Brand new Century Optics MK1

on monday my mk1 finally came in. I've seen videos other people made about there new lens so i decided to add a new addition to it. i bought it on ebay from hot-digital for 754.75$ so now i can finally start to properly film the P.I.G. Mafia video

[@thepigpod]

i like the 1000 more cause of how vivid and warm the colors are and how comfortable it is to film with but its good to have the 2000 when filming in low light.

[@danielschiffer]

amazing set up! do you still use it? do you recommend it?

[@musicvision31]

OMG! the distortion of this lens is just SICK! it's exactly the same when you put a Baby Death on a TRV900.

[@Phoen1xfilms15]

you honsetly have the nicest looking mk1 ive ever seen, the vig is percfect on every corner

[@thepigpod]

@akokalela well the point of a bayo mount is to eliminate the need for threaded rings. that lens will fit with a larger bayo ring or you can mod the original ring by filing it out.

[@thepigpod]

the 1000 the day colors are amazing, its more comfortable to film with for some reason and its what the mk1 was made for.

[@thepigpod]

i had to wait an extra 3 because it was sent to my friends house. it came on friday but he wasn't there to sign for it so they rescheduled for monday. that day in school was the slowest day EVER!

[@thepigpod]

i spent 1200$ on mine it was in perfect condition. the more money you spend the nicer it looks and it was the most expensive one i could find.

[@thepigpod]

i heard good thing about the 1000 from a few filmiers and that most people prefer the 1000 over the 2000 so i decided to get one myself. they were right the colors on a 1000 are warmer and more vivid, the audio is clearer than the 2000, you get the option of an mk1, plus its easier to set up and more comfortable to film with.

[@alfredonski]

youre lucky man. i friend of mine used to live in barcelona and now lives in Puerto Rico. he says the spots over there are Hella Tight!!! good luck with your filming!

[@skateemerica134]

thats were im gettin mine. i just sold my dvx and i cant wait to get my new setup!

[@thepigpod]

@Supercirca12 on the lens and the ring you'll two little yellow dots, they need to be lined up before putting the thing on. when you put the lens on turn it clockwise till it stops there should be very little resistance between the lens and camera when doing this. now hold on to the bayo ring keeping it stationary while turning the lens half clockwise some more. since the bayo ring is threaded onto the lens doing this makes the space between the lens and ring thinner clamping it to your vx.

[@thepigpod]

@TheRoundysLab these don't have a thread size its bayonet mounted. mk1s usually come with the bayo mount for vx1000s. if you find one the seller will almost always tell you if its the vx1 mount in the description.

[@thepigpod]

pretty much every day and its one of the best setups I've ever gotten my hands on.

[@thepigpod]

a bayo mount is the other option when it comes to mounting a lens to your camera. instead of threads its this big ring that has 3 slots it fits on the mount that the lens hood is held on with. it just locks in place.

[@tkaz123]

sick. im glad you're really into this filming thing. for most people, its just a fade or a fad. little kids flauting it around the park not knowing shit about filming. enough about that. even with the transition to HD slowing taking over with skateboarding videography, for some reason i feel the vx1k can't be beat just because of what it brings to the table in terms for its capabilities video and audio wise.

[@thepigpod]

it actually doesn't matter what kind of capture cam you buy as long as it has a fire wire. the play back looks the same on every one. i have a jvc gr-d850u cost around 300$ when i got it.

[@thepigpod]

no i use both of them it just depends what the lighting is like cause the vx1000 is good in bright light and the vx2000 is good in low light. look on ebay they have tons of um there.

[@thepigpod]

yeah i know. the lens came in and i wanted to record the moment but i forgot the 2000 didn't have a tape in it so i looked all over and found one in my back pack that i took from my media class.

[@thepigpod]

thats pretty cool at least you know it wasn't used for skating before.

