So the Sur sniper series is here these Are apsc lenses all identical in size Very similar in weight all f1.2 and they All have autofocus and I have to say That these are some of the best looking Lenses at least in my opinion that we've Seen in many many years but this review Has been kind of difficult and I've been Taking my time with it because I wanted To pause and really think about it and See if it wasn't just me or if I was Going crazy because it's easy to get on The hype train with these lenses and I'm Going to title this video something like Form over function because I think that That summarizes these lenses perfectly Because in their form they look I think Beautiful they're wellmade the colors Are awesome the sizes are great I mean The finishes are great there's a lot to Like about the packaging of these three Lenses but when you talk about the Functional side of it that is the Optics And the performance that's where things Get a little bit more challenging so Let's jump in and check out these brand New lenses now when I first heard about These lenses I was immediately excited I Wanted them to be good I wanted these to Be a faster cheaper alternative to the Sigma Trio or I should say the sigma Quartet now packaging as I mentioned is Brilliant you get a very nice case if You buy all three the lenses are vacuum
Sealed presented well this color is Called white ceramic I believe and if It's too white for you then there is a Black and gray carbon fiber version that Looks pretty awesome as well and there's Also a silver version which looks insane Anyway 23 mm 33 mm and 56 mm that is Roughly 35 50 and 84 mm equivalent on a Full-frame camera which are three very Standard focal lengths all of these Lenses are f1.2 which is very fast great For low light work they all share the Same size which is a few millimeters Shorter than the sigma 16 mm for Reference weights are all similar 374 392 and 410 G going from widest to Teleph photoest the build is good it's a Mix of metal and plastic and glass but This paint or coating on the body of These white lenses is something that I Haven't seen before they call it ceramic And it kind of feels like that smooth You can't really tell if it's a plastic Lens painted with a high-end finish or a Metal lens coated with some impenetrable Coating around the bottom metal Mount Electronic connections USBC port for Firmware updates no weather ceiling on The body there is a nice embossed suray Logo AF apsc here on the side and all of This is executed very well Focus ring is All electronic or fly by wire but it Rotates smoothly easy to grip I like the Gray front portion of this lens it's
Metal and it's surrounded by this Signature blue line around the front the Lens specs and 58 mm filter diameter the Lens elements vary depending on the lens That you are looking at all three lens Lenses come with lens hoods and these Are all plastic the same ceramic style Coating on the outside but they are Light and plastic otherwise the 23 and The 33 seem to have the same Hood and The 56 has a deep one so these are three Greatl looking lenses and perhaps that's Why there's so much excitement Surrounding their release because they Are extremely photogenic and they're Fast and they're relatively budget Friendly so there's a lot to be excited About here and certainly if you are just About looks if if you just want a cool Looking lens on your camera or you want To mount this on a camera and put it in A glass showcase somewhere in your house And have it as a statement piece then You don't need to watch the rest of this Video just go out and buy these because They are awesome looking but most of us Buy lenses to actually use them and That's where I'm trying to balance this Review with the fact that well these are Pre-production units this is a first for Sur as far as producing autofocusing Lenses and they're releasing three of Them them at the same time and they're Also producing them for three separate
Mounts which is a huge task it's a lot But the counteract to that is optically These are not brilliant and they have Some issues so Optics in terms of Sharpness these are not Tac sharp wide Open in fact you need to stop them down To F4 or Beyond if you're looking for Edgo Edge sharpness out of the three the 23 mm is the sharpest wide open then the 33 and then the 56 and that 56 is an odd One it's soft hazy also described as Quote dreamy by those trying to spin Negative news into a positive so how Much softer are they than the sigma Lenses well let's take the 23mm Sur Which is the best one and compare it to The 23mm f1.4 from Sigma it's odd Because it seems to be soft in the Center at f1.4 but the mid-frame and Corners seem to be okay you can see a Huge difference in chromatic Collaboration which I will talk about Later and look at the barrel Distortion And the colors the warm tones compared To the sigma that's an interesting one Looking at the 56 mm suray versus the 56 Mm Sigma again these are at f1.4 so the Suray does have an advantage but Although both lenses locked onto the Eyes only one is sharp and you can see There are more issues with the bouquet Which has some color fringing and Outlining so if you are looking for a Technically Sharp set of lenses the
