SLR Magic 35mm T1.4 rolling review part 3 the conclusion!

Overall thoughts:

I can find no fault worth mentioning with the build quality and finish of this lens, it's sturdy, reassuringly heavy and well finished with smooth and perfectly damped focus and aperture rings. I suppose if I was being really picky I would say the geared rings were a little hard on the fingers but let's not forget this lens is optimised for video use with a follow focus.

In terms of sharpness the lens delivers a surprisingly good performance wide open for the price with resolution remaining strong towards the edges of the frame. There is some visible purple fringing and contrast can very a lot depending on the lighting conditions but both of these can be countered quite easily with modern software.

The lens delivers smooth bokeh apart from point light sources that can have quite a solid outline, I think this is the best of both worlds and it reminds me a lot of the bokeh I see in movies where out of focus lights are used to stylistic effect whereas everything else is just a smooth blur. Thanks to the hefty aperture blade count out of focus highlights remain circular throughout the aperture range.

The lens can be coaxed into producing some extraordinary flare wide open which also reminds me of watching motion pictures and which will either be drool worthy or an eyesore depending on your tastes but as I said before you can literally turn this flare off by stopping down just a tiny amount. The lens becomes sharper and more contrasty as you stop down and already by T/2.8 the optical performance is very strong with crisp sharpness and a minimum of aberrations.

Overall the lens performs very well wide open considering it's price and fast aperture, there are some weaknesses but they can be countered quite easily with software. Once you stop the lens down to T2.8 and beyond the optical performance is very impressive indeed but be assured that the lens remains very much usable at it's maximum aperture.

The only other issue I noticed was some slight distortion but again it was simple to remedy with software when necessary.

Compared to other options:

Thanks to the generous trade in scheme a lot of people will be upgrading from the SLR magic 35mm f/1.7 lens and will be wondering how much of an improvement this lens really is, I can comfortably say that you will instantly see a huge improvement in all areas, the sharpness wide open is a lot better and on the T1.4 this applies to the entire image and not just a tiny little blob in the centre of the frame as with the f/1.7. The new cine lens has no field curvature in comparison so subjects can be sharp at the centre and the edge of the frame at the same time. You will also find the bokeh to be much smoother and that it will remain circular because the T1.4 has many more aperture blades.

The 35mm F/1.7 remains a great little lens for the money and gives very unique and often pleasing results but as a serious tool for still photography and filming alike it just isn't on the same level as the new T1.4 lens.

The same applies to users of the fujian 35mm f/1.7 CCTV lens with which the SLR Magic F/1.7 shares a common ancestry and is an improved version of, the T1.4 lens is superior in every way and can be considered a "real lens" whereas the CCTV lens while capable of producing great images is very much a toy in comparison.

You may also be considering the Jackar 34mm f/1.8 lens but despite it's elaborate finishing and packaging, this lens also found it's beginning in the Fujian 35mm CCTV lens and simply can't hope to come anywhere near to the SLR Magic 35mm T1.4 for optical performance or build quality, it's just in a different league!

In conclusion I found this lens to be very well made and capable of delivering a high level of performance. The image quality is obviously at it's weakest wide open but is still very good and very usable with decent sharpness and a perfect balance between smoothness and character when it comes to bokeh. The lens just gets better and better as you stop down and from T2.8 onwards it performs on a very high level comparable to lenses costing a lot more.

I quickly became accustomed to being pleased with what I saw on the computer screen after a shooting session and the lens constantly impressed me with it's performance/price ratio.

For the price there is really no significant weakness, the lens represents amazing value for money and would make a great choice for still photographers or film makers alike!

 


PROS:

Decent sharpness wide open that extends well into the edges of the frame.

Very high overall image quality in all areas when stopped down to T2.8 and smaller.

Bokeh that strikes a perfect balance between smoothness and character.

Highlight bokeh remains circular throughout the aperture range thanks to the hefty aperture blade count.

Very solid all metal build quality damped focus and aperture rings.

Warm and vibrant colours.

