[Music] Hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today To give you a look at a brand new lens From a brand new lens maker the company Taipo is a new lens maker that is Targeting the Leica M Mount Rangefinder Crowd with their new Samra lineup of Manual lenses now the initial releases Are a 20 88 mm and a 35mm f1.4 lenses And they do only come in like a mount The names typo which is a combination of Two Old English words and then Samara Which is a Greek word they focus on Individuality and living in the moment Now obviously that's completely Marketing but it does reflect the fact That typo is going after that like of Vibe and uh trying to capture both the Kind of the aesthetic and the lifestyle And then the overall feel of the lenses In the release of the Samra lineup so The question is as we look at the Samra 28mm f1.4 as the focus of today's review Have they nailed that like a feel as a Part of their design and the optical Performance well let's dive in and find Out right after a word from our sponsor Today's episode is brought to you by Phantom wallet the minimalist modern Wallet that is now even better with the New Phantom X that is crafted from Aluminum right here in Canada it is 22% Smaller and 35% lighter while still Making it easy to access your cards and
Money when you need them thanks to their Unique Fanning mechanism you could even Customize your wallet due to its modular Design with accessories like a money Clip cashh holder ID display and even Chipolo and air tag tracking integration Visit store. fanom wallet.com to check Out their unique sizes Styles and Finishes that span from aluminum to Wood To carbon fiber and use code Dustin 15 For 15% off when you're ready to check Out so as you can see I'm looking at the Silver version of the Samra 28mm f1.4 But both the 28mm and 35mm do come in Both black and silver editions the MSRP For these lenses is $699 and if that seems expensive to you For a manual focus compact lens like This bear in mind that the like a Summilux m 28mm f1.4 retails for $7,800 and so this lens is literally More than 11 times cheaper than what That lens is but you wouldn't know it From the build quality everything is all Metal here which includes by the way the Caps and the hood which are uh frankly The the rear cap is maybe one of the Nicest that I've ever seen but Everything here does have a lot of Attention to detail now as noted the Lens hood is all made of metal it is Kind of the rectangular style that you Do see on a lot of LOL lenses kind of Following that old Rangefinder aesthetic
But I will note that there is a Limitation that comes as a part of that In that the front cap is a slipover Style and so if you are using the front Cap it's either that or the lens Hood Because you can't use both at the same Time so the aesthetic may look cool but There is a price to pay for in this case I think that style is trumping over Functionality now the lens is very very Compact here it is 54 mm in diameter That's 2.1 in and it has a very compact 49 mm font filter thread which seems to Be a pretty common one amongst like M Mount 28 mm lenses now the lens is 55 mm Just 1 mm longer in its overall length That's 2.2 in and it weighs in at 330 G Or 11.6 ounces so that's about 110 G Less than the aforementioned lumalux Lens and so obviously if you're looking To travel light getting the f1.4 Aperture and an all metal build while Also staying fairly lightweight is an Added bonus here now this is a manual Everything lens which is pretty common On Leica and the rangefinder bodies but Everything is nicely executed here the Manual focus ring has really nice it's All in Metal of course and it has really Nice nural sections that each have Individualized grip so very easy to grip It uh the focus ring moves very very Smoothly and there is a couple of unique Features here there is a little bit of
Additional drag that is at 0.7 M minimum Folks distance is 0.4 M but at 0.7 M There's some additional drag and the Intent of that is that on Rangefinder Bodies that's as close as they will Actually focus and so beyond that you Have to switch to live view if you want To get accurate Focus up close so let's Design designed to just kind of let you Know you're entering into that territory On the other end of the approximately 100 to 110° of focus rotation there's Actually an Infinity lock there I'm not Convinced that it's entirely necessary But it is a cool looking feature uh you Do have to once it's in that lock Position you have to just depress this Little uh tension knob here and so it Will release to allow you to rotate back Out of there this is an internally Focusing lens which does actually set it Apart as Superior in fact to some of the Leica counterparts the lens has a nicely Executed aperture ring near the front of The lens and so you have a couple of Different options surprisingly you Actually have a click dclip click option On this lens and so you can choose to Click it and you will have 1/3 stop to Tth that are really nicely defined all The way through f8 after f8 you have Single stopped tents for f11 and F16 now If you're in the dclick mode obviously You can smoothly rack through that
