First Look Preview. The Mitakon 50 f/0.95 Full Frame Lens with the Sony A7

April 28, 2014 Mirrorless, News, Sony 141

mitakon_announcement

First Look Preview. The Mitakon 50 f/0.95 Full Frame Lens with the Sony A7

My first look video is below:

This lens will be available HERE starting in May.

Hello to all! Welcome to my very first look preview of the newly announced Mitakon 50 f/0.95 Lens for E-Mount, namely, the Sony A7. Yes my friends, this lens is a full frame lens meaning it will work perfectly on the Sony A7 or cameras like the new A6000 (which I also have in hand and it is a pretty sleek and super fast little machine). The best part about this new Mitakon is that the price is coming in at $799. At this price, this lens is really a no brainer IMO.

In the past the only full frame 50mm f/0.95 lenses I am aware of and remember are the $11,000 Leica Noctilux (My review here) and the $4000 SLR Magic Hyperprime T0.95 (My review here).  Yes, $4000 and $11,000. Now both of those lenses are Leica M mount lenses that some have used with adapters on a Sony camera. This new Mitakon 50 f/0.95 is an E-Mount so it is for use on the Sony NEX or A cameras. Again, I believe it was made for the A7 and A7r and the upcoming A7s (which I am hoping to get a hold of really soon).

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When the lens arrived to me in the fancy case (best case/packaging I have seen from any lens, ever) I was saying to myself “WOW! Nice case..hope the lens is just as nice”

As I pulled out the lens I was shocked at the build quality and feel. I mean, seriously…this lens feels amazingly well made. $799? Yep. It is hefty, very solid, and the glass looks impressive. To my surprise the lens I received was serial # 000001. Yep, #1! How cool is that? The quality of the lens, the printing and colors of the markings is all superb. It is lighter than the Leica Noct and SLR Magic and smaller (thinner mainly). But it has a serious heft to it that could knock someone out if you threw it at their head. No question 😉

The lens is now available to pre-order HERE at MX Camera and will ship in June.  I plan on doing a long use review of this guy, hoping to also test it on the A7s for some true night crawling tests. This lens with the A7s should be able to see in the dark. Imagine ISO 400,000 at f/0.95! Crazy.

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The big question is though..is this lens good enough to want to use on the mighty A7 series? I remember very well a lens that came out at around $995 that was less than average performance wise. Low contrast, soft, dirty color. It was the original Noktor 50mm 0.95 (which was a crop sensor lens). I reviewed it HERE. Again, that was a crop sensor lens for $1000 or so. I did not like it after quite a bit if use with it. So if this Mitakon is anything like that lens, it will be a failure.

The GOOD news is that this Mitakon is not built like any of the mentioned lenses. It looks, feels and seems like an all new design instead of a copy. I have no idea of the origin or design of this lens but can state that the quality in build, feel, focus ..it is all there. The aperture dial is click less like the SLR Magic Hyperprime. This makes the lens better for video that one with a clicked aperture dial.

I have only had the lens for a few days and have shot a few frames on the A6000 and the A7. What do I think so far? Well, it is much better than the $1000 Noktor 50 f/0.95. MUCH better.  It is close to the Noctilux and Hyperime in 3D pop and sharpness. The only weakness I have found so far is the Bokeh can get odd at times but this is not a $5k-$11k lens, it is $799 so no way we can expect perfection in a 0.95 lens at this cost. Besides, even Leica has issues with Foilage, all 0.95 lenses do. This one is a bit “vintage” looking in the Bokeh dept though reminding me a lot of some of the old Leica glass (50 1.5 summarit)  Even competing with the big guns in “detail and 3D pop” is pretty amazing in my opinion. It has a more “classic”look to the out of focus areas while the sharpness is impressive even wide open . VERY unique that some will love, some will hate.

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I will be doing a longer review with a ton of images once the A7s is release but for now check out a few images I have shot with the 50 Mitakon f/0.95. For $799 this may be a lens that sells a few A7’s and A7s’s! Click any image for larger view. Pre-Order HERE!

FIRST LOOK SAMPLES:

A few shots with the Mitakon on the Sony A7 – click them for larger!

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and one on the APS-C A6000…

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 and a quick VS comparison.

