GH3 nokton 25mm VS slr magic 25mm 0.95

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Polaroid22

Well-known member
Hey,

i am looking info buying one of these lenses. I did some reading:

Wide open the slr magic should be sharper.

And people are saying buy the slr magic its cheaper, but over here in Europe the price is exactly the same around 800€

Any advice? Or recommended online shops where you can get good deals from in europe?
 
I can only speak for the Nokton 25mm. That is my workhorse on the GH3. While it is the king in low light situations, it is darn sharp in daylight. I know that many tests shows that the SLR magic is sharper, and I'm sure it is, but it is something about the Voigtlander that makes it look really organic and dreamy at F0.95. What you also should consider is what camera you test the Nokton at. I did a test between the AF100 and gh3 with the Nokton at F0.95. The GH3 gave me a sharper image than the AF100, and with some post sharpening it is totally useable as long as you manage to keep things in focus (almost impossible when the object is moving). Since I do find the GH3 being to sharp at times, the Nokton takes some of that away when being wide open or even a stop or two from wide open...

Build quality is also amazing on the Nokton, metall all the way, it really feels like a hand grenade when you hold it. Also, it has a really nice focus ring that just keeps going and going when you turn it, perfect for precise focus.

But in the end I bet that it would be hard to see a difference in the image, no matter what way you choose to go... I live in Europe (Sweden) and got mine from Pixmania, but I would check Ebay...
 
Admir said:
Also, it has a really nice focus ring that just keeps going and going when you turn it, perfect for precise focus.
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If it's like the 17.5 most of that focus rotation is for everything under about 1m. What's the 25mm like in tis regard?
 
I have the Nokton 25mm and the 12 mm SLR Magic. The SLR Magic is no where near as good in terms of build. I also have Zeiss lenses and the Nokton compares with them in terms of usability and crispness. I agree with the post above, the 25 mm is a great lens that produces beautiful images. If you can swing it, get the Voigtlander. You won't be sorry
 
ok thx, Pixmania doesnt seem to deliver them anymore, checked the sweden, france, belgian, and netherlands site. Too bad, any other european deliver website that have similar prices? Thanks!
 
I owned both the Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95 and the SLR Magic 25mm f/0.95 and used both side-by-side with my GH2. I ended up selling the Voigtlander Nokton and have kept the SLR Magic. The build quality of the Voigtlander is superb, but the image was way too blurry when wide open at f/0.95. If you stop down then it gets sharp, but the point of these lenses is to shoot wide open. The SLR Magic was much, MUCH sharper at f/0.95. The difference was quite noticeable. And it was much cheaper than the Voigtlander when I bought it as well.

I also own the SLR Magic 12mm f/1.6 and, while I like it, it's not nearly as nice as their 25mm f/0.95.

I say get the SLR Magic 25mm f/0.95 lens. You can always add blurriness in post if you feel it is too sharp.
 
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Jaime Valles said:
....The build quality of the Voigtlander is superb, but the image was way too blurry when wide open at f/0.95. If you stop down then it gets sharp, but the point of these lenses is to shoot wide open. The SLR Magic was much, MUCH sharper at f/0.95. The difference was quite noticeable. And it was much cheaper than the Voigtlander when I bought it as well....

...I say get the SLR Magic 25mm f/0.95 lens....
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Agreed.

The only difference I find in the build quality is that the focus mechanism "floats" a little on the SLR, whereas the Voigt's focus is buttery smooth. But as a testament of the SLR build, I had the SLR Magic tumble five feet to a wooden floor and it was unharmed. And if you want to see some lowlight pictures taken days after the fall here is a link to a recently made video.

https://vimeo.com/80207587

Scroll to the 40 second mark and there are a series of photos taken inside a pretty dark place. I can't remember the aperture exactly, but it was very close to wide open if not actually there.
 
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Well I cant agree with some people saying that the point of buying this lens is to use it at f0.95 in dark shots... Not for me at least! I see it this way: The Nokton is much better at say f1.8 than any of my Nikons that starts at. F1.8. I will get a better looking image with less distortion. And of course, I can open it up waaay more than any other lens that I have, but I try to avois it and bring enough light with me. But if you want to emulate some of the 5D look then wide open or close to it is the way to go.

