Was not sure what to do after reading this topic but made up my mind and bought it (in The Netherlands) today for 399 euro, hope to recieve it in good condition tomorrow or monday.

My lens was delivered yesterday. I breathed a sigh of relief that it was not in pieces and didn't have anything rattling inside of it after reading about @jackbayer 's broken lens experience.

Like the other posters who've received their lenses in the last couple of months, I am disappointed in how soft the image becomes when focused to infinity at f1.6 and while f2 is somewhat better it really has to be f2.8+ before I would call it sharpish. I notice that it is still sharp for close focusing at maximum aperture but anything more than 1-2 meters away is destined to be mush. I've gone back to re-read some of the reviews of this lens that came out about 6-7 months ago and all of them are as positive as I was remembering with no one mentioning problems with focusing to infinity. Looking at image samples from those early reviews, particularly Steve Huff's amusment park shots, look much better than what I have been able to get from this lens. It makes me wonder if the pre-production lenses and/or the first production run weren't built with greater care than what they've been turning out since receiving those positive initial reviews. I'll have to play around with it more and shot some video before I decide ultimately how usable it is.

Has anyone successfully tried a follow focus with this lens? I have the fifty dollar follow focus from hondo garage with the gear attachment, and was looking at the Lanparte gear ring: http://www.ebay.com/itm/251008672222

Think it would work with the 12mm's small focus ring diameter (approx. 45mm)?

@fosterchen Yes you can get the Lanparte gear ring to work with a follow focus on this lens. You have to be careful to mount it with the adjustment knob facing away from the camera or it will get caught.

@fosterchen it is a little awkward getting everything to mesh with this lens. Because the focus ring is at the back, I had to slide the camera to the front of the quick release plate and then clamp the quick release plate as far forward as I could securely get it, to get the gear ring to engauge with the follow focus gear. I'm not sure that you could get this to work if you were also trying to use a matte box (I don't have one to try) - but I had the camera base as close to the rails as it could go in order to get the gears to line-up.

Maybe the file size is too large.

@CrazyPete its not trees I want to film but houses and other building. So a next test should be on a house. @Jleo building picture looks real sharp at 2.0 ! What iso setting do you recommend for making a test picture? I will try a lowlight test tomorrow. When returned I want a replacement. On this test picture, iso 320 , f4.0 I also think the focus is still at about 2 a 2.5 mtrs instead of infinity.

Hi @RawB. That's interesting about the clockwise and counter clockwise focusing. As for what iso you should do your test shots at, I think you should try to mimic your intended use. I agree that your brick wall picture looks to be focused between the nearest patch of sun light and the vertical painted brick. Do you think your focus is even across the lens? I've noticed that when focusing to infinity, with my lens the left side of the image is worse than the right side. I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

It seems like there's a split of 50/50 about this lens. I understand it's a bit soft and that's the appeal for cine work, which is all I do, but I'm starting to wonder if it's too much of a gamble in terms of craftsmanship. Mine is supposed to ship in a week. We'll see if that happens. My main question, is that $550 better spent somewhere else like the Tokina 11-16 or putting it towards the Voigtlander 17.5? Hopefully everyone that has received one lately can chime in about any real world video testing they've done. Thanks!

@dream_beam So now after months they are telling people that the user has to calibrate a lens for a system they made it for? How come non of the other lenses out there have this problem? Do they say how to calibrate the lens?

To make the aperture scale and the distance scale increment or decrement in the same direction... like many other manual lenses.

@dream_beam I've gotten the same answer from SLR Magic, that any problems with focusing to infinity are the fault of the camera. That the mounting springs aren't tight enough (the lens certainly feels tight on my mount). That if I had an AF100 then I wouldn't have any problems because that camera is built to professional standards... I experience the focus to infinity issue on both a GH2 and an Olympus E-PL2. The only other time I've seen something similar was when using a cheap adaptor for FD mount lenses - a better adapter fixed the problem.

@vicharris at this point, I do think your money would be better spent elsewhere. If you can find a brick and mortar store that carries this lens then perhaps you can try several copies and see for yourself or at least have an easier route for return as @dream_beam suggested. Buying direct from SLR Magic just seems like a roll of the dice in terms of what you'll get and I'm regretting it.

SLR Magic is going to switch lenses with me and I hope that I will get a good copy the second time around. I am paying still more in postage which pisses me off but to make up for it, they have offer to throw in free of charge their step-up ring - a claimed $80 value (I can only shake my head)... They are switching lenses with me not because I was able to convince them that the lack of focus at infinity was an issue worthy of their concern but because I showed them something else that they say they have never seen before. When I stop my lens down to T8-T11 the upper right and left corners go black when shooting in 4:3 format.

Test pictures taken on my E-PL2, ISO 200, shutter speed adjusted to obtain similar exposure between T1.6 and T11, NR set to off. Lens focused to infinity. It seems to me that the left side of the image is far worse than the right at T1.6 and T2. T2.8 looks the best to me. It may just have been a shift in the clouds or a flutter of the leaves with the wind but T2.8 also seems to have the best colors of the lot. Look at the upper corners darkening from T5.6 to T11.

@crazypete, yuck! That is not good for something this expensive. The Tokina 11-16 doesn't have this problem at all! Yes, it's fastest speed is 2.8 but it's great wide open! I sent an email to Noktor 2 days ago canceling my order but still haven't heard back. Hopefully I won't get the cold shoulder trying to get my money back. Also, I would love to see what the $80 step-up ring looks like. They claim most other manufactures don't work but I ordered a $5 one and I don't see how it could get any more low profile!