Sigma quartet is still the set to get One of the biggest issues with the Sur Lenses is chromatic aberration when it Shows up it shows up a lot f1.2 is very Fast and if you have any sort of Contrasting edges you're going to see Green and purple a lot the 56 mm seems To be the worst one when it comes to Aberration then I have to talk about Flaring which on the 23 and the 33 mm is Okay although you can still see that as Well on the the 56 mm there is some Significant loss of contrast some Ghosting and a bunch of colors and Unfortunately the lens Hood doesn't help And I already briefly mentioned the Colors the 23 and the 33 seem to be Warmer than the 56 mm which seems to be Neutral there's a little bit of vetting Here and there but by far the biggest Issue is the chromatic aberration I say That but in reality the biggest issue With these lenses is the autofocus Performance and again I want the lenses To be good I really do I wanted them to Be amazing and knock it out of the park But if you have people out there who are Reviewing these and saying things like Fast consistent reliable in regards to Autofocus on Sony e-mount that is simply Not true at all at least not on this Current firmware I don't know if the Firmware has been updated already or if It's coming in the future I'm sure it's
Coming in the future but as of the date Of recording this video today's I think The 20th of November Yeah it's not reliable and again I will Say that these are pre-production sample Lenses in fact they don't work at all With my Sony a6700 I'm told that the Retail version of the firmware will have All of the ability to work with the Newest camera body so these samples that You're seeing are from my Sony zve E10 The autofocus would work at times but Then on occasion you simply could not Get it to work there were moments where It took me over a minute it and I'm not Exaggerating to snap a single photo the Autofocus would hunt but in an aimless Way as if it didn't know what its job is And even for video there were a number Of moments where it would track okay up Close and then it would just lose the Subject and seemingly give up and never Try to recover very strange and this Didn't happen all the time there were Moments where these lenses were Brilliant and they focused quickly and Correctly but those were sprinkled Amidst a lot of other frustrating Moments and that is simply a shame again I'm hoping that it's just my version and The firmware that's not updated that's Causing these issues because there is a Lot that these lenses get right The Styling the build the size the
Consistency and filter threads the f1.2 Aperture the price these are all just About $300 each USD andless if you buy The full set but there are also a number Of things to factor into your buying Decision at least right now another Thing that these three lenses do get Right is focus breathing there's almost No Focus breathing whatsoever with these Three which is truly remarkable for the Sizes and the fact that they were able To cram in all the different elements And sizes into the same body with Autofocus and still get basically no Focus breathing and if I'm honest I'm Astounded that Sur was able to produce These three lenses so quickly and Release them in basically record time I Think it took Sigma something like five Years probably to develop these lenses Here that we know and love I mean they Started out with a 30 mm then they got The was it 16 after that then the 56 Then the 23 there's probably 5 years of R&D that went into the sigma lenses and Here we have Sur coming out with this Set in probably a year's time which is Crazy and it kind of reminds me of a Quote that I kind of live by and that is Nothing great serious or lasting can be Done in a hurry and that applies to a Lot of things in life I think that what Sur really needed was probably just more Time more time to maybe fine-tune some
Of the Coatings to get rid of the Chromatic aberration more time just to Get the tones identical across the set Of lenses more time to tweak the Performance on the 56 mm to make it Match up to the others in terms of just Sharpness at F1.2 and certainly more time to work on The firmware to make sure that the Autofocus was up to the task of keeping Up with modern camera bodies these Lenses are good but they could have been Great they could have been brilliant and They still can be great with future Firmware updates but for my money it's Harder to gamble on the promise of Firmware updates than it is to spend the Little extra money on a set of lenses That are proven to be optically Brilliant even if they aren't all the Same size and don't look nearly as cool But that's just me but let me know what You guys think down in the comment Section below if you are interested in Backing the Indiegogo campaign for this Setup and securing your own right now Early bird pricing is going on so you're Buying these lenses if you buy the set It's like I don't know $270 a piece or Something like that which is very very Affordable for an f1.2 lens as long as You're okay with the compromises Optically and in terms of autofocus uh So definitely check that out in the
Description thank you guys so much for All of your comments all of your likes And your support stay tuned for more Have a great day bye-bye
