Posted by David Ruether on 12/25/07 16:05

"Arny Krueger" <arnyk@hotpop.com> wrote in message
news:qeudnYEWyeDQevLanZ2dnUVZ_uqvnZ2d@comcast.com...

> How useful are the clip-on wide angle and telephoto lenses for the HV20?
>
> We've got a HV20 at church that is about 100 feet from the platform, and
> therefore spends a lot of time set to max telephoto. It looks a lot better
> than what it replaced, but it could still use some help. Are these lenses
> the way to go?

No wide angle lens converter will improve the lens' performance
at the tele end, and it will reduce the magnification of the area/subject
size by the factor of the converter (.7X, .5X, etc.). Adding a tele
lens converter will help with increasing magnification, but it will likely
vignette the image (crop/cut-off the edges) when the lens is zoomed
wide. VERY few converters will maintain the original lens quality
(especially through the whole zoom range), though the Canon ones
made for the HV20 are the most likely to be satisfactory without
trying a bunch of them. BTW, good lens converters screw into the
lens front threads rather than clipping on (the HV20 has 43mm
threads, but you can adapt larger sizes with 43mm-->XXmm
stepping rings to fit larger sizes). There is more on this camcorder,
and on good WA converters for it, in my review of the HV20, at --
www.donferrario.com/ruether/canon_hv20.htm
--David Ruether

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