SLR Magic APO HyperPrime mini review

[John David Pope]

Judge for yourself. Watch this without reading the text and see if you can tell which is which.

https://vimeo.com/246930283

I personally equate them to Primos more than Cooke’s.

I’ve had three lenses in daily use on Preston’s for months and they’ve been great. They’re very well made actually in my view.

SLR magic is a very small Hong Kong based company. English is their second language. They don’t really do marketing well. If that makes you uncomfortable then you should look to the more obvious brands.

On the other hand I know Andrew well because I simply started emailing him and asking questions.

They’ve always been very responsive to me.

They are adding a 32mm next and then a longer prime (135?) and an 18mm.

JB

Thank you, John.

 

[John David Pope]

It was only their website and their marketing, or lack thereof, that I was critical of and not their customer service. Glad to hear that they are responsive. I suppose I am just impatient. It has been 3 and a half years now since they released the 3 lens line with, to my knowledge, nothing yet definitive as to when the next lens will become available. At that pace it could easily be a decade until a full set of primes is made a reality, if ever. As is the case with the Zeiss Otus line, until a full set is available the appeal will be limited. If you only need the lenses for shooting interviews, then yeah, a 3 or 4 lens set is sufficient. Because I like what I see and read of the SLR Magic APO Hyperprime Cine lenses, I'd like there to be a full set.

Going back to the subject of marketing, the naming of the lenses is confusing seeing as SLR Magic also has lenses for MFT that are named "Hyperprime Cine". The only thing in the naming that differentiates the full-frame lenses from the MFT lenses is the "APO" part of the moniker. As a result it easy for someone to mistakenly think that the APO Hyperprime Cine lenses are MFT lenses only. If in researching the lenses the "APO" is omitted, by far most of the search returns you get are about the MFT lenses. So don't confuse the "SLR Magic Hyperprime Cine 50mm" for the "SLR Magic APO Magic Hyperprime Cine 50mm".

The company website ( the English version ) has no information whatsoever about the APO Hyperprime Cine lenses other than one photo of the 50mm. No description of the lenses. No marketing literature. No mention of there also being a 25mm and an 85mm. The website has a link to download a catalog of their products but, again, only the 50mm is listed. It is great that they answer an email inquiry in under 5 minutes. Now how about taking 5 minutes to update the catalog or make at least some mention of the other APO lenses on the website? I am aware that they are a small company and English is not the owner's first language. But the same is true for Celere, is it not? And Celere's website / marketing is much more thorough and polished. Just seems odd to go through all that it takes to engineer cinema lenses but then drop the ball on the easier stuff like putting a photo of the lenses on your website. Or even make any mention whatsoever of 2/3rds of the line that you worked so hard at creating. Something that would take no more than a few minutes to do. I'd think they would be so proud of what they have accomplished as to want to put images of their babies on their website. Even if only pedestrian images of the lenses and not slick, professional marketing shots. The information just in this thread provides far more information about the lenses than the company responsible for producing the lenses ever has. Which is why I have characterized SLR as somewhat of a "mysterious" lens maker. Maybe "shy" would be a more apt descriptor. They don't make it easy to become informed about their products.

I've read it claimed that the owner of the company said that expansion of the line beyond 3 lenses is contingent upon the sales of the existing lenses-something I'd like to happen, which is why it is frustrating that the marketing is so poor. It doesn't bode well for there being more lenses. Not when SLR Magic doesn't even bother to make the lenses known on their own website.

 

[Jake Wilganowski]

It was only their website and their marketing, or lack thereof, that I was critical of and not their customer service. Glad to hear that they are responsive. I suppose I am just impatient. It has been 3 and a half years now since they released the 3 lens line with, to my knowledge, nothing yet definitive as to when the next lens will become available. At that pace it could easily be a decade until a full set of primes is made a reality, if ever. As is the case with the Zeiss Otus line, until a full set is available the appeal will be limited. If you only need the lenses for shooting interviews, then yeah, a 3 or 4 lens set is sufficient. Because I like what I see and read of the SLR Magic APO Hyperprime Cine lenses, I'd like there to be a full set.

Going back to the subject of marketing, the naming of the lenses is confusing seeing as SLR Magic also has lenses for MFT that are named "Hyperprime Cine". The only thing in the naming that differentiates the full-frame lenses from the MFT lenses is the "APO" part of the moniker. As a result it easy for someone to mistakenly think that the APO Hyperprime Cine lenses are MFT lenses only. If in researching the lenses the "APO" is omitted, by far most of the search returns you get are about the MFT lenses. So don't confuse the "SLR Magic Hyperprime Cine 50mm" for the "SLR Magic APO Magic Hyperprime Cine 50mm".

