Home

Please support mflenses.com if you need any graphic related work order it from us, click on above banner to order!

SearchSearch MemberlistMemberlist RegisterRegister ProfileProfile Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages Log inLog in

Mitakon MC 85mm F2 Made in China
View previous topic :: View next topic  


PostPosted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 5:41 pm    Post subject: Mitakon MC 85mm F2 Made in China Reply with quote

Lens and the box


Lovely coating reflections


Lens spec.:
* Focal length: 85mm
* Angle of view: 28.5 °
* Lens Construction: six elements six groups, Double Gaussian
* Minimum Aperture: F22
* Minimum Focus Distance: 0.85m
* Filter Diameter: 52mm
* Size: 64 (diameter) × 58 (length) mm
* Weight: 270 grams
* Price: approximate $80 USD
(This lens is available in Canon EF and Pentax PK. The Nikon AI version will be available in the future.)

The Mitakon brand belongs to a Japanese company. In the 1980’s, they setup a joint venture company with a Chinese company in Shenyang City. The company was changed to a private company nameed SHENYANG MITACON OPTICAL ELECTRONIC CO., LTD. in 2004.

The Mitakon Multicoated 85mm F2 is the first 85mm made in China lens. For the Canon EF version, it comes with an AF confirm chip (exif: 85mm F2 fixed). The lens is made of metal with rubber focus ring. Construction of the lens looks solid but the finishing of the metal parts could be better. There is little plastic dust in the copy I have. No accessory or manual is include but the spec of the lens and company information in the both side of the box.

Here are the samples of the lens from F2 to F8 for testing the sharpness and CA of this lens. All of them are crop from the centre part of the image from a fine JPEG filetaken by a handheld Canon 350D/Rebel XT(i forgot to set the camera to raw.)

At minimum focus distance 0.85m






I ever used any 85mm primes but it is unbeatable with such low price tag. More information will come later once the lens goes to the real owner.

The lens seems optimised for portrait so the best focus distance should be a few meters. The follwoing link shows its best.
http://photo.zol.com.cn/photo_fdjnd_335483_1.html

Please forgive me if the above sample make you feel this is not a good lens. It has its own strength, though it have its own weakness.

Thanks for reading my first lens preview thread. Smile


Last edited by calvin83 on Fri Jul 09, 2010 2:40 pm; edited 2 times in total


PostPosted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 6:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, it looks interesting, especially for that price ...


PostPosted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 6:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you for sharing! Worst 85mm prime what I ever seen, please don't take it personally Rolling Eyes


PostPosted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 6:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Attila wrote:
Thank you for sharing! Worst 85mm prime what I ever seen, please don't take it personally Rolling Eyes


We'll see Smile I asked calvin83 to get this lens for me from China because I was curious how a modern double-Gauss 85/2 could perform as a portrait lens. Its application is, obviously, portraiture, so I'll test it on appropriate subjects (I don't think it was optimized for infinity focusing wide open). The lens was designed with the modern optical design software, and has modern multicoating, so I expect it to be at least better than the Sonnar-formula Jupiter-9. There's a large thread about it in Chinese:

http://bbs.fengniao.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1641211
and
http://bbs.fengniao.com/forum/1637979.html

By the way, its "maiden name" was SYZYGX Smile


PostPosted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 7:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

no CA [purple fringing] whatsoever! Laughing


PostPosted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 7:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

aoleg wrote:
Attila wrote:
Thank you for sharing! Worst 85mm prime what I ever seen, please don't take it personally Rolling Eyes


We'll see Smile I asked calvin83 to get this lens for me from China because I was curious how a modern double-Gauss 85/2 could perform as a portrait lens. Its application is, obviously, portraiture, so I'll test it on appropriate subjects (I don't think it was optimized for infinity focusing wide open). The lens was designed with the modern optical design software, and has modern multicoating, so I expect it to be at least better than the Sonnar-formula Jupiter-9. There's a large thread about it in Chinese:

http://bbs.fengniao.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1641211
and
http://bbs.fengniao.com/forum/1637979.html

By the way, its "maiden name" was SYZYGX Smile


Looks very promicing based on these threads but samples from this specific copy are not so good, or may be this is just a shooting condition and subject.