[@DeepSociety]

this lens is wonderful. i love it

[@thepigpod]

@akokalela yeah sort of the bayo mount is designed to fit on 1000s its only the thread size thats 52mm

[@thepigpod]

i took a lens out of a box and put it on my camera thus making this an unboxing video. the point being i showed you what i got and to help people decide if they want one too.

[@thepigpod]

they make two century optics .3 ultra fisheye adapters for sd cameras the mk1 and the mk2. the mk1 is for the vx1000 but you can mod the bayo mount to fit the 2000 or the 2100. the mk2 is designed to fit the 2100 and the 2000 but its not as wide and distorted as the mk1.

[@thepigpod]

i like the 1000 the colors on that thing are amazing.

[@thepigpod]

i love the vx1000 its just so easy to film with. that vx1000 just blew out but im already half way to a new one.

[@thepigpod]

for brand new it was a really good deal they usually go for 950$. b&h from what i remember is 80$ more than where i got mine from but b&h always has them in stock. hot-digital you gota hope for stock on that lens they eventually get it but it takes a while.

[@thepigpod]

its not that bad almost every vx1000 has off center vig. the most common is when its all on the left or the right and i hate how that looks its very distracting. before i bought this lens i was worried it was gona be one of those but i can live with the way mine turned out.

[@thepigpod]

Ive messed around with a 2100 before. i love the handle its taller with the record under my thumb and the huge viewfinder. also the thing is dark grey i don't like the silver of the 2000 but thats where the differences end. the colors on the 2000 and the 2100 are almost identical the only image difference is that you can film in a little less light. i still have to go with the 1000 on colors. the only sony camera Ive seen that recreates the 1000's colors is the hvr-z1u my dream camera

[@Blueday851]

good to hear bro. Keep the nice footy comin.

[@musicvision31]

haha! thanks for your help, i'm seriously looking for a vx2100 and i think this cam is perfect for me: very good colors, big viewfinder, zoom and record button on the handle the only problem, i must wait^^ im going to work and get some money to pay this with an opteka death lens and some spacers ! i think it's perfect.

[@thepigpod]

yup. i like the name sd is the true look of skateboarding.

[@thepigpod]

they were discontinued in 2000 when the vx2000 came out but vx1000 are still for sale everywhere they were built to last. check ebay i guarantee you'll find more than 10 for sale on there alone.

[@thepigpod]

ha yeah thats good to know but its gona be a long time before i go hd. when i do though im going all out to get both options cause ive never liked cameras that only film to a hard drive or memory cards i would use the memory card as a back up to the tapes. i love having a permanent archive of what ive filmed. my collection of tapes goes all the way back to 2001.

[@thepigpod]

my 2000 is for night filming which isn't all that much but that 1000 has been used non stop for the last 3 years. it broke on me before, some minor glitches like audio visual stuff and 3 major ones. blew the microphone off loose ccd cables and the chip blew that distributes power to everything. ive fully ripped it apart and reassembled it multiple times. late august was its sixth tear down. although i got it working perfect again i want one that has way less hours and is virgin to skate filming.

[@thepigpod]

yeah im still running the vx1k mk1 set up its hard to beat. i just recently got the opteka for my vx2k so now i can do some more night filming. one of these days im going to get the z5u one of sony's best its like the colors of the 1000 and the low light capability of the 2000 mixed in with hd quality. its gona be a while though since it costs over 6 grand.

[@DCSk8er529]

the 2000 is good for a spare cam just incase somthing happens to the 1000. like when the pic got blown out in ur vid my blown out vx1000. pretty impressive u managed to fix it urself.

[@BIGmedia7]

@thepigpod thanks man.i just ordered tht along with a MK1. MK1 From BH, And the VX from xia.

[@thepigpod]

on ebay from a small camera store in new york and they were trying to get rid of the rest of their mk1s. i think they had about 8 at the time but they sold out fast and they stopped restocking them afterwards.

