The Mitakon 85mm f/1.2 A and E-mount lens has been announced. It will cost $799 and ship in May for E-mount. The A-mouny version will ship later. Sample fotos can be seen at zyoptics.net. Full press release here:
Shenyang China, Apr 16, 2015 – The Mitakon Speedmaster 85mm f/1.2 is a ultra-fast portrait lens that delivers unbelievable optical performance. A maximum aperture of f/1.2 makes it extremely convenient for shooting without flash in low light conditions. Designed for the use of full frame cameras, the large aperture also provides fine control over depth of field for fascinating portrait photography. The truly circular aperture creates a shallow depth-of-field that brings attention to the subject and blurs the background, which is critical for portraits. The lens incorporates 9 elements in 6 groups with 2 pieces of Extra-low Dispersion elements & 4 pieces of High Refractive Index elements. This helps reducing aberrations and maintain excellent sharpness even at f/1.2. . Manual focus design and a click-less, silent aperture ring promote smooth handling and are especially well-suited to video applications. The lens is built of metallic enclosure with additional protective processing, which gives extra durability and aesthetic.
Pricing & Availability
Mitakon Speedmaster 85mm f/1.2 , ‘the Dream’ will be available in May at ZY Optics authorized resellers and at the official website (http://www.zyoptics.net/). Pre-order starts from 16th Apr in our official website. The Recommended Retail price is USD 799. Free shipping & Stocks priority will be offered to those pre-ordered in our website.
74 Responses
Good job Mitakon.
11 aperture blades = bokeh
Really? Is the correlation linear?
Dont ask questions that you already know the answer to. 🙂
We know that numerous elements that make bokeh .
85mm f/1.2 is a great focal length and with the 11 blades (hopefully curved), has a greater potential to be create bokeh.
Me no like manual.
Learn how to, it’s a good skill to have.
It isn’t that I don’t know. I use it when I do some Macro work. I just can’t rely on focus peaking with fast moving subjects.
I hope that “the dream” isn’t marketing speak for “soft and hazy wide open”
The lens seems pretty sharp in the samples, even wide open.
Where did you see samples?
Edit: figured out, how to download the images 🙂
Did you read the article? 🙂
“The Mitakon 85mm f/1.2 A and E-mount lens has been announced. It will
cost $799 and ship in May for E-mount. The A-mouny version will ship
later. Sample fotos can be seen at zyoptics.net.”
Yup, this lens better be the equal to those Zeiss optics for 899 dinaro. And have all the features of the newest primes for DSLM’s – switchable aperture click/declick, data sent to the image file, close focus, nearly no CA, little or no distortion…oh, who am I kidding!?
Mitakon, you’re on! It’s gonna take more than half a stop to beat the regulars…
I have their 50mm 0.95 and it works like a charm! Love it’s rendering.
You could have said the same thing about their 50mm f0.95, but reviews have proved it to be excellent – hopefully this will be too
Will it really be enough better than the Samyang f1.4 to justify the additional cost?
heh yeah. I paid 180 euros for my Samyang.
That one will sell well in E mount 🙂
Contrast looks good, but these sample photos may have been optimized.
OOFA seems relatively free of fringing.
Now let’s see some off center focus points.
Want to see vertical sharpness of portrait face in corners.
Sony A is not available on web site pre-order. Only Canon EF, Nikon F, and Sony FE.
Why would anyone buy more a- mount lens on a dying platform. Where is the A99 replacement? The rumor is so old any nothing from admin?
It’s not like the cameras stop taking pictures when a new model comes out.
I’d like this lens in A mount to use with my Minolta AF 9000
Wow I have one of those too !!! 🙂
Love that sturdy body. My A7 feels like a toy compared to the 9000.
Mine has the aperture plate failure though so I’m using it with m42 lenses most of the time. It can only shoot wide open with native lenses now. Still, it’s one of the best bodies for the job because it has a very practical and reliable metering system and AF confirmation.
Upgrade to A7II. This camera is rugged as a brick (in a good way)! 🙂
^^ Oh I got both ! 🙂
Not used the A7 much since I got it but I picked it up today assuming it was the A7 II and was wondering why it felt off in my hands.
Why you need a replacement? I’m very pleased with my A99.
Clickless aperture?? Hopefully, this is an option. I want aperture detent fot photography.
Hakeem would be proud
manual is fine, but with these lenses you actually have to set focus & aperture on the actual lens, no? anyone know? as opposed to on the camera..
if so, I hope they’re really well made,
Yes, as with all their lenses. You can see that it has 2 rings: for focus and aperture.
sure, but we’re not talking about a loxia here. basic rule of engineering, the more moving parts the sooner something will go wrong, and these mitakons aren’t the peak of manufacturing excellence from what I hear..speaking of loxia, maybe i’ll wait for a 85 mm..
