Wide-angle lenses

[Starman]

Hello,

I use wide-angle lenses quite a bit shooting on other cameras for reality and the like. I used to own a wide-angle back in the BetaSP days.

Now, for my own shoots, for the time being, my main camera is the HPX370, with the packaged lens. It is actually a pretty decent piece of glass. The only drawback that I have is that it has a minimum focal distance of 3-feet, and I hate riding the macro for b-roll if I am handheld. On sticks, if I am shooting CU's of stuff, that's fine, but handheld is impossible, so even if I am shooting b-roll in a tight office of, say a guy at his computer typing, I really have to move back to get everything in focus.

I saw a used 1/3" wide-angle lens out there once for about $800 and I really regret not snatching it up, since I know that new wide-angles for the small chip size cost much more.

How many of you have wide-angle lenses in your kits? Do you use them often?

[Flaca Productions]

i'm not much of a fan of the stock lens on the 300/370 (i have a 300) as it's not very long, not very wide, no 2x and it breathes. a LOT. that said, it is part of a camera that cost $10k, so it is what it is. i have the century zoom through for the 300 and it makes a big difference. it's a big chunk of glass for the light to go through, but it does the job of increasing your field of view. i try not to shoot interviews with it on, but for b-roll, it's pretty much mandatory.

as for "regular" wide angles, i couldn't shoot without my fuji 4.5 for my 2/3" cameras. outside of actual camera purchases, it's easily the best investment i've ever made.