UPDATE: Sorry made a huge typo. It’s f/1.2 and not f/1.5 🙂
I got word from a trusted chinese dealer that the new ZYoptics 42,5mm f/1.2 Micro Four Thirds lens will start to ship as soon as they will finish all [shoplink 47208 ebay]50/0.95 E-mount[/shoplink] order shipments. The lens will likely ship by end of this year. You can see more pictures of the lens prototype (with the older brand name) at Tech Sina.
This is their second Micro Four Thirds lens after the [shoplink 37365 ebay]Mitakon 35mm f/0.95 (can be found here on eBay)[/shoplink].
80 Responses
Never heard such strange ZY optics . Just a simple question .
Can this lens match the Nocticron in image quality ?
Or the great 45mm F1.8 ?
of course it will not match nocticron
it will be manual and 45mm f/1.8 is good value lens too with good output ….just get it with em10
so this must be sub 200usd/eur lens and must have very good output, Otherwise cheap portrait lens can be found in many legacy 50mm primes, I made nice pics with my OM 50 f/1.8
I aware this surely can’t match the Nocticron but at least in the m.zuiko 45mm F1.8’s standard surely will make me happy otherwise I wonder who going to get this lens even if it sell cheap .
(8 hours ago) “Can this lens match the Nocticron in image quality ?”
(7 hours ago) “I aware this surely can’t match the Nocticron”
You are a funny person Yun…
Agree, there’s tons of legacy 50mm out there.
Just need a good and cheap 25mm.
I have Zuiko’s, 21mm, 24mm & 28mm on the wide end 21 can be a bit expensive and difficult to find 24 is not so bad and can be found at a reasonable price while 28 is quite common and cheap. As a point of interest I use them with a Kippon shift adapter with good results.
Hi fellow ^^!
The company’s name is Shenyang Optical Electronics Co., Ltd.or Zhong Yi Optics.
http://www.syzygx.com/index.asp
Brand names include SYZYGX, Zhongyi, Camdiox and Mitakon.
The Mitakon 35/0.95 is natively for APSC, if this is for MFT it would be their first. And judging from the short flange and focal length that multiplies nicely it seems to be MFT indeed!
so it will not be 42.5mm f/1.2 ???
It will still be 42.5mm, just will be equivalent of 85mm on a u43 body, same as any other 42.5mm, or in the case of the Olympus 45mm which equates to 90mm.
But it WILL NOT be either a Nocticron f1.2 or Voigtländer Nokton f0.95!
In fairness Jeff I never said it would be either of those, even they are wishful thinking for me, in so much as I’d prefer a choice of three primes against one Nocti’.
Yes it will. Admin made a mistake.
We need a 9mm f/2.8, not another short tele!
yay another choice (y)
Yep. More choice is great!
Hopefully it’s not a piece of junk.
i dont think they make junk lenses these days, thanks to the computer aided designing.
I’d trade 10 of these knock offs for one high quality f1.4 17mm with AF
it’s small.
Might-A-Con?
Does AF only work with pink cameras??
I guess it’s easy to make lenses in this focal range, but it seems like we’re already spoiled for choice with the glut of legacy manual focus lenses.
If you’re making something specifically for smaller formats, why wouldn’t you pick an FL that people are asking for? A $200 fast standard lens somewhere in the range of 17 to 27mm would likely get a loyal following.
Agreed. Or an ultra wide prime.
i think 200 is a bit low…best to look around in the used legacy area
The trouble is, fast legacy lenses don’t really come in that wide a focal length unless you’re willing to spend $400+, and the quality will still likely be mediocre on M4/3.
If a normal prime from a 3rd party were going to cost much more than $200 while still being manual focus, you’d instantly be in competition with the excellent 20mm/1.7, 25/1.8, and 17/1.8 for only a little more (especially used), all of which have AF.
It’s a tough market to be a 3rd party manufacturer for M4/3. Most of the bases are already covered by quality lenses.
yeah i thought you could settle with a legacy 28 too as you mentioned the 17-27mm range. But ok, a native lens in that range would surely perform better.
Even a 28mm/f2 worth using (I.e. name brand) is still over $200-300. No reason at all not to get the stellar native lenses, at that point.
Unless it’s in an unusual focal range or has special capabilities (I.e. macro), I find legacy glass is nicest when you pay less than $100. In my own experience, that is.
Aperture F1.5? Not F1.2?
Typo? It’s F1.2 from what I can see on that website
I am not sure but do you think F1.2 to F0.95 will make a huge difference in price? I am comparing to this
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Zhongyi-Mitakon-35mm-T0-95-F0-95-APS-C-Objektiv-Micro-4-3-M43-Bajonett-schwarz-/271259590911?pt=DE_Foto_Camcorder_Objektive&hash=item3f2854e0ff
I am not even sure, if the comanies are really the same (sometimes they change names and so), but since admin said I believe him.
