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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

SLR Magic APO HyperPrime mini review

paulcurtis said:
Here're are some more comparisons.

I am putting together a video with focus pulls in because actually i realised how they can show characteristics in a way that stills can't - for example the green/magenta fringing as edges go out of focus is evident front and centre. That will probably be tomorrow.

This time set up indoors, it's way more controlled without the sun and so the contrast is much lower - it's an easy shot for all lenses so at this stage we're nitpicking really. First up with the 25mm and i'm comparing the 25 APO, the Sigma Art 24-35mm and the Leica 24.

And apologies for very easily seasons greetings... :)

Then there's a comparison of native colour and then one with them all balanced to neutral.

Now the Sigma looks great actually, much nicer than Leica or Contax. The 25 APO is the weakest of the lenses i feel. Even so personally i feel it has a slightly smoother feel than the sigma (when i'm looking at the focus pull, the stills don't really show this as much). I've also usually found that Zooms show a quicker focus drop off than primes. I think this is evident as well.

But the sigma is very good - i don't know how representative the 24-35 is to the rest of the range though. I found the 50 art i tried once to be sharper/more fringy.

Also gotta say that when i took the APO off i found a great big fingerprint on the rear element - so this would affect the images to some degree...

Leica24mm%20Checker%20f2.8%20half%20A002_C083_01016X.0000212.jpg


Art24mm%20Checker%20f2.8%20half%20A002_C084_01016H.0000199.jpg


APO25%20CHecker%20T2.1%20half%20A002_C082_0101TT.0000460.jpg


Colour balance. So these APOs really are quite different. I've been trying to work out whether there's a benefit to this at all, green being a more sensitive colour than the others but nope. It's very easy to balance out though.

25mm%20comparison%20unbalanced.jpg


25mm%20comparison%20balanced.jpg


So next up is the 50 then the 85 - these show more differences

cheers
Paul
Click to expand...


Paul, thanks for this!

Just looking at the images on the thread, I almost would say the 25mm APO looks the best personally. I'm not sure if it's the contrast or the style, but there's a nice pleasing look / image to it. Vs the Sigma which seems more aggressive on the contrast. Maybe it's just the tint that's providing that?
 
Final set with the 85 APO and the Contax 85 which is a really good version of this.

Because of the ninja aperture in the Contax i feel that it looses out on smoothness. Again you can see this quite clearly both as an overall feeling and if you look in detail. Then pulling focus the edges show the colour changes clearly - i will post a movie tomorrow when i get a chance to put it all together.

APO then Contax but you should be able to tell by now

APO85%20A002_C089_0101X0.0000189_half.jpg


85%20Contax%20checker%20A002_C090_0101TQ.0000177_half.jpg


Then with focus on the decoration

85APO%20Decoration%20A002_C089_0101X0.0000364_half.jpg


85%20Contax%20Decoration%20A002_C090_0101TQ.0000302_half.jpg


The APO 85 has a bit of barrel distortion although the Contax is very 'planar' compared to other 85s too.

cheers
Paul
 
Matt stambaugh said:
Paul, thanks for this!

Just looking at the images on the thread, I almost would say the 25mm APO looks the best personally. I'm not sure if it's the contrast or the style, but there's a nice pleasing look / image to it. Vs the Sigma which seems more aggressive on the contrast. Maybe it's just the tint that's providing that?
Click to expand...

I agree, it's quite a personal thing but it's probably a balance between contrast and look. The tint can be balanced out so i think more contrast. I think the 25 wide open can flare quite nicely but not in an intrusive way. IMHO of course.

Now you need to get the 85 which i really love

cheers
Paul
 
John Brawley said:
Summicron-C
I haven't really shot the sigma very much. Just one job.
I will say the Sigma are very sharp and very well corrected from what I can see.

I like the APO's, because they DO have character, it's just very subtle. They're a "soft" lens, meaning I guess a lower contrast look to what they do.

Sigma's are a bit more...plain ? With more contrast ?

JB
Click to expand...

John,

You are in Atlanta and my buddy Tim Daust is in ATL, would you consider getting together
and doing a quick test with the APO, Summicron-c and whatever else Tim can cook up??

Curtis
 
Curtis boggs said:
John,

You are in Atlanta and my buddy Tim Daust is in ATL, would you consider getting together
and doing a quick test with the APO, Summicron-c and whatever else Tim can cook up??

Curtis
Click to expand...

I can get the Summicron-Cs to put them up against.
 
pretty massive looking color shift in the uncorrected frames

are they really that much different?

Curtis
 
Curtis boggs said:
pretty massive looking color shift in the uncorrected frames

are they really that much different?

Curtis
Click to expand...

Unless i've made some god awful cockup then yes, they are that different (but the three lenses matching). I'm 99% sure i've not made any mistakes. The 25 did originally have the SLR Magic Enhancing filter on but i'd taken that off and i couldn't see any major differences through it anyway.

That scene intentionally has lots of mixed lighting, from tungsten to daylight and then a flexled panel at 4200.

I don't know what causes that, whether it's the coatings or glass and i don't know what the design reason or justification for it is either. I've seen some pretty green lenses before so it's not totally unique. I'd love to know.

If as mentioned above, the guys can get together and side by side with Summicron-Cs then that would be another reference to judge by and would validate (or invalidate) my hunch that i feel they share some kind of look DNA.

Funnily enough i actually quite like the tint, warmer and i've often felt that some of the others are a little too magenta but again that's just personal preference. One of the first things i tend to do in correction is take down the magenta...

I think i will see in RedCine whether it is just a simple tint slider adjustment or whether the differences are more subtle. Certainly white balancing the stills in photoshop neutralises it 100%.

I'm aiming to cut the rack focuses today so i can demonstrate what i see with fringing and moving image

cheers
Paul
 
Very cool John, .. Tim is all for it and I actually might drive down for this too.

Curtia
 
It's wild how little information there is on these.

Do they come with the EF adaptors?

I'm deeply considering the Sigma's, but the price on these makes them very interesting. I'd love to rent them and try them out.
 
BrandonChristensen said:
It's wild how little information there is on these.

Do they come with the EF adaptors?

I'm deeply considering the Sigma's, but the price on these makes them very interesting. I'd love to rent them and try them out.
Click to expand...

The PL to EF adapters are $700.

Theoretically, you just buy one, not one for each lens.
 
It's quite possible that regular PL to EF adapters work with the lenses.

C7 adapters lists: "SLR Magic ANAMORPHOT-CINE 35mm/50mm/70mm" compatibility with his PL to EF adapter.

I own one and it's really nicely made but I don't own the SLR Magic Lenses (yet? :D).
 
So last weekend I threw together a quick test at the studio I'm currently shooting at.

I have three sets of lenses, I've labeled them A, B and C. One of these are the SLR Magic primes, and then there are two other lens families of the same focal lengths (ish). Anyone care to guess which are which ?

I have some DNG's available which I'll share in a little while, but keen to see how people respond to this clip first. SOme shooting details in the description.

https://vimeo.com/johnbrawley/review/246930283/9d6d30c5d2


JB
 
They all looked good. Which is which?

I felt like A flared the craziest so it's probably SLR Magic but I'm basing that on absolutely nothing.
 
Hi John,
The C flares beautifully but the lens has some breathing and CA on the wide. The B flares the worst but breathes the minimum, CA not evident. The A flares are evident too but better than B, CA evident on the wide and there is a little breathing too. Guess the C's are CP3 lenses.
 
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