The Canon RF mount isn’t blessed with many third-party lenses which is why the Meike 50mm f/1.2L RF is an interesting proposition — especially when it’s $2,000 cheaper than Canon’s own 50mm f/1.2 lens. For such a tiny amount of money, is it something you should consider buying?
Dustin Abbott dives deep in this review, putting the manual focus lens through its paces and discovering some interesting idiosyncrasies. As you might expect from a supremely affordable manual focus lens from a third-party manufacturer, optical perfection is not to be expected.
The lens is available for five different mounts — Sony E, Nikon Z, Canon RF, Canon EF, and L-mount — and it’s probably safe to assume that the performance is broadly similar across the different cameras.
There’s been an explosion of China-based companies making manual focus lenses in the last couple of years, most of which seem to be intent on making metal-bodied lumps with ridiculously fast apertures, though without a huge amount of concern for overall image quality. If you want something “dreamy” with distinctive rendering, the other option is to pick up a vintage lens. However, this does mean figuring out the right adapter and trawling through eBay or second hand stores.
Worth the money? Let us know in the comments below.
Yeah and there's a reason it costs $2000 less than Canon, cause it's a POS optic, full stop.
I got a z-mount Mieke lens for my Z50 because it was so inexpensive, It is OK in the center but the corners are not sharp at all and perform worse than the Nikon 16-50 kit zoom.
Having used a yongnuo lens before.... NOPE. They are not ready yet
"The Canon RF mount isn’t blessed with many third-party lenses..."
I mean, only just about every film lens ever.*
(*third party adapter not included, please see store for details)
void where prohibited ;)
It's an f/1.2 lens, but is the light transmittance (actual T-Stop) is equivalent to a typical f/1.2 lens, or is it more equivalent to an f/1.4-f/1.8 lens?