I’ve found the square hood cap to fit snug so far.
But I don’t always want to pack the hood, and the provided round plastic lens cap is rubbish - the rim cracked after the first few days and now it constantly falls off.
holy cows from the farm, Simera 35
Yeah the first b/w pic isn’t sharp because “daisy” kept coming closer towards me - love it anyways for the mood
These are bloody great, Dan. The 0.45m minimum focus distance is not exceptional, but it always shows the lens under maximum stress, in terms of bokeh and (I think) coherence of the transition zone. It's really well on display with the Dude here! The 50mm gets the best use out of its glass, and it has three high refractive index elements to help it make some very sweet images indeed.
Here is a shot of a horse that nuzzled me to say hello, made with the 28/1.4. They are hard to get focus on so close but like the better manual focus lenses, the Simeras are quite tolerant of near misses. And an impromptu bokeh test (at Nako, Spiti). Another here showing a short range roadside image.
Another thing that is interesting maybe for other lens producers in the future: the sharp-eyed cine people do see differences in color in their much more sophisticated tests across the Simera range, what they have in common is much greater than their differences. What I see, anyway. Would they consider greater commonality in design? There are many advantages to it.
The 35mm is very special, if well outside the 'Overton Window' of full frame lenses. It's a real sleeper, but I was the one asleep at the wheel, by not buying it earlier. It's the most likely one to attract an almost embarrassed and quiet cult following.
Here is a video by Matt Osborne reviewing the Voigtlander 28/2 APO-Lanthar and some other 28s. Why post that here, you may ask? Because he shot the video with the Simera 35/1.4 (2:22).
Matt is an unusual player, he knows his M stuff and is pretty happy to share it. The first minute or two will show what I mean, he used it for his piece to camera content:
..
..
While on the 50mm, it's important to say that at f5.6-f8 it is notably 'sharp' but the particular sharpness it delivers has a high brightness to its highlight tones, and just the right macro-contrast - these are more important than the last word in micro-contrast, once past a certain performance level, even for landscapes.
The combined 'gestalt' of this modified Summilux design makes memorable natural scene imagery, it's quite the achievement in a 'portrait' lens. So, very versatile! The good ones, they keep you going.
These were shot on an unmodified Sony a7r, my 2013 camera that has done 60,000 kms of mountain travel. If I may be so bold as to say, they show authenticity, high detail. It's important to love your lenses. The good ones (the ones you synch with) they do wider set of styles of photography, and they seem to work with you as a partner.
‘Most of your Personal Style Comes from your Lenses’
“Bold is Gold”
Oh my, those mountains … the microcontrast & subtle tonal transitions…!! Magnificent!
The excavator in the 4th mountain pic really puts the size of these mountains into perspective!
I know that traveling there isn’t easy! I spent some time in northern India (Himachal Pradesh) and the accessibility with very dangerous windy roads makes these captures of yours quite a feat! Thank you for sharing!
Also appreciate the white horse very much!
I remember that just a short while ago Matt Osborne mentioned that he is totally new to video work.
Now he is mounting these simeras to create some very appealing footage indeed!
*edit* reduced to $390 including continental USA shipping. Let me know asap
FYI, I have an unopened (plastic wrapped) black simera 28 for Sony E mount, if you would like it for $420 including tracked shipping within continental US. I got a used one the same day that this same lens arrived from B&H, so I didn’t open the new one from B&H. I’ll add a copy of the invoice. I can send it out Monday, when I’m back from testing the used 28 simera here in Munich 🫡
First outing with the Simera 28 in Munich today - what a keeper!
David from South Africa made me a strong matcha & I took his picture in return
The flower I found a little later, it’s the national flower of South Africa - amazing!
More pics from this set here : david MatchaMan
Dan, nice shots with the 28 ! I really like that lens on my Z and keeping it. Tried the 50 but ended up returning it (wasn't a great copy perhaps and I have a preference for 40mm vs 50mm so that could be it). I re-purchased the Zeiss 35/1.4 ZM (one of my favorite 35s of all time and super sharp) so the sim 35/1.4 is going back. The ZM costs a lot more but the pics just pop and I absolutely love it. The sim 35 didn't speak to me the way 28 did.