Very cool looking lens flare that can be used to great effect and which disappears quickly upon stopping down (Perhaps a con to some but not me!)

CONS:

Purple fringing can be strong in some circumstances but quickly dissipates upon stopping down.

Contrast can be quite weak wide open under certain lighting conditions.

Distortion. 


Bottom line:

To cut a long story short, the lens is excellent value for money and performs very well even wide open, it has character without being a novelty item like CCTV based lenses. You can absolutely use this lens as a serious tool for picture and film making. In this price point the pros outweigh the cons several times over.

I highly recommend this lens for anyone needing the best balance between price and performance!

The SLR Magic 35mm T1.4 is available in Sony E mount, Fuji X mount, Canon EF-M Mount and Micro four thirds mount. The lens is not yet available on the website or their ebay shop but you can get ahead of the queue by ordering direct, just send an email to support@slrmagic.com







You can find my Flickr photo set of sample images HERE

You can find Part one of the review HERE and Part two of the review HERE

SLR Magic 35mm T1.4 rolling review part 2

Time for the next instalment of the SLR Magic 35mm review!

I used this lens quite a lot yesterday and once again I was pleased with the images I got. I have started to realise the lens has two personalities in a way, when the lens is wide open you can coax the type of flare from it that is fitting of a blog entitled lens porn, In my humble opinion it's some of the most awesome looking flare I've ever seen and the really great thing is you can eliminate it quickly by stopping down just a TINY amount, I'm talking before you even get to T2, it's like having a switch for the flare.

Taken at T1.4


There's some aspects of shooting wide open such as the flare and purple fringing that are somewhat "lo fi" but on the other hand I find the lens to be reasonably sharp at this setting and consistent across the frame, I would have expected the resolution at T1.4 to drop off severely towards the edges but it doesn't. The bokeh wide open is very nice too, it's mostly relatively neutral apart from some types of light sources such as xmas decorations where the light discs have an outline effect which I find quite cool but most of the time the bokeh is just nice and smooth.

The following shots are taken at T1.4






The sharpness gradually increases as you stop down and by T2.8 things are already bitingly sharp, certainly enough to provoke some moire here and there with my Sony NEX-5n which is usually a clear sign of high resolution.

Current thoughts:

The more I use this lens the more I like it, when it's wide open you can use the shallow depth of field and crazy flare to get some funky looking effects but that's not to say it can't be used seriously wide open, with some care you can get shots from the lens that belie it's relatively modest price tag. Don't forget this lens with it's T1.4 maximum aperture will be available for around $349 with a $50 rebate and additionally owners of the SLR Magic 35mm F/1.7 will be able to trade there lens in and get an additional $90 discount. Consider that a Zeiss 35mm F/1.4 will set you back $1800 or a Leica Summilux $5000 and you begin to realise how reasonably priced this lens is, obviously the SLR Magic isn't going to be as good optically, to claim that would be foolish but proportionately I would have to say it offers much better value.

First shot taken at T2.8, the rest taken at T1.4








You can now find the final part of this review here

SLR Magic 35mm T1.4 rolling review part 1

Let me start by apologising for the suspense! I have had some serious marriage problems recently and am currently separated so depression has been rearing it's head of late. It also doesn't help that I am currently sick as a dog fighting the terrible illness known as "man flu"! But alas, finally I have gotten my hands on a pre production copy of the SLR Magic 35mm T1.4 and this will be the first part of a rolling review!

Initial impressions:

I have to say I was immediately impressed as soon as I handled the lens, it's reassuringly heavy and solid, it's made of metal and it feels substantial and well made. The (stepless) aperture and focus rings are both smooth and well damped contributing to the impression of quality. Both the focus and aperture rings are geared for easy use with a follow focus, this is a nice touch for movie makers! One major bonus for those familiar with using old preset legacy lenses will be the fact that the number of aperture blades reaches into two figure territory, that means smooth circular highlight bokeh even when the lens is stopped down, that's a very unusual feature on new lenses nowadays but one that can be very useful creatively. Overall the construction and appearance of this lens are very much old school and that can only be a good thing because we all know they used to build lenses better back in the day!

