Sanyo VCP-L04FU 0.4X Semi Fisheye Adapter Lens

Comments about Sanyo VCP-L04FU 0.4X Semi Fisheye Adapter Lens:

Received the adapter lens from B&H and put it to immediate usage shooting an infomercial for a local manufacturer w/my Sanyo HD1010.The adapter vignettes at the camera's widest lens setting; zooming to 1.2X setting eliminates the problem shooting video. Have NOT tried the adapter to record JPG stills, yet.Panned the camera for a shot of factory supply materials and the result looked sharp and edge distortion was acceptable.Dropped the adapter with no apparent performance damage.Very happy with the purchase of this adapter lens [...]

Comments about Sanyo VCP-L04FU 0.4X Semi Fisheye Adapter Lens:

I purchased my Xacti HD2000 right before a trip to Ireland. I found out too late after going overseas that the widest angle of the camcorder was WAY too narrow to give a decent perspective on anything within 50 feet. The result was that for all my videos of castles, cathedrals, etc., in order to see the whole thing, I had to constantly pan up and down, left and right. What a pain! All my video is dizzying with the movement, and the narrow view makes the image very sensitive to minor motion.
Looking for a solution, I had to choose between the 0.7x and 0.4x fisheye. I figured I would rather be a little too "wide" than too narrow, so I went with the 0.4x.
It is not perfect (see the issues listed below), but I have been very pleased with the results overall.
If you think of the field of view of the camera in terms of "square footage", like your image without the lens might capture a 16' wide by 9' tall wall from 25' away (roughly), with the 0.4x lens you would capture about 50' x 18' of the same wall, or about quadruple the "square footage".
At its widest setting, the "fish-eye-ness" distortion is notable but not offensive. Zooming in just a little bit lets you adjust it to taste so it is at an acceptable level.
As far as the physical side is concerned, the screw-on lens does add some bulk and weight to the camera, but heck, it is so compact anyway I do not find it a problem. It still fits in the side-pocket of my pocket pants, and the tiny bit if extra bulk is a small price to pay to get the right field of view. I only wish I had bought it before going to Ireland.
The shortcomings of the lens are noted in most other reviews, but I will mention them here for thoroughness.
Black "ring": At its "widest" zoom, there is a noticeable circular band which is the outer edge of the lens barrel (on the top-left corner of the viewfinder it is about 1/4") Zooming in just a tiny bit makes it go away, but takes you up to maybe 0.5x. Interestingly, this band is off center, so it is nearly non-existent on the right, but very obvious on the left. Go figure.
Blurring at higher zoom: The blurring noted in other reviews is real. After zooming beyond about 30%-40% on the little zoom bar scale the image looks blurry and almost milky. At the lower zoom levels the image looks fine (even on my 1080P 42" HDTV), so it is fine for the wide-angle usage I bought it for.
Lens threads: I make a point of buying a protective filter for all my lenses, but the threads on the zoom lens take a 42mm filter. Looking around, I see a 43mm and a 41mm, but no 42mm. I have not finished my quest, but find it very peculiar that they would make threads that are so odd.
Lens cap: It comes with a somewhat loosely fitted friction-fit rubbery lens cap, but with no tether and no clipping mechanism that catches the inside threads of the lens (like the Xacti lens cover), you are bound to lose it eventually.
All in all, I am extremely pleased with the performance of the lens within the range I bought to use it. It will be no good for zoom shots, but it adds flexibility to the camera that I desperately needed. I can live with all the shortcomings, and have some slight concern in the long term that screwing the lens on & off may wear out the threads eventually, but by that time they will probably have SuperHD that makes the Xacti look like the old 16 color CGA screens on the original PC's.

Comments about Sanyo VCP-L04FU 0.4X Semi Fisheye Adapter Lens:

When the camera is set at 1.0x zoom level, there is a visible black ring around the corners, which disappears when you zoom in to about 1.2x. This makes the effective wide-angle factor to be around 0.5x instead of 0.4x if you don't want the black ring. Empirically speaking, when the zoom is set to around 2.3x, it cancels out the wide-angle.

When the zoom increases past 4x with this adapter on, it begins to show very visible blurring in the picture. It could make a very interesting artistic effect, but you probably want to avoid zooming with the adapter on.

This adapter makes indoor shooting possible. The wide-angle also covers more similar area the eyes cover when the video is projected on a big screen, and I personally find the resulting HD video more pleasant to watch.

This adapter comes in two parts. The concave lens can be detached from the convex (magnifying) lens, and the magnifying lens can be used for macro shooting, which in reality is very microscopic.