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Sirui Sniper AF 23mm F1.2 Review | Autofocusing F1.2 lens for $350 Bucks?
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Nov 29, 2023
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a review of the Sirui Sniper 23mm F1.2 autofocus lens for Sony E, Fuji X (reviewed here) and Nikon Z. Individual reviews of the 23mm, 33mm, and 56mm F1.2 lenses will follow. | Read the Text Review: | Visit the Image Gallery: | Purchase the Sirui Sniper Lenses @ Sirui https://bit.ly/41cbS6t (use code DustinA for 5% off) | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/47pA875 | Adorama https://howl.me/ck3c6eLTjxp | Amazon https://amzn.to/3uoluhY | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3SOi6qH | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3sCy4K6 | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/49JAFT9 Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.me/cjU0LKdp3LN Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro and Concept 1:19 - Fantom Wallets
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0:00
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott, and recently I came to you with an overview video of the new
0:15
Siri-eye sniper series of autofocusing lenses for APSC cameras. There is a 23-millimeter, 33-millimeter, and 56-millimeter, all within maximum aperture of F-1.2
0:27
and they all come in Fuji X mount, which I'm reviewing here, Sony E mount, and then Nikon Z mount
0:34
So I've taken a look at the series as a whole, but obviously there are individual characteristics of each one of these lenses that warrant a closer look at them individually
0:44
So today is the first of that series of individual reviews, starting with the Siri Eye Sniper 23mm F1.2 lens
0:52
So this lens retails for $349 U.S. dollars MSRP. but it can be had cheaper through a variety of means, early bird purchasing, discount codes
1:02
etc., etc. So in a nutshell, this is a really nicely built lens
1:07
It uses premium and unique materials. Has average autofocus for stills, a little bit below average autofocus for video
1:15
It is very nice bouquet, and it sharpens up when stopped down
1:19
but it has some chromatic aberrations and lower contrast, euphemistically called Dreamy
1:25
when wide open at large. or apertures. So this is a lens that is not necessarily a modern lens in terms of the being
1:34
very heavily corrected for all the aberrations and those type things. Maybe that appeals to you
1:39
and if so, stick with me and let's take a closer look at the performance of the lens
1:44
Starting with the build and handling, this at 23 millimeters, when you put the 1.5 times crop factor
1:50
of the various cameras that it goes for, makes it a full frame equivalent of about 35 millimeters
1:55
So a very common, very popular focal length. As noted, there are Nikon Z, Sony, E, and Fuji X mount options available
2:03
And for all three of those mounts, there are three different finish options also available
2:09
So we've got the black that I'm reviewing here that has genuine carbon fiber on the barrel as an accent
2:15
You have the silver, which uses aluminum alloy in place of the carbon fiber
2:19
And then you have a white that uses ceramic and that bake ceramic paint in that section
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as well. So all of them have these kind of unique and premium finish options as a part of them
2:31
And that really, I think, is a large part of the appeal of the lens is the overall design
2:35
which is fresh and different from other lenses out there and is quite unique
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Now, in terms of the dimensions of the lens, it is 72 millimeters in diameter or 2.8 inches
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It is a little over 92 millimeters in length or 3.6 inches
2:50
It weighs in at 380 grams, which is 13.4 ounces. So a little bit larger and heavier than most of the competing lenses, though I will note that most of the competing lenses have a maximum aperture of F1.4 rather than F1.2
3:06
F1.2 is about a half-stop faster than what F1.4 is. I do like all of the attention to detail in the physical design, everything from the badges, which all of that feels premium, the different materials and textures, the accents that are here
3:23
but outside of that, you know, it looks good, but outside of that, there isn't really any features here
3:28
No AFMF switch, no aperture ring, and certainly that aperture ring is something that some competing lenses will have
3:35
The focus ring here has a more of a diamond-type texture pattern, a little bit different than the typical ribs you see
3:42
The texture feels probably most similar to the control ring on Canon RF mount lenses
3:48
The focus ring itself is lightly damped and it has 3,000, 160 degrees of rotation
3:55
Though I will note on Fuji X mount, if you're trying to get to minimum focus
3:59
if you want to get as close as you can, you have to kind of keep rotating and rotating
4:03
to finally get it that last few degrees that are there. It's kind of a Fuji quirk that drives me crazy, but, you know, it is what it is
4:11
All the lenses, including the 23mm, have a USBC port on the lens mount
4:17
That helps to future-proof the lens, allowing you to do firmware updates, both for camera
4:22
compatibility, but also hopefully we'll see some improvements to auto focus through that
4:27
maybe some tweaks along the way as they refine the process, get some updated algorithms, things
4:32
like that. The lens comes with a pedal-shaped lens hood. It's made out of plastic, nothing particularly special, though I will note I like the
4:40
inclusion of a little bit of a ribbed section on there for a little bit more grip and a little
4:45
bit more style, aka Sigma does a lot of things like that
4:49
Inside we have 11 rounded aperture blades and so a little bit higher aperture blade count
4:55
which helps of course with that big maximum aperture. Stop down a little bit and you can retain a circular shape to the aperture which helps with that nice bouquet quality which is one of the strengths of the lens Not so much as strength is the minimum focus distance You can only focus as closely as 30 centimeters and that gives you a you know
5:13
a pretty low-end 0.10 times magnification. You can still blur out backgrounds because you can get
