Reaperwear 0 #1 March 26, 2010 What is the difference between a HD Lens and a SD Lens. I need a wide angle lens for my CX 100, I will be using it for Tandem Hand Cams I am looking for a .25 - .3 wide angle lens that is low profile like the Liquid lenses. I thought a lens was a hunk glass.... what makes a HD Lens an HD lens?I refuse to tiptoe through life, only to arrive safely at death. www.reaperwear.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #2 March 26, 2010 QuoteWhat is the difference between a HD Lens and a SD Lens. I need a wide angle lens for my CX 100, I will be using it for Tandem Hand Cams I am looking for a .25 - .3 wide angle lens that is low profile like the Liquid lenses. I thought a lens was a hunk glass.... what makes a HD Lens an HD lens? Yeah that one sort of made my head spin around while spewing green pea soup whan it came up in my Time to Upgrade thread. I have a whole bunch of lenses for my Sony PC 330 that I collected at great expense. 2.0 0.5 0.42 0.37 and a few others.. now with the HD CX-150 I will be buying I need to start all over again Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PharmerPhil 0 #3 March 26, 2010 QuoteI thought a lens was a hunk glass.... what makes a HD Lens an HD lens? A coke bottle is a "hunk of glass" too (or at least they used to be). But you wouldn't want to look through one. Nothing transmits light perfectly. Particularly lenses that are designed to bend the light rays in the first place (as opposed to a perfectly flat picture window). How sharp and clear the image is after it goes through a given lens depends on how well that lens is both engineered and manufactured. And any time you add more glass elements in front of a lens (remember, the video camera already has a lens, what we are talking about here are actually lens adapters), the more chances you have to screw up that image. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
linestretch 0 #4 March 26, 2010 That all makes sense Phil but I'm sure what he's asking is (and I'm wanting to know too) is this really just a marketing thing..."since it's HD, you need HD glass". Sounds like krap to me but I'm not versed on it since I don't have an HD camera...yet. Is there really a difference between the lenses...is it really needed...can you use your lens that you've been using on your SD camera on an HD?my pics & stuff! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PhreeZone 15 #5 March 26, 2010 You can use a SD lens on the HD camera but you have to look at it in terms of the end image will only be as good as the lowest component. You cna shoot HD video and it will look like SD due to the SD lens.Yesterday is history And tomorrow is a mystery Parachutemanuals.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bomb420 1 #6 March 26, 2010 There is a huge difference between a SD and a HD lens. For instance take a look at the 108 world record skydive. One of the videographers has a old .43 lenses on a HD camera, you can pick out right away the footage. HD world record With that said to allow for enough light to enter for a HD .3x lens, you will need a fairly big lens. Since you are doing Handicams you may feel comfortable just using a lower profile SD lens at the expense of quality. You will find that a good Opteka or Raynox HD lens is cheaper than a skydiving manufacturer SD lens. -TrunkHYPOXIC Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PharmerPhil 0 #7 March 26, 2010 Quote Is there really a difference between the lenses... Yes. And you can measure the actual resolution of a lens fairly easily too. There are charts made for this purpose with lines of varying thickness, funny looking pinwheels, etc. You shoot a chart with the given camera/lens, and you can see whether certain lines are distinguishable or not. You can also see it with your naked eyes if you have maintained a high quality signal through out the process (i.e., lens, camera, delivery format, etc.) and are viewing on an HD TV/monitor. Sure, there is also a heavy dose of marketing hype in the naming and advertising of these lenses, but trust me, a $25 "High Definition" lens on e-bay will look like crap. Try to think of the whole equipment chain from recording delivering and playing back videos. If all you do is dub to VHS or DVD using a composite cable and watch on a 20-year old, 19-inch tube TV that the DZ has hanging around, then no. You won't be able to tell (but why are you buying an HD cam in the first place). However if you want to record HD images that look as good as they can on an HD set, you need to have a lens that is up to the task. Quoteis it really needed...can you use your lens that you've been using on your SD camera on an HD? That depends on what sort of quality you are looking for. But again, if you are happy with standard resolution videos (or worse with many of these lenses), then don't bother upgrading. Use your old PC9/Kenko combination, and it will look just as good as skydiving vids from 12 years ago. But if you want to upgrade your video quality, your goal should be to improve on, or eliminate, the weakest link in the chain. In many cases, this will be that "hunk of glass" you put in front of your nice new shiny HD camcorder. (btw, even the better "HD" lens adapters usually aren't as good as the camcorder w/o said adapter, but we need wide-angle capability for many skydiving shots, so we use them anyway.) Hey, maybe you have an old VHS tape of your first skydive sitting around somewhere. Can you watch it on your 46-inch HD TV? Sure. But is it HD? No. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 2,426 #8 March 26, 2010 >I have a whole bunch of lenses for my Sony PC 330 that I collected at great expense. >2.0 >0.5 >0.42 >0.37 Don't put too much faith in those numbers. A ".5" lens on one camera will often be much wider (or narrower) on another camera. Best bet is to find someone with that lens/camera combo and either try it or ask them if they like it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
linestretch 0 #9 March 27, 2010 I'm not new to lens quality...I do know the difference between an L series lens & the kit lens. I just want to know if there is a difference between an SD lens & an HD lens of the same quality.my pics & stuff! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PhreeZone 15 #10 March 27, 2010 QuoteSD lens & an HD lens of the same quality That is the thing.. they are not of the same quality. The glass on true HD lenses is much better. There are a ton of lenses that are marketed as HD but thats only since they resolve better then the older SD lenses but there are some lenses that pop to the top like the Raynox that are double the resolved lines of SD lenses for a decent price.Yesterday is history And tomorrow is a mystery Parachutemanuals.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
