I’m trying to get video of a stationary subject from about 30 miles away. I bought a pretty cheap camcorder just for this, a $150ish 78x optical zoom standard def one. I got a few good night and day versions with just the camcorder, but wanted to get closer. There are no add-on lenses like tele or wide angle made for this camcorder that I know of, and I highly doubt there are since there’s no threads or even a part that sticks out so a add-on lens that uses rubber to snug fit can be used. the front is just flat and doesn’t take add-on lenses.
I bought a $20ish 2X tele add-on lens and tried taping it on. When the camcorder’s not using zoomed, everything’s about 2X closer/zoomed. When I zoom with the camcorder, everything gets blurred. I figured this is because the optical lens moving closer to the incompatible tele lens is making the two lenses too close and that’s not how they would work. So, I super glued a big rubber band to the tele lens to secure it to the camera and allow me to shim the tele lens with little wooden shims to see if moving the tele lens further from the camera’s optical lens when at 78X would create the right distance and allow for the tele lens to work. That didn’t work- same thing, it just blurrs and doesn’t even look like it’s zoomed further. Am I doing it wrong and the tele lens should be closer to the camcorder’s lens as it moves forward as I zoom? Only way I could see getting the tele lens closer to the camcorder’s is taking the tele lenses out of its frame and securing just the glass lenses to the front of the camcorder.
I’m trying to get a ton of zoom for cheap obviously. I kind of gave up on it, 78X optical is good enough, but mostly just wondering. Thanks