1st shot: Leica M 240 and 50 cron at f/2 

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2nd shot: Mitakon 50 at f/2 (Sony A7)

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3rd shot: Mitakon at 0.95 on the A7

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To me, the Leica has the Leica shine and brilliance but the Mitakon has its own look though I see some barrel distortion at the edges, which many fast 50’s have, even this one.  But the fact remains. If this comes in at $799, then it will be a good buy for those who want an ultra fast 50 with great sharpness and 3D pop. I can’t wait to try some night shooting when I mount it to the upcoming Sony A7s.

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141 Comments

  1. Hi, I have the Sony A7Rii and have just received the Mikaton 50mm f/0.95. The camera doesn’t recognise the lens so doesn’t read the aperture setting from the lens. Is this expected, am I doing something wrong or is the lens faulty. Other lenses work with the camera and camera software was updated a few weeks ago…. HELP!!

    • ANY 3rd party Manual lens you use on the A7 (besides Zeiss) wether it is the Mitakon or Leica or another will not show Aperture in the EXIF data. Same with all cameras and many 3rd party manual lenses.

      • Thanks Steve,

        I’ve been testing it in manual mode with auto ISO up to 102k. You really can shoot in practical darkness and post process out most of the noise. In brighter conditions the low DOF makes for an out-of-the-ordinary look the manual focus features of the A7Rii make manual focus so easy and accurate

  4. I can only say ‘Wow’! I am a Nikon user, is this leans available in Nikon F mount? Thanks

  5. I just got my Mitakon 50 f/0.95 and absolutely love it. I am a hobby photographer shooting mostly portraits of my girlfriend and aircraft at my airshows. This lens with my A6000 is magic. I was looking for that different, “artistic” bokeh and 3-D “pop”. This is my first manual focus lens and the A6000 with focus peaking made it actually much easier than I expected. Everyone said that this is a difficult lens to shoot with. Even with my novice skill, and knowledge, I have gotten very pleasing results.
    Thank you Steve for the reviews and examples. I used your link to MX camera:

    http://www.mxcamera.com/products/lens/zy-optics-lens/mtk50mf095tdk.html

    The lens came in a little over a week!!!! Amazing. I will be posting my shots on instagram: @troybflying

    Thank you so much Steve!

  6. is it possible to use this lens on MFT system with an adapter? could you pls do a review for that?

  8. What is seen by the first glance is Leica shows us the incredible colours and depth of contrast

  9. Why does the out of focus area in shot of the men at the table look so different to all of the other images? That one looks almost like one of those old, 3D cereal box images.

  10. Wow if they can make this lens so cheap, how much might cost this lens made out of Titanium? I must admit i love the full E mount lens bayonet idea because i always found it visually disturbing how adapter makes camera look. For an example on that photo: http://www.kozera.ca/photos/images/_D8E5988_640.jpg
    there is orange Sony ring, then comes black, after that silver, black, silver and black. Another example how the thickness of lens including adapter varies so much http://www.studiorlphotography.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/rayliz1-1024×682.jpg
    from orange ring to adapter it gets thinner, then again even more thinner and from there thicker.
    IMHO Mitakon 50mm 0.95 does look good on a7r, not like “puke rainpow”.

  13. Cant wait to read your full review. When will you be releasing it? Looks tempting to me, but do you know what material they used to make this glass or can you find out about it? LOL,

  15. You just coined this lens a ‘Mightakon’, Steve! This prime lens may well feature in a Michael Bay movie soon! 😉

    I agree: this lens is very sharp in the centre, where it matters. The bokeh is erratic at times, but my guess is that this will be the case for all affordable, ultra fast lenses.

  16. Interesting! Woud like to know when and where could order this lens, this will give me a fun to compare it with my Leica M 0.95 lens on A7R!