In terms of image quality what I have seen so far impresses me, even wide open sharpness appears to be more than usable and that goes right to the edges of the frame, there seems to be a little less contrast at maximum aperture but this can very easily be restored in software and it can be beneficial when making video on lower end cameras as it can help to improve gradients when you're battling with a limited codec.

This lens is very much usable wide open and that's important because people tend to buy a fast aperture lens with the intention of using them wide open and so far the lens really does not disappoint in this department.

The bokeh I have seen so far appears to be very smooth for the most part with highlights being a bit more distinctive but not in a bad way, taste in bokeh is a subjective matter but for me this lens really delivers and gives a very cinematic look. I am looking forward to experimenting more.

Here are some shots I took today whilst I was familiarising myself with the lens, they are all taken with the lens wide open and I used the black and white mode built in to the Sony NEX-5n:








Click here for part two of the review!

Click here for part three of the review!

More photos taken with the Fujian 35mm F/1.7 C-Mount CCTV Lens

a quickr pickr post

Review: Fuzhou Feihua F&H 50mm F/1.4 CCTV Lens FH5014MC

This lens is made by Fuzhou Feihua Optoelectronic Technology (F&H), the company behind the Fujian branded 25mm F/1.4 and 35mm F/1.7 lenses. They make a large selection of cctv lenses including two 50mm F/1.4 lenses that are of interest to users of mirrorless cameras. One of the lenses is visually very similar to the 35mm and the other which I am reviewing here is of a different design and has been likened to a flashlight or a trumpet thanks to it's very large front element.

 

 

 

Build quality and finish:

It's pretty well put together considering the price, it's all metal which is a good start and while the finish isn't perfect there's only so much you can expect from such a cheap lens and it certainly feels more solid than some of the plastic kit lenses the big companies bundle with cameras these days! The lens will fit an C-mount to NEX adapter fine and gives moderate vignetting on an APS-C sensor. On micro four thirds the image circle covers the sensor but the rear of the lens is slightly too large to screw fully into an adapter and the lens will require modification. On some lenses the entire rear of the lens needs attention but with this lens it's just the focus ring which should simplify matters, I haven't attempted to modify the lens yet but the focus ring appears to be held in place with some small screws so it may even detach entirely in which case it could either be left off or certainly trimmed much more easily.

Image Quality:

The lens is similar to the F&H 35mm in a lot of ways, it has the same small circle of focus in the central portion of the frame giving way to much swirliness around the edges. With the 35mm lens I found it was extreme field curvature causing this and that the lens could be focused with some degree of sharpness towards the edges but never at the same time as the centre. With this lens I find the edges are soft even if you attempt to focus specifically at the edge so you could say it was somewhat inferior in this aspect.

The lens has very nice bokeh and highlights are rendered in a more neutral fashion than with the 35mm which tended to have rings around circular highlights, a quality I found appealing but I can understand that some will prefer the smoother look this lens provides. The lens is very prone to flare and loss of contrast when the sun is in or near the frame so a hood might be something to consider if this bothers you. The colours from this lens are very vivid and well saturated but the contrast can be somewhat weak at times especially when flare rears it's head.

Overall the images this lens delivers are very imperfect but very fun, the more I use lenses like this the more I realise that they are tools that have much creative potential, you can achieve a look to images with theses lenses that you just cannot match with more expensive conventional optics so a direct comparison is not only unfair but also inappropriate, there are relatively mundane objects that you can make interesting with a lens like this, in fact I find that I look at everything differently when I use this lens and other similar lenses because I know that subjects that would often look plain if captured with a normal lens suddenly look interesting or have something to offer that they didn't before. You see the world differently through these kind of lenses and that is a good thing, don't look at them as a cheap alternative to conventional glass but as something different and fun but not necessarily less worthy of being on the front of your camera!

