wide angle lens comparrisions

[mbs66 0]

i recently bought a new pc105 and now i am in the market for a wide angle lens. I have been shopping around, but there are so many different options. i was wondering if anyone could point me to a source of info, or fill me in on some of the differences.

my main questions are... whats a good ratio..ie. .5x, .43x, 6x...

also, are the cheaper lenses that much worse than the high end?

and finally, recommendations as to what to use for the purpose of filming freefly.

cheers!

[Deuce 1]

We cover this one a lot here. Try doing a search of the site using the keywords in your subject line.

I think a diamond .5 is the best overall wideangle lens, and am rethinking the whole thing since finding out that Greg Gasson doesn't use one at all.

[AndyMan 7]

Quote

I think a diamond .5 is the best overall wideangle lens, and am rethinking the whole thing since finding out that Greg Gasson doesn't use one at all.

This is also where I'm going, especially with freeflying. I much prefer to sit outside a formation, which works well without a wide angle because the formations are small.

It certainly does make framing more dificult, though.

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[Deuce 1]

I just finished editing the first of Greg's tapes for the DZ.com Holiday Boogie video. There are two jumps that just totally have me in awe. The first one is an over-under with an RW 5-way! Everything in frame, perfectly constant movement and distance from the skydive. Amazing flying and framing. The second is a tracking dive where he gets out late and then gets out in front and below this huge tracking flock. Great footage. Very humbling to drop it into the timeline next to my stuff.

[riggerrob 643]

Diamond 0.3 (from Max Cohn at generationfreefly.com) works better for hand-mounted cameras when you want to take video of tandem students.

[koz2000 1]

The .3 lens is the most versatile since you can have a really wide lens or you can zoom in and have a .5 or higher.

______________________________________________
- Does this small canopy make my balls look big? - J. Hayes -

[WayCool 0]

Check out my site for different lens options and click contact us for any questions.

www.waycool.com.au

Cheers

Stay Cool
http://www.waycool.com.au

[DaGimp 0]

personally i use a diamond .3 for tandem, RW and FF filming...the only bad thing about it is you have t obe reallllllly close. the .5 is a little more forgiving, which i may change to for my tandem filming.

"Professor of Pimpology"~~~Bolas

[mr2mk1g 10]

can't you just zoom through your 0.3 and have the exact same effect as a 0.5 ?

I guess there are limitations with this method though - anyone?

[jmfreefly 0]

I haven't tried it, so I don't really know.
It seems to me that 'zooming' would induce too much variability, as you might not zoom it the same each jump? If so, that would make sighting it a bit more difficult (due to paralax issues)

[mr2mk1g 10]

I thought of that and figured all you would need to do is make up some kind of chart with marks on it corresponding to each lens. You could make this simply by borrowing different lenses and trying each on your camera - look at the image the lens creates and mark the extent of your view. Now laminate it and stick it in your gear bag.

eg: (but lengthways on an A4 sheet)

[________________] = 0.5

[____________________________] = 0.45

[_______________________________________] = 0.42

etc.

So long as you hold the camera the same distance from the chart each time (eg at the end of a bit of string) you would get the same angle - at least close enough for sighting purposes anyway.

The limitations I was worried about are with the camera's ability to focus at the zoom settings. Surely there is a point where the image will become fuzzy?

[Deuce 1]

http://www.royal-lens.com/fov.htm

Check that one out for the differing fields of view

http://www.royal-lens.com/oper_instr.htm

That one talks about how those particular lenses can be zoomed only half way. So yes, an .3 can be zoomed to about a .45.

I have both the .3 and the .5 from Diamond, and I'm finding I use the .5 more. I like to get in close enough for expressions and it's a better match for the 20 on my 10D.

The .3 is a pretty good match for my 14 on the 10D

[davelepka 4]

Even compared to a high quality lens, the footage shot without a lens always looks better.

I think it;s just a a matter of biting the bullet, and taking your lens off, and starting over from scratch. If you could learn how to fly with a lens, you can learn how to fly without one (it just sucks to go back almost to sqaure one after making so much progress).

Big props to Greg for going the exrta mile for video quality. I myself seem to get lazier and lazier, looking for a wider and wider lens every year.......

[jmfreefly 0]

ugh.. yeah, your idea confirmed it --it is way beyond what I would want to do.

There are times that I do actually use the zoom on my camera shooting tandems (ground,etc), and to have to re-zero my camera like that is just not worth it. I'll stick with two lenses.
There definitely is a limit on the focus range with these lenses.

[icevideot 0]

Has anyone else had trouble with this? I tried zooming in a touch while videoing some unpredictable rw so I wouldn't have to fly so close and the picture shook noticeably more. It looked like a slight vibration. Does the zoom effect the steady shot? I use a TRV19 I think. It replaced my TRV11 so I am not quite sure of the number

"... this ain't a Nerf world."