  17. I think this is pretty interesting lens. It renders the whirly bokeh a bit like the old lenses I have, such as the old F1.2 Noctilux or Old Summarit F1.5, although not as pretty. I think it’s totally fine to have a characteristic that isn’t shared with the newest and fanciest lens out on the market.. But since it’s made solely for the new Sony full frame cameras with a heck of lot of megapixels… I am not sure if the lens can endure the quality of the image sensors in these cameras, such as would be evident in larger prints. I know that my old Noctilux F1.2 can’t live up to my M typ240 with aperture wide open, although it managed quite well with my M9…. and the film cameras…

  18. Looks like a a fly was caught in near-perfect focus in the picture of the cows… I’m impressed. (look in front of the face of the cow in the rear center)

  19. Agreed! The Leica’s bokeh is busier and more distracting than the Mitakon’s in this case. I’m loving the 3D rendering of this lens too. Amazing.

  21. Steve, what are your thoughts on this from a user experience perspective compared to the 55/1.8? While they are very different lenses in terms of aperture, the price point makes a comparison almost necessary. I love my 55/1.8, and as a fairly new shooter, it is the nicest lens I have ever owned. Things I am most interested in from your perspective would be: color, contrast, ergonomics in feel and balance (this became much more important when I left my dslr-type body), and the ever-elusive “connection” with the shooter.

    • These are tow 100% different lenses and some will want both. The Zeiss has a modern rendering. Crisp, sharp, decent bokeh, good color and contrast. Everything you would want in a normal fast 50. The Mitakon is more of an artistic lens that will bring you oddball OOF areas, more 3D pop and separation and an image that some will look at and say “how did you do that”? Same reason many own a Leica 50 Noctilux and a Leica 50 Summilux. They both have their own style and look. Also, here we have one all metal solidly built lens that is manual focus. The Sony/Zeiss is very very light, almost hollow feeling and auto focus. Again, so different in every way. For someone that wants “perfect” or “modern” they will not want this lens.

  23. Why do I see as if the camera is moving with the bokeh while at the same time it is sharp in the middle.makes me feel lo!e I’m not wearing any glasses. But the 3d pop is somehow interesting to me.mind boggling indeed

  24. Eeesh, that is about the worst bouquet I’ve seen from any lens. Clicking to enlarge the photo of the two men sitting on the bench, the background bouquet is so frenetic it looks like camera shake. Which it of course isn’t as the men are sharp.
    I’m also in agreement with Donsantos, the OOF circles are semi-circular in shape due to their varying brightness. You need to click on the images to enlarge them to see this. And then it is very noticeable.

    This lens will be ok for internet posts, but not very good for making actual large prints. Since most people nowadays do not print, it will have a market.

    Best regards
    Huss

    • Don’t get fooled by those shots taken with a big distance between the camera and the subject. I guess it’s just the nature of such a fast lens. For a nice bokeh, you need to get close, or else it’s just a half baked oof…
      You find many shots taken with this lens with a nice bokeh… Close ups. A few posts above, someone linked them. Like the one of the dog, I kinda like the oof there.

      Btw., what strikes me is the sharpness in the shot with the cows… Look closely and you’ll see flies perfectly. Isn’t that amazing? So much for large prints…

      • I will have many many samples in the full review – portraits, close up at min focus distance, stopped down, low light, all kinds of goodies. 🙂

    • I have seen MUCH MUCH worse, MUCH worse in quite a few lenses. As for the circles, many lenses do this. Many vintage style lenses do this but the vintage lenses are softer with the crazy bokeh. This one is sharp with crazy bokeh, lol.

  25. I have recently found the usage of “bright center graduated filter” if there is one out there ! Can you get your hands on one these filters ? And see what effects it will have on bokeh ? In theory it should smooth it !

  26. I was actually interested in this lens. It’s one of the few alt lenses I was following. Can’t wait to see more examples. I have a couple LTM lenses for my A7 right now for the small size.

    I can’t wait to see when you get the A7s I was pretty interested in that after they announced it. I really didn’t care about shooting 4k

    • I will hopefully get to the full review soon. Just waiting for an A7s and possibly another fast lens or two for comparison sake. I will have all kinds of samples in the review covering everything you want to see. I’m excited to get started with it, which is not always the case. I feel this lens is unique but odd. It has just enough pop and sharpness to get me excited about it but I want to explore the Bokeh more, and the way it renders highlights at night. Also stopped down performance. Will be testing it all.

  27. The “look” doesn’t do it for me, but for people on a budget I can see the appeal. The only real problem with the lens is that coming from an unknown manufacurer I would imagine resale values would be close to 0.

