Meike 25mm f/0.95 APS-C manual focus lens for Nikon Z-mount review by John Hall (additional information on the lens can be found here and here):
I don’t do technical tests. I use the equipment to see how it works and what results I get.
Meike delivered a day early, no complaints there! When I opened the box I could feel that this is a solid lens, no plastic. The metal construction has a good finish. The aperture ring and the focus ring both work smoothly and have enough resistance to stay where you put them. When I mounted it on my camera it went on easily and locked in place smoothly. This is a manual lens with no motors and no chips. It does not talk to your camera so you will need M or A modes to use it.
A great attraction of this lens is the f0.95 aperture. Wide open, the lens has very shallow depth of field, and nice bokeh. Like most lenses if you close the aperture two or three stops then you find the sweet spot where it gets sharpest. With f0.95 three stops gets you to f2.8 which is still giving you lots of light for faster shutter speeds, a double advantage to having a fat lens like this.
I took a variety of shots to see what the lens can do. As expected, when wide open the lens gives good blurred background. When I stopped it down it got sharper, and at f22 the depth of field is nice and deep.
I like macros and closeups so I tried those. With a closest focus of .25 meters I got good closeups. Then I tried an extension ring and found that this is definitely a lens that will do macros. I tried a few panorama sets to stitch into really wide shots. The lens did well for all of these.
I’m including a few photos so you can see the quality of this lens. I bought mine from the Meike store at Amazon for $199.99 and I’m happy with it.
If you have an interesting idea for a guest post, contact me here.