The Meike 85mm f/1.8 Professional lens is aimed toward providing you with a dependable mid-telephoto possibility with out forcing you into the upper costs of first-party glass. If you happen to’re after sharp portraits, managed depth of subject, and a construct that feels strong sufficient for day by day use with out breaking the financial institution, it is value a glance.
Coming to you from Andrei Dima, this easy video appears to be like carefully on the Meike 85mm f/1.8 Professional lens. Dima compares it to Meike’s earlier 55mm f/1.8 Professional, a lens he praised for picture high quality and coloration rendering. The brand new 85mm mannequin improves construct high quality with a metallic aperture ring that feels substantial, a rubberized focus ring, and an total sturdier design. It additionally introduces a USB-C port for firmware updates, a element that may prolong the lens’ usefulness. Whereas the lens features a rubber gasket on the mount, it isn’t totally weather-sealed, one thing to remember for those who shoot in harsher circumstances.
Dima highlights the autofocus because the strongest Meike has supplied to this point, notably for video. Earlier Meike lenses generally lagged in steady autofocus, however this mannequin reveals easy and dependable monitoring with out searching. He notes the shortage of focus respiratory, which makes it interesting if you wish to shoot video with out distracting body shifts. The aperture ring is clicked, including tactile management, which is helpful for switching depth of subject whereas filming. These options make the lens particularly versatile for those who cut up your time between stills and video.
Key Specs
Most aperture: f/1.8
Minimal aperture: f/16
Minimal focus distance: 0.85 m
Filter thread dimension: 62 mm
Weight: 389 g
Optical design: 8 teams, 11 parts (2 ED, 3 excessive refraction, 1 aspheric)
Dimension: 76 x 95 mm
By way of picture high quality, the lens performs effectively broad open at f/1.8, with sharp rendering within the middle and solely barely softer corners. Stopping all the way down to f/2.8 evens issues out throughout the body, and by f/4, distinction is noticeably stronger within the corners. Chromatic aberration is effectively managed, with solely minor purple fringing seen at wider apertures for those who go in search of it. Vignetting is current broad open however corrects simply in submit. Flare does seem when capturing immediately into robust mild, although Dima suggests it doesn’t harm distinction considerably and may even look pleasing relying on how you utilize it.
The 9-blade diaphragm provides a rounded bokeh, and Dima factors out that the transitions from in-focus to out-of-focus areas look easy. For portraits, this high quality typically issues greater than absolute sharpness. He additionally mentions that regardless of its comparatively low value of about $330, the lens holds its personal in opposition to pricier first-party 85mm lenses, a few of which present much less constant sharpness broad open. Try the video above for the total rundown from Dima.