    • The Hyperprime is a superior lens in every way. Much more expensive, much larger, much heavier. But beautiful lens, the best 0.95 lens I have ever used.

  29. Mitikon at F2 looks better than the 50 Cron…..the Bokeh has ugly rings around the highlights on the Cron….

    At .95 the Bokeh on the Mitakon is strange…..

    Looks like a winner to me!

    • The cron bokeh has a rep for being a little harsh in some cases, such as what you see here. But for portraits, up close, it is almost unbeatable, even by the Lux IMO. It is legendary but yea, sometimes the Bokeh is harsh. The new 50 Cron is gorgeous with Bokeh, but damn, at $7k it is ridiculously overpriced.

  31. Quite a lot of longitudinal CA it seems, though surpassingly little lateral CA. Probably would clean up in Lightroom nicely using the fringing dropper (I’ve been using an FD 200 2.8 a bit recently which would be horrible without modern CA fixing tools, but with them becomes a nice cheap fast 200!)

  32. Steve,

    Your shots outdoors under sunny skies look impressive for an inexpensive f0.95 lens. But from your admittedly early experience with this lens aside, and looking at the links to other sites, it would appear to be something of a curate’s egg.

    In less than ideal lighting conditions, and judging by other images on the internet, there is a considerable colour shift as the lens is stopped down, and which, imo, produces far better images. Now this is going to run counter to the main reason to use such a fast aperture lens, it isn’t simply a matter of sharpness.

    The bokeh is somewhat erratic as well. I actually preferred its bokeh at f2 to that of the Cron, which to my eyes exhibits very distracting quite distinct silvery discs, but then at f0.95 it does look a bit of a mess. And your shot of the two gents eating out shows a bokeh effect that is very odd indeed and not good to look at.

    This lens seems aimed at the videographer in having a stepless diaphragm. This is fine for them, but for stills photographers, this could be a pain, except if the lens is only ever used wide open. But then the potential for undesirable colour shift comes into play. Being a “dumb” lens there is no way the A7 can talk to it, so no open aperture metering with auto stop down. Metering will be A or M, but stepless diaphragms can be a pain to set without taking the camera from the eye. Photographers learn how many clicks will get them from one aperture to another instinctively, but not with this lens.

    These are matters I am sure you will be addressing in your full review, and which I await with interest.

  33. Another interesting thing, comparing this with 1.8 and 1.4 and 1.1 lenses would be interesting to know how much more light will in reality hit the different sensors, A7, A7R and A7S due to ray angle light.

  34. Steve

    Sweet dispensers photo, show the clarity of the Cron : that’s one thing about Leica lenses the clarity.

    Could you if possible do a comparison of the same sweet dispensers
    Leica T & Leica 23mm F2, Leica M240 & 35 Cron f2.

    Thanks.

    • I wish I could but I do not have the T right now and will not until it ships at the end of May. When I get it I will re-do the test with the M and the T and the lenses you requested. I think what we will see is the same brilliance, clarity and pop but the T will have a different color signature and not as shallow of a DOF. But that is just my prediction.

  35. I’d love to see the MS-sonnetar 1.1, the old noctilux and the current Nokton 1.1 competing on this and on Leica M240. It’s time for a all Nocti-Night comparison.

  36. Thanks for a great site Steve 🙂
    For your readers who might be interested, isnt there also an SLRmagic version which are not Rangefinder coupled, and quite a bit cheaper?

  37. Lovely to hear you’ve got an Alpha 6000 lined up for review. I jus love my copy. I’ve been shooting on a budget with the NEX-C3 with Minolta MD lenses but teh A6000 is a serious step up. It even had pdaf support in the centerspot for the Sigma emount lenses.

  38. Sharp and with crazy 3D pop like Brenizer stitchings. The bokeh looks good, a bit funky with foliage but I’ve seen worse like the bokeh from a nikkor 50 1.2 ai-s.

  39. The cow shot is impressive to me. It looks sharp from side to side wide open. You can even see which flies are in that narrow focus plane. Looks like a fun lens to use. Ryan

  40. is there any way to mount this lense on an m body? can’t find an E to M adapter on the net, would be a great alternative to the expensive options that fit the M body.