5:20
close enough to blur out the background thanks to that big F1.2 aperture, but magnification is
5:25
nothing special. And certainly there are some competing lenses that are going to give you a much
5:30
better performance in that regard. Auto focus here comes via an STM focus motor, which is pretty much
5:36
standard unless you're going into the higher and linear motors on different cameras. So the focus
5:42
speed is probably about average for what I would see. There is, as you can see here, it moves back
5:49
and forth pretty quick, but there is just a tiny step to where you get about two thirds of the way
5:53
there, you know, just a split second pause and then that last third before it does the final lock. But
5:59
if you add that up, it's a little bit slower than what some competing lenses will be
6:04
The focus noise is very low. You can hear some very light clicking if you put your ear kind of
6:10
right next to it, but in most focus environments, you're probably not going to hear any auto focus
6:14
sounds. And I found that autofocus accuracy was generally quite good for stills. When, you know
6:21
shooting a variety of subjects, as you can see here, tracking Nala's eye, it was staying sticky
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on the eye, deliver good focus results, things like that. and taking photos of people, I had good focus results
6:33
And so in general, I think that it did fairly good for focus accuracy for stills
6:37
However, if we switch over to the video side of things, you can see that video AF is just not great
6:44
You can see that in the pools, there is a fair bit of hunting and settling
6:48
and just kind of visible steps along the way. It's not as good as what some competing lenses are
6:56
And when I did my hand test, you can see that it's just not all that If the hand was taken away or added back into the equation, there's just this lag where it's as if it's making up its mind what it wants to do
7:08
And so it just doesn't have the confidence of what some competing lenses, you know, lenses like the Sigma 23mm F1.4 or Fuji's own 23 millimeter F1.4, even the Viltrox, a 27 millimeter F1.2
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All of those lenses are more reactive in that situation. I found that the video AF did better just kind of keeping a subject
7:29
locked. So for example, in this clip of Nala, as she moves around, it's trying not
7:34
instead of trying to make big focus pools, which it's not great at, it's just kind of keeping focus through gradual degrees. And when it has a trackable subject on the frame
7:42
that's when Fuji's autofocus does best anyway. And I think that it did better in that circumstance
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So this is definitely not a top video choice. The video autofocus is just not reactive enough
7:54
for major focus changes. But if you're just wanting to do something more simple, just kind of
7:58
keep something in focus, probably do okay for that. So let's talk about the image quality
8:03
There are 12 elements and 11 groups and in this design there are six of those elements
8:08
Half of them are high refractive index elements to help to give it good optical properties
8:13
One thing I will note if you're wanting to use multiple of these lenses that Siroi claims they have
8:18
a consistent color accuracy and color temperature across the three of them, so the footage will be
8:23
or photos will be complementary from the three. But let's dive in and break down how it
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performs, particularly on the torture test of this 40 megapixel sensor on the XH2 that I did my review on
8:36
So let's start by taking a look at Vignette and distortion at F1.2
8:40
You can see some barrel distortion that's apparent, but it's not extreme
8:45
And then in the corners, definitely some vignette. Here is a manual correction there on the right side
8:50
And that manual correction, I dialed in a plus 9 to deal with the distortion
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And you can see it's not 100% perfect, very, very mild little bit
8:58
mustache pattern that's there, but for the most part, I think that you would be hard pressed
9:02
to actually see that in most real world situations. Vignette's another story. I had to nearly
9:07
max out the sliders at 97 to get rid of the vignette in the corners. There is a profile here that's
9:15
available, and I click it here quickly. You could see that it takes care of some, but not all the
9:21
vignette, and not a whole lot of the distortion. So at this stage, I don't know if that's the
9:28
the final version, but I can definitely do a better job manually. Now, one of the issues with this lens is that it definitely suffers with some fringing
9:36
Longitudinal chromatic aberrations are fairly pronounced, as you can see, mostly in the
9:41
green variety after the plane of focus. So that means that you're going to see that, for example, on these shiny objects as we
9:49
go out of focus. You can see towards this area back here, definitely going to be some green fringing that
9:56
shows up there. And in the bouquet, like specular highlights, you're definitely going to see a bit of a green fringe
10:04
around those. So just be aware that that certainly is going to be a factor
10:07
with the lens. Now the lateral style chromatic aberrations that come near the edge of the frame are much better controlled And as you can see here there really not a whole lot to see So you know at least one thing going on there Now the character of the Siri lenses because they are a sniper series
10:25
because they do have some chromatic aberrations, some other spherical aberrations that soften contrast
10:31
and they have a maximum aperture of F1.2, which is a bit of a challenge to engineer
10:35
They are not super sharp wide open. And that's going to look much worse in our test here because we are literally testing at the most difficult area that I test
10:46
This is more demanding than the medium format sensors I test than the Sony 61 megapixel full frame sensors
10:53
This is a really, really demanding sensor. And as you can see in the middle of the frame, contrast is definitely not off the charts
10:59
There is a decent amount of detail there in the center of the frame, but contrast is not amazing at F1.2
