@vicharris Why is buying from us the biggest mistake you made? I suggested the lens gear to you because it is now available and many AF-100 users find it very useful. @thougts2uk has our lens gear and he find it very useful as well.

We received many requests to make a lens gear for our 12mm 1.6 lens as strap on or zip on solutions are cumbersome. We discussed with many cinematographers to come up with this design. @Vitaliy_Kiselev knows we intended to make this gear since a year ago and it takes time to get feedback and made changes to the design. It is extremely sad to read comments such as our gear is taken off an old clock radio for 29 cents.

If you are so unsatisfied with the lens you received even after months of use I would buy it back from you for the price you bought the lens from us personally as long as you cover for the shipping cost with mail tracking.

There was another case where @Vitaliy_Kiselev quoted negative comments from another forum on us. The two beta testers would complain about us until he get their money back so after two and a half months I bought the lens directly from them and now they are not complaining anymore. With their case they bought a $10,000 lens since 18 months ago so when it arrived they wanted a refund for the HyperPrime 50mm T0.95 lens as they do not need two lenses. It was made clear sales to beta testers are final and we can only service the lens for them but they choose the route to complain all over forums till they get their money back after playing with the lens for 2.5 months. For your case it is due to us not being able to cancel your order as we have processed the shipping to you already. If you send us an order cancellation request immediately we can help you. However, due to time difference if you respond a day later we have already processed the order. I do not want you to continue to be upset and complain about our company or directly towards me like a personal attack so I will offer to buy the lens back from you if that makes you feel better about the situation but there is no need to have a personal attack on me on every Noktor 12mm f/1.6 tread page. Please send a paypal request for the amount we charged you with 14 days. If we do business that terribly there would be more people here complaining about us. I hope we can end the complaints on your lens purchase this way.

Kind rgds., Andrew

@vicharris thanks for you time doing the pictures. I will try it again, in my first attempt it didn't get the FF close enough to the gear ring. Actually I an at home and I cannot try it until the day after tomorrow. Maybe the rewo cage was causing the issue, I cant remember anymore. I helped myself with a filter wrench

Try to get it from a shop where you can test and return it.

@vicharris It's a cheap one I bought from thecinecity/Proaim (these indian guys), I wouldn't recommend it but it's okay for starters. I completely moved away from matte boxes for now because of the high 4x4 filter prices and incompatibility with my lenses that extend when being focussed or are simply too wide, like the 12mm Noktor.

@vicharris and others who are curios:

I already posted my setup here:

http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/42763#Comment_42763

@peaceonearth Anything SLR makes as an add on is the biggest rip off if you ask me. PERIOD. I'm using a cheap india FF and it works just fine. I'm going to pick up the lanparte or trustmt soon from here since mine has turned to shit though. I say Andrew and SLR is out to rip people off because I emailed him with a concern I had about my lens and he said oh well, he hasn't seen this problem, then offered to sell me one of their overpriced gears. This is already after having a conversation with him about the insanely overpriced step-up ring they make and he told me he didn't know of any other cheap alternative and this is what his engineers came up with. It took me 2 min on amazon or ebay, I can't remember which to find exactly what they sell for $8. I know companies are out to make money but their practices are really disappointing to me. Sorry about that rant!

Anyways, I'll post a pick of my setup to help you out or maybe @Pechente can too. I'm using gears similar to the lanparte but they are $10 each. I buy them for all my lens'

buy the SLR Magic lens gear. It's a special fit and works brilliantly with the Lanparte FF.

Just got back from Budapest and Prague where I was playing with this lens wide open. Here's a few raw screen shots of some night stuff. I guess it's a fun $500 play lens!

Selling my SLR Magic 12mm f1.6 with original box and receipt. Used for a few shoots, original condition. $100 less than retail my friends. PM me if interested.

...looks like they found an oversized gear from an old clock radio ( 29 cents) and selling it for $80

They just posted a picture of the gear on Twitter

https://p.twimg.com/AybbM9lCQAAeuKF.jpg:large

It seems to cover the marking, that's quite bad.

They confirmed the 80$ price tag in a reply to me. I also asked why they don't make their lenses with built-in gears right out of the box, that's what they said "The gears increase the lens price for photographers so it is made as optional" - I find it strange. Probably another term for "we can't make money from accessory gears if they are built-in"

Quite expensive at $80 but is an interesting design, fits perfect and built like a rock. Will put up a picture later next week. I will be putting it to the test this week on a short film shoot and will post my opinion too.

Just received my new SLR Magic Lens Gear. Great quality, heavy and robust. I will post pictures and let you know how I get on with it next week after my shoot.