I’ve been keeeping my eye on the Meike lenses for a while. There’s a lot of nice things being made very affordably in China at the moment. From my experience with the 7Artisans 55mm, I knew that there were great things out there for very little cash. But I didn’t really know whether there was much point in buying the 28mm (which is what I was looking at) as the focal length I already had covered.
However, something I wanted was a little pancake lens for my Oly EM10ii. Something which I could just set on an aperture and snap some shots. Also, as I’d bought my Bronica… I wanted to be able to take both that and my Oly out in as small a package as possible.
Straight away I’ll say…. these are not ‘perfect’ lenses. There are technical issues and they’re manual focus only. So if you need an ultra sharp, autofocus lens which costs less than £50, then feel free to find it!
However, what the Meike does is gives you bags of personality. When light is optimal, you’d be hard pushed to see the difference between this and a much more expensive lens. When the weather is not too good then you’ll be working hard with it. But it is definitely worth it!
The only downside (and this is VERY picky) to this lens is the lens cap. It’s one of those push-on ones. Seriously…. they were shit in the 70s, they’re shit now. Every five seconds it falls off. Off to eBay for a cheap cap that works!
But back to the main show: It’s not the sharpest lens out there, but it gives your shots a nicely classic look. And being only manual focus, it WILL make you want to nail that shot more!
I really like it. And for less than £50 you really can’t go wrong.
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