[shoplink 50867 ebay]
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All three new Kowa MFT lenses got tested at Mapcamera. The review is written in Japanese but there are really a lot of great image samples to give you an idea of how good (or bad) those lenses are:
Kowa Prominar 8.5mm F2.8 at Mapcamera (google translation here).
Kowa Prominar 12mm F1.8 at Mapcamera (google translation here).
Kowa Prominar 25mm F1.8 at Mapcamera (google translation here).
The new Kowa Micro Four Thirds lenses are already available on eBay:
12mm f/1.8 in [shoplink 50867 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 50868 ebay]Green (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 50869 ebay]Silver (Click here)[/shoplink].
25mm f/1.8 in [shoplink 50870 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 50871 ebay]Green (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 50872 ebay]Silver (Click here)[/shoplink].
48 Responses
You should take the word “translation” with a pinch of salt. Google translate is rubbish.
It should be called Google Gibberish.
Google Garble
It should be called Gloggle
The 8.5mm is really the only interesting lens of the bunch. The image samples look excellent! Now I’m tempted!
I wish it was 1.8 for that price…really…
you mean f3.6….
No. 1.8. And I am not even going to get into a debate about this. Its been done. And is over. Please stop.
f/2.8 for 660€ is very fair price, actually it is more than fair as 8.5mm is acceptable while still 1.5mm longer than 7mm is. But now it looks like many is waiting 7-14mm Olympus and some would like to get a 6mm prime objective as well.
I am waiting the 7-14mm f/2.8 Pro and I am considering the 8mm f/1.8 Pro fisheye as that f/1.8 would make it just awesome in many situations. Samyang 7.5mm f/3.5 is awesome by its rendering quality (best fisheye that is there, no coma distortions at all!) but the f/3.5 is little bit too slow in many situations becausefor me it is great by quality to nightsky photography and that extra 1.3EV makes big difference is the shutter speed 15 seconds or 40 seconds, ISO 1250 or 800. And when the Olympus fisheye have even bigger change compared to Samyang fisheye, it is big big thing!
Since you already shoot Voigtlander, I’d continue with those.
Yeah, I love my Voigties and the f0.95 is exciting, but not the focal length.
Most of my shooting with the 7-14mm is at 7mm, so wider is better.
Solution: go full frame! Get the new 11-24 f4. Done!
From these samples, it looks technically good (I like the focal length, distortion, corner/edge sharpness and close focus), but something about the character of the photos is offputting to me – I like the way the Panny 7-14 & Rok 7.5 render images more (and the Voigt 10.5 from what I’ve seen). Of course I’d need to rent/borrow one to really know for sure, but these samples don’t get me excited about this lens. I’m interested to see what the Oly 7-14 can do – and ever hopeful for a Leica 7, 8 or 9. It’s going to take something really spectacular to make me trade in my Panny 7-14 😉
7.5 is a fishy.
you smell fishy
There’s a roki 7.5? For real?
Fisheye. Sorry, should have clarified.
Go full frame!
MF only? No ty! Been there, done that.
Autofocus is easy on an ultrawide: set it to f8, focus at infinity and go shoot.
No, it is easier. f/3.5, focus to 2.1m and go shoot as everything from 1.2m to infinity is sharp..
Mmm, this is not my experience with the samyang 7.5mm fisheye…You should better focus carefully if you want really sharp images…
Sorry but having autofocus on 8.5mm and 12mm is a waste of money.
It is not waste of money, as one of main use for ultra-wide angle objective is to distort the illusion of perspective by doing very close up photography and results is that you get small objects to fill larger proportion of the screen easier.
Ultra-wide angle objective are not popular for landscape, as most often in landscape you have very small area what is interesting. But when landscape ‘screams’ such objective, it will strongly makes worth up to objective price.
But where ultra-wide angle objectives are great, are portraits. And no, people are idiots who believe that “85mm and equivalent” are best for portraits, it isn’t the focal length or shallow depth of field, it is distance that makes perspective flattering. And in portraits you get easily flattering distance and you get surroundings captured to make it more powerful image. But in portraiture use automatic focus isn’t required. But that is just half of the uselfulness, as in landscape, close-ups etc the autofocus is benefitical.
They why bother posting here???????????
Wow, that is a terrible imposition to have to focus manually. Pity, photography is no longer possible with this burden.
The 8.5mm is a great lens.
We submitted some test images and a small write up to the admin here with hope he will publish it.
Talk about big lens hoods! woah! can’t wait to test it myself.
It seems that the 8.5mm accepted filter.
You can put two different sized filters on to a thread on the lens hood of 86mm and/or one onto the lens thread of 67mm.
sweet!
I don’t get the cost. Seems insane.
You get what you pay for!!!!
Why, because it’s 3rd party ? look at the performance of these lenses, the ultra-wide is stellar, there’s practically no need for PP corrections, there’s even hardly any flare. If this was an Oly or Pany prime you wouldn’t be complaining. What happened to the hordes of gear-junkies that used to beg to be charged over the $1000s for primes ? The only downside I can see about these lenses is the lack of AF and that the WA aren’t Tilt-Shift, but those are just nitpickings TBH, considering the intended usage these will probably get.
Stop thinkingaboutcoxx and suddenly the world makes sense 🙂
Well. The images look frikkin’ great. So much for all the “Chinese crap” comments I’ve been reading since the first rumors. Pricy? I’m not going to debate that. But I think the image quality is top notch. Anyone who wants these knows why it’s not worth complaining about them being manual focus only. Only question is do you need them enough to pay?
Kowa is Japanese.
Indeed, but the trolls don’t know or care. It’s worth noting that the trolls that come here to complain about third party lenses/products are also ignorant. This is not isolated to Kowa either, such unjustified negative reception also befalls upon SLR magic, voigtlander, BMCC, pana-leicas, Kodak, etc…pretty much everything and anything that hasn’t come directly from Pany or Oly is bashed in this website, and then you have the Pany vs Oly fanboy flamewars so those aren’t safe either.
What conclusion can we draw from this ? People who exclusively come to this site to complain, either don’t have a m43 camera, or traded their respective canon/nikon dualist fanboy view for Pany/Oly fanboyism (without understanding this is ONE system), or trolls who hate the fact that m43 is adding manufacturers and expanding, or simply gear-junkies that have no idea what they actually want or need because they don’t have any actual projects (as most current gear surpasses the needs or capabilities of the common gearhead). Whichever the case may be, it is sad and annoying.
Still crap
Yeah I know – I wasn’t the one calling it Chinese crap. The haters were.
Okay, 650€ for 8.5mm f/2.8. I am interested now!
In time it will drop to below 600€ or even 550€ and it is a must buy by those who doesn’t own Oly 7-14mm.
650€? where please?
Ebay
Ebay, if you look the review site, you find many places to get it for 665€ price (sorry, 650€ was wrong).
thanks, it’s really very interesting.
15 f5.6….yawn
Detailed 8.5mm f/2.8 testing in:
http://m43lens.blogspot.tw/2014/09/kowa-prominar-85mm-f28-test-review.html