SLR Magic APO lenses

[John Brawley]

Here's a little update Andrew from SLR Magic has allowed me to share. I want to share as much as I can remember from my phone call with Andrew so hopefully it's relevant to those of you who are interested in these lenses.

For anyone going to NAB, Andrew will have a booth and will be there. I invite anyone interested in these lenses to go see them. Andrew is a very knowledgeable and open guy and he really love to talk lenses. He cares about his products and making them the best they can be. They have some pretty cool announcements for NAB, whcih I won't share, but he's what I can...

Here's a picture of a pre-production 32mm lens.

www.flickr.com/photos/johnbrawley/40047075535

I haven't shot with this copy yet, but this means SLR Magic are very close to going into production with this lens. I imagine he'll announce shipping at NAB. After this they're working on the 18mm and the 135mm to fill out the set.

I also received an updated version of the 25mm to replace my copy. It developed an issue with the focus bumping sometimes at close focus and Andrew tells me he's totally updated the helicoil design and has already updated a few customers copies. Anyone who sees this issue should be able to arrange to have it fixed. I didn't want to let go of my 25mm as I was in the middle of a job so he's sent me a second one and I'm now sending mine back.

What's cool is that SLR Magic went and immediately addressed the issue and have re-designed the lens to make sure it doesn't happen again. I've just finished a 6 month TV series using them day in and day out and this has been the only issue with them, even though they've been on prestons / motors with clamp on's all this time.

I recently did a blind comparison between Zeiss CP2's, Panavision Primos and SLR Magic APO primes.  See if you can see which is which here.  Don't read the description if you want to try and guess which you like most. 

After that are some clips from a series I did which are all SLR Magic APO prime shots.

 

 

https://youtu.be/s6fFUCSZzOg

(everything except super macro shots which were Cp2 50mm macro)

www.flickr.com/photos/johnbrawley/40047076045

Andrew also sent me copies of their new E mount, MFT and EF adaptors.

www.flickr.com/photos/johnbrawley/40941422171
www.flickr.com/photos/johnbrawley/40047075035

This means you can use your APO primes on any of the above mounts and with the SLR Magic adaptors they've kept the tolerances very tight so the witness marks should line up perfectly without having to actually re-shim the mounts / lenses, though you can do that if you need to.

As a bit of a surprise, Andrew also sent me some brand new ND filters that he's been working on. 

Many would already be familiar with the Variable ND's they make, which many rate as one of the best made and offering very good IR protection as well. Some of you may know I shoot a lot of MFT lenses on Olympus, DJI and Blackmagic MFT cameras so I use a lot of smaller lenses with screw in ND's.

Lately I've mostly been using the Hoya / Kenko PRO screw in ND's as they seem the most neutral. Andrew tells me he decided to make these after he decided to buy some Hoya Pros for his own work and was firstly forced to buy them from three different countries because no one stocked the full set and he THEN found that the deeper stop copies had more than 2/3 of a stop variation in exposure from where they should be.

Well SLR Magic have done their own take on ND filters. They've aimed to be less than 1/3 of a stop variation and to sell them together as full sets. 

They make a set of N3, N6, N9, N1.2 and N1.5 (1-5 stops) and a second box of N1.8, N2.1, N2.4, N2.7 and N3.0 (6-10 stops) and each set is only $399. Pretty decent deal.

I don't want to come off as a shrill, but I really like what these guys are doing and I especially like how responsive they are to feedback from us that use these lenses. In lieu of them having better marketing I'll try to let as many know as I can about what they're up to.

JB

 

[IronFilm]

Oh wow, I didn't realise you're shooting "The Resident"! I'm watching every episode. 

[DBounce]

Interesting test in the first video, but I have to say I early on I ranked them from best to worst C, B and A. Was  not surprised to learn that the SLR Magic was A. I'm not knocking it, I have SLR Magic products. But it's not that hard to spot the difference at this level.

[Stanley]

Just like to mention that I've had the SLR Vari ND mk2 for 12 months now because of John Brawley, and love it. No colour cast to mention, and no focus loss at extreme focal lengths around 1,000-1,500mm, and the adjustment to polarising is a blessing for me as I mostly shoot surfing. Thanks JB.

[Stanley]

Here's a test of the SLR Magic Vari ND MK 2 I did in the field if anyone is thinking of getting a reasonably priced good Vari ND. Mistake in titles as ETR should read ETC.