Has anyone rented or bought the SLR Magic APO Primes in EF?

puredrifting

puredrifting

Major Contributor
I'm intrigued by these lenses and will try renting them. Seem like a step up from the Rokinons but a lot less money than the
CN E, Tokinas and Sigmas?
 
I haven't used these SLR Magic lenses - but the Rokinons perform pretty great stopped down to T2 or so. Looks like the SLR Magic has much better build quality and less breathing. The Rokinons can't resolve 8K like the SLR Magic can. But one thing I like about the Rokinons is the need for less filtration and also the character they bring...
 
puredrifting said:
I'm intrigued by these lenses and will try renting them. Seem like a step up from the Rokinons but a lot less money than the
CN E, Tokinas and Sigmas?
Click to expand...

Some people hate cat eye bokeh.

They have a nice mojo.

If no one answers beside Brawley, i’ll go rent some. I was hanging out with a DP the other day that mentioned them.

Certainly got some buzz or hype floating around them at this time. But no one i know has used them. Seems like the new “it” budget lens. They certainly look pretty. Did you see them in that blind comparison video along with some panavision and cp.2 lenses?

I tried some old Cooke Panchros today, and completely forgot about anything else for a moment.
 
ahalpert said:
I haven't used these SLR Magic lenses - but the Rokinons perform pretty great stopped down to T2 or so. Looks like the SLR Magic has much better build quality and less breathing. The Rokinons can't resolve 8K like the SLR Magic can. But one thing I like about the Rokinons is the need for less filtration and also the character they bring...
Click to expand...

I will be mainly using 4K cameras for the foreseeable future so 8K isn't a consideration. The SLRs are metal versus plastic on the Rokinons, and seem to have a more detailed look but the Rokinons are a great deal for the money for us budget challenged.
 
I haven't used them myself, but from everything I've seen online I really like them. If I were in the market for a set of full frame primes without autofocus, I would get the SLR Magic APO HyperPrimes.
 
I'm keeping an eye out for the new APO MicroPrimes from SLR Magic (EF Mount). The 32mm and 85mm are shipping now.


 
Wow, the APO MicroPrimes look really nice! For those of us shooting without focus pullers, I appreciate the shorter 150-degree focus throw.
 
Hi.

I've been using the APO primes for many years.

Andrew visited me on a show I was doing in Australia many years ago and he developed them as their premier cinema lens after we discussed the things that are important to cinematographers. I like to think I had some influence in the design of these lenses.

They are beautiful lenses. An APO design that means they are very detailed and sharp without being clinical and they render faces very nicely with very nice geometry (like Cooke). My very experienced previous focus puller who had spent years scrutinising lenses, felt they were very somewhere near to Panavision primos and Cooke in "feel". My blind test linked above shows they are closer to Primo than Zeiss CP.

Most professionals who've used al the high end lenses go from skeptical to quietly impressed after using them for a while. In my view they wipe the floor with all the other lenses available in the same price point for shear look, imaging IQ and build quality.

While they have certainly had some issues, Andrew has been pretty good at addressing those. The linked blind test was done a few years ago and you'll notice as the focus gets towards the minimum focus on the 25mm there's a tiny kind of bump / image shift. Maybe no one here noticed it or saw it, but some of the very early 25mm's had this. Mine was sent back and they addressed it and have now altered the design.

I am not sponsored, other than getting a discount for getting three full sets of APO primes.

The ONLY downsides for me is that there aren't more focal lengths, or I'd be using them more comprehensively.

SLR Magic can be a bit confusing with their naming conventions. The NEW APO Micro primes, are basically optically the SAME lens as the regular APO primes with two differences.

They are smaller.

They "only" focus 180 degrees instead of 300. These days this isn't so much of an issue on wireless focus systems where you re-map the focal scale anyway.

Optically they are the same formula.

JB
 
Thanks for all of the input John, these lenses look to be perfect for those of us who cannot afford tens of thousands of dollars for a set of primes.
 
This may be a little off topic but i bought a used 25mm slr magic APO from adorama for $999 with a condition of "V" for slight fungus and condensation inside the lens, who can service and clean these? It was too good a deal to pass up.
 
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