Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 Review

Zhongyi Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 Performance

The centre of the lens returns good sharpness wide open, very good by f/1.4 and becoming excellent by f/5.6. This high standard only drops away slightly at f/16, where it can still be described as very good.

The edges start off quite soft, becoming fair by f/2 and improving until becoming very good around f/5.6. This level of sharpness is maintained well right up to f/16. It is a pity that no lens hood is supplied as the lens can be prone to flare. This appears as a purple area at the centre of some images.

MTF
 

How to read our charts

The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. 

The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution as LW/PH. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple.

For this review, the lens was tested on a Panasonic Lumix G6 using Imatest.

CA is well controlled at the centre of the lens and very reasonable at the edges. In any event, this can be tackled in software. Distortion is apparent, measuring at -1.78% barrel, actually a good figure for such a wide aperture lens.

CA
 

How to read our charts

Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software.

Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more.

For this review, the lens was tested on a Panasonic Lumix G6 using Imatest.

Bokeh is actually rather pleasant, as we might expect from an f/0.95 lens with an almost perfectly circular diaphragm. This is definitely a strong point and can be used creatively with the appropriate subject matter. The trade off is that the image at f/0.95 is actually quite soft at the edges. A lens in any event is a creative tool and this one is just that. This softness can usually be used to advantage and there is a good case for using this as a portrait lens, where it could yield very attractive results.

One problem with the wide aperture though will always be hitting the spot with focus. This can be quite difficult, and almost impossible with moving subjects. When we get it right the results can be impressive. Portraiture is one area where hitting the focus can be tricky, but as the hit rate improves with practice it does become much easier. Other more leisurely photography such as landscape allows for more precise focusing.

Value For Money

The Zhongyi Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 lens is available for $399 (£261 at current exchange rates), and there are a number of alternative manual focus 25mm lenses available for Micro Four Thirds, including the Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 II (£742), and SLR-Magic 25mm T0.95 CINE lens (£579). If you want auto focus then the brightest alternative lens is the Leica DG Summilux 25mm f/1.4 (£370), followed by the Olympus 25mm f/1.8 lens (£280).

For more options have a look at to Top 5 Best Olympus Micro Four Thirds Lenses of 2015.

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