Just be prepared to get an ND filter on there, it pretty worthless outside on the day. I use the Heliopan vari ND with my nokton and it works great with it!
 
Admir said:
Well I cant agree with some people saying that the point of buying this lens is to use it at f0.95 in dark shots...
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You're twisting words. When you buy a T0.95 lens, amongst other things you may want to use it in light deprived places that would otherwise be inaccessible.

The SLR Magic is not a single trick pony. It is also an outstanding photographic and video lens. And having full access to its aperture range is very much appreciated.

ND filters are of course helpful and should be standard kit anyway.
 
stoneinapond said:
You're twisting words. When you buy a T0.95 lens, amongst other things you may want to use it in light deprived places that would otherwise be inaccessible.

The SLR Magic is not a single trick pony. It is also an outstanding photographic and video lens. And having full access to its aperture range is very much appreciated.

ND filters are of course helpful and should be standard kit anyway.
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Hmm not sure I can agree with you, no one is twisting words. I was mostly thinking about above poster Jamie Valles saying "but the point of these lenses is to shoot wide open". I hear this quite often specially clients that say "oh so you have that lens, do you like to shoot with little light?". I wouldn't say that that is the point with this lens, not for me at least. For me the main thing is that it is really sharp and nice at f 1.8, much sharper then other lenses that starts at 1.8. Of course one of the main party tricks with these lenses are that they are extremely fast, and that (At least the Nokton) feels extremely solid like an old school cinema lens.
 
Admir said:
Hmm not sure I can agree with you, no one is twisting words. I was mostly thinking about above poster Jamie Valles saying "but the point of these lenses is to shoot wide open". I hear this quite often specially clients that say "oh so you have that lens, do you like to shoot with little light?". I wouldn't say that that is the point with this lens, not for me at least. For me the main thing is that it is really sharp and nice at f 1.8, much sharper then other lenses that starts at 1.8. Of course one of the main party tricks with these lenses are that they are extremely fast, and that (At least the Nokton) feels extremely solid like an old school cinema lens.
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Oh, I didn't mean that one should ONLY shoot wide open with these lenses. My point was that if you get an f/0.95 lens, it's because you foresee the need to shoot at that aperture. If you're never going to shoot at f/0.95, you can save a ton of money by buying a sharp f/1.4 lens. And I'm also not saying that the Voigtlander is a bad lens. In fact, it is an excellent lens. But the SLR Magic is even better, at least in my experience.
 
Jaime Valles said:
Oh, I didn't mean that one should ONLY shoot wide open with these lenses. My point was that if you get an f/0.95 lens, it's because you foresee the need to shoot at that aperture. If you're never going to shoot at f/0.95, you can save a ton of money by buying a sharp f/1.4 lens. And I'm also not saying that the Voigtlander is a bad lens. In fact, it is an excellent lens. But the SLR Magic is even better, at least in my experience.
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Yeah I understand what you mean... Probably a lot of people think just like you do and there's nothing wrong with that. But fact is that the Voigt will be sharper at F1.4 (Stopped down from F0.95) than a lens that starts at F1.4 (wide open). I have a Nikon 50mm F1.4 and all I can say is that the Voigtlander is sharper at F1.4. So I see a huge benefit in buying such a lens even if you don't plan shooting at F0.95 =).
 
I also own both the Nokton (which I've had declicked by the Lens Doctor) and the SLR Magic.

I prefer the SLR Magic due to it being declicked already, working with a follow focus without faffing about and it's sharp too.

They're both great lenses and there's a charm to the softness in Nokton, but if I had to choose to own one it would be the SLR Magic. I did put my Nokton up for sale actually but I let a colleague use it instead.

I made this in my first hour the SLR Magic almost a year ago now (filmed entirely wide open with no post processing whatsoever):


There's a 2 year warranty from the UK site if you want extra piece of mind, but I must confess I've had no issues and use mine regularly: http://www.slrmagic.co.uk/slr-magic-25mm-t0-95-hyperprime-cine-lens.html
 
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