Can everyone who has infinity focus issues state how old their GH2 model is? This might prove to be good info to determine if camera age has an effect on the infinity focusing.

Also, it appears as though their system had an error with my email and UPS causing me not to be notified of shipment. Since I didn't hear anything I asked for it to be cancelled. He now says, even with the admission of the error, that I can send it right back to them, pay for shipping of course and no more than a 20% restocking fee! Are they f*#@king kidding? They admitted a problem and still expect the customer to pay over $100 for the return? There's a problem here and Andrew is watching these boards. I would suggest nobody orders this lens until they can try it out on their own camera.

Andrew emailed me and he said that since the GH2 is a prosumer camera, that it's mount is not built add well as the AF100. The mount comes loose and causes all the problems. So what I get out of that is that the Noktor lens we made for professional cameras only. He said after every person who claimed of focus sent the camera back to panasonic to be repaired, the lenses worked. Sounds weird to me. Anyone here have to send their GH2 back? They also said that they shouldn't have to warn GH2 users about this. Andrew likened it to telling someone who buys a car that they need to change the oil. Not a very customer support response and kind of off base if you ask me.

Just some thoughts:

I wonder if this infinity focus problem is more of a not-perfectly-alligned-glas-elements-problem. If one side is worse than the other....tilt shift lenses come to mind (the plane of sharp focus is crossing the sensor, not beeing parallel to it). If one of the several glas elements in the lens are not perfectly in line and perfectly parallel to the sensor, one will get a good infinity focus in one spot but not the rest of the picture. If the lens is only tested with one process/machine (e.g. with laserbeams) the result might be "good" without giving proper focus when taking a real picture. Some other effects decribed here point in the same direction (black corners,..).

I send the Slr magic back as a D.O.A , they tested the lens and had no infinity focus problem. Is Noktor right and is it a GH2 problem? I phone them tomorrow to ask on which camera they tested the lens. They want to send me another Slr but I'm not sure if I want the lens.

yes, with tracking number and all

dream_beam, i believe you have every right to a FULL refund, there should be no cost to you if the manufacturer has admitted the lens will not be sold again as it doesn't operate as it should.

I for one will be steering clear of anything SLRmagic in future.

@crazypete, yuck! That is not good for something this expensive. The Tokina 11-16 doesn't have this problem at all! Yes, it's fastest speed is 2.8 but it's great wide open! I sent an email to Noktor 2 days ago canceling my order but still haven't heard back. Hopefully I won't get the cold shoulder trying to get my money back. Also, I would love to see what the $80 step-up ring looks like. They claim most other manufactures don't work but I ordered a $5 one and I don't see how it could get any more low profile!

@dream_beam I've gotten the same answer from SLR Magic, that any problems with focusing to infinity are the fault of the camera. That the mounting springs aren't tight enough (the lens certainly feels tight on my mount). That if I had an AF100 then I wouldn't have any problems because that camera is built to professional standards... I experience the focus to infinity issue on both a GH2 and an Olympus E-PL2. The only other time I've seen something similar was when using a cheap adaptor for FD mount lenses - a better adapter fixed the problem.

@vicharris at this point, I do think your money would be better spent elsewhere. If you can find a brick and mortar store that carries this lens then perhaps you can try several copies and see for yourself or at least have an easier route for return as @dream_beam suggested. Buying direct from SLR Magic just seems like a roll of the dice in terms of what you'll get and I'm regretting it.

SLR Magic is going to switch lenses with me and I hope that I will get a good copy the second time around. I am paying still more in postage which pisses me off but to make up for it, they have offer to throw in free of charge their step-up ring - a claimed $80 value (I can only shake my head)... They are switching lenses with me not because I was able to convince them that the lack of focus at infinity was an issue worthy of their concern but because I showed them something else that they say they have never seen before. When I stop my lens down to T8-T11 the upper right and left corners go black when shooting in 4:3 format.

Test pictures taken on my E-PL2, ISO 200, shutter speed adjusted to obtain similar exposure between T1.6 and T11, NR set to off. Lens focused to infinity. It seems to me that the left side of the image is far worse than the right at T1.6 and T2. T2.8 looks the best to me. It may just have been a shift in the clouds or a flutter of the leaves with the wind but T2.8 also seems to have the best colors of the lot. Look at the upper corners darkening from T5.6 to T11.

To make the aperture scale and the distance scale increment or decrement in the same direction... like many other manual lenses.

@dream_beam So now after months they are telling people that the user has to calibrate a lens for a system they made it for? How come non of the other lenses out there have this problem? Do they say how to calibrate the lens?

It seems like there's a split of 50/50 about this lens. I understand it's a bit soft and that's the appeal for cine work, which is all I do, but I'm starting to wonder if it's too much of a gamble in terms of craftsmanship. Mine is supposed to ship in a week. We'll see if that happens. My main question, is that $550 better spent somewhere else like the Tokina 11-16 or putting it towards the Voigtlander 17.5? Hopefully everyone that has received one lately can chime in about any real world video testing they've done. Thanks!

Hi @RawB. That's interesting about the clockwise and counter clockwise focusing. As for what iso you should do your test shots at, I think you should try to mimic your intended use. I agree that your brick wall picture looks to be focused between the nearest patch of sun light and the vertical painted brick. Do you think your focus is even across the lens? I've noticed that when focusing to infinity, with my lens the left side of the image is worse than the right side. I'll post some pictures tomorrow.