But if it is not much cheaper than the Oly 45mm, it would be something for our @jeffharris, but then he is more into Voitgländer and premium MF lenses. 😉
yuo not sure yet about which fov to choose….its not about the F value in this case. 1st decide if one of the the FL is best for you or not, or maybe not matters alot.
😛 I know! 😀
I was just wondering (when I saw the price of the other) whether this will really be that cheap as we all hope.
Looks nice: manual aperture ring? Distance scale? Awesome! I’d rather have a new focal length (ultra wide) but choice is good! It looks fairly small for 1.2, perhaps due to MF?
Anybody ever reviewed and pixel-peeped their 50mm f0.95 and 35mm f0.95?
Seeing that it’s f/1.2 and that size actually makes it much more interesting. But I still don’t know if it will sell if it’s much over $400. At that price, you can get a Lens Turbo or RJ Focal Reducer for a 50mm/f1.4 and end up with a 36mm/f1.0 that will likely be almost as good wide open as a cheap optic (i.e. not great, but definitely usable).
Like you said this lens looks rather compact, and i dont think yuo wont get that with with a focal reducer plus a legacy lens. except for the wider view the other advantages are more subtle.
They will want something like $500 for it, right? Or, you can buy a $10 50/1.8 and a $90 speedbooster.
And have horrible IQ, unless you are buying the real speedbooster and a better lens. And that is going tot be much more expensive.
Have you used one of the inexpensive focal reducers, like the $99 ebay/RJ? They aren’t going to hold up to a $1500 Nocticron, but the quality is surprisingly usable. I’m able to get crisp fur detail on animals even at f/1.0 with a Takumar 50mm/1.4. And then I can use the same adapter on my other lenses. Honestly, it’s worth trying before judging, especially given how incredibly cheap the product is.
yeah…but then you are slapping layers of crap and glass on the front your little camera, manually focusing and getting soft results??? Especially on the edges.
me..I would just go out with the Oly 45mmf/1.8 and have fun and get great results…the Nocticron would be nice..but that is totally out of budget for my MFT gear and I use Oly cameras an you lose a lot of what you are paying for (IS, snap manual focus, etc)…so I can’t see dropping that kind of money on that lens…but to each his own.
To be fair, f1.0 is 1 2/3 stops faster than f1.8. Or the difference between ISO 2000 and ISO 6400. With my GX1 especially, I’ll take a softer lens if it means much better ISO performance. In low light, the older sensors are pretty unusable after ISO 3200.
You should also realize that the focal reducer is actually smaller than the standard adapter. A Takumar 50mm/1.4 with the focal reducer is by no means a large or heavy lens, at all. Perhaps 350g all-in, if that.
Which focal reducer do you have? Could you post some samples?
I got a lot of old pentax optics that I could use…
I posted some samples in this thread for someone else who was curious:
http://www.mu-43.com/showthread.php?p=672476#post672476
They are not very interesting pictures, and straight OOC JPEGs with Panasonic’s mediocre processing engine, but they can give you a general impression of what to expect.
The one I got was a FD-M4/3 reducer from the eBay seller c.kee that cost $96 USD. All the ~$100 focal reducers on eBay are the same. They are first generation adapters from the Chinese manufacturer RJ.
I have the same. Works fine, except for ghosts shooting into the sun (but the same/similar problem happens with the old lenses on a glassless adapter, coatings were not good back them, so this is out anyway).
No, but various tests and comparisons on the internet show that the “cheap” focus reducers not nearly as good as the Speed Booster. For example: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/53156458
My view on this personally: If you’ve got a really good legacy lens, don’t ruin it with a cheap focal reducer. If you’ve got a cheap lens in the first place, then a cheap Chinese focal reducer is fine.
Then you got the problem that even very good legacy lenses designed for 35mm are soft wide open(F1.2 , F1.4) in the first place. They get sharp at F2.8+. Then you might as well use a m43 alternative which are sharp wide open, and have AF.
Not as good, perhaps – but certainly not unusably so.
The reason I use legacy glass is for macro, and for available light shooting. A photo shot in a dim room at f1.0 (focal reduced f1.4) may not be sharp, but it will capture the mood and have a much nicer feel than something shot at 4x the ISO you’d get from a native f2 lens. On M4/3, ISO 2000 vs 6400 or 8000 really matters…
And in my experience, decent lenses hold up well to the cheap focal reducers. Its the bad lenses that turn to mush, but are usable with a SpeedBooster.
Good point.
Or better yet, you can buy the Olympus 45/1.8 for under $300 and get AF, EXIF, camera aperture control, and much better optics.