Going by the price of the 35 and 50, I can’t see it costing under £1500…
So you think modern AF lenses actually last longer than old MF lenses
all other things being equal, I would say definitely. but then, not every company has the engineering skills of a leica or zeiss do they? so not all things are equal. you see a few vintage lenses for sale second hand, but I would estimate there are a great many more that died a horrible death long ago..
then there’s another factor, that new AF lenses probably have MORE moving parts than old MF ones, which sort of voids your point : )
Back then lenses don’t have 1/10 the sales volume of today, there aren’t many to begin with, I believe that most molded rather than took some sort of damage mechanically.
No, that voids your point, you’re suggesting that this mitakon will not last very long, but what you’re putting it up against is a selection of modern lenses with many moving parts in them, and a whole lot of plastic, which are far more likely to malfunction soon.
———–
Sorry made a mistake. Made some corrections.
Nah, better wait for the Sigma 85 1.4. Will probably be better at 1.4 than this thing at 2.8. And cost the same.
A Mount Lives~=D
Well sadly I’m not a wide aperture shooter~=P but I think the lens will e great if stopped down to F4~F8
Not really. This is a MF lens. Changing the mount to XYZ mount takes very little effort.
Yes, on paper. But practically not so much. All of these MF lenses (Mitakon, Samyang, SLR Magic, all old glass) lack automatic aperture control. That means, you have to focus stopped down, which is not that accurate. Or you have to focus wide open and stop down afterwards, which sucks badly. In my experience these lenses are only practical when shoot wide open or slightly stopped down.
This seems like an odd choice. Not only do DLRS not pair well with manual focus lenses, but this will be stiff competition along with the other 85s – most notably the excellent value Rokinon.
With a minimum focus distance of 1 meter, that means I’ll be getting this in Canon EF mount for my Sony A7s, so I can use a cheap $40 macro helicoid adapter that gives me an extra focus ring so I can get closer. It would be foolish to buy this in E-mount and lose that option.
This adapter will make the lens more useful:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/181302816854
Interesting adapter 🙂
But I think this adapter and this lens is not a good combination at all.
1. This is not a macro lens. Typical macro-lenses have typical apertures going down to f32, to have at least a DoF, large enough for an insect.
2. Each adapter makes your system a little more wobbling, turning the lens in a slightly uncontrolled tilt-lens with unsharp borders. This is usually not a problem, except you have a very shallow DoF (as this lens). Plus: An adapter with a collapsible tube means extra-wobbling.
Did you look for native extension tubes for eMount?
I use this adapter with my Rokinon 85/1.4 that I purchased in EF mount for this very reason, because that lens also has a minimum focus of 1 meter. I don’t use it for macro photography, I just need to sometimes get a little closer to my subject, and I don’t like being limited. The adapter has been plenty sturdy, and I didn’t notice any wobbling, but I also don’t really care, as I’m running and moving fast covering events and people. Just don’t leave the adapter extended while you walk around, that could strain it and cause some real wobble over time. The extra focus ring has definitely come in handy many times.
I’m not disappointed by my Rokinon 85/1.4 but I’m not blown away by it. So I’ve got my eye on this new Mitakon and I’m eagerly waiting to see some reviews.
With a minimum focus of 1 meter, I can’t fathom getting it in E-mount and losing the closer focusing range the adapter combo provides.
Good to know, that adapter is sturdy.
I expect, many people will make comparisons between this lens and the Rokinon. Just sit back and have a cup of tea.
With only 9 elements in 6 groups, its not going to have any jaw dropping performance. Mostly on par with 50mm f/0.95
Heh.. I wonder what’s the story behind this “Canon EF 35-80mm f/4-5.6” exif info (from the Mitakon sample)
This could be the case if you use a programmable AF confirmation chip like those you can buy on ebay. Notice that it says shot at 85 mm and aperture 1.2 but the max focal length is only 80 and smallest aperture 4. The chip has been programmed to 85mm f1.2 but the exif reader recognize the chip lens name as EF 35-80mm f4-5.6.
I see: Canon EOS 6D with Canon 85mm F1.2…
WTF is wrong with Mitakon ?
Heavy!!!! 920g!!! Will need to do some weight training with that……
Lighter than Canon AF version though(1052g). And contrast seems to be same or better wide open.