Entire uh aperture Iris range and as you Can see here the other bonus here is There is a beautiful 14 bladed aperture Iris that stays really beautifully round As you open and close it and so that is A very very nice addition kind of Another cool I almost call it an Easter Egg here that I didn't initially noticed But only noticed after using it for a While and that is that rather than Having a traditional hyper Focus scale Instead what you have is you have these Little red dots that start to fill in as You uh as you stop The Lens down and so Each one of those corresponds to the Position where you can put the infinity Symbol if you're wanting to achieve Proper hyperfocal distance and so just Kind of a unique bespoke touch there That I found very very cool now as noted Previously the minimum Focus distance is 0.4 M or 40 cm that is not particularly Close for a 28 mm lens though in many Cases close Focus doesn't seem to be a Priority with a lot of the like a lenses But in this case you have roughly a 0.09 times magnification which as you Can see is not particularly High the Build quality however is actually really Really nice everything is very Beautifully executed here and there's a Really fine attention to detail which I Appreciate this for those that Appreciate lenses that are you know also
Kind of engineered pieces of art this is Something that will probably Delight you Both in the tactile sense but also in The overall aesthetic look they're great Looking lenses and they handle very Nicely now image quality Here Comes via An optical formula of 11 elements in Seven groups now that includes an ed Element an aspherical element and three HR or high refractive index elements as A part of the design another welcome Surprise as a part of the optical design Is a floating element that allows you to Get better performance up close and Again it's that attention to detail that Has impressed me as a part of this brand New lens maker and their design so we'll Give you a quick breakdown of overall Performance here you can see from the MTF chart that we've got a a good Performance in the center of the frame a You pretty good performance mid-frame And then weaker Corner performance and a Little bit of improvement across the Board as you stop it down we're going to Break all the optical performance down In detail at the end of the review so Stay tuned for that if you're interested In the kind of nitty-gritty of the Details if you just want the overview I'll give you a just a quick rundown of Optical performance in my experience so The first positive note is there's Basically no Distortion here I could do
A Tiny correction of maybe a minus one But frankly you probably wouldn't even Notice in any kind of real world Conditions vignette on the other hand is Heavier we've got about three stops of Vignet in the corners it improves a Little bit as you stop down but it never Goes away altogether again positive is There is very good control of aberration On the 28 millimeter which by the way is Better in this than the 35 millimeter so I saw almost no longitudinal chromatic Aberration very very minimal fringing Before and after the plane of focus I Also saw basically no lateral chromatic Aberration near the corners of the frame So uh that's a very strong performance When it comes to that if we look at the Overall sharpness and contrast we find Breaking it down and this is at 200% Magnification so yes torture test and I Reviewed on 61 megapixels of resolution Actually used both a manual adapter and Then the tech art LM ea9 adapter which Gives you a little bit of autofocus it Gives you m Mount uh lenses on Sony E-mount I don't own a like a body and so I was testing on a 61 megapixel Sony a7r Mark 5 for these tests just so you know And so I found that there was good Center Performance there was okay mid Performance and there was fairly weak Corner performance now I did find that Real world results looked a little bit
Better mostly because you're not com Composing in the extreme Corners at f1.4 And real world shots typically but also Because the lens has such nice rendering That I just liked the overall results And so it gave me a more positive feel The center will become very crisp by F2 The mid-frame very crisp by F4 and the Corners very crisp by f5.6 so you can if You wanted to use this lens as a Landscape lens you could do so after you Stop it down I found kind of peak Consistent performance across the frame At f8 and there is uh after that Defraction will start to slightly soften The image but even by F-16 which is Minimum aperture I really didn't find That the images looked too bad the Bap From this lens is actually really nice So looking at it on the technical side First there is uh of the geometry There's a little bit of cat eye uh you Know deformation near the corners of the Frame with specular height highlights in Some cases that will give you a little Bit of that squrl effect you'll either Like or dislike that depending on your Taste by F2 it's almost perfectly round All across the frame and because Remember there's that 14 bladed aperture Iris after that point if you can create Specular highlights or boka balls you'll Find that they tend to be really nice And circular because that aperture
