photo equipment gurus: please help

[MeanMeosh]

i bought a sony f717 which comes with a 58mm ring at the end of the lens to allow me to add on lenses. now, commom sense dictates that i can attach any lens or filters that has a 58mm thread. am i right? thanks! (i'm looking at buying a polarizing filter and a set of +1, +2, +4 diopter lenses for macros)

also, what's a good name in filters. i'm looking around and hoya seems to pop up a lot. pretty good optics?

 

[MeanMeosh]

bump for an answer?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

You ought to be able to use standard filters. Hoya is common and ok. I would caution you to get a circular polarizer if you are going to buy one. The reason is that most autofocus systems will not work properly with linearly polarized filters.

 

[Sid59]

Hoya is a great brand. Im not too sure those polarizers work as well on digitals as with film. I would save money from buying a polarizer and do post processing in your digital editor (paint shop or photoshop).

Those macro diopter lenses are good but a good marco lens is better.

 

[shutterFly]

I'm not sure about the Sony but if it is standard, any 58mm filter should fit.

As far as brands, Hoya should be fine. B&W also seems to be pretty popular. You should probably get the multi-coated filters to reduce reflections as much as possible. You may not notice much of a difference except when in extreme conditions (into the sun, stage lighting, etc).

 

[MeanMeosh]

this is what i bought. the f717 has a really good macro lens, and i'm hoping that both in combination will allow me to take better macro pictures (more magnification on macros would be nice).

the reason for a polarizer would by to make reflective objects transparant more than anything else. that is something that cannont be done via photoshop. that's the main purpose i would use it for.

after i add on external lenses, such as a telephoto lens, can it be used in combination with the existing zoom? how does the 717 recognize that an external lens has been added on and then focus through the addon? there's a conversion lens feature in the setup menu but it seems to disable macro shooting and zoom functions if set to on. can i use both the zooms in conjunction with each other if i buy a zoom lens (the only reason i'd do so is to have it in addition to the existing 5x zoom). i'm guessing the only way to do so is to focus both the built-in and external lens manually?

 

[shutterFly]

From what I understand, this model uses contrast detection for focusing so adding additional filters/lenses shouldn't impact focusing at all.

If you're adding a telephoto lens, it's probably a "tele-extender" with some fixed multiplier and would multiply whatever focal length you are at with the camera lens by it's factor.

I wasn't aware of any "zoom lens" with a variable multiplier you could screw on like you could a filter. If such a thing did exist, I would think it would work the same as a fixed multiplier would. Can you provide a link to what you had in mind?

 

[MeanMeosh]

Originally posted by: shutterFly
From what I understand, this model uses contrast detection for focusing so adding additional filters/lenses shouldn't impact focusing at all.

If you're adding a telephoto lens, it's probably a "tele-extender" with some fixed multiplier and would multiply whatever focal length you are at with the camera lens by it's factor.

I wasn't aware of any "zoom lens" with a variable multiplier you could screw on like you could a filter. If such a thing did exist, I would think it would work the same as a fixed multiplier would. Can you provide a link to what you had in mind?

hey... truth be told, i had no idea how the extender lenses worked. your post about the fixed multiplier makes sense. i just wasn't clear on the effect of adding on a telephoto lens, such as this one: link

the following sentence is what i think will happen if i use that lens. is this correct?: the minimum focus distance (non-macro mode) on the f717 is 50 cms. adding this lens would allow me take a picture at 50 cms that looked like it was taken from 29.4 cms (50 / 1.7)? is that right?

thanks for being patient and not blowing up at my stupidity in this regard =)

 

[shutterFly]

Sorry for the late reply...

Hmm, some background about focal length, subject distance, etc. may help... There are basically two factors in determining how large/small the subject appears in a photo: Focal length and Subject-to-camera distance. Focal length is, in your case, 38-190mm. You can think of the zoom capabilities of a lens as sort of a "cropping tool". For example, a shot taken at 50mm of a certain subject will have a certain field of view on a 4x6" photo. If you stand in the same place and zoom the lens to 100mm, the photo will look like you "cropped" out the outer edges of the frame and blew up whatever remained to the same 4x6" thus making the subject look bigger. This does not have the same effect as moving closer to the subject since if you did, you will be affecting the perspective of the photo. Now take the same 50mm lens and move closer to the subject so it appears just as big as it did in the 100mm photo... the size of the subject may be the same as the 100mm photo but size of the subject in relation to other things in the photo will change.

So to answer your question about your statement, it's sort of correct. Adding a 1.7 magnifier like the one you linked to would just increase whatever focal length you are at by a factor of 1.7 so the subject would be bigger. But it would not yield the same photo as cutting the distance from the subject by a factor of 1.7.

However, since I don't know much about the Sony and the add-on lens except from what I've read on the internet, take all of this with the proverbial grain of salt. The above is my attempt at a translation from the SLR world.

Hope this helps...