Formula 5 by Mitake 24mm f/2.5 MD mount

[TrueLoveOne]

I found this one for little money, the fact that it is 2.5/24 made that i wanted it... not much info on the net about this brand, so i kept it in a drawer untill we had some nicer weather! It has Minolta MD mount, so it easily fits on the NEX3.

Today the sun was shining, so i took it for a walk. If only i had brought a hood... this lens flares like hell, some pictures lost some contrast so i boosted that in LR.
None of the shots are sharpened, just the way they are! (from RAW to JPG in LR)

Please tell me what you think, i posted this because there's only little to find about it. I'm not dissapointed with this one! But it really needs a hood! ....have to try that again!

Shot @f/4

Testshots Mitake 2.5/24 @f/4 by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr

Shot @f/8

Testshots Mitake 2.5/24 @f/8 by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr

Shot @f/8

Testshots Mitake 2.5/24 @f/5.6 by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr

Shot @f/5.6

Testshots Mitake 2.5/24 @f/5.6 by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr

Shot @f/8

Testshots Mitake 2.5/24 @f/8 by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr

Crop of the above

Testshots Mitake 2.5/24 Crop by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr

[ylyad]

Looks quite good to me. Do you have a photo of the lens on the Nex to have the full size?

[TrueLoveOne]

I'll make one tomorrow, and post it here!

[TrueLoveOne]

A picture of the lens, with MD-NEX adapter.


NEX-3 with Mitake 2.5/24 by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr

[ylyad]

Thanks!

[Attila]

Try it on m4/3 that is good test platform , NEX makes most lenses to pretty good. I like result , a keeper lens for sure. I had less luck with Formula 5 branded lens I have a 135mm f2.8 , garbage pretty much at all aperture.

[iangreenhalgh1]

It does look good, which surprises me. I saw a Soligor 2.5/24 made by Sun recently very cheap, I passed on it because the samples on the net were not great. This lens looks much more capable, congrats, a good cheap 24mm is definitely something worth having.

[visualopsins]

An older version of the Mitake, branded Spiratone: http://forum.mflenses.com/spiratone-12-5-f24mm-and-12-8-f24mm-t32788.html

[TrueLoveOne]

Thank you all!

I had never heard of Mitake before. But indeed, it's a keeper. Sure, i bet there are a lot better lenses, but they would probably cost at least 5 times as much. This one was 20 euros.

Worth a try, and it turned out well imho!

[diddy]

I had a look at the first pic on flickr full size and at f4 the resolution doesn't seem to be very good ... but then again, probably you use it for landscape at f8 most of the time. It would be interesting to see how the first picture looks at f8. (or any picture with a bit more things happening in the closer distance)

[TrueLoveOne]

Yep! I was going to do that, try some shots wide open as well, but it's been raining continously since that monday! And this time i will use a hood too...

[diddy]

Well, hopefully the sky will clear up soon and you will get some sunshine.

[TrueLoveOne]

Better late than never i guess.... here are some shots, all wide open (f/2.5) and all untouched, just converted from RAW to JPG.

It's not an outstanding lens, but i have seen worse, with some post-processing this is a very usable lens, although it's strenght is landscaping i guess, which is not a problem for me.


f/2.5 testshots Mitake 2.5/24 by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr

Crop of the above:

f/2.5 testshots Mitake 2.5/24 by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr


f/2.5 testshots Mitake 2.5/24 by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr

At minimum focus distance:

f/2.5 testshots Mitake 2.5/24 by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr

[diddy]

Thanks for sharing. The close focused one looks quite good. 24mm is quite a challenging design I guess especially with f/2.5. If you do a lot of landscape, you will stop down anyways.

[kyonthinh]

It's not bad at all, I have seen worse.

[aoleg]

I just received one exactly like yours, just labeled "PORST Extrem-WW 2.5/24mm" and supplied in M42 screw mount. The rest of the lens is the same as on your sample, down to the lettering fonts. It has interesting coatings (very unusual color).

My sample is rather soft at 2.5 and infinity (but quite all right even wide open for close subjects). Very pleasant background rendering. Flare resistance is very good, especially for a lens with such a big front element. Interestingly, the focusing ring is all metal (the grip may look like rubber but it's not). Vignetting at f/2.5 is rather extremel on full frame.

When used on 5DmkII, it's very sharp in the middle by f/5.6, acceptable corners. At f/8 it's very sharp across the frame, just the very extreme corners are slightly fuzzy. f/11 sharp all over, but for me the sweet spot for this lens is f/8. The rear lens does not protrude and does not catch the mirror by a safe margin.

[TrueLoveOne]

Okay, funny that you mentioned that flare resistance is good. I found it terrible! First series of pics were taken with sunshine, and i did not use a hood. Even if the sun came from the side, it was noticable immediately and affected contrast.
Last series were shot on a dull and grey day, no need to improve contrast there as there was nothing to flare....

Coating is indeed blue/greenish, but the focus grip on mine is a rubber one, and about vignetting: i don't have the problem, no full frame cams available here!

Please post a pic of your lens as well!

Thanks all for looking and commenting!

[visualopsins]

Look for haze on second element...

[TrueLoveOne]

@visualopsins: you seem to know these lenses..... just held mine against a light, guess what..... it could need an internal cleaning indeed!

There is haze, and it looks like second element from the front as well..... it's not much, but it's a bit misty there.
So it could most probably even perform better!

[aoleg]