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12mm f/1.6 Noktor
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  • @labalbi Well you have all native mft electric, sharp lenses there. You will notice a change if you try to edit them together. It's just the way it is. The SLR will cut with older glass, Voight and I'm sure others that I don't know about much better than your other glass. I did a resort promo shoot that's up on Vimeo and used the SLR12mm, Rokinon 85mm Cine and for some night stuff, the Pany 20mm. Since the 20mm shots where at night and all cut by themselves, it's not apparent but I can see a difference with the 12mm and 85mm stuff cut together. The Rokinon is much sharper but I wasn't using the 12mm for sharpness. I was using it for flares and it's organic properties.

    On the other hand, I might just be too sensitive and most people might not know. My girlfriend never sees the difference in stuff like that and I always ask her to compare shots and she just looks at me like I'm a dumbass! :)

  • @vicharris. Great comments ! Today I have the 14-140 , 14 mm , 25 mm and the 45 mm . I was saving money to buy the slr magic 12mm for the looks and I am very concerned about how the lens will cut with my lenses. You just enlighted me a lot ...the bad side of the 14mm is that its only f 2.5 . So maybe its a good idea to sell it to pick the 12 mm oly...but this lens costs a lot more than the 17 mm from oly !!! So I was thinking too to sell the 14 mm to get the oly 17 mm to use with my GH3 . Anyway I CANT find the slr magic available in the major stores in US ( Amazon, Bh and Adorama) . I have a few days to decide what to do ´cos I live in Brazil where those lenses are not sold and I have a friend of mine in Orlando that will bring the lens or the lenses for me ...I am trying to achieve that cinematic look ...thanks for your support here !

  • @tenjin You're already mixing lenses so who cares. If you're going to use the Voight and one of the electric, overly sharp mft lenses, it doesn't matter. If you are going to be shooting people, you will see the difference in the skin tones for sure. I only mix the native mft electric lenses with glass like the Voight and SLR if it's my only solution. For example if I need IS for some odd shot. For what reason do you want the SLR 12mm? Is it just for a wider shot? If so, I'd say save your money. Do you want to unique look and cool flares? Well then that's the lens you need to get. What's the subject of your shoot? Talking heads? Cats? Artistic landscapes? This is where you'll get your answer. I'd say you prob have all you need in the 14, 20 and 45 to shoot what you want. The 20 is a great low light lens and sharper at 1.7 than the 12mm is at say, maybe up to 2.8 or maybe even 4. I could be wrong there. If you're really worried about a wide angle, you could get the adapter for your 14mm. They're pretty cheap but it won't be that great for night.

  • where we can find this lens available in US ? Thanks

  • @tenjin I use the Voigtlander 25mm with the 12mm and they match up quite easily with only minor corrections. The SLR is a bit more yellow and with less saturation/contrast but the same mojo is there.

  • as i said I don't plan on using all of them, some of them I bought for photography.

    I really want to use the voigtlander obviously, then I thought I will use the fisheye for a couple of shots, the olympus 45 and the pancakes 20 and 14... what do you guys think? Does the SLR fit into this? Do you really think it's "bad" to use such different lenses for the same project? I could see if I could use some of the budget to rent other lenses if it's better... please let me know.

  • Well, you're kind of all over the place there with lenses so I don't think it really matters.

  • thanks for your replies. I talked about these 2 lenses because of close focal length. Here's what I have: pany 14-140 (old version), olympus 45mm, voigtlander 25, samyang fisheye, nikkor 85mm 1.8, minolta rokkor-x 50mm 1.4, MC Mir-24 2/35mm and Helios 44M 58. And as i said the pany 14mm and 20mm.

    I dont plan to shoot with all of them, as you said I want to have consistent "look". But of course I have to use different focal length so... I will of course do postproduction as it is my "main job" with directing.

    So what "setup" are you guys recommending regarding what I have so far? Does the SLR would cut in? If the difference in wideness between 12 and 14 isn't that big I may keep the cash for something else. Thanks!

