NikonGear'23
Gear Talk => Lens Talk => Topic started by: Tri-x on June 13, 2017, 22:04:51
-
I just discovered this on kickstarter
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meyeroptik/enchant-your-photography-unleash-the-magic-lydith (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meyeroptik/enchant-your-photography-unleash-the-magic-lydith)
Any thoughts on this one?
Looks interesting
-
It might be a great lens or not. The copy at the link doesn't tell me any reason why this is going to be better than say, my 35/2.0 AI or 28/2.8 AIS. All it says is fund me, I'm wonderful.
It looks like it's a fully manual lens: manual aperture, manual focus with no Auto Aperture or full aperture viewing. It isn't even preset. I could be wrong. I didn't see that the copy said it was an auto aperture lens.
Looks like it has cat's eye and slightly swirly bokeh at what I assume is f/3.5. I'll recommend a 35/2.0 AI instead or a 28/2.0 AI or a 28/2.8 AIS.
Dave Hartman
I own a 35/2.0 AI and a 28/2.0 AIS. I've never owned the 28/2.8 AIS so I'm going on reputation for that one.
-
Looks interesting but hard to tell how it performs from these 'marketing' stuff. The close focus distance of 0,16m is tempting. I wasn't able to find something about a price?
-
Looks interesting but hard to tell how it performs from these 'marketing' stuff. The close focus distance of 0,16m is tempting. I wasn't able to find something about a price?
I gather the price is in the boxes to the right with the various kits. Looks like $699.00 and up. I was wondering about the price but then noticed the kits and pledge prices.
-
One thing I found out when looking into the Meter Optik lenses more closely is that you can buy them from the Russian or Chinese manufacturers for 1/3rd of the Meyer price.
Mitakon makes their 35mm f2, 85mm f2 and some other lenses, and the faster Somnium 85mm f1,5 is a rebranded Helios 40-2. With that track record, I'm not going to pay a lot of attention to anything new they market at a zero risk policy using crowdfunding. This business model reminds me a lot of the slow decline of one of the companies I used to work for 10 years ago, just with modern means
The company in question did not survive
-
Thanks for the tip. Mitakon, I didn't know of their existence. This 1.2 85 is very tempting. But also the more affordable 2.8 135mm had my attention.
How are these lenses quality wise?
-
I handled a few of the Mitakon lenses in a store recently, and they feel very well manufactured when I took them out of the box. I'm not sure how they will be in 20 or 30 years. I know my Nikkors are good now, were good 30 years ago and will continue to be good for a few years to come.
In time I might try one of the more affordable Mitakon lenses to see how they hold up in every day use.
I'm not averse to 3rd party lenses though. I used a Tokina lens for quite a while and that ne was manufactured as good as, if not better then some of the Nikkor lenses
-
I have the original, never inmpressed me that much ;-)
-
One thing I found out when looking into the Meter Optik lenses more closely is that you can buy them from the Russian or Chinese manufacturers for 1/3rd of the Meyer price.
Mitakon makes their 35mm f2, 85mm f2 and some other lenses, and the faster Somnium 85mm f1,5 is a rebranded Helios 40-2. With that track record, I'm not going to pay a lot of attention to anything new they market at a zero risk policy using crowdfunding. This business model reminds me a lot of the slow decline of one of the companies I used to work for 10 years ago, just with modern means
The company in question did not survive
AFAIK Meyer claims that their lenses are refurbished russian lenses - i.e. the glass is supposed to be high quality Schott glass fit manually into the lens body.
I own the 100 mm 2.8. It doesn't provide aperture information to the camera (unlike e.g. Zeiss ZF.2 lenses, Voigtländer SL II lenses, or Nikkor AI-P lenses). Flare resistance is poor, bokeh blur very special, and of course it provides the swirls many people are keen on. I don't know to which extent these observations translate to this new kickstarter lens.
I agree with the comment above that many of the characteristics of the above mentioned lens can be obtained with some of the Nikkor classics.