11:05
Now, when we get towards the mid-frame, there's less detail available there, but above all, you're seeing just really low contrast
11:13
And as we pan down, it's almost like a little bit of a vaseline smear over the top of it
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And that really becomes evident when you get to the corners where there's almost a bloom effect from the spherical aberrations
11:25
There is a decent amount of detail to you get about here, and then it just, as you can see, gets mushy
11:29
But mostly what we're seeing is low contrast. So stopping on down to F1.4, you can see definitely does give us a little bit more contrast
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not enough to eliminate the overall just kind of haze to the textures that's there
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at least in the center of the frame. If we look here in the mid frame, it's, yeah, we're still not making a whole lot of progress there
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And towards the edges, you can see a similar type effect just with slightly more contrast
11:55
We'll take a quick peek at centering here and see if we're getting pretty similar results everywhere else
12:00
And so if we go over here to the left side, yes, roughly the same, and then up into this upper left corner
12:07
Yeah, looking pretty soft still, and then upper right corner. Again, about the same, maybe ever so slightly better on the right than the left, but nothing radically different
12:16
So if you want to see what's possible on the system at F1.4, we've got the new Sigma 23mm F1.4, also at F1.4
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And as you can see, it's radically different in the center of the frame. So if you're looking for very sharp and crisp, high contrast, wide open
12:32
then obviously the sigma is going to be a better choice. There's a radical difference in the midframe and a radical difference in the corners as well
12:40
The sniper 23mm gets a little bit more contrast at F1.8, but as you can see, the textures are still not really popping
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Midframe is starting to look a little bit better, but far from great, likewise, in the corners that are still looking pretty hazy
12:54
F2, not a big improvement. F2.8 starts to make a significant difference
13:01
And so if we look elsewhere, we can see that the mid frame is starting to look good
13:05
You can actually see some textures popping in there. And the center of the frame looks quite good now at F2.8
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Stopping on down to F4 gives us more improvement in the center of the frame and everything just
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looks generally brighter. The mid frame is finally starting to look better, not great yet, but good
13:23
And likewise in the corners, a little bit better. And there's more detail still there at F5.6
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by which point you're getting decent results across the frame, center looking pretty good, looking over here in this midframe
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It's still fairly soft. It's looking a little bit sharper and over on this left side
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a little bit sharper, but I think that the right side is going to prove to be sharper
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than what the left side is. F8 is roughly equal to what we saw at F5.6
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maybe just a little bit better there in the corners. So maybe your optimal aperture there is F8
13:59
After F8, diffraction is going to start to soften the image again. So F11 and then particularly F-16, which is our minimum aperture
14:07
is going to look considerably softer once again. That more typical 100% magnifications at landscape apertures
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you can see that images look really good and even at a pixel level
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A detail looks nice and crisp here. And now we have resolution off towards the edges of the frame as well
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And so it's fairly sharp, not pin sharp, but fairly sharp at smaller apertures
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But as you can see, it's pretty dreamy or soft, low contrast, wide open
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So obviously this lens does not perform great in a chart setting
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However, I don't want to discount it because it produces images that look better globally
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than what our chart results suggest. So here at F1.2, if you're looking at that image in the way that most people do
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like the whole image, it looks quite good. And if we pop into a 100% magnification, contrast is not great there, but neither is it terrible
15:00
And people's shots are quite flattering here at F1.6. If we pop into 100% magnification, we can see that the skin tones are not, you know
15:09
they're not showing off all of the imperfections and flaws. Another one here shows that just your skin tones at F1.2
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there's, you know, enough detail there to see all of the features, but without showing off any imperfections of pores and skin which again there are some people that that the style they looking for for portraiture If you stop down a little bit to F1 real images like this actually look fairly crisp as you can see Good detail there
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on the fur and the eyes. Everything's looking pretty great. Here's another F1.6 that, again
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I think it looks pretty fantastic. It's not the sharpest or highest contrast lens that I've seen
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but it has really nice fall off, and you can see a really nice three-dimensional effect there
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And of course, having an F1.2 aperture, if you're looking for something a little bit more creative, you can do things with it like this, whereas I've shot, obviously, for a foreground object where the background is just suggested but highly blurred