[@musicvision31]

yeah, the Xtreme fisheye HD lens but its not very wide i have seen some tests, its the problem of HD, but you can use the Z5u in 16/9 to film shots with longlens and in 4/3 to film with fisheye for lines and others ;)

[@alfredonski]

i would say the vx1. the daylight colors are just excelent. and for recording at night, just by the light for it. im going to get a vx1 on august. there's this company in ebay sells them cheap. and in good conditions and if it breaks they fix em.

[@thepigpod]

I'm not sure about a 58mm thread but I've seen mk1's that came with a vx2000 bayo mount. lens was a little bigger than the 1000 version so it would have less vig on the 2000. there very rare I've only seen one on ebay in 2 years.

[@thepigpod]

mine was new from a camera store in new york as well definately not as huge as b&h but it did cost 740$ the extra 14$ was for shipping

[@thepigpod]

the vx1000. the colors are amazing, its cheaper, the things a tank and the mk1 is designed to work on this thing. you can put the mk1 on a 2000 but you get more vig. it comes with a viewfinder i think you mean the flip screen personally i very rarely use the screen on the 2000 i just check the viewfinder every once in a while to see if its focused. eventually you know what the camera is seeing at the end of your hand making the side screen a waste of battery.

[@thepigpod]

I like the 1000 more the day colors are amazing thats why i got the lens that only fits the 1000 first. but at night the 2000 is king. the colors on that thing are perfect in low light. Im saving for an mk2 right now so i can film at night more.

[@thepigpod]

@Vi3tSk8r i think your talking about the lens hood. it doesn't screw on its bayomounted.

[@thepigpod]

@sid9571 yeah thats what i use to do a long time ago. you need a 52-58mm step up ring.

[@thepigpod]

i like the vx1000 more nothing beats the colors on that thing. the only problem is it looses its amazing color in low light so i try to film in the day as much as possible. but when we do film in low light i use the 2000 that thing has colors close to the 1000 and keeps them in very low light. if you have any other questions look at ruchskate1's page. i just answered a shit load of questions for him about the vx1000 and the vx2000.

[@thepigpod]

@sk84acauze its a much simpler way of putting the lens on. instead of screwing the lens on which runs the risk of you cross threading the cameras plastic lens mount you just pop it on and twist it a quarter turn after that its fully mounted. its a lot faster too.

[@thepigpod]

it depends on the lighting. the 2000 is very good in artificial and low light settings where as the 1000 is very good in sunny bright light. if i filmed this on a sunny day the 2000s colors would look bleached while the 1000 would have warm bright colors. when i filmed this it was much darker than the video made it look.

[@thepigpod]

yup it doesn't matter what mode its in if your watching it through the camera your messing up the heads.

[@thepigpod]

that could work but i don't need another one now. i got the vx1000 to work perfect again and i fully payed off the car. everybody wins!

[@thepigpod]

you can film with the 1000 at night its just that the 2000 needs less light so its easier. the bayo ring on the mk1 is screwed on and i dont want to change the ring every time i want to film with a different camera. plus you cant beat the vx1000's colors there very accurate and vivid compared to 2000 whose colors are just very accurate so i just leave the mk1 on the 1000 and use that at night until i can get my mk2. the mooch mini edit shows the 1000 at night

[@SGKproductions09]

thanks for the tip. i have a panasonic sdr -26, but i wanna step my game up to a better camera similar to a vx but cheaper.

[@WhiteLabelRoor]

You probably already know this by now since this vid is a year old, but your'e supposed to twist the small back part of the lens with the first yellow dot til it stops moving THEN twist the front with the actual lens part it to tighten it. Anyways, sick setup, i used to have the same cam and lens, but i kinda stopped using it so i sold it to a friend.

[@thepigpod]

the lens on a 1000 is smaller than the 2000 so it doesn't get as much vig. you can set the colors how you want but the 1000's default settings are perfect so you dont need to do all that much to get the best picture. ive tried to set my 2000 to match a 1000 but it never looks the same.

