You can now preorder the new Mitakon 50mm f/0.95 FE lens at Mitakons website. The lens will ship the first week of June.
P.S.: An image gallery can be seen on Flickr.
You can now preorder the new Mitakon 50mm f/0.95 FE lens at Mitakons website. The lens will ship the first week of June.
P.S.: An image gallery can be seen on Flickr.
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Quite good mid to close distance, but it is a blur mess at long to infinity. I guess I’m asking too much for an $800 lens.
I’ll add a missing piece to your statement. You’re asking too much of an $800 lens with those kind of specs.
There’s nothing wrong with even $150 lenses. As long as they have reasonable specifications.
What exactly are the kind of specs you’re talking about? This lens has really good WO sharpness at mid to close distance. It has extremely low CA, not that strong distortion. Shame that it couldn’t render a good enough picture at long distance even stopping down to f/5.6. And yes, I shot with 1.2 and 0.95 to have a realistic expectation. Overall, quite a strange way to optimize the lens.
0.95 @ $800 is precisely what i’m talking about. Its soft wide open. And you yourself said that its also very soft at long focus distances.
Now if this was some regular 50/1.4 for $800. I’d expect it to be near flawless i.e. Sigma 50/1.4
Put it on A7s wide open, crank ISO to max…
And you overexpose a moonless night sky by 3 stops….
yep, an overexposed, noisy, soft image. Did I leave anything out?
Ghosts?
How is this lens in any way the world’s first “ultrafast”? Canon made a 50mm F0.95 more than five decades ago. Zeiss designed and made several copies of a 50mm F0.7. SLR Magic (which is not Mitakon, one is based in HK and the other Shenyang) also has a manual M mount 50mm F0.95, not to mention the Noctilux ASPH…
Maybe “the world’s seventh ultrafast” would be more appropriate?
On their website, there is an explanation of that asterisk (*) they have next to that statement.
Is says the following: “*till 2014 May, 50mm focal length EVIL mirrorless camera lens”
Can anyone please translate this from chinenglish?
If i’m not mistaken, they’re saying that this is a first ultrafast dedicated mirrorless lens.
What does capitalized “EVIL” stands for is a mystery though. Must’ve thought it would sound cool and appealing to Japanese, similar to all those messed up cartoons from Japan.
EVIL = Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens
Wow, no way I would have ever guessed that one.
lol it looks silly anyway you look at it “evil mirrorles camera lens”
they should just have put in Sony E-mount camera lens.
Always knew there was something dodgy about the e-mount…
EVIL stands for electronic viewfinder interchangeable lens, which is another name for mirrorless cameras.
But still, the M mount is EVF-capable…The M type 240 has an accessory EVF, so technically the Noctilux is a “EVIL camera” lens.
but but there is a semi-transparent mirror in the viewfinder of rangefinders to overlay the second image (for focusing)! 😛
http://www.syzygx.com/ it looks like it is made in Shenyang. The HK front may just be a sales site – after all, who would make optics in a HK where labor and land is unnecessarily expensive? Don’t quote me though.
I think SLR magic does actually make high-end lenses in HK. The local pool of lens manufacturers would help, and it doesn’t actually take much space to make lenses if you are using pre-built elements. I don’t know one way or another, but I know a few high-end, made-to-order stereo makers in HK and they seem to be doing fine.
Mitakon is a Shenyang firm. They’ve been making CCTV lenses and cheap camera lenses since the 90s…But obviously stepped up their game in the past few years.
Anyone else getting php errors when trying to preorder this lens? :<
Oops, nevermind. Have to choose the second payment option, even though both are identically labelled 😐
Is your order still “pending” status on the MXcamera site since you preordered?
Could this become a reality? http://www.mirrorlessrumors.com/sony-a7s-priced-at-1800
A7s for $1800?
🙂
If it’s that low, I might pre-order it! I wont be able to afford anything more expensive than the a7r until fall. 🙁
Admin didn’t say anything so it may not be the correct price.
Too bad the current image sensors don’t have fast enough microlenses to take advantage of these fast lenses. On film or some future camera this lens would indeed behave like f/0.95, but on the A7-series it will only behave in the ballpark of f/1.4 (regarding all optical phenom, including depth of field), maybe a bit faster or slower. The sample images show this well, as the f/1.4 and f/0.95 settings have basically identical DOF. The only real difference is that stopping the lens down makes it sharper.
Conclusion: at this time it is a bit silly to buy this lens as it offers no real advantages over good f/1.4 lenses, just disadvantages of lower image quality and larger size/weigth (compared to other rangefinder-type glass, not to SLR-type).
I thought that’s just the exposure? So DOF is really like 0,95 but exposure is perhaps half a stop lower. Also I thought this was physical, so that digital and film would have the same “wrong” exposure .
No, this is about the microlenses being about f/1.4 give or take a bit. They simply do not let more light in than that, thus all the optical phenom will be like that.
The amount of light the sensor captures will be approximately the same on this lens regardless of wether you use it at f/0.95 or f/1.4. Exposure and other optical phenom go hand in hand – one can not cheat oneself out of one or the other.