920g is heavier than the FD85/1.2 L with adapter. And if that’s the Canon mount version, Nikon and Sony FE should be heavier. Ebay prices the FD cheaper, but secondhand of course. So the question is all about whether it is optically better
You’ll want to wait for more samples, there are reports that mitakon lenses cast a yellow tint onto photos. And all the current samples could be post-processed.
I wonder if the quality control is better than at Samy.
But… why the Canon EOS 6D ?
Could it be the picture was taken with a canon 6D?
Because the lens will also be available in EF mount.
First, I do love the spiel that these copywriters come up with to describe their products:
“delivers unbelievable optical performance”…unbelievable??? It does, or it doesn’t!
” f/1.2 makes it extremely convenient for shooting without flash in low light”…convenient???
” large aperture also provides fine control over depth of field for fascinating portrait”…fascinating???
“The truly circular aperture creates a shallow depth-of-field”…words fail me!!!
“built of metallic enclosure with additional protective processing”…we’ll put that down to it being a second language!
On a more serious note, I’m curious about the nature of the ‘defocussed’ areas. In the portraits of the man and girl, those areas almost look like some form of motion blur, rather than shallow DOF, and in that of the dog it looks like one of those ‘smudged’ paintings.
I can’t help feeling that they have used some post processing to change the appearance.
Of course, as soon as examples start to appear we’ll find out whether it could be a useful addition to a kit bag.
I’ll write a complaint to them.
They are chinese. Maybe the slogans are a little lost in translation. You may also have a look at the advertising of Sony, Nikon, Canon, [you name it]. They all sound equally silly.
Absolutely, although I was only being lighthearted in my ‘critique’. To be honest, though, it’s nothing to do with the language barrier as native English speakers write just as much nonsense!
Personally, my pet peeve is ‘taglines’: Apple…Think different, BMW…The ultimate driving machine, Nike…Just do it. Worse still (and they are not alone) is the ‘I am Nikon’.
Complete and utter drivel, every one! The next time you watch a series of adverts, or notice any in magazines, see how many have managed to resist the temptation to use a tagline. Very, very few. They just can’t help themselves and I can imagine the nonsense in the marketing meeting explaining about the sentiment and vlues expressed, blah, blah, blah.. Nauseating!
Yes, but here comes the sad part: You might ask yourself, why do they write that bulls*it? No one is that stupid to fall for that. The truth is, that their ads actually work. They treat customers like stupid kindergarden childs and millions of customers proof them right. Not good.
LMAO scaling performance with the number of elements
Except it opens wider than everybody except that Canon 3 times its price.
Whow! That’s nearly the price of my Canon FD 85mm 1:1.2L from the 80’s – that’s a heavy 680g lens already, but lightweight against the 921g MItakon version.
At that price point you could get a Canon FD 85 1.2 instead.
I wonder (as probably many) how is it gonna compete with Samyang/Rokinon 85mm 1.4. I own it and i have 2 things to say. Chromatic aberration wide open is horrible. F2 is better and f2.8 is good enough. Another thing is that at F1.4 DOF is so small already that is very difficult to focus handheld anyway, so 1.2 is not something that tickle my … you know. But maybe then it will be sharp enough and no fringing at f2 already instead 2.8. That would be good.
PS. 920gr is A LOT! My Samyang is like 720 and its already quite much. It better have some mor to do with IQ rather than just that 0.2 in f stops!
Agree with you. I had enough difficulty handholding the Rokinon 85mm f1.4. Loved that lens but the number of OOF results prompted me to get the optically inferior Minolta 85mm f1.4 G. The Minolta is no slouch. Has a lovely OOF rendition though the colors and contrast are no match to the newer Rokinon. Of course my keeper rate has gone dramatically up.
Another option is the Sigma 85mm f1.4 which costs a little more than this lens. I don’t like the Sigma’s OOF rendition that much but its a pretty sharp lens with good AF.
Yes, but the Mitakon is new, guarantee, and maybe a better lens coat, better flare resistance etc.
Purple fringing in fact seems somewhat bad, in at least a couple of the samples.
Mitakon will need to do what Samyang has done so well – show a track record of winning optics. Only the best brands include the features any prime really needs to be worth the big bucks. Adding video cogs is nice but the Loxia series sets the bar for features missing on most budget primes. I’ll never spend this much on one lens, so the field is open to the brand that rises to the challenge. Caveat emptor, y’all!
Even Mitakon now releases FE lenses in front of A
I love my Mitakon Dark Knight II and it’s awesome in every way, but god I hate lugging it around. It’s too bad it just sits at home most times. This one would probably have the same benefits and drawbacks.
I like your thought process. lol
Genustech have the lens in stock now http://www.genustech.tv/products/mitakon-85mm-f-1-2-lens