Blades is so nice and circular in Situations where you don't have specular Highlights and it's more just about a Creamy background I found that up close You could get a really nice and creamy Background and even at more medium Distances I found that the that kind of What I call the transition zone was Actually handled fairly well so bouquet Quality from the lens and the overall Look and rendering I think is quite nice The lens also exhibited surprisingly Good flare resistance uh wide open with Like light coming through the windows I Found that what bit of kind of veiling Was there was actually quite artistic Kind of gave a warm glow to images and Then uh directly facing into the sun Even when stopping down I saw just a Basically one kind of ghosting artifact That wasn't too big and not too Destructive so positive there I did test For coma though in using the tech art It's a little bit tough sometimes to Nail Infinity focus in that kind of Setting the the movement of the the Actual adapter can kind of work against You so my results are not perfectly Focused however what I did find is that There is a little bit of of coma smear In the corner it's not terrible but this Lens is what wouldn't be what I would Call a top astrophotography pick either In general I really liked the look of
The images that I got from the typo Samra 28mm F1.4 and so in summation I think that Tyo has really done a pretty good job Here of nailing a lot of the Leica Aesthetic and the lens design but also a Lot of the Leica aesthetic when it comes To the image quality and obviously at a Much much lower price point I enjoyed Using the Samra 28mm f1.4 I will confess I do have a little bit of a a weakness For nicely executed manual focus lenses And in this case I think that that's What they've done so I enjoyed using the Lens I think the question remains of how The market is going to receive this the Leica brand is unique amongst most Modern photography Brands and those who Have bought into the Leica system I Don't know for sure whether they're open To a non-established brand like this Maybe they are and obviously there's Always going to be some disparity of Opinion across any kind of of group of Photographers but I guess the market Will determine whether or not people are Looking for you know a an off-brand lens Like this new typo lens for their like a Body but if you happen to be open to a Far less expensive alternative for your Liab body take a look at the typo Samra 28mm f1.4 if you like 28 8 mm this is a Pretty nice one now if you want to go Into a deeper dive of the optical
Performance stay tuned we're going to Jump into that right after [Music] This okay let's take a deeper dive into The image quality performance starting With the vignette and Distortion you can See that this the uncorrected image on The left that there is basically almost Nothing to correct there as far as the Distortion very very minimal I do use a Minus one here on the right but you Really can't hardly tell a difference Vignette is much more obvious I used a Plus 73 to correct for the vignette and The corners and move the midpoint most Of the way over you'd see that give us a Nice cleanup that's about three stops Now many wide aperture lenses like this Do suffer from longitudinal chromatic Aberration but that's really not much of An issue here as you can see there is Just a tiny bit of friending fringing Before and after the plane of focus it Is not very pronounced at all and if I Take a look at something like this with Shiny and reflective surfaces I can see Yes just the tiniest bits of fringing But as we go towards the bouqu Highlights very minimal there and as we Move out of focus I see only just the Slightest bit of fringing but not enough That you're really going to notice it on The whole image at all lateral chromatic Aberration are even if anything are less
Pronounced and you can see in these Transitions from black to white near the Edge of the frame that everything is Really really nice and clean so as noted Previously I'm doing this test on a 61 Megapixel Sony a7r Mark 5 so very high Resolution level I'm showing you these Results at 200% so we can see that wide Open contrast isn't perfect but there is A lot of detail there in the center of The frame uh looking really quite good I'm going to go to the left here and we Can see that the midf frame looks again It's contrast is not fantastic but there Is a good amount of detail that's being Captured there and down here on the left Side we can see that you know there's Still some work to do in the corners but There is it's not like there's no image Quality here either as noted in my Summary I kind of liked my real world Results even better than what that Suggests for one thing if you're looking Just at a 100% magnification level that Really looks quite good there's no Issues there with the detail that I'm Seeing and moreover just the overall Look and rendering of the image looks Quite good good here in my sauna and so You can see it's handling the light Coming through the window there quite Well and if we look here obviously it's Going to be a fairly narrow depth of Field you can see it's not pen Shar but
