Lenses and filters for wake footage

Well I'm new to miniDV cams, and it looks like I'll be getting a Canon ZR60 camcorder in the next week. It seems to be the most affordable decently featured camera around (eBay = $235+shippping - not bad!).

My question is this - for a video newbie like myself, are there any mandatory or at the least, very helpful extra lenses and/or filters to have on hand? I'll be shooting from the boat 99% of the time.

A little list of necessary or helpful lenses and filters, what they do, and a good quality, but not too pricey brand suggestion (with $ amount) would be great.

Thanks in advance.

Get a UV or Sky filter if nothing else to protect your lens. Polarizers and ND filters are useful for outdoor shooting also. tiffen makes good filters that are reasonably priced. the ND cuts down on the amount of light coming through the lens giving you more aperature and shutter speed latitude. The polarizer cuts down on certain types of reflection/glare off the water.

Thanks a lot, Rich. Where is the best place to get Tiffen filters and what should I expect to pay for the UV and ND filters?

I was looking on eBay for some Tiffin filters, and saw that they go by a size in millimeters. How do I find out what size the Canon ZR60 is? I'm thinking that this is the lens diameter??

Okay, I just found out that the ZR60 has an odd 30.5mm lens size that finding filters may be tough and could be pricey.

Is the ZR60 still a good choice for what I'm looking to spend (on ebay)?

Alright, I've done some more research and found that the mm size is the threads on the lens that will fit filters and external lenses.

And I also found the B&H website and I think I'm going to get a couple of Tiffen Filters there.

A couple of final questions:

Is it worth it to spend $25-30 on a B+W filter, or should I just go with the Tiffen for $12?

What is the difference between the following (what do the numbers mean and what is the effect)????

30.5mm Neutral Density (ND) 0.9 (8x) 103 Glass Filter
30.5mm Neutral Density (ND) 0.6 (4x) 102 Glass Filter
30.5mm Neutral Density (ND) 0.3 (2x) 101 Glass Filter

Thanks for the help.

Don't waste your $ on B&W filters for a ZR60, you won't see any difference. The 2x etc designates how much light is cut down in f stops I believe or some porportion thereof. The 4x is probably a good all around one. Unless you're going to use the camera settings manually an ND isn't going to do anything apparant to you. It's just going to force the cam to open the aperature up or slow the shutter speed down. Get a UV filter also and use that whenever you don't have another filter on it. did you check out Tiffen's Website?

No, I haven't gone to Tiffen's site - only to B&H where some are sold. I'll check it out though.

Looks like I'm going to go with the deal that B&H has - a UV and an ND filter for $15. Not bad.

Thanks for the input (and for saving me some cash!).



(Message edited by tparider on February 25, 2004)

Tiffen has a really good site with info and examples of what all their different filters do. Yep, you can't go wrong with B&H - none of the NY bait and switch and a good place to check baseline price.