  42. On the last shot the Mitakon looks better to me at f2 than the Leica. The Leica bokeh looks nervous and the color looks really yellow.

  44. Some information I catched from last link: This lens can only be used on E mount, it is not possible to have M mount, FUji X mount and M4/3 mount. Simply because the rear elements of this lens is too huge to fit the other mounts (really??? I am not sure on that)

    • It won’t have anything to do with the size of the rear element, but the flange to sensor distance. The Leica M distance is greater than the E mount, so with the short back focus distance of the Mitakon, it can’t be made to fit an M. I don’t know about the Fuji X mount, but the same principle would still apply if it were longer than the E mount.

  46. What about the shot of the cows behind the fence. Is that wide open? That shot is very sharp and good detail in the hair. But my bet is it was stopped down 1 or 2 stops?

  47. Looks so nice! I expect to see the full review but I have very good feeling on it. I found another post about this lens from China P&E Show. The writer bought S/N000007. Unluckly, his did not get the fance case like Steve received but he also write, Zhongyi promised to send him one later. In that post, you can also find some test photos
    http://www.chiphell.com/thread-1021448-1-1.html

    • Most manual lenses like this do not record aperture, just as Leica lenses do not record aperture on the M. There are no electronics to communicate with the camera to tell it what aperture it is at as it is a manual lens. No need to have it in the EXIF anyway.

      • Yeah, I know it’s pretty standard. I use a Voigtlander Nokton 35/1.2 II and shoot wide open much of the time, but every now and then I stop down to f/2 or so and it would be nice to know when as I like to learn from my shots. I am forced to take notes. The Voigtlander SL II Series Manual Focus SLR Lenses adds a tiny CPU chip that allows for metering and tiny communications with SLR bodies while still being only manual focus. That’s what I’d like to see in all modern lenses being released. Some day, perhaps.

  50. OK, ya, I’m sold. The shots look terrific. I will be on the pre-order list first thing.

  51. is it possible get more information about this company– MITAKON ? it’s a manual lens?
    thanks
    Steven

    • The company es Zhongyi, a small Chinese factory that used to do some OEM work for SLR magic, and maybe some others. Due to the owner’s personal fanboy zeal in photographic equipment, it started trying its own on lens making a couple of years back. The name “Mitakon” is a long-dead Japanese brand name, whether they use the name because of some earlier OEM or joint venture relationship is unknown. The company’s previous products showed decent sharpness, slightly weird bokeh, sub-par CA control and questionable QC. The company has been promoting its products on domestic photographic forums, and has been slowly gathering cautious support from Chinese enthusiasts.

  52. Hmm, I would skip this.

    F/0.95 looks very tempting, but it’s not a good lens in my humble opinion.

    I would skip it, and get a cheaper and better f/1.4 lens like the “government-issue” Sony version. Not only because it’s cheaper, but because it looks better, of course it doesn’t have a DOF as thin as this, but what it makes, it makes it good.

  53. Obviously an ND filter will be a must-have purchase, so what’s the filter size? If I’m reading the front engraving correctly, it needs only a 58mm…? (My M-converted Canon 50mm f/0.95 needs a 72mm filter’ so 58 seems surprisingly reasonable.)

  54. Love it Steve. I’ll be getting this with A7s.
    Some night shots would be great to see and how it performs against bright light.

  55. I’ve loved my 35mm f/0.95 Mitakon lens since I attached it to my NEX-7, so I’m waiting with baited breath and will buy as soon as I possibly can!

  58. Thanks for your effort, Steve.

    I was hoping for some shots without trees in the background. They mostly look a bit harsh on fast lenses.
    I like the 2 shots of the dog, though. They show a very soft (yet simpler) background.

    Oh well… Gomna end up buying the Zeiss 55 probably, loved the Pics in your guest post today.

    Cheers

      • I’m probably gonna wait for your final review. ‘Cause I love the 3d and sharpness of this one.

        I hope for some close-up shots of objects to see how oof renders in different backgrounds.
        The 55/1.8 has one disadvantage, it shows nasty onion rings in oof highlights. Would love to see some bokeh light blobs with the Mitakon, too.

        Take care to your #1 🙂

  59. Interested to see more. That picnic table shot is bizarre.

    And I love the box. Kudos to them.

