Name: SLR Magic HyperPrime Cine 12mm T/1.6 Lens for Micro Four Thirds Cameras
Brand: SLR Magic
SKU: SLR1216MFT
Price: 599.00 USD
Availability: Discontinued
Rating: 3.92 (12 reviews)

SLR Magic HyperPrime Cine 12mm T/1.6 Lens for Micro Four Thirds Cameras

SLR Magic 12mm T/1.6

SLR Magic

Adorama

Video

Video Lenses

Digital Cinema Lenses

SLR Magic Digital Cinema Lenses

SLR Magic 12mm T/1.6 

Buy: SLR Magic HyperPrime Cine 12mm T/1.6 Lens for Micro Four Thirds Cameras Maximum Aperture: T1.6

Coming from D800E  and Zeiss lenses, I would agree this is not a super sharp lens. Duh :)  But  I purchased it for MFT video/filming and it is more than satisfactory for the job. I have only briefly tested on stills to see if I had a "bad copy" and pixel peeping  there is corner softness stopped down and infinity focus is slightly in front of the end stop, vignetting a non issue. Noticeable CA but easily removed in post.  It is definitely  challenging to focus in low light and I am a manual focus dude. None of this matters too much for my intended use but I would say this is a speciality lens - but for example so is the Zeiss 25mm 2.8 - its just different.  I do not have any other MFT wide angles to compare it with. So far, I actually  like it a lot. I can envisage purchasing another w/a for stills though...

It is  what it is - enjoy.

Quality control at SLR Magic seems to be nonexistent.  There are apparently good, sharp copies of this lens out there and there are rubbish copies.  I've had two copies of this lens, the first was not sharp under any conditions, could not focus to infinity and vignetted sharply on the upper corners of the image when stopped down.  I exchanged that lens for a second one that I believe is an average copy based on images and video posted on-line.  Between T/2.8 and T/4 the lens is sharp enough for video work or web images and flare and vignetting are not an issue.  I've been very pleased with pictures I've taken with the lens in this range.  However outside this narrow transmission window the lens is still pretty soft.  In particular wide open, images are just a mushy mess, which is a real disappointment in a lens for which generates a lot of interest by being "fast".

Mixed feelings about a unique lens

Excellent!

I really wanted to love this lens. I've had fantastic results with Fujian's 35mm CCTV lens, and I love manual focus. Unfortunately on my OM-D E-M5 this lens produces questionable results. 

First, because it's so wide manual focus would normally be a challenge due to the significant depth of field. But it's made much worse by the fact that this lens is literally never sharp, so you don't get that "snap" into focus that many great manual focus lenses have. Using the camera's zooming mode reveals that it simply never becomes sharp, even at smaller apertures. Video is no better, since despite the lower resolution, the video still doesn't seem as sharp as with other lenses. 

The E-M5 also doesn't know how to white balance through this lens. With every other lens I own the E-M5 produces excellent white balance results, but I always have to white balance this one manually. 

Colors look washed out, and contrast is poor compared to other lenses. This makes sense as soon as you realize you're dealing with a 12 element lens with many internal surfaces for light to reflect off of and smudge away contrast. If I were to guess, I would say that they've used little nor no coatings on most of the elements. The way this lens renders necessitates post-processing and I generally shot with the camera's contrast, sharpening and saturation maxed out. Sometimes the results were simply unusable. 

On the plus side I did like the flare effects. I also liked the close focusing capabilities and the large aperture. While the barrel was a little loose, I did like the feel of the focusing ring and the smooth aperture ring. 

The appearance of the lens is appealing, but the design makes using filters a nightmare. You need to use a 58-77mm step up to avoid vignetting, but as soon as you add a second filter, you get a noticeable loss in brightness in the corners. 

I would recommend this lens only for video shot in black and white, and even with video the lack of sharpness may be a problem. For any use case, this lens is dramatically overpriced, and I would not pay over $200 for it if I were to buy it again.