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I can also flip that around and shoot with the foreground now blurred out and at F1.2
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You know, there's a decent enough amount of detail there that it doesn't look terrible as a whole, viewed as a whole, the image looks quite good
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That dual personality is shown here as well. And so here at F1.2, I mean, that is a beautiful amount of bouquet
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They're very, very creamy looking. If you look in at the subject, the subject is so-so as far as the detail
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It's not bad, but it's not great either. But then I can take the same shot at F2.8
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And the bouquet is still nice. It's not as creamy as what I saw at F1.2
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But now looking at the subject, the subject looks quite crisp. And because of, you know, our modern technology, I can blend two shots like that together
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And so here's an image. where I've combined the F1.2 bouquet. So the out of focus is coming from F1.2
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The end focus is coming from F2.8. And now I've got, you know, the best of both worlds
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I've got a very sharp subject, but I've got a beautifully creamy background
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that actually very few lenses in this class are going to be able to match. I would say the primary negatives of the bouquet
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is, first of all, there is fringing to it. And then there is some fairly severe clipping
17:11
near the edges of the frame, and so it's not even quite a lemon effect. It's not quite balanced
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It's a little more curved on this side and then shorter on the inside
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So I don't love the geometry of it, but that's really my only complaints about the bouquet
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Otherwise, it's beautiful. Now, less beautiful is the flare resistance. Now, if you're actually looking for a lens without a lot of modern coatings
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to where you can get some of these effects because you like them, that's what you're going to get wide open
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Stop down. You get some of this type effect. Here is another position
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You can see you've got a double rainbow effect. Maybe you'll love that, stopping it down, and you can see the rays and some, you know
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prism, a little bit of ghosting artifacts. And as we pan across, you could definitely see there is some varied things going on
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And so either you hate that or you love that depending upon what kind of photographer you are
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So in conclusion, you could probably see from the optical quality segment that there's some give and take and maybe more take than give
18:12
It really comes down to what your set of priorities are. Those of you that really don't like the highly corrected look of modern lenses that is sterile or clinical in your mind
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you may really like the look from this image or this lens that does have some optical flaws
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but maybe that gives it character in your mind. If you prefer lenses that have kind of that dual nature where it's a little bit dreamy, wide open
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but sharpens up when it's stopped down, then this is a lens that does help to satisfy that
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And maybe you would prefer that. Obviously, we saw that autofocus is not super sophisticated, but if you're primarily do photography and only do some video, it is probably good enough to work for most people in most situations
18:57
I would say this lens is a good fit for those that don't love what I call the Sigma approach, where they work for a higher correctness wide open, lower aberrations, nice sharpness wide open
19:08
But some people really love the Sigma approach and other people don't like it as well
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And if you're one of those people that don't like it, find it sterile or whatever, then this lens might be a good alternative for you
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particularly since it is very reasonably priced for an autofocusing F1.2 lens
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$349 and maybe a little bit cheaper. It could be a lot of lens for the money
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My money would go towards the Viltrox Pro AF 27mm F1.2. It's, yes, it's bigger, it's heavier, and it is more expensive
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but it gives you pretty much everything optically. It is great wide open
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It's great stop down. It's very nice bouquet. It just has a lot of the things that I wish this lens had
19:48
including weather ceiling and a little bit more features on it. And so I lean towards that lens
19:54
but maybe the Viltrox also is just not your cup of tea. And if you're looking for a stylish lens
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that has some interesting character to it, the Siri-Sni sniper 23-millimeter F-1.2
20:06
might just be your cup of tea. I'm Dustin Abbott. and if you'll look in the description down below
20:12
you can find linkage to my full text review. There's some buying links there, linkage to an image gallery
20:17
If you haven't already, please like and subscribe. Thanks for watching. Have a great day and let the light in
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