$300 is still 3 times more than $100 and 30 times more than $10 because I use the LensTurbo with much more than just 50/1.8, for example, with the old $10 80-200/4 giving me 57-142/2.8, no need to buy $1500 Panasonic 35-100/2.8 (and I have more reach than the Panasonic gives me). Another one is $15 135/2.8, giving me 100/2 prime. Another is the old 500mm/8 – 360/5.6 is more useful. 🙂
With Oly’s 5-axis IBIS MF works great, even with the zoom (but I have to set FL in-camera somewhere to the middle of focal range I am currently using).
That’s great if all you want to shoot with are MF lenses.
possibly but it wont be as compact….and modern products do have some benefits over older legacy designs.
Actually, it IS as compact. I know, I own the combo.
can you show a photo of it, and maybe some samples taken with it? Just curious.
I would not show portraits of my friends taken with the combo for their (and my) privacy. But consider this – the adapter is about 20mm deep, lens itself about 30mm-40mm deep (not counting the metal levers which go inside the adapter).
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Canon-50mm-1-8-FD-Standard-for-Canon-FD-Very-Good-Condition-/331268814742?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item4d2128f796
Both barely (just a couple of mm) wider than m43 mount.
ok i understand, Turbofrog came with a link which was helpful
You can see some of my snapshots in the mu43 thread I posted below. I will try and take a pic of the 50/1.4 and focal reducer on my camera. Probably about the same size as the Panasonic 14-42 Mk. 1 kit zoom. Perhaps even smaller.
thank you, the bicycles photo shows nicely the gain you get with the focal reducer regarding the blur in the oof area when the subject isfurther away from the camera.(this is about my working range for doing half to fullbody modelshots), very interesting to see in practise such an economical budget solution.thx again.
But how will it compare to the overpriced Nocticron- the greatest lens bilking M43 users for all they’re worth.
Pretty cheap compared to Canon’s dated 85 1.2L.
The Nocticron is tack sharp wide open AND has IS. You lose.
Don’t say stuff like that. It’s making me want to buy it and I don’t need it.
Just get a wife and children and you’ll never ever have this “money” problem again. 🙁
Canon? Do they make a 85mm F2.4? Or a 42mm 1.2? Not that I know… You lose? Been drinking?
Exhibit A: A delusional gearhead who constantly argues simple lens physics purely to justify buying into a dying DSLR system. You need something stiffer than a drink.
without goin into the sharpness and IS, that 85L is my fav when used on the dedicated sensor/film format. I have never used the Nocticron myself, wish though….
Overpriced is imo not the right word as the Nocticron is described in many reviews as the best build MFT lens. Combine that with the Leica seal of blessing plus the F/1.2…..I prefer to describe it as an expensive quality lens
I don’t disagree…I’m aware of it’s performance in terms of M43 lenses. But let’s be honest here. I can get an equivelant FF lens thats faster, sharper and with similar build for half the price. I do think it’s fantastic…but I also think it is still way overpriced for what it is .
Sharper on those big FF pixels or in absolute terms?
Not sharper- from what I’ve seen it’s razor sharp. It’s the speed…it’s the resolution…it’s the overall size and I just can’t seem to justify the price. Please keep in mind I’m trying to talk myself out of buying this lens. So far it’s working. I just completed all the primes by buying the 75mm 1.8. I seriously have to talk myself out of that one.
Well if you have all the primes, sell the 45mm and that’ll take $300 of the price of the Nocticron… ;P
So very true…..hmmm.
What do you mean by ‘for what it is’?
I think we tend to forget that we live under capitalism and that we pay premiums for things like miniaturization. This seems to always get overlooked in m43 discussions. It certainly isn’t a straightforward equation of materials + labor + +delivery + markup = cost.
We are paying for the retention of high performance in small form factors. Some of us, NOT ALL OF US, have been so convinced that big = better that we may not see (or maybe not remember) that in bodies and lenses, we are paying for the small form factor specifically.
I might rent it and give it a spin first. But, this one will take some convincing. I own some nice Zeiss full frame glass and I’m willing to pay that much for a prime but I’m just not sure about this one. I still think it’s overpriced- regardless of the convenience of size, material, labor- etc.
It’ll be interesting to compare with the likes of the well-built Voigtlander. Of course, generally the retail price will give an indication of overall quality (not always, but generally).
OK I would go back to China by the end of this year just for the lens :D. Actually ZYoptics always provides excellent optic performance for the price (although maybe not good built quality).
This build quality looks better. I want to know if it will out perform the Zuiko 45mm 1.8 I own. If so, I’d be tempted.
made in china=joke lol
Thank you, Ill take the Nocticron. It´s excellent.
ooh Pink GF2 – my favorite !
The coating seems bad but if it works well at 1.4 and under 350 I am in. Although I think realistically it will be around 500.