GH2 Which lens? SLR Magic 35mm T f/1.4 or Sigma 30mm 1.4

Noah Truth

Noah Truth

Active member
I hear great, and not so great things about both lenses.

I will be shooting webisodes, music videos, docs, and stills. I already own a 20mm pancake but want to replace it with one of these.

Both lenses will be around $350 (Sigma + adapter), so the price difference is negligible.

I also plan on purchasing a Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 for an all-purpose zoom if that makes any difference.

Ideally, I would love to have 3 primes, but at the moment, it's looking like having a nice 30-35mm prime paired with a zoom will have to do for budget reasons.
 
The SLR Magic has flare wide open and a narrow depth of field, I like flare in music videos anyway, you can step it down to reduce/avoid those characteristics. This is a live recording I did with mine (the closer, sharper shot is with the 35mm and GH3):

Recorded handheld on an Edelkrone pocket rig, with a focus one pro follow focus (and only having the crappy GH3 viewfinder), the fixed wide angle stage shot is a GH2 with 12mm SLR Magic, due to freezing temperatures outside I think the lens on that may have misted slightly as the image is softer than I'd expect:

 
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Thanks for sharing. Footage w/ the 35mm/GH3 combo looks good. Do you have any other lenses to compare them to, or do you strictly shoot video with SLR Magic?
 
I don't have the Sigma so I can't compare to that. I have a number of vintage manual lenses and the Voigtlander Nokton.

For sure the SLR Magic is value for money, the build quality overall feels good, I like the sharpness of the image, I do think the flare is a characteristic you'll either like or dislike but it seems controllable. A user on the personal view forum said he couldn't repeat focus exactly using a follow focus, I do my focus visually so I can't comment on whether that issue is generally true or not.

Personally I'm happy with the lens and I'll be making more use of it.
 
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If you look on Vimeo there are other examples of the lens in use, I prefer to see people using lenses for an actual project than just test footage, this is the 35mm with Kowa anamorphic.

 
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I actually like the fact that the lens is a bit soft wide open. Also, like you, the lens flare is something that intrigues me, particularly for music videos and stills. I hear that stopping down to around f/2 will eliminate most of the focusing issues and flaring anyway.
 
I'll have to use it some more to say with total certainty, but so far at F2 I've found it well behaved.
 
Noah Truth said:
I hear great, and not so great things about both lenses.

I will be shooting webisodes, music videos, docs, and stills. I already own a 20mm pancake but want to replace it with one of these.

Both lenses will be around $350 (Sigma + adapter), so the price difference is negligible.

I also plan on purchasing a Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 for an all-purpose zoom if that makes any difference.

Ideally, I would love to have 3 primes, but at the moment, it's looking like having a nice 30-35mm prime paired with a zoom will have to do for budget reasons.
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Both lenses are great optically, but the Slr Magic 35mm is a better lens for manual use as the aperture is declicked and a full manual lens. With the Sigma you need an adapter and even then you will never have an accurate measure what your f stop is truly at.

If you do decide on the Sigma it is one sale as an ebay daily deal today though ($290)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sigma-30mm-...fepn=5335869999&campid=5335869999&PID=1225267
 
J.F.R. said:
Both lenses are great optically, but the Slr Magic 35mm is a better lens for manual use as the aperture is declicked and a full manual lens. With the Sigma you need an adapter and even then you will never have an accurate measure what your f stop is truly at.

If you do decide on the Sigma it is one sale as an ebay daily deal today though ($290)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sigma-30mm-...fepn=5335869999&campid=5335869999&PID=1225267
Click to expand...

You may have just helped me decide. For whatever reason, I hadn't even considered the SLR is full manual. I've used a few vintage nikkors before which are great due to the manual aperture ring and smooth focus. Thanks for your insight.
 
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I had the Sigma 30mm 1.4 (Nikon mount) w/ adapter & now have the SLR Magic 35mm 1.4 (m4/3). I like both lenses, but prefer the characteristics of the SLR Magic (flares, softer focus wide open, etc.). The Sigma was pretty sharp & as JFR said it's really hard to know what F Stop you're at. I haven't had the issue with repeating focus marks on the SLR as mentioned above. Both are awesome lenses, but since I also own the SLR Magic 12mm 1.6 I decided to have matching lenses from same company - I don't miss the Sigma at all.
 
VLance52 said:
I had the Sigma 30mm 1.4 (Nikon mount) w/ adapter & now have the SLR Magic 35mm 1.4 (m4/3). I like both lenses, but prefer the characteristics of the SLR Magic (flares, softer focus wide open, etc.). The Sigma was pretty sharp & as JFR said it's really hard to know what F Stop you're at. I haven't had the issue with repeating focus marks on the SLR as mentioned above. Both are awesome lenses, but since I also own the SLR Magic 12mm 1.6 I decided to have matching lenses from same company - I don't miss the Sigma at all.
Click to expand...

Appreciate your feedback. Yeah, after looking at more videos of the SLR (they're being added to vimeo by the day) I think I've made up my mind. How do you like the 12mm? Which one stays on your body more?
 
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