£65 for a lens. I know what you’re thinking. But if you really are thinking what I think you’re thinking…think again.
During a recent trip to Milan where I shot with an X100F, X-Pro2 and X70, the latter of which I was zone focusing for street photography. I started thinking I would like a manual focus lens for the X-Pro2. I have the 16mm and 23mm, which along with the 14mm are the best manual focus x-series lenses available, but I wanted an old school manual focus lens. I wanted something small with depth of field markings. I also wanted something around a full-frame equivalent to a 35mm, but I wasn’t really interested in using a lens mount adapter. So a quick search on the web, a few YouTube videos later and I had settled on the Meike 25mm f1.8. It was a bonus that it was available for just £65 on Amazon.
A picture of my son after a paint ball session on a grey November day. A few small adjustments in Lightroom
BUILD QUALITY
Build quality on this multi-coated lens is fantastic. All metal construction with 7 elements in 5 groups and smooth aperture and focus rings. The lens feels solid and has a bit of weight to it. It actually looks and feels like a vintage lens in so many ways, helped I’m sure by the Voightlander style focus ring.
WHY BUY THE MEIKE 25mm v THE FUJIFILM 23mm?
Fujifilm lenses are fantastic but they are all, focus by wire, which basically is an electronic sensor, rather than a mechanical focus ring. So the focus rings continuously turn with no hard stop at either end. Sure the 14mm, 16mm and 23mm all have a clutch mechanism and have a definite stop at either end of the range, but they are not linear (except when using X-T3 or X-Pro3 linear focusing mode). The Meike 25/1.8 is just like a vintage lens in that the focus mechanism is mechanical and has hard stops at either end of the focusing range. I wish Fujifilm would make a full-frame equivalent 28mm & 35mm lenses that are not focus by wire. Proper street lenses similar to the Leica Sumicrone 28 & 35mm. Let’s hope they replace the current 18mm f2 with something like this, with hyperfocal distance markings. That would be worthy of a mkII version.
IMAGE QUALITY
The picture on the left (finger in the earhole) is straight out of camera (SOOC) and the one on the right has the following adjustments in Lightroom Classic.
+0.20 Exposure
+15 Contrast
-20 Highlights
+48 Shadows
+15 Clarity
+15 Texture
Adjusting contrast etc has pushed the saturation a little, and looking at it hear, I wish I had dropped it back down again. I’m too lazy to go back and fix it, so the yellows are a bit strong on this one. But I like the tones from this lens. These are the tones I always wanted when I used to shoot with Nikon DSLR’s, but I could never quite get there, even in post.
I’m impressed with how the Meike lens renders colour. It’s rich and warm, plus there seems to be an earthy brown tone, which I really like. There is a difference in exposure by around -1/3 of a stop from what you see in the EVF to the darker image captured, but you get used to that and compensate as you shoot.
LIKES
Great build quality
Small size
Multi-coated
Smooth aperture and focus rings
Depth of field markings
DISLIKES
The centre markings are not quite in the centre
I wish the markings for feet or metres were in a different colour
Clickless aperture (It’s ok but I prefer clicks)
This one was shot using the Acros film simulation. It’s been given a bit more punch in LR, but the JPEG was nice too.
CONCLUSION
I’m really enjoying using this lens. My X-Pro2 suddenly feels like an old rangefinder film camera. It slows the process down and that can be a good thing. Colours are also nice and it’s sharp enough (especially at street photography apertures such as f8 or f11. At £65 it is a no brainer to pick one of these lenses up and give it a try.