    • Yes, that picnic table shot almost looks like the world is spinning behind the 2 men.
      Very weird indeed…
      This lens is ‘interesting’, no doubt about it.

  60. Impressive sharpness but not really liking the bokeh which is very important in a lens like this. Still, looking forward to reading your full review!

  61. Sorry, but imho the bokeh is ugly in some of those photos which for me personally would defeat the purpose of the lens

  62. Vaguely off topic, but isn’t the A7s a bit wasted on you (no offence), as it is a video and high iso centric camera, whereas you are primarily a stills shooter who uses moderate iso. I mean I enjoy your reviews, and like your photography, but I don’t think the key audience for the A7s is the same kind of shooter as you. Once again, no offence intended

    • Not at all! I always shoot at night, low light indoors. I take my cameras with me to wherever I go, even jazz clubs. Many images I take are never posted for people to see BTW. The A7s will offer amazing BEST OF low light performance, amazing video (which I shoot 2-3X a week, also not shown here) and have a manageable file size. What is not to like? My guess is that it will also be quicker all the way around.

      • Steve, how do you expect to record video from the A7s? Or will you shoot a notch down from 4K so you can record to the card?

        • I would still shoot 1080, I have no need for 4K. But shooting at 1080 with that kind of light sensitivity will be quite amazing, if it works out as well as Sony says it will.

          • I’m with you there. The option of 4K in future is nice—and the Atomos Shogun while pricey is a great future expansion—but 1080P is still the standard for a few years.

      • Hi Steve and thank you for the preview. Like your reviews always. I am definitely going to get the Mitakon one day. I have been looking forward for this lens for a long time.

        Anyway, I can understand why Ivan Myring asked the question. Having a high megapixel sensor and lower high ISO performance seems to be one of the biggest myths around there. I don’t expect the A7S to be any better than A7R in this regard. With the A7R you are simply viewing the image at a higher magnification than the A7S. Downsample the A7R image to 24 mpix (A7) or the other way and they look identical. According to DXOmark the A7R actually scored a little better than A7 (lack of AA filter, perhaps) for low light test. A7, A7R, A7S: they will have the same sensor as far as I know (according to S.A.R). With the A7S you get higher ISO (ISO 400K) but to me it seems more like a marketing trick to attract more potential buyers. I can see why video shooters will find this useful as well. Which is understandable. The key attraction of A7S is therefore the 4K video. If you are not going to use it, why get it in the first place? It takes like 5 seconds to downsample the image. Just my 0.02$ Then it would be more interesting if Sony could had reduce the A7S’s sensor glass thickness to make it more compatible with Leica M wideangle lenses, that would certainly get my attention 😉

        • Not really a marketing trick when ISO capabilities will be much much higher with the 7s, capable of ISO’s the others cameras can not even be set to. Did you not see the ISO 400k candlelight video and imagery? The A7 and A7r can not do this, period. Many have always been fans of lower MP full frame cameras because they are always better in IQ. With the A7s, if it is indeed what they say it is (which is not always the case), then it will be incredible for images and video, and I mean even standard 1080 video. No need to resize or do any of that and with ISO 400K capability in video and images, it will be able to do things the others can not in low light. I do not expect ISO 400k to be something I would use but a notch or two below, maybe.

          • Perhaps if the phase detect is more sensitive, as is suppose to be the case of the A7s, the focus peaking should be more useable is lower light! No? Also 12mp should be more fun with legacy glass

        • I’m curious to see Steve’s review but A7S is NOT using the same sensor and according to Sony it has highest dynamic range and ISO of any sensor they make. So it should have a real edge if you don’t need crazy high resolution.

          Personally I doubt it will do better than the A7 with wide angle RF lenses because the AA filter has got to be stronger than the A7 which may counter act the larger photo sites. Still it will be interesting to see!

          Assuming there is not line skipping (and this is an assumption) when feeding the live view it should also be easier to focus manually in low light because you’ll get fewer video artifacts.

    • It’s the only mirrorless camera that’s full frame besides the Leica. How is it a “video and high iso centric camera’? Just because it’s good at video and high ISO? It’s pretty good everywhere else, too.

