried it yet. I'm not much into extreme zoom.
I found it browsing ebay. The company on the shipping label is:
Camera WorksNW
9214 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy
Beaverton OR 97005-3314
No. Mine does not vignette. I see some distortion on the left edge out near the telephoto end of the zoom but I plan to use it only for wide angle and very moderate zoom. I was astounded at how sharp the image remained when evaluated by HDMI hookup to my 42" LCD 1080p TV.
I figure I'm seeing the image at 1080i but was still "blown away". I shot my tests in Cine mode (not 24p tho, I don't plan to get into that "pulldown removal" issue and will be satisfied with the cine mode look)
Size is smaller than the Yashica, weight is less also. Image contrast is significantly better, too.
I did a test with my Yashica adapter at full zoom and it's very sharp to the corners. I didn't notice any reduced contrast either. I'll have to try the Yashica tele adapter soon.
I'd say you lucked out on that Yashica wide converter. Most of those were somewhat atrocious, mine is really just kinda fair.
The Digital brand 0.5 has good definition and contrast but further evaluation shows slight "barrel distortion" on the very side edges at full wide, at full tele there is more astigmatic distortion than I care to mess with. I did expect this so am not surprised.
I purchased it for wide angle performance and there it does far better than I had hoped, so I got essentially what I needed. I don't mind taking it off when I don't need wide.
I just got the Cinetactics MattbloxDV (www.cinetactics.com) shade and testing this afternoon shows no sign of vignetting while shading the lens performance was outstanding. So I'll be using both the wide adapter and the shade in the current UWOL challenge as soon as I get an idea of what I'm
going to do on it.
Found a decent wide angle adapter-free
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