The company website ( the English version ) has no information whatsoever about the APO Hyperprime Cine lenses other than one photo of the 50mm. No description of the lenses. No marketing literature. No mention of there also being a 25mm and an 85mm. The website has a link to download a catalog of their products but, again, only the 50mm is listed. It is great that they answer an email inquiry in under 5 minutes. Now how about taking 5 minutes to update the catalog or make at least some mention of the other APO lenses on the website? I am aware that they are a small company and English is not the owner's first language. But the same is true for Celere, is it not? And Celere's website / marketing is much more thorough and polished. Just seems odd to go through all that it takes to engineer cinema lenses but then drop the ball on the easier stuff like putting a photo of the lenses on your website. Or even make any mention whatsoever of 2/3rds of the line that you worked so hard at creating. Something that would take no more than a few minutes to do. I'd think they would be so proud of what they have accomplished as to want to put images of their babies on their website. Even if only pedestrian images of the lenses and not slick, professional marketing shots. The information just in this thread provides far more information about the lenses than the company responsible for producing the lenses ever has. Which is why I have characterized SLR as somewhat of a "mysterious" lens maker. Maybe "shy" would be a more apt descriptor. They don't make it easy to become informed about their products.

I've read it claimed that the owner of the company said that expansion of the line beyond 3 lenses is contingent upon the sales of the existing lenses-something I'd like to happen, which is why it is frustrating that the marketing is so poor. It doesn't bode well for there being more lenses. Not when SLR Magic doesn't even bother to make the lenses known on their own website.

sounds like you've been looking at the wrong site, look here:
http://www.slrmagic.info

 

[John Brawley]

I've read it claimed that the owner of the company said that expansion of the line beyond 3 lenses is contingent upon the sales of the existing lenses-something I'd like to happen, which is why it is frustrating that the marketing is so poor.

I would expect / guess that you will see the 32mm announced at NAB, which says to me they plan to keep making lenses. Andrew tends to go in person to events like NAB. I also know that they have recently expanded their R&D capacity so we should see much less time in developing the other primes, tentatively an 18mm and a 135mm which I have seen him discuss on other forums.

JB

 

[John David Pope]

sounds like you've been looking at the wrong site, look here:
http://www.slrmagic.info

Indeed I was. Insofar as SLR Magic's ".com" website, the website that is the first return when performing a Google search, is the "wrong" website. Which begs the question why their .com website is not the same as their .info website, and is so lacking as far as information on the APO's. If nothing else it is sloppy of them. If a potential customer in the U.S. visits the .info website and follows the "Where to buy" link on the website, no U.S. sellers are listed. And so they give up. Or become turned off figuring that SLR Magic isn't all that interested in them as a customer. How difficult would it be to include a link to U.S. retailers? This is exactly what I was talking about when I said that their marketing is poor and the company is somewhat "mysterious". On one website you'd never know the lenses exist...on the other website there is no information about where to buy in North America or, for that matter, South America.

I just want them to be successful because it increases the odds that a full APO line is developed. I would hope that my criticisms are taken as constructive criticisms and the relatively simple and easy steps towards better marketing are taken. Many of these things could be remedied in a day and for very little cost.

If a 32mm is indeed released I may take the plunge. For some reason I am less enthused than others about the Sigma Cine's. The Sigma's just don't appeal to me emotionally.

thank you again, John B, for further info and the link to the other website.

 

[John Brawley]

.info website and follows the "Where to buy" link on the website, no U.S. sellers are listed.

You're preaching to the choir.

But this is how they are unfortunately. We all know the very obvious issues that you've pointed out. Like other Chinese companies, they struggle to make in-roads in these markets (Kinefinity?)

They don't really have dealers. They don't really have a distribution system.

Obviously it's to their disadvantage, but this is a guy who started off selling novelty lenses through an ebay store 10 years ago. They only recently got certified as being officially part of the MFT consortium.

BH Photo sell their product in an unofficial ad hoc way in the US. Hordan, who are a UK distributor also sell their product and are responsible for the more informative website, in theory cover Europe.

But as I understand it they're not exactly official dealer relationships as I understand.

JB

 

[Jake Wilganowski]

As far as I know they are everywhere, b and h, Adoramaa, hot rod cameras, tons of others...

 

[Richard_D]

After much research for some affordable prime lenses, I came upon this thread and several others a few months ago, and threw caution to the wind and ordered a set of SLR Magic primes. I was planning on pairing it with an AU-Eva1 but decided to wait and see if any new cameras are announced at NAB.

But I was able to find someone locally ( A cool woman, at that!) with an Eva1 curious about lenses to meet for a short time and shoot some footage I could bring into Resolve.


The test was mostly shot closed down to around F11 (opened up as the sun Set) and .6 ND filter. We also used the image enhancing filters SLR Magic sells, which I don't really know how affects flares, etc. I suspect I may not use them while shooting into the sun again.

It was quite a cold day, hence not as elaborate as I wanted.
I don't know if anyone will find this useful or not, since there are no focus pulls (all we had was the on board monitor which is difficult to use in sun)

https://vimeo.com/257999560 It's 4K so choose that option to view - or maybe download.

The 4K Vimeo doesn't look nearly as good as the ProRes - which I can zoom into and have even large blowups look fantastic and very filmic.

