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12mm f/1.6 Noktor
  • 739 Replies sorted by
  • peternappeternap

    @vicharris I'm watching this thread closely but I think they've lost a customer anyway. I don't need more shoddy customer support. BTW, this is the exact reason I refuse to deal with a company that doesn't accept AmEx, If you have this kind of trouble, just let them take care of it. I had to do it once and the company gave AmEx the same S. AmEx just pulled the money out of their account. They had already refunded me.

  • RawBRawB

    Contacted the person who tested the lens and asked him for the test pictures and asked on which body he did the test. His answer: did't save the images and forgot what camera I used. Pffff.....

  • vicharrisvicharris

    @RawB, was this at Noktor?

  • RawBRawB

    @vicharris No, this was not Noktor, it was cameranu.nl , great services, no extra costs or what so ever. I call this person tomorrow, maybe he can test again, this time on a gh2 and another camera.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    There are many fast wide lenses out there, e.g. the Oly 12 F2.0 or 14(-35) F2.0 - which is heavy as hell and does foucs to infinity without problems

    Don't know about your lenses, but 14mm and 20mm I have both focus well past infinity, so they can't have such problems by default.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    I'm wondering if I should just refuse service, get my money back from my credit card company and spend that $550 somewhere else?

  • DirkVoorhoeveDirkVoorhoeve

    @rawB of you are close to Zeeland and get a new one we could test on my gh2 and also on af100...

  • vicharrisvicharris

    Ok, don't have much time right now but just got the lens in. One things for sure, they ship fast as hell! Or the fact that I asked for a refund might have made them pretty much overnight it from China. Anyways on a VERY basic and rough test, it looks ok. But I need to record some challenging stuff and check it out on my monitor. I'll post as soon as I do. One thing I will say for sure and am pretty pissed at. They pressure you into that damn $50 step up adapter by telling you that it will be $80 if not purchased with the lens, BS Andrew Chan!!!!!!! BS!!!!! I bought a $5 dollar one off of Ebay, S&W photo accessory is the brand and it works perfect! It's the 58-77 step up and I have a Lightcraft Fader ND on it and it works perfectly. So that alone tells you something about this company. The fact they charge $50-$80 for a $5 adapter. Really hope I don't have a reworked $550 CCTV lens.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @vicharris

    SLR magic send me some strange email concerning vingetting. Don't really know that they don't like, I think they don't like you presonally :-). Suggested them to respond here in public as their current marketing is just crap.

  • RawBRawB

    @DirkVoorhoeve I am about 165km away from Zeeland, in Hilversum, not so close... A test on both camera's is what we need right now. Hopefully CameraNu.nl can do this test on both camera's.

    CameraNu.nl will send me another Slr 12mm, If I still have focus problems on my GH2 I can return it, free of posting cost. On my request they gonna test the new lens on a GH2 before sending it to me.

    @vicharris For a quick infinity focus test, I used manual focus assist.

    Update: Message from Panasonic - Update the firmware. - Setup, enable use without lens.

  • dtrdtr

    I'm in Rotterdam, with a GH2 and noktor 12mm. If useful, I'm up for getting together for a comparative test.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    Well, just woke up and shot a few more quick things. Transcoding now. So far it looks pretty good. The build quality is damn good too! Feels like a tank and it's smooth. Not sure if this is how CCTV lenses feel. I really don't use them and so far no problems with that step up either. Andrew told me they make the lenses focus a little past infinity now to prevent these problems. As for Noktor, besides them not informing me of shipping and the unfriendly return policy, Andrew has been in communication with me daily about my concerns and damn that shipping was fast. 2-3 days from China! That's a good sign but I'll talk to him about that step up ring deal. He says a studio sent him the test results of the problems with some adapters. That's probably true but charging people $50-$80 for a $1 part kinda sucks.

  • dtrdtr

    Andrew told me they make the lenses focus a little past infinity now to prevent these problems.

    So they do acknowledge the problem?

  • nomadnomad

    Seems so. BTW, most lenses go a tad beyond infinity to compensate for variations by temperature. Wide angle is difficult – while they have a deeper DOF in front, the flange distance is more critical.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    Yep, my Tokina and Rokinon I've purchased recently all do that so it's nothing to be alarmed at.

  • dtrdtr

    Yep, my Tokina and Rokinon I've purchased recently all do that so it's nothing to be alarmed at.

    Sounds like the alarming thing is that noktor didn't do it until people started complaining...

  • vicharrisvicharris

    So here's a quick upload. Setting: 24P with Orion CBR Hack, F4.0 I think, 50 shutter and 160 ISO. I'll have to upload it to Vimeo so people can pull the original down but I should have some more up. Have to run off to Cine Gear now.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    Oh and set right at infinity. Still had a little room to go if I needed it.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    Talked to the Pana guys at the expo today. First, they were amazed at the lens. Never seen it before. They asked me to come in next week and test it on the AF100. Second, he thought it was a little loose. Not sure if I remember that when I first put it on but I do have a little bit of a shift now. Downloading 20gbs of footage now. Hopefully there's something usable for testing there. Handheld, in a crowd, in the sun is not the ideal environment for testing but from what I see in the view finder and focus assist, I was able to focus pretty damn far.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    Here's a quick screenshot from Paramount today. Looks pretty damn good to me.

    Screen shot 2012-06-01 at 9.13.28 PM.png
    849 x 497 - 651K
  • RawBRawB

    @vicharris "what I see in the view finder and focus assist, I was able to focus pretty damn far."

    Looks like you're a winner!

  • CrazyPeteCrazyPete

    @vicharris You're picture and video are closer to what I was expecting from this lens. Nice to know that some of them are pretty good. I am expecting the exchanged lens to come early next week, fingers crossed and hoping for a good copy.

  • RawBRawB

    @vicharris , is your gh2 in original firmware ? Don't think this can make a difference on focus.

    Andrew told me they make the lenses focus a little past infinity now to prevent these problems.

    Think this is possible to do at home?

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @RawB

    As I remember, it is possible adjusting screws.

    P.S. We are using Markdown for formatting, look how to quote :-)

  • vicharrisvicharris

    @RawB Nope, I'm running Orion V4 CBR. Going to post the footage I took at Cine Gear as another test soon. My handheld sucks ass with this little camera though! So far though, I might have to eat crow and apologize to Andrew! I love the look of this lens and it's little imperfections.

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