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Kowa USA - Torrance , CA ..... Road trip anyone?
  • 33 Replies sorted by
  • @TheMonk , sorry I forgot what this thread was originally about. Don't think Kowa has F0.95 lenses. I was originally interested in the 1" machine vision lenses, specifically these:

    http://www.kowa-usa.com/frontend/proddisp.asp?co=10000380

    They range from 8mm to 75mm and are all F1.4. WAY cheaper than the XC 4/3 lenses, but any lense they'd let you put on, go for it.
  • @zcream @CRFilms #FCGU

    Ordered the c-mount. Unfortunately, it'll get here right before Thanksgiving. I'll knock it out asap when I get back. I'll call Kowa and see if I can get on someone's good side to see what magic I can work!
  • So, no follow-up?

  • @P4INKiller I think we all forgot. @TheMonk did you get the lens and if so, how is it? If not or you didn't get it could you say why por favor?

  • We have worked really hard on this lens and we really hope the bashing of the 12mm 1.6 lens as a machine vision lens will end. We read some feel that it is a 8mm with telephoto adapter. Some say it is a 25mm with wide angle adapter. Some say it is the 12.5 CCTV featured in EOSHD website http://www.eoshd.com/content/tag/computar-12-5mm

    As you can see in that demo if you crop the GH2 sensor to 2.35:1 you will get slight vignetting only for the 12.5mm CCTV lens. However, our image coverage is way beyond that because we designed the lens from ground up due to feedback of mFT photographers. If anyone continue to buy these lenses for mFT they will just keep on wasting their money on lenses that do not cover the GH2 multi aspect sensor.

    We recently received many emails asking how our lens will perform on the BMCC mFT mount with 2.3x crop and we made a demo photo. We added the mFT frame of the OM-D and the multi aspect GH2 frame as well and you can see it is clearly not even close to the CCTV alternatives on the market.

    A short note to add. Some say it seems the lens almost cannot cover the sensor area. Actually the crops are suppose to be lower positioned. Helge from 3D-Kraft.de bought an adapter online to try our mFT lens on his NEX-7. The problem you see is due to adapter alignment and the opening is not perfectly centered.

    I hope this is clear for everyone and we get some credit for the hard work put into the SLR Magic 12mm 1.6 lens.

    Kind rgds., Andrew Chan Product Manager at SLR Magic

    BMC_12mm_CROP_3b.jpg
    6000 x 3376 - 2M
  • Sorry. I totally dropped the ball on this one! I'll try to make it down this week and report back.

  • @CRFilms @TheMonk

    You can try to contact Dan K on twitter. He made a trip to buy these lenses in Singapore to try only to find out:

    1) You need to special order it 2) It cost double the price of our lens at over $1K 3) The store manager told him it would not work and there will be focus issues and the mount won't fit and even if it does it will not cover the sensor.

    There is no need to make the trip. Just tell them your image sensor is 17.3mmx13mm on the GH2 and they will be able to tell you the 1" lens (12.8mmx 9.6mm) will never cover the sensor at 12mm angle of view. Our 12mm 1.6 is designed with the GH2 multi aspect ratio sensor in mind. There are 4/3 Machine Vision lenses BUT there is no electronic shutter mechanism inside of a Machine Camera and there is also no lens mount in the way. You will need to take your mFT lens mount off and also sand off your electronic shutter to have a large enough opening to even FIT 4/3 machine vision lenses into the GH2. Last but not least, the AF-100 has a built-in ND filter that does not allow lenses going into the lens mount. Lenses that can "fit" into the GH2 does not necessary work with the AF-100. The 12mm 1.6 is compatible with the AF-100 and will not cause any damages.

    However, if you still wish to make the trip it would probably be good for all as you can prove on all the points above.