Mediocre Lens

I received this lens after reviewing blogs and reviews online and I will say that all the praise is certainly well deserved. I barley take this lens off of my camera. Price is good and service good.

great lens!

Great, fast lens.  Wide but not too wide. Good in low light. Wish it came with a case and lens hood though.  I will definately consider more SLR Magic lenses in the future.

Nice lens

so far so good

One of this lens' selling points is it has "character". I suppose you could say that. Even with its nice bokeh, expect zounds of fringing, soft corners and chromatic aberration when using it full-open. Stopping down will mitigate some of these effects along with its zany flare, but you can often tell which photos were taken with the HyperPrime 12mm if you swap lenses during a shoot.

This is not a maximum sharpness workhorse lens. It's a boutique lens for certain kinds of imagery. As a wide-angle macro with a 6-inch focusing distance (from sensor to subject), it's totally unique in the Micro Four Thirds market as of writing. In more ways than one, it's capable of capturing images that other MFT lenses can't, and its non-electronic, full metal, fully manually-controlled nature makes using it a different experience. It's a shame that EXIF data can't be pulled from it.

Interesting

Very durable cinema lens. Wider view than expected on GH2 but does a great job.

Great Video Lens for GH2/3

Pretty good lens with limited options in the relatively new micro four thirds system. This, for me, is a recent purchase I have to see hows its going to stand the test of time. The lens is heavy but seems to be solidly built. It fits perfectly on my gh2 and is 100% manual (all lens features such as aperture and focus are adjusted in solely in the lens) which im accustomed to as aindie filmmaker. The only gripe that I have with the company more so than the lens is the lack of a warranty and or any contact info at all. All and all it seems decent enough so far.

Pretty Good for Micro Four Thirds

At 12mm, this is an excellent and fast 24mm (35mm equivalent) lens for the micro 4/3 system. I was so pleased with this lens that it immediately replaced my Panasonic 14mm f/2.5.  It mounts securely to my GH2 with no free play and best of all, no adapters necessary.  Of course for video purposes, manual focus is essential and the SLR Magic focus ring is much smoother and consistent compared to the Panasonic.  Also, having a manual aperture control ring is a huge plus.  The optics of this lens are excellent.  My video footage is tack sharp and infinity focus is accurate.  The only gripe I have with the SLR Magic lens was that upon opening it for the first time there was noticeable amount of lint inside the lens.  I don't believe you can remove it without disassembling it, and removing the front glass. After numerous tests with the lint still in the lens, it does not seem to be an issue.  With the obvious lack of quality control at the factory, I decided to keep my copy instead of exchanging it for one that might be worse.  Overall, I highly recommend this lens for video use.

Great manual wide for micro 4/3 system

I have had this lens since early November 2011.  I have used it on a G series and a Pen and it suits both very well.

The 12mm is great for wide vistas but is even better when you get up close to your subject.  As an f1.4 lens, you have heaps of control over how much of your scene is in focus.  

I like how the designers allowed the lens to be opened up to f1.4 even though this introduces some flaws.  The lens becomes prone to flare and noticeable vignetting.  Still very workable though.  Once stopped down to f2.0, this becomes a non-issue.

The 12 bladed iris provides smooth, creamy bokeh.  As the aperture control has no click stops, all transitions are very smooth.  This is great for video work but also enables fine tuning for stills.

I have not tested this with filters yet but I have ND filters coming in the mail.

The lens comes with a metal lens cap which to me feels very satisfying sliding it off while I consider composition.

For architectural users, the lens does have some moustache distortion but this is easily removed using software tools.  I use PTLens which only takes about two or three mouse clicks.  It also handles vignetting well.  It comes with a stand alone program and also plugins for Lightroom and Aperture.

As the lens has no electronics, no lens EXIF data is saved to images.  This can only be added in post production.

I have found the team at SLR Magic quick to respond to emails.

Full disclosure: While I did receive this lens before it was available through retail outlets, this was only because I bugged SLR Magic and I did have to pay for it with my own hard earned money.