The speed of the microlenses has improved over the years and will improve still as dual-lens microlenses will be applied at some point and the metal wiring and CFA (both of which actually forms the physical aperture) will get thinner.
Bullshit. I have both the 50mm Summilux ASPH and 50mm Noctilux-M. Under test condition the lenses gave similar luminance readouts wide open and at 1/100, 1/50 respectively.
I aimed at a fixed light source, with no ambient light and read the exposure curve with raw files from the A7. The Noctilux at F0.95 is letting in at least twice as much light as the Summilux at F1.4.
Of course the simple experiment is to stop the Noct down to F1.4, and watch as the auto shutter speed decrease. If what you are saying is true, why will the camera automatically lower shutter speeds?
Might as well ask an owner. How do you think that Summilux compares to say….Sony 50mm 1.4 Zeiss? …or any other 1.4 for that matter. I’m starting to get an itch for some Leica glass.
If you are looking for something drastically better than a Zeiss or other offering, you’ll be disappointed… But if you want a small, beautifully made, very sharp lens with smooth bokeh and almost perfect flare control, then the lux ASPH will suit you perfectly.
IMO leica is both about the performance and the form factor. The package is where the premium is, but the lenses are very good nonetheless. The 50 lux ASPH is the single best short register 50mm F1.4 there is, and just a tiny bit softer than the OTUS wide open.
Thanks. My biggest problem with my Zeiss 50mm Sony is the focusing distance. I can’t believe how long it is. In addition, the focusing ring is a bit stiff which is not what I’d expect for a premium grade lens. The joy of manual focusing as I do often is in how you connect with your optic. Maybe I’ll just have to rent a summilux 1.4 ASPH and see how it goes.
That would be a good idea. $100-200 is a small price to pay for such an important purchase. I’d also think about just getting a used copy. then selling it if things don’t work out. I sold my 50lux Pre-a at pretty much what I paid for it.
Long focus throws can be quite annoying indeed. The lux ASPH is only 120° which I really like.
Actually more than twice, as the Noctilux exposure at 1/100 is still brighter than the Summilux shot by about 1/10th of a stop, which is not visible when you look at the files, but can be read from the histogram. So contrary to what you are say, not only can modern sensors use F1, they actually gain from moving from F1 (T>1) to F0.95 (T probably closer to 1)
Focus barrel called, asked not to silence him.
One day I might own a .95- I don’t think this is the one. But, I’m not counting it out yet- I’ll wait for user reviews and then weight it out.
I’m struggling to understand the real advantages of Leica glass- maybe someone can explain. The claim is that they are the only ones to use spherically grounded lenses. Does it matter? Are there lenses much more precisionary over say….a Sigma 50mm 1.4 art.
I can tell that Sigma uses much larger optics in the front of their lenses- and sometimes more elements then say Zeiss. Zeiss lenses as far as I can tell use more precisionary pieces of refractionary glass- less elements? I’m no expert, but does it really matter if they both end up producing the same level of IQ? I have no doubt that Leica uses some of the best glass- but I can’t verify the claim that they are sharp at every aperature. With so much good competition on the market now, is it still worth the price. Owning lots of glass, I have yet to pick up any Leica. If it’s worth it I’d consider maybe the summilux.
u can mimick a lot of stuff lenses do these days :
a sharpener to sharpen images
a bokeh software to create ur perfect bokeh
etc.
but as i learned every lens also has its own color cast signature and thats a very hard thing to imitate .
its in my mind a pretty hard thing to put into words.i simply suggest u look for urself at a phote taken by a similar leica lens or ziess to that cheaper one you want and compare it in your eyes .
You cannot add details that are not there, so sharpening tool is not the answer. Software bokeh can’t yield natural look in complex scene.
Lens signature is not only in the color cast but also in macro and micro-contrast. Such signature difference can be negligible in digital age.
The reason for Leica is more expensive is not because they are sharper than the competitors. The fact that they can get a similar or slightly better performance with a much smaller package is the key. That’s why they tend to use much more exotic elements. You can design a small, fast and simple lens with good center performance but in return the corners will be mush, distortion or CA is high.
My feeling about buying lenses is that you’re buying a certain look that that lens will give you. Most good lenses are expensive, so it makes sense to do your homework and check out what a lens can do before you decide to buy it. But if, when you look at sample images from a particular lens, you don’t see qualities that interest you, then obviously that lens is probably not for you.
its not worth it.
i’ve purchased a 50mm f1.4 Summilux ASPH due to all the hype i’ve read one the internet.
but i found that once I had it, it did not dare bring it out, because its so expensive and i never want to get it damaged. Thus it actually hindered my photography.
I sold the summilux for a loss and purchased a Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 S.C instead.
While the Voigt 40mm is not perfect (infact its actually quite soft and not too contrasty) but I love it because of the character from that lens (plus the small size)
“Evil mirrorless camera lens” ! lol
i just got it, and started reviewing it on:
http://www.yannickciancanelli.com/manual-lens-review-mitakon-50mm-0-95-speedmaster-on-a-sony-a7/
cheers 🙂