Canon A640 ?'s

[AZ ChopperCam]

ok... for those of you shoot with the A640.

How does a wide angle converter attach? are there threads? or just slips over?

how do you trigger one? servo or some form of electronic interface?

I'm ready to buy a 10mp point and shoot but want to be able to run a wide converter and would like to trigger electronicaly.

[AZ ChopperCam]

ok... I just searched some old posts and remembered hearing about the Blip switch.... so now my question is how does a wide converter attach??

[askman]

blip has usb switch, which works well. for wide angle, you need to talk to gary. :)

[enigma]

is there a usb switch for sonys?

[askman]

usb switch is supposed to work with certain Digicam/usb standard. contact blip.com.au and ask. I am not sure. it does cost a bit, but nice product nonetheless.

[GGoodrum]

To use the wide angle lens convertor there is an adapter piece you need as well. The adapter attaches into the body and the lens screws into the adapter. The camera's lens doesn't actually make physical contact with either. When you turn the camera on, the lens zooms out, inside the adapter piece, and is positioned right in front of the wide angle lens.

I haven't played with a "Blip". I'll have to check that out. I just use a servo, which I have attached to the camera frame in the mount.

[AZ ChopperCam]

just ordered my A640, lens adapter and .66x wide converter. Should arrive by the end of the week. Looking forward to getting to shootin' with it!

[dreslism]

just ordered my A640, lens adapter and .66x wide converter. Should arrive by the end of the week. Looking forward to getting to shootin' with it!

So what exactly are these parts and where did you get them from?

"lens adapter and .66x"

Thanks

[AZ ChopperCam]

got them at BHPhoto. The lens adapter is a housing that encases the lens of the camera. The housing attaches at the camera via a bayonet style mount once the trim ring is removed. The other end of the housing has a 58mm thread for various 58mm accessories. The great thing about it is it allows for larger glass than most point and shoots so I'm guessing that while using a wide converter the edges won't get as fuzzy and they might normally get. Albeit at the cost of weight. This camera will end up being almost twice as heavy as my Nikon L1 but the Logo10 is underloaded as is now anyway.

[dreslism]

Cool, so the .66x wide converter does NOT have to be a "Canon"?

It can just be a 58mm threaded accessory?

[AeroMattics]

Here is a good link with samples from different wide angle lenses that work on the A600 series cameras. Some lenses require the 58mm adaptor and some require the 52mm adaptor.

http://www.lensmateonline.com/newsite/A620A610wide.html

[AZ ChopperCam]

Cool, so the .66x wide converter does NOT have to be a "Canon"?

It can just be a 58mm threaded accessory?

pretty much... results may vary but any 58mm accessory will thread on or with proper steup up/down rings you can mix/match.

[GGoodrum]

I was up in Santa Barbara over Thanksgiving and I had some time to play with my A640/wide-angle lens combo, both in my Logo 10 with the panning mount, and on my WonderPole setup. I'm still playing with optimizing the setup for panos (FOV, number of shots, amount of overlap, stitching options, etc...), but I am very happy with the output this combo provides. The individual shots are clear and distortion-free.

The part number for the Canon lens adapter is LA-DC58F. You need to make sure you get the "F" version, as there are several other DC58 variants for other models. The Canon wide-angle lens I use is the WC-DC58N. I believe the magnification is .7x. With lenses, it has been my experience that you get what you pay for. :) I'm sure other lenses will also work, but at least with this one, I know it works well. I also have a Raynox 185-degree fisheye lens that works great as well, but it is very heavy and the whole assembly ends up being about 10 inches long.

For doing panos, the wider angle lens you use, the less overlapping shots you need to take, but you end up with less detail and more distortion, which means it is harder to get the stitching just right. Believe me, this is truly an art, and I can see why it has taken Tabb a year to perfect his process. I hope it won't take me as long, but I'm not quite there just yet. :)

-- Gary

[AZ ChopperCam]

here's what I ordered.

