Meike 35mm f/1.7 Lens Review

Meike 35mm f/1.7 Performance

The expectation for this lens inevitably will be set against its modest £63.99 price tag, although there are no electronic or mechanical complications in it so there are many areas where costs of production can be lower without necessarily sacrificing performance.

Meike 35mm 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 and is described in detail above. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. 

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

Meike 35mm 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 minimise the problem, hence they usually cost more.

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

 

 

The overall look of the images is very good, with nice colour, lovely bokeh and very well controlled CA (Chromatic Aberration). CA is in fact even lower than the already impressive 50mm f/2 from the same range. Distortion measures at -1.57% barrel. CA and distortion can, in any event, be corrected in software.

Flare is well under control, the lens handling light sources within the field of view extremely well. Even so, although there is no lens hood supplied, use of one is to be recommended. They are readily available.

Sharpness starts off at a very good level centrally at f/1.7, becoming excellent between f/2.8 and f/8, before dropping to just fair at f/22. Centrally, the lens is at its sharpest at f/2.8. The edges are very soft, with only fair sharpness at all apertures apart from f/8 where it does peak at a very good level. Overall, the most even aperture edge to edge is f/8.

Value For Money

The Meike 35mm f/1.7 lens is available for £63.99, a very modest cost for any lens.

Looking at the alternatives, there are a huge number of 35mm or thereabouts lenses, some costing over £3000. Obviously, some of these would be an unfair comparison for the Meike, and if we were buying them we would no doubt have some specific purpose in mind.

So, looking at the most reasonably priced, we have for DSLRs: Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC HSM A for Canon is priced at £299, the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 G AF-S DX is £151, the Sony DT 30mm f/2.8 SAM Macro is £139, the Sony 35mm f/1.8 DT SAM is £149, and the SMC Pentax-DA 35mm f/2.4 is £119.

For CSCs, Fujifilm users have the Fujifilm 35mm f/2 WR at £299, Nikon 1 users have the Nikkor 32mm f/1.2 at £649, Sony E mount users have the Sony E 30mm f/3.5 Macro at £172, the Sigma 30mm f/2.8 DN at £119, and the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC DN at £249. Micro Four Thirds users have the Sigma 30mm f/2.8 at £119, the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC DN at £249, and the Panasonic Lumix G 30mm f/2.8 Macro at £279. 

This is not an exhaustive list, and does not include the more expensive options. It does show that there are some very low priced options available that have AF, communicate fully with the camera bodies and are sharper than the Meike.

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