There's plenty there to make this image Look credible and thus overall I really Like the look of the image one final Here and I can't remember if this was F1.4 or F1.8 but you can see here I wanted to Use a shallow depth field and use the Contrast of this old abandoned Barn uh With the the you kind of the wide out Around it of the fresh snow and if we Punch in there to a pixel level you can See again it's not what I would call pen Sharp but you can see there's a Perfectly usable amount of detail and I Like the look of the image overall now Stopping down to F1.8 does give us more contrast in the Center of the frame over in the midf Frame the results again there's a little Bit more contrast there and you can see That the brighter a as are brighter to The corners it's not enough to really Improve the resolution much but again You can see that contrast is improved Some with some brighter looking edges Now f1.8 to F2 makes a more Market Improvement in the contrast in the Center of the frame with the center Looking what I would consider pretty Much pen sharp at this point the Mid-frame is also improving and looking Better not 100% there yet and the Corners not a huge leap ahead yet there By F2 .8 to F4 you know even at f2.8
Here we can see that the details looking Really really good contrast is looking Excellent and if I pop down here once Again and I look towards the edge you Can see it is starting to improve and It's going to be better still if we stop Down to F4 and then to f5.6 where the Corners are looking really fantastic now So for landscape type shots where you're Looking for detail all across the frame You know if you stop it down in this Case I would call the corners looking as Good on 61 megapixels but overall the Image looks nice and crisp I mean it's It's an image you would be perfectly Happy with here's another shot here that Even if we look into the foreground Everything looks really nice and then as We look on towards Infinity uh Everything is captured looking really Nicely right off to the edge of the Frame and so here's a an image that I Feel like really held up well and shows Off what the lens is capable of so after F8 defraction will start in a little bit At f11 though you can see it still looks Really good and then minimum AP or Minimum apture of F16 you can see by Comparison that it is softer but it's Not unusable either and you can see even Down into the corners that there still Is a useful amount of information so I Wouldn't be against using that even at F16 now as noted previously our minimum
Focus distance is only 40 cm and so Magnification isn't super high detail Doesn't look too bad here up close However it's still what I would consider Usable for sure a quick closer look at That bouquet geometry you can see that We're definitely getting some of that Lemon shape towards the corners of the Frame if I stop down to F2 it's not Completely circular but you can see it Looks accept cir circular by f2.8 Everything is looking better and of Course you're going to continue to have Really nice results due to having that Really circular aperture we can also see Because of low chromatic aberration and A good amount of contrast that there's a Great amount of detail that's there even On some of these shiny and reflective Surfaces now of course the lens doesn't Focus particularly close I was able to Get a little bit closer due to using the Tech art adapter that is one advantage Of that but you can see that the detail Is good there but I mean this is Obviously a really creamy type of Background here in this case at f1.4 Where I'm back a little bit further you Can see a little bit of that swirl Effect due to the specular highlights There so whether you like or dislike That it's there now flare resistance was Again quite good I really liked how it Handled shots like this which is
Important to me because this is the kind Of shot that I would like to take with a Lens like this so You' got some bright Light coming through a window source you Can see that it's everything's got a Little bit of a warm glow but there's no Kind of damage to the image and this Shot here once again back lit and so the Sun's coming through fairly intensely There but we can see at Large apertur Here that there's just a bit of a glow But there's no big ghosting artifacts as You stop down a bit you do get a little Bit more of these kind of blobs but Nothing too severe and so I wasn't put Off by that performance at all and as Noted with the caveat of not being able To focus perfectly for this we can see That as we move off towards the edge of The frame you can see that the star Points are deforming a little bit and so They're becoming not quite like full-on Flying birds but almost a little Triangular in shape and so that is the Evidence of coma going on there and so It's not a terrible performance but Neither is it a good one either when it Comes to Coma overall however though I Think that this lens really does pull Off a very nice looking Optical Performance so thanks for watching to The end I hope that this has helped you To get a better understanding of this Lens and also this new brand if you want
More information you can check the link Below in the description to my full Written review also there are buying Links there if you'd like to pick one of These up for yourself as always thanks For watching have a great day and let The light [Music] In
