Everyone who has one know got them for marketing purposes. That is the whole deal with the whole DSLR industry... all paid puppets of the industry. See Philip Bloom "ethic statement: i bought this myself" under the article "Sponsored by Kessler crane (his friend) who also makes his dolly". Magic Bullet Suite... use discount code Philip Bloom, EOSHD, all rumor sites. These guys are hardly objective anymore, they write to get free stuff.

This is the forum I come to for non-paid real world feedback, and cheep China stuff :) Like the Gini-rig, which is absolutely amazing high quality for the price you pay.

well not that wrong...

I have just one question. Where can I get this lens.

@eoshd
Your reaction is just what I expected. The whole DSLR community are a bunch of golddiggers. Hyping one product after another and than quickly forgetting it because they get another bone thrown to them by manufacturers. You are a good example of that, with your pre-emptive 'Sony's new cameras are fantastic' posts and than a few weeks later, saying they suck because of codec what every fool could se before looking at the specs. The DSLR industry has always been one of wannabes that think all this stupid overpriced gear can make them a good filmmaker. Go buy some books by the true cinema masters and go ****ng shoot good stuff instead of bokeh porn. The only thing I see all these people post is 'look at this new lens', 'look at the depth of field', 'look at the noise in my shot'.

I don't see any real filmmakers on forums, blogs hyping new gear or doing this kind of stuff. Why? Because they are out making movies and don't care about the latest and greatest 'next big hyped thing'.

Capitalism, gotta love it. We're all addicted to new stuff.

In some rare cases it does... the gh2 did for me. I found back my love for shooting images, not just need because its my job...
Would not be possible without this people in here as well I guess.
So I suggest you go out in the nature and shoot some of its beaty yourself, then come back and behave in a civilized manner...

@eoshd

Nice mini-review. I'm certainly interested in this lens. The only thing I would add is your page states

"It is roughly equivalent to the 24mm F1.4L on a 5D Mark II."

Wouldn't it be more correct to say its equivalent to a 24mm f3.2, as the amount of depth of field also scales with the crop, yes the amount of light let into the lens is obviously equivalent at f1.4. It's just as we're all more interested in this lens for video I think its the amount of DOF from the aperture that's more relevant than the amount of light gathering potential. It's this that turns the awesome Nokton, into a more sedate 50mm f1.8 full-frame equivalent, which is still great, but not quite as insane as a Noctilux on an M9.

I would love Voigtlander to come out in this area too, but if this lens is as good as it seems to be there may be little point.

The only problem i see is that the manual focus dial looks very close to the body, which as with the Nokton 25mm f0.95 means it wont work with my standard follow focus, which hits the body of my camera before it has chance to be in line with the focus ring. I do wish they were all just a bit further away from the lens mount end, but then that'd have likely made the lens even larger.

@EOSHD

Thanks for short review.
Good thing is what m43 primes selection is wider with each month.

This is video made by Andrew:

@kron

I am not "censoring posts cruicial to SLR magic" :-)
As you can see your post about " 25mm with WA on top " still remains in topic.

But your last post and this one is of no help to any of the members.
Because you repeat same information that you can't prove in any way.

>"I find it extremely disingenuous of you to ask me to prove that. You know I can't and won't,"

This is that I must ask you in any case, because otherwise it is unfounded bashing.

>This lens is identical to the Kowa 25mm, it just has a WA and a m4/3 adapters.

Last time I talked with people who have the lens they do not see any screw on wide adapter or attached m43 adapter.

In no way I want to protect SLR Magic guys.
If I'll have this lens in my hand I promise you that I'll do anything to find m43/WA adapters.
But if I won't find them be ready to take your words back and say sorry.

Under 25mm Kowa lens you mean this one - http://www.industrialvisioncomponents.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_130&products_id=390 ?



Specs - http://www.industrialvisioncomponents.com/documents/kowa/LM25JC.pdf

SLRMagic needs a new brand name. I don't like their ghetto name. BTW a nice review, @eoshd.

I say, people should judge by results ...
What would happen if same lens and quality was branded as "voigtländer" should there be complains ?
Make movies, and let others guess what lens was used, i doubt any one will say a "CCTV" ...
I just don't have funds (to buy this one), this will be my second dream lens ... (after nokton 25mm 0.95)

@Vitaliy_Kiselev Sorry, but I still don't have to prove anything. It's safe to assume that someone who has made fraudulent claims about all his products is going to do it again. As you said earlier, human nature. SLR magic claims this is an original design, he's the one who has to prove it to the potential buyers. I think it's a reasonable expectation.

Also, I can assure you that I have better things to do than argue the benefit of exposing frauds on a webforum. If you don't see it, then don't worry, I won't keep at it. No point in trying to caution willful victims. Sure, if this lens prove to be an original design, I will apologies.

@nomad As he did for the other rebadged lens, he just makes those numbers up. The 26mm was a 25mm. I can make up numbers too, can't you? Beside, light loss from a WA adapter is minimal, a third of a stop maybe?

This guy has been caught trying to pass rebadged CCTV lens as original designs 4 times out of 4 already. You guys are suggesting we give him another chance, in case he's not trying to screw us again, is that it? That's quite a departure from the realm of reason. I learn faster than that, personally. Am I special?

I don't think it's too much to ask for the lens formula. We are talking $500 here, that's a lot of money to risk on someone with an history of deception. A few tough questions are called-for, even if that makes me and sohus the bad guys.

Best regards.

I think a really good test would be for anyone with a 25mm lens that provides full coverage on M4/3 to put a 0.45x or 0.5x wide angle adapter on it, and shoot some tests - stills and motion, and just show the results. If the results are any good we have just proved that it is possible to use a decent wide angle adapter to achieve similar results. I'm not saying its good or bad or deceptive or not, but I think if we all find we can get a 10mm or 12mm equivalent without much light loss using a decent wide angle adapter then we have achieved something at least. (20mm pancake with 0.45x would be really interesting)