Raynox RAHD6600P58
HD-6600 Pro 58mm 0.66x High Quality Wide Angle Converter Lens


Canon CALADC58F
LA-DC58F Lens Adapter for Powershot A610 & A620 Digital Cameras

I've had nice results with Raynox lenses on video cameras so I'm curious to see how it works with the A640

[GGoodrum]

That should work quite well. I too have been happy with the quality of the Raynox lenses. Here's a shot of what the Raynox 185-degree fisheye lens looks like on the Logo 10 mount:

http://www.tppacks.com/photos/PanLG-04.jpg


It is actually about 7 inches long not 10, like I said above (that was on my Sony a100...), but it is a bit heavier than I wanted to go with the Logo 10 and 500 blades. Nonetheless, it takes pretty good pics, with minimal flaring and distortion. As I said, though, for panos I want to get the same sort of detail that Tabb's excelent work has, so using a fisheye lens doesn't really help because you still need more pixels, which means more shots. Also, once you really get in and start playing with the stitching software, you find that minimizing lens distortion will make it much easier to get the stitching "just right".

As I use these programs, my appreciation for what Tabb has been able to accomplish continues to grow. :) There are so many different factors that affect how well the "quilt" comes together, like lens distortion, how steady the platform remains (which affects how much the nodal point is moving around...), how much overlap there is between shots and how many pixels you have to work with, to name a few. You need about 30% overlap for best reslults, and that sort of drives everything else. There's a great tool for calculating FoV and coverage here: http://www.frankvanderpol.nl/fov_pan_calc.htm

With the A640 standard internal lens and the .7x wide-angle add-on, and the camera in the portrait orientation, you end up with a horizontal FoV of around 52 degrees and a vertical FoV of around 72 degrees. As you see in the calculator (use 35mm for the lens size, which is the full-size equivalent, and 143% for "Size utilization", which is 1/.7x...) in order to get 30% overlap with this lens and orientation, you need about 10 shots. One of the nice features about the A640 is that you can program the continuous shoot mode to take a specific number of shots for a single depression of the shutter button. That rate at which is is able to take continuous pictures is governed by the speed of the memory card you are using. I have a pretty fast 2 gb card in mine that allows the A640 to take one shot per second. I then just programmed a switch to have the mount rotate 360 degrees in 10 seconds. This part is pretty simple, but the "art" comes in the rest of the process. ;)

-- Gary

[ehx]

I got the Canon wide angle converter (WC-DC58N) for my A620. It's a quality lens and produces nice pictures, but since I'm not doing close shots or panos I really don't use it. If anyone is thinking about getting one I'll sell mine for $125 shipped with the LA-DC58F adapter or $105 for just the lens. It's in like new condition and fits the A610-A640 and similar Canon cameras.

[AZ ChopperCam]

arrived today. Damn I really like this camera. It's a bit heavier than my Nikon L1 but I think I can just power it from a small regulator off my flight pack. The side of the camera says 4.3vDC next to the power input but I am thinking a 5v regulator would work fine. It has 4 AA batteries which is 6.0v.. so long as the DC input goes through the same internal regulator I suspect it'll work.

I shot some test shots this afternoon in the back yard and I'm blown away with the sharpness and low noise. I shot the police chopper as he flew by. It was about 1/2 mile away and I zoomed all the way in. Upon looking at the shot on my 22" monitor I was able to read the N number on the fuse and a couple other markings. No way I could ever get that level of detail with the Nikon L1.

I'm going to rig it up with an HS-55 servo until I buy the Blip USB trigger. Should have some aerial shots with it by Sunday.

[dreslism]

arrived today. Damn I really like this camera. It's a bit heavier than my Nikon L1 but I think I can just power it from a small regulator off my flight pack. The side of the camera says 4.3vDC next to the power input but I am thinking a 5v regulator would work fine. It has 4 AA batteries which is 6.0v.. so long as the DC input goes through the same internal regulator I suspect it'll work.