Conclusion?:

Compared to a conventional photographic lens this lens is very poor or even pathetic but that would be missing the point and this lens can do things no expensive conventional lens can do. The images it makes are different and fun and distinctive and that helps to fuel creativity and for that reason I think it's a great buy! Never approach these lenses as a rival to a conventional lens but instead see them as something entirely different that can live alongside your conventional glass and not compete with it!

Review: Canon EF-S 55-250mm F/4-5.6 IS

I purchased this lens based on hearing good things said about it, it seemed to offer a lot of ability for the price and was also very small and lightweight making it an ideal for travel or just when you don't want to be weighed down with a bag full of heavy lenses. On paper the lens offers a lot for the money but does it deliver in the real world?

Build quality, finish and operation:

It's not an L lens but it's better made than the kit lens and the 17-85mm lens and even the 17-55mm lens! It feels surprisingly solid with smooth actions and the finish has that mottled effect that Canon is using more often nowadays, it's a small touch but it goes a long way to making the lens look better and feel better in the hand. The zoom ring is nice and big and the lens actually has a decent focus ring too unlike the 18-55mm kit lens which is possibly the worst excuse for a focus ring ever! The lens has a plastic mount but it's a light lens so I have no reason to believe this will cause problems any time soon. For the price I cannot fault the build and finish at all.

The autofocus is pretty quiet for a non USM system and not particularly slow either but accuracy and consistency can be a major issue which I will go into later but I will point out right now that it is this lenses biggest Achilles heel.

The image stabilizer was a brand new design at the time this lens was released and was designed to be cheap to produce but also highly effective and it is certainly that! Canon claim a 4 stop advantage which I'm sure is quite possible if you have steady hands, I have very unsteady hands but I can certainly see a strong advantage with the system activated, another impressive quality for the price.

Image Quality:

Optically this lens is very impressive considering the price, it's unusual for cheap tele zooms to be sharp at the long end especially wide open but thanks to the inclusion a UD glass element this lens manages it and also adds an additional 50mm reach over comparable models, the lens is actually slightly sharper at 250mm than it is as 200mm! This lens is really commendably sharp at 250mm, the edges are somewhat softer at some focal lengths but not terrible, sometimes there appears to be uneven sharpness at the edges of the frame which could be down to the stabilizer rather than decentring but overall, considering the price of the lens the sharpness is nothing less than astounding, you'll struggle to find anything as sharp in this price range by any other manufacturer.

The colour this lens produces seems to be in line with most other Canon lenses and is vibrant and well saturated. Contrast is also pretty good although it fades very slightly towards the long end but it's easily restored with post processing.

The bokeh is another pleasant surprise with this lens, overall it's commendably smooth and when the lens is used wide open highlights tend to be rendered quite attractively. It's not perfect and the aperture is not rounded so out of focus highlights will look somewhat angular when the lens isn't wide open and if you encourage it you can get the lens to produce ugly bokeh but overall it's really quite decent all things considered.

The lens suffers from only very mild chromatic aberrations in the most extreme circumstances and for day to day use it's pretty much a non issue, how do they manage it all at such a cheap price? There has to be something bad right?

Well as it turns out there are a few negatives, which is reassuring because I need every justification I can get for owning the 70-300mm L!

Firstly the lens vignettes like a mofo! The corners are VERY dark indeed when the aperture is wide open which can be very noticeable in some shots, it's not always a big hindrance and at the longer focal lengths subjects tend to be somewhat centralized anyway so it can be a non issue but it's worth mentioning because it is very strong and very pronounced in unfavourable circumstances. Some people don't mind vignetting at all and think it adds to a photo, I tend to agree a lot of the time but I would prefer to just add the effect in photoshop and have a choice! With this lens you will have vignetting if you use it wide open whether you like it or not!

