actually, they should just give one to me - [waits for the collective gasp.... especially those who know my stance on product reviews.... Honesty, no mercy... make a great product and impress me, and I'll will sing my tail off to praise you. make a crappy product, and... well you know me... it ain't gonna be pretty]

lol! Remember where you are - this is Thunderdome, and SLRMagic is listening, and will take the first man that screams.

The clamp cobbler sure is, however nonsensical it ultimately is.

SLRMagic is not Satan. They're one of the few companies out there that are actually trying to make products that we users want and care about. Why do we have to keep kicking them in the teeth over such BS? It's so freakin petty.

Members here are adults and if they choose to enter into such a program knowing the terms so be it. Let them decide for themselves and bear the responsibility for themselves. They don't need protection like children.

@endotoxic it's not the end my friend, you'll see! SLRMagic wants to figure this out too, if you have any ideas or suggestions to help with the anamorphic venture, you can PM them, they will hear you out!

Unfortunately, my suggestion doesn't address the problem of no-refund (but still good warranty), which is their current insurance policy against people 'test-driving' the earliest copies of their anamorphic lens. The issue: people who 'buy it' on credit with the full intention of returning it before paying interest on their credit card. This cost SLRMagic in the past, because often it adds wear and/or damage to a lens that is then sent back in for a full refund. For a small company like SLRMagic, I don't think they can realistically be expected to absorb these types of costs, they just don't have the huge sales figures that the big boys have to cover this type of situation, and they currently have no real way to resell a damaged or worn and used returned lenses.

This is the core of the issue that needs resolving for their early phase. Since they are exploring a new company venture (even, dare I say: pioneering it a bit), I think we want to help these guys not only stay alive, but grow. They can offer film makers a lot; I think it's amazing that they directly engage in conversation with their target demographic, so I think as a film makers community, we have the ability to help them navigate this.

@slrmagic I think we are mixing topics now.

I assume everybody here REALLY appreciated the fact you heard users opinions about your forthcoming product.

That's great, and that should always be the way a company works.

Here the complain is not about the quality of your products (Vitaliy went clearly off topic), nor the price, but the way your volounteer campaign is planned. Not allowing the return/refund and forcing to buy the whole set is not a good way of promoting the quality of your product!

If so many people are criticizing this market strategy there could be something true about it, right?

"People who are not sure about the actual quality should not join the program and wait till the lens goes on official sale where they can see samples from volunteer testers."

So does slrmagic consider to make any improvement to their product before going on sale? A volunteer should know before spending money. Besides that I appreciate we can speak to the company and have all the answears at any time. I perhaps will buy the 35mm lens and the adapter, but I think I will wait and see the results :)

@slrmagic @vitaly_kiselev my intention was only for general chat.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev Probably it was our issue.

Reviewers who send a passionate email about reviewing our lens with a big plan that turned out to be a scam.

We trusted the wrong reviewers. We learnt and moved on.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev We think you misunderstood what we meant. It was not about we did not demand to return any items reviewed.

It was about some reviewers not reviewing or responding to emails after they received the review unit in the past. Some even told us they have already sold the lens before they have even reviewed it. We do not plan on listing names of the people/reviewers who did this but the problem is not everyone cares to return items upon "demand". We are here in Hong Kong and they are in a different country. What do you suggest we can do?

We did not post a link here to be selling any lenses to be clear. Not sure why it was directed to us. @endotoxic copy and pasted a post on P-V and we did not tell @endotoxic to do so. Intention from @endotoxic seems to be discussion based as the starting statement for the thread opened was "This thread is dedicated to new product from SLR magic. The Anamorphic adapter 1,33x."

@Vitaliy_Kiselev We have been doing that since 2011 starting with the 12mm F1.6 volunteer tester program. In the beginning we offered review units to selected individuals and quite a few people just kept the lens and had no footage and some did not even bother to reply to email. This is very sad and they know who we are talking about. Back then we have a very limited budget to promote our first lenses and it is a very hard hit when reviewers just keep a lens without any review. Our tester program is not like promotional programs where people pass out flyers that does not need to be returned and can be kept for free. Because of these individuals who abused the tester program in the past, we only offer copies where testers buy the product. In this way, more people benefit from the offer as well rather than lets say 5-10 selected individuals.

Since testers are commenting on their experience with a product they actually paid for the reviews are kept very honest too. In the past we have lent lenses to a reviewer and ended up people said his review is biased as people think the reviewer gets paid to review. When the reviewer paid for their own copy of the lens, there is no pressure at all to comment honestly. Sometimes we get a good review and sometimes we get a bad review.

Some companies can afford to give out free review units and some companies can afford to loan out hundreds of review units for free at once. We are not that kind of company. We did not reserve such budget into the price of our lens as we want to keep it affordable.

People who are not sure about the actual quality should not join the program and wait till the lens goes on official sale where they can see samples from volunteer testers.