  • I think the bigger question is what look you are going for. There's no way that SLR12mm is going to cut with that Pany14mm and prob not the 20mm. They are completely different looks. So if those are you only other two lenses I wouldn't buy the SLR. If you're going to be shooting alot outside I would go for the 14-140 to match. Just my 2 cents :)

  • Well, it's like the difference between 24mm and 28mm on a photographic FF…

  • I have a shooting for a personal project scheduled for this fall. I'm wondering if i should buy this SLR lens... I already have pany 20mm and 14mm but I might find the focal length with GH2 and especially GH3 may not be wide enough... Is there a big difference between 12mm and 14mm on GH2/3 ? I don't know if it would be worth to buy it. Thanks for your advice.

  • I just posted an edge to edge sharpness test with this lens, the Rokinon 16mm and the Tokina 11-16 lens in the Rokinon/Samyang 16mm thread. Didn't want to repost here and take up server space.

  • This lens will eventually force me to eat my tie. Earlier I was so much pessimistic about 12mm SLR magic due to extremely bad copy received initially. You may easily find my earlier posts above where I suggested to stay away ftom it. After some period of time I ordered it again in anticipation of BMDPCC release. The order was placed with a dealer, not directly. Again bad copy. Another attempt with the same dealer who agreed to substitute the lens was succesfull. Although the third copy still has some minor mechanical issues the image is very much pleasant. Nowadays, this lens stays with GH2 95% of my shooting time. So, please make sure that you have a possibility to choose from several copies of the lens at the moment of purchase. The lens is amazing for GH2 provided a good copy is obtained.

  • My bad, I thought there was the beta, the 1st version (with more flare) and the 2nd with about ~30% or so.

  • What version 2? Why do you people keep talking about 2 versions. It's all the same glass, they just snapped a gear on it. Yep, it's official, the search function must not be working on PV.

  • Are the flares the only difference between the 1st and 2nd version?

  • This was shot a few weeks back using the 12mm exclusively. I have a step up ring and a 72mm 0.9ND filter from Tiffen, adding a bit of vignetting. I meant to showcase some of the lens characteristics and flares, which in my opinion are absolutely amazing with this lens. I have the panasonic/leica 25mm f1.4 also, but I rarely ever use it anymore since I got the 12mm. The focal length is great for all kinds of fun stuff and everything just looks really good with it on.

    hope you enjoy!

  • @jfilmmaker That's hard for me to say man. Look for that old Fun at the Santa Monica Pier video I posted in this thread. It was all shot at 1.6-2.0. Judge for yourself there. Everyone is different but it is soft wide open but I kinda like it. If I want tack sharp I go with my Pany 20 1.7

  • @vicharris I know you showed me this lens, but, what's your thoughts @ 1.6, wide open, night time, in terms of focusing towards infinity. Is there decent enough sharpness on the background to have buildings decently enough rendered for a 1080P feature film/doc, or am I stuck at F2.0, or beyond? thx!

  • Yep, said many times, I've made a lot of money from this lens. I've completely done a 180 on my opinions of this one. Great for shooting night exteriors mounted to the side of a car where you need a fast, wide lens. Car headlight and street light flares look awesome on it, IMO.

  • bought a used from a guy in my country. He ensured that it was fine - and so it was. Nice lens and which was charged off quite soon

  • I've had it for a couple of months, no problems so far. Nice wide lens.

  • I would love to buy this lens..but since I live in Brazil and I cant afford sending the lens back and forth to US to replace/fix ...I am giving up ...many reports of problems make this one a unreliable piece of glass ...or am I being a little harsh ?

  • Update: after sending in my lens for the second time all I got was a lousy comment: company apparently can't meet my quality standards (not being satisfied with either a wobbly lens or unsmooth focussing) and will cancel my purchase. Only I have to pay for the shipping costs. My complains about the copy have been turned down without any further explanation for the second time, even though the latter copy I got didn't show the first one's limitations. Long story short:

    I'm left with no lens, a shitload of wasted time and anger plus probably around 15€ for the shipping (still haven't heard from the seller how much it is going to be exactly).

    My conclusion: can't recommend buying this lens from Foto Walser respectively off german ebay (the guy actually only forwards your order to Foto Walser). I strongly suspect them of selling old copies (from the first, apparently more faulty batch) / previously returned lenses as new ones.

  • I'm currently thinking about adding a zip gear to the aperture ring somehow...