[@thepigpod]

I don't remember what I did with this video to get it that hair bigger than normal. This is one of the first videos I made with fcp and I was just messing around with the different settings to see what worked better and I accidentally tweaked the ratio as well. I wish I could remember what I did since this video is a true 4:3 ratio like what you see in the viewfinder.

[@thepigpod]

now a days they only make the mk1 that fits on a vx1000. they use to make one for the 2000 it was slightly bigger so it had less vig on a 2000 than a modded vx1k version but they discontinued the vx2k version a long time ago for some stupid reason. there very rare so you shuld be safe when looking for the 1000 model.

[@thepigpod]

@akokalela its smaller. the 1000 is 52mm where as the 2000 and 2100 are 58mm

[@thepigpod]

yeah that'll work perfectly.

[@WhiteLabelRoor]

@thepigpod Oh, ok. Just making sure because when i first got my lens i didnt line up the yellow dots or twist the back. I just twisted the lens part. Then my older friend noticed and was like, "Holy shit! that thing is gonna fall off." And told me how to put it on correctly haha. Close call. But, yeah, neither. All the people i used to skate with kinda stopped skating so i didnt really film anymore. I only used my camera for like a year or two, then it just sat in my closet for like a year.

[@thepigpod]

i payed 1700$ but it was barely used and in perfect condition plus it was a few years back so the price is probably much lower now. im so use to the vx1000 that i haven't used the lcd screen on the 2000 in at least 2 years. it drains the battery twice as fast

[@thepigpod]

my grandpa when i was little. fixed my first tv when i was 7

[@mikemolakaigirl]

Thank u so much im getting the opteka .3x 58mm titanium fisheye series thanks

[@thepigpod]

damn thats lucky ive gota start browsing for a new vx1000 mine shorted out the other day.

[@JesseSk8B]

omg friggen sick i got an enviro with a clip on fisheye. u have a bad ass fisheye

[@thepigpod]

it might be dirty heads cause when i got mine there was no sound so i ran a cleaning tape through it and it worked. or the mic cable could of come undone thats happened to me before so just take off the handle then take off the mic to check all of the connections if it still doesn't work after that then the heads might be damaged.

[@ridekrOOked2]

i got my mk1 a week after you did on a monday too. it sucks cause you gotta wait an extra day cause they dont do deliveries on sunday.

[@thepigpod]

ive never used either of those programs but i have used a very early version of adobe premiere in high school and it was close to the same as final cut pro when it came to importing footage.

[@thepigpod]

its a century optics mk1 on a sony dcr vx1000. the camera on the computer tower is a sony dcr vx2000

[@thepigpod]

ive got a mac and they all work on one. for cheap maybe the trv900 its a 3ccd camera but you don't get the handle and the signature gold tinting that the vx1000 has.

[@thepigpod]

they have sentimental value to me i broke my ass saving up for them. ive brought those cameras with me everywhere for the last 3-4 years depending on which one and if i were to sell one it would be the same price i payed for it cause i'd go out and buy another one same day plus there in pretty much the same condition i got them in. the price hasn't gone down over the years for near perfect vx's on ebay. the vx2000 cost me 1650$ and the vx1000 cost 1150$ not including the shipping for either.

[@thepigpod]

@TheJohnnypskater i use final cut pro its an old version but it still works pretty well. i never really payed attention to how i set my cameras it all depends on what conditions im filming in. I just keep messing with the colors till they look perfect to me. the real trick is the way you export your file when the video is done. if you run a mac or have quicktime i can give you the steps i take to get the quality up.

[@CamHarap]

thats a beautiful lens

[@thepigpod]

i got both of them on ebay. my vx1000 was 1200$ but they can go as low as 700$ mine was so much cause it was refurbished and in perfect condition. the vx2000 was 1650$ also refurbished and in perfect condition. i bought the 2000 almost 4 years ago so their probably allot cheaper now.