Another issue I have found is that sometimes the image doesn't have consistent sharpness on each side of the image and whilst this could be down to a centering issue it doesn't happen all the time and only seems to occur when the stabilizer is active which leads to my crazy theory! I think the image stabilizer may play a role here because at this price point especially it's entirely possible that the corrective element/s show somewhat higher resolution in their centres than their edges so the harder the stabilizer works the more of the non optimum area of glass will be in use which could result in lower resolution in some parts of the frame, this is more a crackpot theory than fact although edge sharpness does appear to be more consistent when the stabilizer is turned off and it is a fact that the true optical path is interfered with when the stabilizer is active so who knows!

Those two problems although notable are rarely serious enough to spoil what is generally a sharp and punchy lens, what really spoils the party is actually not an image quality issue but something that can prevent you accessing that image quality which is the autofocus!

This lens seems to have a mind of it's own when it comes to focusing, sometimes it's fine and other times I can struggle to get one sharp shot out of a burst of ten! It doesn't matter if you're using AI servo or single shot there just seems to be a lot of inconsistency, I've stood at Cardiff bay with the sun nearly down and achieved good focus lock on speedboats going flat out in both single shot and AI servo mode and then on other occasions something as slow paced as my wife walking towards me at the beach has resulted in the lens missing focus almost every time regardless of focus mode!

Obviously some of this is just down to price, when I failed to get good focus with fast jets at an airshow it was obvious that I was expecting too much from the lens but when you have to take two or three attempts to get a photo of a building locked on you know there's something amiss. It's a pity because the focusing is actually very quiet for non USM and isn't too slow either but in terms of accuracy it's just not very reliable.

It's doubly maddening because a lot of the time the lens will get it spot on and often I sit at the computer going through images and the consistency is great until you get to that one perfectly timed photo that you've been waiting to check out on the monitor since you took it and you realise that was exactly when the lens decided to miss focus! I suppose I may have a bad one but I have heard similar stories from others so who knows?

In overall IQ terms this lens is a fantastic performer for the price but be careful of the autofocus, digital memory is cheap so take a few attempts at each shot and your chances of one being in focus will rise sharply but sadly this doesn't help when you have only a brief opportunity to get the shot where you will just have to hope for the best! The lens gets it right a lot of the time but there's definitely a higher than average failure rate so watch out! I think a lot of the time people just write this lens off as being cheap and soft when they are just experiencing focusing issues.

100% crop taken wide open at 250mm

100% crop taken wide open at 180mm











100% crop taken wide open at 250mm





100% crop taken wide open at 250mm

Conclusion?:

This lens has some flaws, it vignettes badly and the autofocus can be unreliable but overall the combination of image quality and build quality and overall performance is exceptional, the fact that the lens is sharp at 250mm wide open on an 18mp sensor is truly impressive, I can't think of any autofocus tele lens with image stabilization that comes close to performing as well as this for the price, it's genuinely unrivalled and represents value for money at it's most extreme!

Review: Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 USM L IS

It was never my intention to purchase this lens originally, I was quite happy with my EF-S 55-250mm lens in all aspects apart from the focus in terms of both speed and accuracy which could be frustratingly unreliable for things such as airshows where you don't have the opportunity to have a few tries at a given subject. My plan was to buy the Canon 100-400mm to use for such occasions, the idea being that the autofocus is faster and works better in AI servo mode and of course the lens goes out to a much more powerful 400mm. So I would have the smaller, much more portable lens for carrying around and the larger professional lens for things such as airshows when using a tripod wouldn't be a hindrance, these two lenses in theory would cover all my autofocus needs comfortably!

It didn't work out quite that way though, primarily because it seems there are about two decent copies of the 100-400 in existence, I literally went through four copies of this lens before giving up and the best one I ever got was sharp at the bottom of the image and soft at the top, I think the quality control is appalling with these lenses, especially considering the price which I am not too proud to admit is the kind of money that takes me many years to save. When you're dealing with an amount of money that takes you that long to save you tend to get panicked and stressed easily when things go wrong and by copy number four I had endured just about all the stress I could take and gave up on the idea completely.