PostPosted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 7:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

aoleg wrote:
Attila wrote:
Thank you for sharing! Worst 85mm prime what I ever seen, please don't take it personally Rolling Eyes


We'll see Smile I asked calvin83 to get this lens for me from China because I was curious how a modern double-Gauss 85/2 could perform as a portrait lens. Its application is, obviously, portraiture, so I'll test it on appropriate subjects (I don't think it was optimized for infinity focusing wide open). The lens was designed with the modern optical design software, and has modern multicoating, so I expect it to be at least better than the Sonnar-formula Jupiter-9. There's a large thread about it in Chinese:

http://bbs.fengniao.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1641211
and
http://bbs.fengniao.com/forum/1637979.html

By the way, its "maiden name" was SYZYGX Smile


You have right , linked samples are excellent.


PostPosted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 4:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Attila wrote:

You have right , linked samples are excellent.

I take these photos in my home with so they are not going to be attrative. My intention is to tell the forum members about the details of this new MF lens. Aoleg will show us more attractive photos for sure. Wink


PostPosted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 12:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Attila wrote:
Thank you for sharing! Worst 85mm prime what I ever seen, please don't take it personally Rolling Eyes


Calvin i think you buried Mitakon lens with your samples Smile.


PostPosted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 1:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

aoleg wrote:
Attila wrote:
Thank you for sharing! Worst 85mm prime what I ever seen, please don't take it personally Rolling Eyes


We'll see Smile I asked calvin83 to get this lens for me from China because I was curious how a modern double-Gauss 85/2 could perform as a portrait lens. Its application is, obviously, portraiture, so I'll test it on appropriate subjects (I don't think it was optimized for infinity focusing wide open). The lens was designed with the modern optical design software, and has modern multicoating, so I expect it to be at least better than the Sonnar-formula Jupiter-9. There's a large thread about it in Chinese:

http://bbs.fengniao.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1641211
and
http://bbs.fengniao.com/forum/1637979.html

By the way, its "maiden name" was SYZYGX Smile


And what are you going to do with aberrations on min. focusing distance? Smile
Though the blurring with fastest aperture is good for making some closeups of a lady Wink


PostPosted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 2:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, do give us some portrait photos. The photos from the link look interesting.


PostPosted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 2:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pancolart wrote:
Attila wrote:
Thank you for sharing! Worst 85mm prime what I ever seen, please don't take it personally Rolling Eyes


Calvin i think you buried Mitakon lens with your samples Smile.

Check the modify the post.


PostPosted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 7:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

vulko wrote:
And what are you going to do with aberrations on min. focusing distance? Smile
Though the blurring with fastest aperture is good for making some closeups of a lady Wink


Precisely Smile It's a portrait lens the way Jupiter-9 is. I expect it to be soft and full of spherical aberrations wide open, yet the coatings and blackening hopefully retaining good contrast in difficult lighting conditions. If I need a sharp lens, I will stop down; double-Gauss designs, unlike Sonnars, sharpen up very quickly when stopped down (Sonnars, on the contrary, are designed to perform their best at or near wide open apertures).

I think it's too early to judge a lens by a couple of 100% crops made with a picel-packed APS-C camera Smile


PostPosted: Sat Jul 10, 2010 10:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You're right. Samples elsewhere are pretty nice. I would try importing this lens to Slovenia. Does anyone have a contact email perhaps?


PostPosted: Sat Jul 10, 2010 6:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pancolart wrote:
You're right. Samples elsewhere are pretty nice. I would try importing this lens to Slovenia. Does anyone have a contact email perhaps?


Let me test this lens out; if it works out good, and more people are interested, we could probably do a group buy and get factory prices. (I have a local friend who's also interested in this lens, so I will be getting another one if it's as good as it appears to be).


PostPosted: Sat Jul 10, 2010 9:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Splendid idea - group inquiry. I might be taking few samples for resale here.


PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 4:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

aoleg wrote:
vulko wrote:
And what are you going to do with aberrations on min. focusing distance? Smile
Though the blurring with fastest aperture is good for making some closeups of a lady Wink


Precisely Smile It's a portrait lens the way Jupiter-9 is. I expect it to be soft and full of spherical aberrations wide open, yet the coatings and blackening hopefully retaining good contrast in difficult lighting conditions. If I need a sharp lens, I will stop down; double-Gauss designs, unlike Sonnars, sharpen up very quickly when stopped down (Sonnars, on the contrary, are designed to perform their best at or near wide open apertures).

I think it's too early to judge a lens by a couple of 100% crops made with a picel-packed APS-C camera Smile

I think so. Look at the crops, the lens become very sharp when stopped down to F4.

A group buy will be nice to support the lens maker. It should cost less than $100 including shipping to most countries in the world.

BTW, I have nothing to shoot in my small and crowded flat and i am afraid there will be any damage to the lens if i take it outside. So, wait for the other reviews. This post is to inform the forum member there is a new lens.


PostPosted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 5:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks to calvin83, the lens is in my hands now. I did not give it a proper test yet (which would be going out and shooting portraits), but here are a few initial impressions. (I will have to make a full review with sample pics later).

The build quality of this lens is adequate. It resembles some late Russian designs with machined metal tubes and resin-smelling rubber grip. There is a slight wobbling in focusing helicoid. If you handled a Kaleinar-5N, the build quality is about the same. Even the aperture ring feels similar.

The diaphragm has 6 blades forming a "ninja star" at f/2.8 and a hexagon at f/4 and smaller. The blades are matted and not shiny as found in many Russian lenses of late. Aperture detents are full stops throughout the range.

Coatings are nice; they cope well with the sun in the frame. Cudos to the manufacturer. I say it handles contra light better than the Kaleinar.

The lens is soft wide open. It's not just spherical aberration, it's lack of resolution. Corners are softer still. Sharpens a bit stopped down, but only reaches "excellent" levels by f/5.6. There seems to be high field curvature, making it hard or impossible to get sharp pictures of brick walls (portraits should be nice though). Overall, subject isolation should work well witht this lens, giving apparent depth of field similar to some 85/1.4 designs.

Contrast is moderate wide open, high stopped down, no doubt due to good coatings. Can't judge the colors yet. Very little purple fringing wide open; none stopped down.

Bokeh is very smooth; not as smooth as the Samyang 85/1.4, but still good. Compared to Sonnar-based Jupiter-9, the character of this lens is prominently different; it's obviously Planar in rendering. Will need more testing, but it seems the designers deliberately allowed for some undercorrected spherical aberration to favor out of focus rendition. (I know that lenses overcorrected for spherical aberration, like Super/SMC Takumar 135/3.5, tend to have harsher bokeh with green accents.)


PostPosted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have one. I want to post the sample pictures but failed, I don't know why.


PostPosted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 5:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Please share as many samples shot wide-open.


PostPosted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 5:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

quibble wrote:
I have one. I want to post the sample pictures but failed, I don't know why.

You can´t post pictures in first post. Now it should work in you next post.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 1:55 am    Post subject: HI~ Reply with quote

HI, guys, I'm the one who post the thread on fengniao.com.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:44 am    Post subject: Re: HI~ Reply with quote

Romil wrote:
HI, guys, I'm the one who post the thread on fengniao.com.


You're very welcome here! Please share your thoughts about the lens. And if you know anything about how it was designed and who made it, I'd be really interested to know!


PostPosted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

BRunner wrote:
quibble wrote:
I have one. I want to post the sample pictures but failed, I don't know why.

You can´t post pictures in first post. Now it should work in you next post.


thank you. here please find my 500D & 85F2 pictures,
http://album.pchome.net/?_action=viewAlbum&dirId=0&dirType=Folder&userId=5145549


PostPosted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 2:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The lens is designed by computer softwares. The Optical part looks the same with Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 85/2. I use the lens about 4 months, it's very sharp, even at F2.8.
I'm going to prepare some pictures for you guys, and post them here.