One of the things that sold me on SLR's was the ingenious design that allows different mounts to be used on the back of the lenses. I ordered them with EF mount but will probably order a full set of the PL mount soon. SLR has a new much lower cost mount that is not titanium (The Titanium is about $700 each and one is needed for each lens so the new aluminum mount is a welcome option)


Its funny that I currently own a set of lenses but no camera. I'm thinking that having a good set of lenses is actually the more critical decision. I feel like these lenses will be usable for several decades, while cameras will come and go. Plus theres so many people around with a good camera body I can always rent or hire. Also the 32MM will be out soon - making it a 4 lens set.


I'll complement on the wide and tele end with other brands until SLR releases additional lengths.

I'm also wondering if on the very wide end, if a zoom might be more useful than primes. I'm thinking something around 10-20mm would be ideal.

 

[John Brawley]

One of the things that sold me on SLR's was the ingenious design that allows different mounts to be used on the back of the lenses. I ordered them with EF mount but will probably order a full set of the PL mount soon. SLR has a new much lower cost mount that is not titanium (The Titanium is about $700 each and one is needed for each lens so the new aluminum mount is a welcome option)

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the detailed review. Seems like you got some nice pictures.

I wanted to clarify something that you mentioned. I'm not so sure you have this right. Or maybe I have it wrong. I was of the understanding that the EF versions were simply titanium PL mount lenses with an EF adaptor. Have you had a look at the back to see if you can remove the EF mount ?

I have versions that were early PL only versions but I believe this is what Andrew was planning to do with production versions.

JB

 

[Tommaso Alvisi]

John is right,

there is absolutely no need to have multiple EF mount adapters for each lens, you just need one, just unscrew the black ring in the back of each lens to make the PL mount shorter than 7-8mm, which is needed to work with common PL-EF adapters like theirs or also the adapter made by Ciecio7 for example.

 

[John Brawley]

My understanding then Richard is that you already have a Titanium PL mount set of lenses

What you then do is apply an adaptor to EF for it. The SLR magic one likely makes the most sense in terms of maintaining accuracy and to not require re-shimming.

Let us know what's on the back there !

JB

 

[Richard_D]

John, yes you are correct. The EF adaptor is added to the PL mount, not swapped for it as I mentioned. I've included an image.

 

[John Brawley]

So Richard, that’s a Titanium PL mount under your EF adaptor ?

JB

 

[paulcurtis]

Richard, those mounts look fixed? If you ordered them like that maybe SLR Magic are doing something different? Maybe i'm not understanding correctly though. If you take a photo from the side maybe we can tell (or you could of course see if you can take them off!)

Nice video, good subject matter for the lenses too!

I have the c7 adapters, they're cheap enough to have one for each lens to EF mount.

cheers
Paul

 

[paulcurtis]

Just to keep thread bubbling, i did a first look at the voyager light and the samples all shot with the Hyperprimes

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?166197-Digital-Sputnik-Voyager-first-look&p=1790478&viewfull=1#post1790478

Combination of 85 and 50, i think all wide open. Or close to.

cheers
Paul

 

[Richard_D]

Here are some additional pics of the adaptor. I'm wondering if that screw is what's locking it in place?

Paul's tests look great I thought.

 

[Ericsson San Pablo Chu]

Hi John, have you shot with Leica R lenses, as well as Primos? How do they compare with each other, and with the SLR magic lenses you've shot with in your opinion? Thank you

 

[paulcurtis]

Hi John, have you shot with Leica R lenses, as well as Primos? How do they compare with each other, and with the SLR magic lenses you've shot with in your opinion? Thank you

I'm not John but i have shot with Leica R too. I had/have a full contax set but wanted more so i focused on the better leica R lenses and late serials. I had the 28mm MkII, 50 cron, 90 cron, 24, 135, 180. I used them and compared them to other lenses i had but i personally didn't take to them. Each lens has quite a different look. The crons are designed to give a different rendering wide open compared to stopped down (there's a mandler glow to them), i didn't find any of the them special at all. The best of the bunch was the 28mm Mk2 which was a great 28 although only 2.8. I think they're great stills lenses.

I am a huge fan of M glass and the cine summicrons, but the R range personally didn't do anything for me. Now i didn't find the 19mm MkII or the APO versions of the 90 nor the very last 50 summilux, the secondhand prices for these were in cine territory, so seemed more sensible to go that route and that's when i found these APO lenses.

cheers
Paul

 

[paulcurtis]

Here are some additional pics of the adaptor. I'm wondering if that screw is what's locking it in place?

They don't look like the ones SLR were selling and they're not the C7 adapters either.

On the C7 adapter the edges will rotate to lock in or out of the PL mount. So i don't think there is a pin locking that down. I'd try and rotate the mount firmly to see if there's any movement?

Because of the edges they do look like the can be taken off, there's something to hold on to it.

cheers
Paul

 

[Ericsson San Pablo Chu]

That's interesting to hear... I thought the primos were supposed to be very close in rendering to leica r glass (possibly rehoused, updated coatings?). I'd be interested to know how the primos compare with Leica R's, because in some ways I prefer how the Primos look in John's test/comparison.