So, I made the plunge this weekend at Best Buy. I had made my mind up on the Sony 403 and had ordered it online, only to have my shipment delayed by this company who offered me the 405. Well, with that in mind, I became leary of this company, as I had called to check on shipment and my 403 had not even been sent, when it was supposed to be delivered the day before!!! Therefore, I decided it best to go to a trusted company, eventhough the money is more, just to have piece of mind and know I am purchasing an original product!!

I am taping dance competitions, and the store very highly recommended to 505, which I think will do great. Now I need to find a compatable wide-angle lens, one that will reach across the entire gym floor, asap, as our next competition is this coming weekend.

So, I need suggestions on what lens to buy and where to purchase on-line.

Please offer input, I really appreciate it.

Also, if you have comments on purchasing the 505 please post.

Sorry but I have no idea where you would buy an add-on lens for a consumer priced camcorder. These things don't have removable lenses so you have to add another lens on to the front of the existing lens. This reduces the already poor low-light response of the camcorder and lots of times causes shadows in the corners of the picture. If it were mine I would use it as it is without adding any other lens.

Can't you get there early enough to pick your spot to set up your camcorder? If it is a big stage I would want a spot over to one side and back a few rows so that when your lens is set to full wide angle, it covers the whole stage. But when you cover the full stage you probably won't be able to recognize faces because they will be too far away.

It just seems like such a waste of time trying to get everyone in the shot at the same time. It would be so boring to watch these little figures up there and not being able to see their facial expressions. But I am not a dance fan so I probably am not getting the big picture. But take a few minutes to watch any program on TV that has dance as part of their show and you will see very few wide angle shots. You will see 10 times the amount of close-ups and medium shots than the occasional wide shot. People want to see faces and close-ups. But if you are a coach or teacher maybe wide shots are justified?

That just my perspective as an old fart that used to do a lot of cable pubic access video of plays and Church programs. I just don't think you really want to do all this wide angle stuff.

Dave

I moved this thread to the Sony DCR-DVD505 forum http://www.camcorderinfo.com/bbs/f157

There is also a Sony DCR-DVD403/405/803's forum. http://www.camcorderinfo.com/bbs/f139

I have dealt with B&H a few times over the past 30+ years. I have always had excellent results with them: B&H Photo

I have also had excellent results with newegg over the last year: NewEgg

There are other good dealers; but I do not have any experience with them in purchasing camcorders.

Please check ResellerRatings before you make a purchase with any on-line merchant, Enter the store name in the "Enter STORE Name: (i.e. Newegg)" search block.

There are many on-line merchants who are not as honest as their web site might claim.



Rich

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Smart move.How do you know the lens on the 505 isn't wide enough for what you want? And how will you know what to buy that will be wide enough? Is a 0.7x wide enough? Or do you need a 0.5x?

Consumer camcorders do not accept wide angle lenses like 35 mm cameras do. You can add what is called a wide angle adapter which widens the field of view. It's similar but it's not a real lens. For wide angle adapters you can quite easily get one that won't work and will produce an effect called "vignetting". Your best bet is to go to the Sony site and see what they recommend for this cam.You will probably do better if you buy directly from Sony or a reputable dealer like B&H.

Good luck.

Dennis

When I bought my dvd505 from sony, I asked for a deal and they threw in the wide angle lens attachments; normally $120. It works just fine.