I was watching the in car video from our last track weekend and I can't capture enough of the scene without a wide-angle lens. I was looking at macro lenses and I was wondering what you guys thought about a 0.7x versus a 0.5x lens. My camera is mounted on the bar that runs horizontally behind the driver's seat and is centered in the car. I really have no way of getting it back any further. My thought was that if I went with a 0.5x lens, I could just zoom in a little if it was too wide. My cam has a 10x optical zoom. I don't know very much about optics and cameras though, so I'd appreciate some input.

Thanks,
Scott

 

you have seen my video.. I have a .6x wide angle lense. my camera is also mounted behind the main hoop..

 

.5 is the narrowest I would go. .4 or .45 would be ideal
I bought a .5 because it was much cheaper than .4 or .45, but I do wish the angle was slightly wider.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com is a great place to pick up lenses, with great prices and customer service. (And dont forget an adapter ring if you need one)
here is an example of a .5 video
http://www.evan55.com/video/VI...4.avi

 

Here is an example of my .7!
http://www.we-todd-did-racing....DE%3D

 

good info. I'll probably be looking for something like this for a Mini DV Cannon.

 

Thanks guys.

Elgorey - I couldn't watch your video for some reason. Maybe I don't have the right codecs or something, but all I got was the audio. However, I've read that 0.5x is the widest you can go without visual distortion (like a fisheye effect), so maybe you are better off. Thanks for the link to bhphoto. They are a good site and I just bought my wife a new digital camera from them a couple weeks ago.

I'd like to go with the 0.5x, but I'm having trouble finding one. I'm using a Canon Elura 40MC MiniDV cam, which has 28mm filter threads. Most of the universal ones I'm finding are 30, 35, or 37.5mm threads. The only lens I've found that will work so far is the 0.7x that Canon makes, so I might be stuck with that one. I'll keep looking though.

Thanks again.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FlyZlow &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Elgorey - I couldn't watch your video for some reason. Maybe I don't have the right codecs or something, but all I got was the audio.

I'd like to go with the 0.5x, but I'm having trouble finding one. I'm using a Canon Elura 40MC MiniDV cam, which has 28mm filter threads. Most of the universal ones I'm finding are 30, 35, or 37.5mm threads. The only lens I've found that will work so far is the 0.7x that Canon makes, so I might be stuck with that one. I'll keep looking though.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Get an adapter ring, only a couple $$. My JVC has a funky thread mount and the cust service rep at BHPhoto told me which adapter to get. I put a dab of loctite on the ring so now its no hassle to put on and take off.

oh, and you need the divx codec to view the video http://www.divx.com (and i think an updated Windows media player will play it too)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by elgorey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Get an adapter ring, only a couple $$. My JVC has a funky thread mount and the cust service rep at BHPhoto told me which adapter to get. I put a dab of loctite on the ring so now its no hassle to put on and take off.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Perfect. I called B&H and they hooked me up with what I needed. I appreciate the advice. I went with the Kenko 0.5x lens and a 37mm -&gt; 28mm adapter ring. Grand total with shipping: $36! Awesome. Too bad I won't have it in time for this weekend though. Wish I wouldn't have procrastinated.