  63. Bokeh wide open looks like a semi circle. Like it’s missing the bottom half. Any ideas why that’s happening?

      • In the last shot it seems clearly visible to me. The bottom half of the bokeh circles is not very visible there.

        That said, I want this lens regardless of that issue! I wonder if it will be available in Europe or Japan (I live in Europe but am traveling to Japan at the end of May)

        • Last shot, so the feed machines? Bottom half of the “Bokeh Circles”? It is like that throughout the frame, not just on the bottom of the frame as stated. MANY lenses are like this, I have seen it a million times, even in Zeiss lenses. Just one of the lenses “character signatures”. Not everyone will like it of course. Not sure I do just yet but have to shoot much more with it.

          • I suspect it’s because the sun is directly overhead (based on the tree’s shadow) – so the light is reflecting off of the leaves at a very sharp angle.

      • It’s very evident in the third shot with the foliage. If you look at each blurred out highlight it gets darker at the bottom half of each circle to the point of disappearing. The resulting bokeh ball looks like a half dome.

        • Not evident at all! What you are looking at is different depth of field for the different things in the frame. Some are closer to the lens, some are farther, some are really far. There is no issue with the Bokeh of the lens. It is a little busy with silage, as all lenses are but there is no “dome” bokeh. BTW, the 3rd image is the B&W self portrait of myself so I assume you meant image #5. If you look at the image of the feed machines at the bottom you will see the bokeh is just as normal as the cron (no half dome bokeh) – I see nothing like you describe in any of the images. I just see different qualities based on depth, or how far subjects are from the lens.

          • Ha, really? Look at the blur above the dispensers (last photo.) It’s the same from the top of the dispenser to top of the frame — the bottom half of the “blur disk” is missing. This is the same blur that the Canon 50/0.95 “Dream Lens” has, only this lens is actually *less* aggressive, but it’s still very apparent that the blur disks aren’t “perfect” in that they don’t make full circles.

            It looks a lot cleaner in the fifth sample photo with the foliage, do you know if that was stopped down a bit? Looks like a hell of a lens for the price, especially considering how much the very-average “Dream Lens” goes for in the past two years.

          • The bottom half of that photo has the same amount of blur 100% exact, as the top half. The “blur disk”? If you mean the circles, many lenses do this. It is not unique to this lens. Also depends on the way the light is hitting the lens.

          • Yup, I wasn’t saying it’s unique to this lens, just that it has it. Just confirming what the person you responded to said originally; “Bokeh wide open looks like a semi circle. ”

            I don’t think it’s a bad thing, or a good thing, just personal preferences. Like I said, lots of super-fast vintage 50s did this, and I’d be surprised if a <$2k USD f/0.95 lens didn't have it!

          • The half circle is just the fact the A7 is used with electronic first curtain at high speed. Between 1/1000 and 1/8000 it’s obvious. I’m surprised lots and lots of A7 user don’t mind.

          • Steve – there are some in this world who enjoy bananas, and there are others who obsess over the peel.

            To me, and the clients I’ve sold to, the subject is the banana. If the banana (subject) is great, sharp and perfectly lit, no one cares about the peel (bpkeh).

            I never once had a client art director notice bokeh – or lose a sale over it. And I’ve sold covers to big trade journals, and huge blowups for medical convention exhibit back walls.

            Keep the faith – and the great reviews!

            Mel

          • This lens is not a lens for pros with clients..I see this lens as an artistic style lens, for enthusiasts, hobbyists and photographers who just want a unique tool in their bag. Though I have done weddings with crazier lenses than this and the clients love the results. All depends on your vision for what you are doing I guess. But I would never buy this lens to use for pro work where sharpness and perfection is required.

      • I was going to say the same thing. The bokeh makes me dizzy…a bit hard to look at.

      • +2
        The swirling bokeh is very dizzy looking.
        Im not sure I like it…
        Looking forward to some portraits.

    • I like it 🙂 They could call it ‘Fear and loathing in Las Vegas’ edition. Definitely interesting rendering.

    • I love bokeh but I’m getting motion sickness looking at these photos too. What’s wrong? I don’t get this feeling from other lenses wide open.

  66. Looks promising. The station wagon shot at full size is great. Except for the cron comparison, were these all shot wide open?

    Can’t wait for the full review Steve!

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