[@musicvision31]

I read lots of things about camcorders and fisheyes for a long time now, so i know lots of things about it :)

[@CodyBaker12345]

century for sure

[@EnjoiYourMeal]

this is where i had to think about it. getting a camera that works with both p2 and tapes is all well and good but thats gonna cost you a hell of alot. i mean tapes are quite expensive and your gonna want at least 2 or 3 p2 cards which are about $350 for a 16 GB one. The camera ive got records onto SDHC cards which are just as good as p2 but its about $30 for a 16 GB one. this is what stopped me from buying a HVX200 (that and the price) haha

[@thepigpod]

yeah just keep saving took me a year to get both those cameras.

[@Brian.Gregorio]

wow u have 2 of the sam cams and the cetnruy looks nice

[@thepigpod]

damn i guess this song is gona be a mystery for ever.

[@skatemontages]

i know i wish they still made the intermediate, or if mabey if opteka made a mk1 clone that would be pretty sick to

[@thepigpod]

its a bayo. i was going to get a threaded one since it was cheaper but i found out that they give off more vig

[@thepigpod]

damn 3 years you beat me. it took me 7 months for the 2000 and 5 for the 1000.

[@thepigpod]

@sk84acauze you cant control the the position of the vig. the 1000 was never really ment to have fisheyes this wide put on them they didn't make these lenses when the camera came out so vig position wasn't an issue. as for the amount of vig it depends on what lens you get. the one i got here you cant adjust the amount cause its bayo mounted. you can mess with the vig on threaded lenses.

[@thepigpod]

@LIfbs i actually don't know that one. i checked the original box but it says nothing about that. i think the schneider site should have all the information you need on the mk1.

[@thepigpod]

its a 52mm thread and the opteka only came with a spacer ring the same size as the lens threads

[@thepigpod]

and that the 1000 has better colors its the reason that people prefer the 1000 over the 2000. when you put an mk1 on a 2000 you get more vig. the back lens on the mk1 is very small compared to the 2000's lens. this is why they should bring back the intermediate mk1 designed to fit the 2000 just as wide with very little vig.

[@thepigpod]

i payed 754.75$ for that lens and it was brand new. full price is 1000$. you're not gona find one any cheaper than 750$ unless its used and scratched cause there basically discontinued and getting harder to find new every day.

[@thepigpod]

yeah a 52-58mm step up ring and if its a 58mm then its a full size death lens the baby death is 37mm.

[@thepigpod]

i know it makes no sense. it would kind of make sense if it was the only option for the vx2000 since the mk1 only fits on a vx1000 unless modified but when the 2000 came out century made the mk1 intermediate and for some stupid reason discontinued it shortly after it came out.

[@thepigpod]

some guy on ebay that owns a store in new york. he use to have a ton but doesn't any more. i think they still sell them on b&h photo video.

[@thepigpod]

@hdsk81 1100$ it was a mint fully refurbished one so it cost a little extra.

[@thepigpod]

the 1000 for day filming, the 2000 for night filming, having two angles and a back up system incase one breaks. it was a good thing i have both of them cause last month the 1000 broke and i had to film that weekend so i used the 2000 until i had time to fix the 1000.

[@tkaz123]

you still have this setup? or have you upgraded since the purchase? but congratulations. getting new things in the mail, especially if you're anticipating it always puts me in a state of bliss.

[@blankbrian]

yeah i got a mk2 a lot of kids hate on them but i like it. if i were you i would get a opteka .43 there a really good cheap fisheye for like 40 bucks

[@thepigpod]

i also have a vx2000 it has a screen and they go for around 1350$. a dvx100 is around the same price and they have a screen too.

[@dgk02livin4him]

you can kinda because the veiwfinder is wide so you can see a little screen

[@thepigpod]

i never really noticed the difference between filming with a screen and with ought one cause when i film with the 2000 i leave the screen closed since ive become so used to the 1000. also when you have that fisheye on its very easy to film with no screen

[@thepigpod]

1000 all the way i love that camera and the other camera was a 2000.