SLR Magic Microprimes | LONG TERM REVIEW | The good, the bad, and the inconsistent.
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- Опубліковано 23 чер 2023
- I've been using my 12mm, 25mm, 50mm, and 75mm SLR Magic Microprimes for well over a year, and in that time I've gotten to know them quite well. What are their pros? Their cons? The characteristics of the optics? How well do they match each other? All of that and more, in this long term review.
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I really liked this review. Not too long. Not too short. Covered all the points we care about. I particularly appreciate now knowing about the lack of dust and weather sealing. I honestly hadn’t considered that because it comes so standard now.
Before watching this review, I purchased one, (50mm f/1.4) and the flaring is just yucky IMO. It’s too much and too broad and instead of having a nice feeling, it gives a bleh feeling. I’m gonna fiddle with it some more but your video has helped me a lot! Thanks!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
I typically stop the 50mm and 75mm down to between T2 and T4. They clean up quite nicely, and don't have as much glare. Wide open I fully agree with you, they get quite soft and very flare-heavy. I've sold the 25mm at this point, and am still debating whether I want to replace it with the 35mm or the newer 21mm. Time for me to look at some reviews myself!
/Tom
ohhh, on their site it says the 25mm Microprime is "finally back." that makes me cautiously optimistic they fixed it... otherwise why would it have been MIA?
I think that colour transmission is the most surprising thing of all…! Crazy different! Do you think that’s because the newer range has a different coating or something? Or do you reckon the previous owner did something to the lens to change it?
I imagine it's a coating thing of sorts. Same with the bizarro flaring situation it's got going, it really feels like something went wrong in manufacturing here. I did actually reach out to SLR Magic's customer support at one point, but they weren't particularly helpful, just pointed me to a user group on Facebook 🤨
/Tom
these are just so aggressively priced, couldn't believe they were FF at first, bc they're so fast, barely any FF cine lenses exist in the price range, much less at those T stops... i'd love to see the APO Microprimes up against the E-mount's... as it stands I'm looking at picking up either an SLR magic apo microprime or a Dulens apo mini, the dulens are a bit cheaper, but i plan on waiting for their new T1.9 lineup, which will prob be priced similarly to the apo microprime.. i spoiled myself w a voigtlander 65mm apo lanthar; much as i know the term apo's being thrown around loosely these days as a mktg gimmick, coma's the biggest issue i tend to have w any lens, i'd prefer sth be soft than heavily plagued w it... wish there were a way for me to test the apo vs the e-mount, but the site's unclear re any sort of return window. the refurb page talks about a 30-day "warranty," and states it's the same as their new products, but if that's not a return window, and rather a genuine warranty, then that's so short that it's a bit troubling lol.. never heard of a 30-day warranty for much of anything. oh well, I'll stop rambling.
do you have much experience w other cine lenses? and what's min focusing distance, if you don't mind me asking? thx for the review!
Hey, good ramble :p That Voigtlander looks pretty spectacular, I'll be honest. Voigtlander makes some cool lenses for X-mount as well, I've been contemplating their 27mm pancake lens for travel purposes for a while...
Anway, I'm not very experienced with other Cine lenses beyond my SLR Magics and the Samyangs we use for our BlackMagic cameras, we've got a similar range of vocal lenghts of those. I'll admit I haven't done as much pixel peeping with them as the SLR Magics, but on a practical level they're just about as nice to work with.
As for focus distance, I'm not sure about the exact numbers, but I can confidently say that they're nothing to write home about. With the exception of the 12mm, which does focus super close, I do find myself bumping into the hard stop of the focus rings from time to time, and having to back up a bit. They also all display quite significant focus breathing. I personally don't mind it, but it is good to be aware of.
Interesting that the 25mm is becoming available again. I've talked a bit with SLR Magic's customer support about the issues I'm having with my old one, and as far as I can make out I've just stumbled across a dud. They aren't able to reproduce my flaring issue and didn't have much to say about the warm colour transmission. I'm gonna try and have a chat with the user group on Facebook to see if anyone else has run into similar issues.
Cheers!
/Tom