Best Wide angle for HC42 Lens Help!!!

[CKSCUBA 0]

I am sorry to ask this question:

what is the difference between a wide angle lens and a converter lens.

I am using a kenko .5 lens on my hc42 camera. It works ok but when i take the lens off the camera image is brighter and nicer. put the lens on it darkens a bit colors are not as crisp and the image is blurred around the edges.

I have it focus to infinity and the subject looks ok but there is a bluring on the out from the center. it doesnt have much of a vingnate.

ok way cool lens and diamond lens are awesome right? but why?

when i zoom in too much it will go out of focus with the kenko.

soi way cool or stealth in the .5 range or what would a better lens be?

also would i have to adjust my flying ?

thank you and i have searched the forums but i am still confused.

Chris

[DSE 5]

Technically, a wide angle lens is one that attaches/detaches from the camera as the only lens.
A wide angle adapter/converter/add-on combines with an existing/usually fixed lens to provide a more wide angle. A .5 lens for example, will double the field of view over what the camera's fixed lens would initially provide.
Single element lenses such as the Waycool, Cookie, Royal Lens, etc are superior for this sort of work simply because of their lack of elements (an element is a piece of glass in the lens assembly) The more glass, the more opportunity for the colors to be ill-timed, and more opportunity for other things to be off inside the lens. This is particularly true of the very cheap wide angle adapters out there, such as the 30.00 Kenko and Noname variety.
However, due to their magnifying structure, they also can be zoomed through, which cannot occur with the higher quality single element lenses.
FWIW, we tested several single elements, and Royal slightly edged out the competition in the area of resolution.
Additionally, multiple elements may be coated and will drop exposure by as much as a half-stop. This isn't good...which is what you're likely seeing as the image gets brighter when you remove the lens.

[sinjin 0]

i have the cookie .45 and the quality of the lens is great. the picture width is narrower than most to begin with so if you are looking for comparable width you may want to go .3. it also depends what you are shooting.. it will be ok for tandems but you better stay close in anything you shoot at .2/.3. i shoot tandems with the .45 but could use a .3. i would have bought a royal but they were not availible at the time,, any of the high quality cookie/liquid/royal lens will be fine. i think the .5 will be a little wider than your kenko. i would go .3 if you really want to see a difference in width. you will only be able to zoom halfway but there are really limited uses for zooming in a wide angle lens. not sure what you are shooting but you may have to fly a little closer.. if you have any other techincal questions, DSE is the man.

dont let life pass you by

[tetra316 0]

I have a .45 cookie lens and also notice that the picture is not as clear as without the lens. It also will only zoom in halfway before the picture distorts. I have a sony hc32 camera. Another camera person at my dz has a hz42 and a sony lens(half the price of cookie, royal etc) and does not have any of these issues. I've wondered why it does that.

[DSE 5]

Because the cheap Sony lens you have is a multi-element lens, made for zoom through. Cookie, Royal, Waycool are a far superior lens because they are single element lenses. But you can't zoom through a single element lens. They're made to work as a multiple of the existing focal length that your camera offers.
The two attached images are from Norman Kent's Aerial Cameraman DVD, and illustrate the difference between single and multiple element lens structure.
In short, chromatic abberation is significantly less in a single-element (also called bi-convex lens) due to the fixed length and design when used at intended operating distances. You wouldn't want to zoom through a single element anyway;color timing would be off. Spherical abberation can be (and usually is) worse with a single element lens, simply because information entering the element at the sides will be timed differently than information entering the lens at the center. Stopping the aperture down significantly reduces this effect.
As a means of perhaps understanding this, shoot a white wall with your single element. Slowly zoom into the wall. It will go out of focus of course, but notice that it starts to turn bluish? This is because blue lightwaves are shorter than red, and as a result, bend more.

[edited to add images]

[tetra316 0]

I guess I will take your word for it. We cannot see any difference in the quality of the video between the cookie and sony ones. Just the fact that my cookie will not zoom in.

[DSE 5]

Shoot something with fine detail; look at it closely. Better still, shoot a rez chart, look at it closely.
Frankly, for *most* purposes, *most* people won't notice the difference, but what separates cheap from sweet is the details. If you're shooting for tandems, you probably won't care much. Greater resolution means sharper pictures and potentially deeper colors. If you can't see the diff between a low end multi element vs a single element lens properly set up, be grateful.
Be sure you're comparing them on a decent television monitor.
That said, I don't have a Cookie around to test; I borrowed one from a guy at the DZ and it was an older lens. It's possible Cookie is using a different supplier. I'd asked Cookie for a newer/more recent lens when we met at PIA, but it ended up not happening.
Don't take my word for it, you've got eyes. Just be sure you're comparing on a decent monitor and not a cheap television. Bear in mind that your customers probably have better monitors than you're using at the DZ, if your DZ is like most DZ video rooms I've seen.

[CKSCUBA 0]

thank you very much!! for all the info

you know your stuff

chris