I was tempted by the Sigma 50-500mm OS but reviews seemed to give inconsistent opinions on sharpness and while the Sigma may be a bargain in the scheme of things I expect a lens to be sharp and to focus well when it costs upwards of £1000! There was also the Tamron 200-500mm but this was a similar story.

The only other option left was to make a sacrifice on the tele end so I narrowed it down to two options, any lens that ends at 300mm was going to be uncomfortably close to the 55-250mm so it would really need to offer the best image quality and thoroughly superior autofocus to be worth bothering with which narrowed it down to the new Tamron 70-300mm SP and the Canon 70-300mm L, I was reluctant to try the Canon because in some ways I would be paying the same as the 100-400mm would have cost for a lens that was essentially 50mm longer so I gave the Tamron a go but it just wasn't as good as I expected it to be, it was somewhat soft at 300mm so it really didn't seem to offer enough over the 55-250mm to be worth buying. Eventually I gave in and tried the Canon, it costs a colossal amount more than the 55-250mm and yet only gave 50mm more reach so it was a really tough decision to make and my fingers were firmly crossed that it would be worth it!

This lens divides opinion a lot and it isn't helped by the fact that the focal and aperture range have until now been very much associated with "consumer grade" lenses, nobody has ever attempted to make a top of the line professional something-300mm lens before but that doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, it is a very useful focal range and providing the image quality is exceptional then even carrying such a huge price tag this lens could be a very powerful and versatile tool.

Build quality, finish and operation:

All I can say is WOW! This lens is built like a tank yet isn't as heavy or as huge as it looks in photos. The finish is superb with the usual Canon L textured finish over an all metal body which is also weather sealed. Having spent so much I was obviously eager to feel that my purchase had been justified but this really is the most tightly assembled and smooth Canon lens I have handled so far and easily outclasses the 100-400mm.

The autofocus is of the ring USM type and is blazingly fast, silent and offers full time manual focus so is everything I could hope for, so far the price is being justified!

The Image stabilizer is also very impressive and is Canons latest version offering up to a 4 extra f stops if you have steady hands and probably at least 2 stops if you have hands like mine which offer about as much stability as a bowl of jelly, once more the lens puts in a first rate performance!

Image Quality:

The good news continues when it comes to image quality too, it starts off blisteringly sharp at 70mm and stays that way all the way to 300mm, there may be tiny reduction in sharpness at 300mm but it's still absolutely pin sharp and offers resolution that has never been seen on such a lens before, the contrast is also superb all the way out to 300mm, the lens gives sharp, bright, colourful and punchy images at all apertures and all focal lengths, I have never felt the need to stop the lens down at any time! The lens produces only a negligible amount of chromatic aberrations throughout the zoom range which really helps to make images look super sharp. Furthermore, the lens appears to display absolutely no longitudinal chromatic aberrations (known as bokeh CA or bokeh fringing) at any aperture/focal length.

To top things off the lens even delivers very smooth and attractive bokeh including out of focus highlight discs that remain round thanks to the 8 curved aperture blades and suffer from no outlining effect.

I'm sure you get the idea by now but this lens is just a phenomenal performer at all settings and is easily the best zoom lens I have ever used and also comfortably beats many prime lenses. There is frequent discussion on the internet including the dpreview.com forum where it has been confirmed that this lens is as sharp as the Canon 70-200mm F/4 where the lenses overlap, the 70-200mm f/4 is considered by many to be the sharpest zoom lens ever made which I think says it all!

Conclusion?:

This lens is very expensive but it is absolutely fantastic in every aspect, the build quality is superb, the image quality is stunning and the focal range is versatile. While it may appear to be a consumer grade lens on steroids with a price to match the truth is that this is easily one of the finest zoom lenses Canon have ever made and I can say that without reservation! Yes it's expensive but it's sooooo worth it, this really is an exceptional lens in every way. The only thing that might make me give up this lens is the new version of the 100-400mm that is apparently waiting in the wings, it uses a conventional zoom action instead of the old fashioned push/pull "trombone" style mechanism and should be a far superior lens but it will have to be REALLY special for me to consider choosing it over the 70-300!