S106 Directors Blog

Here it is, my new HPX300 config. The kit lens just wasn’t up to par for me, On full zoom the lens would collapse and with open aperture all kinds of artifacts came in to play.  All in all this is stuff I should be able to live with since it’s a kit lens with a 1,500 US street price.  So here is the stuff i could not live with; a 0.9 meter MOD and a 5mm field of view (1/3″ chip). This makes shooting in a car next to impossible.

I know what your thinking; why not use a wide angle converter? There are a couple of good options available. 16×9 has the EXII one and Century Optics has the .8x LC. Good options if you are on a budget. For me the biggest draw back is the risk of dust between the lenses. Also take into account the added weight and length. Another drawback is optical quality; the cheap stock lens plus a 3rd party adapter equals distortion and artifacts. So the best option is a proper wide angle lens; the Th13×3.5BRMU a 13×3.5mm lens with a 0.4 meter MOD. Here is a comparison of the three options.

So what do I think about the Th13×3.5BRMU build quality? My first impressions where long and heavy. The handle is made of die cast aluminum  and feels very strong. There is a servo switch for manual and servo, a return button and a aperture switch for auto, manual and push auto. The macro locking is the same as the stock lens, a bit flimsy. The same goes for the aperture ring but the focus feels very smooth in a slow kind of way if you know what I mean.

The lens really stands out in the most importand field: optics. One caveat; no CAC, Panasonic makes several cameras with CAC (Chromatic Aberration Correction) but both camera and lens need to support this feature. So no dice for this wide angle. CAC is worthwhile with these cheaper HD lenses, check out a full list of CAC compatible lenses here.  Thankfully the quality of the wide angle is very good compared to the stock lens even without CAC. You can see the difference  in the videos below, click fullscreen for HD.

I like the fact that there is almost no breathing, however I do find the red and greens in the soft focus disturbing. This issue could be solved if Panasonic created a CAC file for this lens.

Against a non white background using macro there is no chromatic aberration and I like the bokeh.

Breathing on the Th13×3.5BRMU is minimal, a big plus over the Th17×5BRM.

Below are some image quality comparison shots between lenses. Be sure to click on each image for a full size HD image.

A comparison at 100%

150% note the black levels on the Th13×3.5BRMU

200% chromatic aberration is noticeably less on the Th13×3.5BRMU

Conclusion

In terms of image quality I really like the lens, I feels it renders blacks very crisp and the detail level just feels higher. I did notice a change in color temperature between the two lenses, the Th13×3.5BRMU being a bit warmer. The camera becomes heavier with the Th13×3.5BRMU but it’s still very easy to handle. The balance stays in tact depending on your battery weight.

The lens is very hard to get since Fuijnon has stopped producing the lens and will only have a new batch available per March 2010 so try to find one on Ebay, the street price for a new Th13×3.5BRMU is around 6000 US.