I had the chance to test the new Zeiss Planar T* 1.4/85 ZE and I hardly can imagine that a lens can be a lot better.
On the other hand, this "Polar" goes for a third of the price that a Planar sets you back...
ovredal73 wrote:
Where did you guys get it at this price? I can´t seem to find any on ebay.
I bought mine in South Korea. That's about the only place where you can get one at a cheap price.
In Europe the Wallimex Pro goes for about 500 euros, the HK dealers are selling them for 450US, and the Australians seems to have it for under 400US.
I wish Samyang would keep their pricing more equal, but I guess they have to play the economies of scale game. Still, someone in Korea should wake up and see the business opportunity of selling this lens in the West at Korean prices.
So far, most of the pictures shown here display washed-out colours and weak contrast IMHO. Which is unfortunate, because a new supplier of truly excellent, fast primes at lower-than-market prices would be most welcome.
jsv_20 wrote:
I wish Samyang would keep their pricing more equal, but I guess they have to play the economies of scale game. Still, someone in Korea should wake up and see the business opportunity of selling this lens in the West at Korean prices.
I don't think it has anything to do with economies of scale-- but rather marketing. I'm guessing that the Korean price is low for a variety of reasons, including getting enough people to use the lens to create a buzz.
Also, there is no business opportunity someone from Korea selling the lens in the West at Korean prices. At least not unless it comes from the top down.
I've actually got a friend who is considering buying a bunch and trying to sell them here, but I can assure you it wouldn't be much better than the price you can get from Ebay. It costs money to import those things and ship them.
Anyway, if someone bought this lens wholesale and sold this lens for 280US (current retail price) and charged 55US for shipping they're still making a decent $60US profit.
So there is some money to be made by someone willing enough to go out and buy them and send them from here at decent prices. Now if a wholesaler bought them and sold them overseas, his profit would probably be higher.
Importing them and then selling them, well that's another story.
gasrocks:
You can buy them from Gmarket. I have a Korean buddy and he explained to me that it is essentially the same as Amazon/Ebay. They have different sellers and when you buy an item from a seller, the seller sends it to Gmarket, who then sends it to you.
I got mine for around $300, the price changes every day because of currency conversion. A few days later it was the same price in wan, but it had dropped to $285, oh well. Then it is about $25-$30 in shipping and taxes.
I found one that had less shipping than another, but then when Gmarket got their hands on it and weighed it, they notified me that I had to pay another $6 in shipping (It isn't a scam on Gmarkets part, they advertise that they will do that).
You can pay with paypal, or get a credit card verified so you can pay with one, or you can use paypal to credit your Gmarket account and pay with the credit.
This isn't meant to be an ad for Gmarket, just explaining it, the whole system took me a few days of almost buying the item before I felt that I understood the system and all purchasing options enough to make a purchase from a foreign country. Especially one with such a language barrier. You will see a lot of broken english on the site making it seem like a scam site, but ebay just bought a large stake in them, they are the largest retail site in Korea.
Good luck if you buy one. Even the international site has some korean on it, mostly from the sellers. I had my friend assist me when looking at the site. The customer service isn't terrible either. I had questions, so I sent them some messages through their site, and they gave me some ok responses in broken english.
He's on the Korean side of the site. I actually went to his store, and he had quite a few Polar boxes sitting around. This is probably the best deal you'll find (360,000W +shipping).
In store you can actually get it for 340-345,000W, depending on how well you haggle, and if you're paying in cash (they all prefer cash).
I'd help you fellows out, but work keeps me pretty busy.
I finally got mine yesterday and can confirm that it is razor sharp! It is hard to focus with the 5D in low light, but I have a focus confirm chip on the way.
It's great that you've gone to this effort, but can you put up a review without the flash? Many browsers cannot see flash, and even if one is using a browser that can, the flash really gets in the way of presenting the data. In particular, it forces the viewer to either sit through the slideshows, or to manually click through them. In either case it prevents taking in the information in a sweep, and the exasperating flash fade out / fade in between frames inhibits "blink" comparison.
If you click on the Iris (Picasa logo) at the bottom right hand corner of the player, it will change the screen and give you an option near the top that allows you to go to the album that contains the full sized images.
Once you arrive at the album you can set the size at which you want to view the images by moving the slider at the top. Alternatively, you could download the original files and compare them on your own program.
Your photos don't show up at cogitech. That sounds like a fun project by the way you describe it.
But I'm curious why you got a confirmation chip, as opposed to a focusing screen?
Anyway, let us know what your findings are regarding the Polar.
My review of that lens is done. I have found it to be pretty decent lens for the money, though it does come with a few trade offs. Then again the Nikkor is also decent, but with other trade offs. There's no such thing as a perfect lens, just what works best for you.
Thanks for sharing your project.
I'm still looking for something to work on over the summer. I almost had my hands on a broken Nikkor 50 f1.4 with oily blades, but I missed the auction.
Anyone out there have any hazy glass or something with oily blades you'd be willing to let go? Looking for F mount lenses only, and they don't have to be Nikkors.