I shot some test shots this afternoon in the back yard and I'm blown away with the sharpness and low noise. I shot the police chopper as he flew by. It was about 1/2 mile away and I zoomed all the way in. Upon looking at the shot on my 22" monitor I was able to read the N number on the fuse and a couple other markings. No way I could ever get that level of detail with the Nikon L1.

I'm going to rig it up with an HS-55 servo until I buy the Blip USB trigger. Should have some aerial shots with it by Sunday.

I run mine off the same 5 volts that powers my downlink no problems, saves 4 ounces and puts it very much in line with your nikon.

It is a nice camera. I tried out 7 different "pocket" cams between January and may of this year. They all went back and the A620 (all they had at the time) was what I kept. It has the best "glass" of any "pocket" cam.

DJ,

Just FYI, I have the blip usb thingy for my A620. I ***HATE*** servo triggers, so went with it.

You can run the blip usb with the camera in Tv(shutter priority), or Av (aperture priority, or (auto)

I take my ap shots in Tv mode with shutter set to 1/1000 with safety compensation in the menu, and vivid colors setting. This safety thing means it will always give me 1/1000 unless exposure will be underexposed, then it will drop back to just what it needs to to get the exposure. Works great during the day, and even at dusk, it only dropped down to 1/320 and pictures will still OK.

Oh yeah, you know how the continuous screams on that thing, like 2fps? With the blip cam you will be stuck at about 1- 1.3 seconds per shot. Which is OK for normal shooting, but if you're doing panos, it may limit your pan rate.

Just wanted to let you know about the blip before you buy one.

Oh yeah, one more thing, if you set your Tv settings that you like for AP, then do a save settings in the menu, it will save them to the 'C'ustom setting. So when you want to do AP, just put it on the C and your good to go.

I look forward to seeing some shots from yours. Wide angle too...

[AZ ChopperCam]

hey thanks Scott! great info. I was not aware of the blip fps issue. I may elect to not go with it if I start doing more panos.

I'm gonna spend the weekend reading the manual. This is the first non Nikon camera I have ever owned so I'm going to need to relearn a few things in the operation and menu settings.

[dreslism]

hey thanks Scott! great info. I was not aware of the blip fps issue. I may elect to not go with it if I start doing more panos.


I almost sent mine back because of that as he advertised as fast as the camera can take it. PUt that thing in continuous and hold the shutter and it screams till the card is full with no hickups. The blip will come to about 1 picture every 1.2 pictures. Actually for panos, it might work out OK. Any faster, and you will have to pan faster, and that may be too fast of a pan rate to snap pictures (remember doing it this way you will be taking picts "on the fly" as your panning, so too fast make make the heli unstable as balance will be thrown around, and too fast may blur your picts.

I'm gonna spend the weekend reading the manual. This is the first non Nikon camera I have ever owned so I'm going to need to relearn a few things in the operation and menu settings.

It was my first canon also, and I love(d) it enough to go and get a canon DSLR. :)


Get it in the air man!!

[GGoodrum]

One of the features of the 640 that is different than the 620 is that it has a programmable continuous shoot mode. You just engage the trigger once and then it takes how ever many shots you've selected, at whatever the speed the memory card will allow. I set mine to take 10 shots. With a fairly fast 2 gb card it takes one per second. So for a single press of the shutter it takes ten pictures in ten seconds.

-- Gary

[AZ ChopperCam]

got the camera ready to fly today. Made a servo trigger mount out of some scrap carbon. Attaches to the camera with a rubber band.

haven't shot aerial with it yet (tomorrow if it's not windy) but I did do some ground shooting with it.

[dreslism]

Yeah, that ain't so bad, eh DJ? :wink:

[rerazor]

Pretty!!!

[AZ ChopperCam]

shot this afternoon. still learning the camera but I can already tell it's leaps and bounds above the Nikon L1 (as it should be... the L1 is truly a consumer level P&S)