SainSonic Kamlan 50mm f/1.1 Lens Review

SainSonic Kamlan 50mm f/1.1 Performance

So how sharp can a simple, inexpensive lens be, especially when the maximum aperture is so fast?

Looking first at central sharpness, at f/1.1 the standard is only fair and the image is really quite soft. By f/2 the image sharpness is very good, and from f/2.8 right through to f/16 it is excellent.

At f/1.1 to f/2.8 edge sharpness is poor and the images are very soft. This starts to perk up by f/4, although the standard here is still only fairly sharp. At f/5.6 and f/8 things click in and sharpness is again excellent, tailing off slightly at f/16 but still being very good.

It needs to be borne in mind though that a test target is flat, and a simple f/1.1 lens is likely to have quite a bit of field curvature, so real-world images might be somewhat sharper all over.

CA (Chromatic Aberration) is very well corrected in the centre of the image. The edges do show some fringing and we would need to look at software solutions if further correction of this is needed. The amount of CA is not overly excessive and in fact far better controlled than some even quite expensive zoom lenses.

Fast 50mm lenses usually show some barrel distortion and this is no exception. Barrelling measures -0.44%, which is unlikely to be noticed in general photography.

Flare resistance is also excellent, with little or no drop in contrast against the light. There are also no artefacts created. This is probably helped considerably by the simple lens construction.

The 11 bladed diaphragm and fairly low wide open resolution both combine to ensure flare is not a problem. This leads us onto the bokeh of the lens, the quality of the out of focus areas in an image. At wider settings the bokeh becomes gorgeous. This is especially useful given that the crop factor of 1.5x means that this tiny optic may well become a photographer's ideal portrait lens.

Value For Money

The KamLan 50mm f/1.1 can be found for £126, a pretty amazing price for what is actually a well-made lens. Defining value for money is very clear, how can we go wrong for that sort of price?

Just to put it in a more objective perspective, let's have a look at the prices for some other ultra-bright 50mm lenses. The 7Artisans 50mm f/1.1 for Leica costs £349. The Leica M 50mm f/0.95 Noctilux is priced at £7499. Meike make a 25mm f/0.95 for MFT cameras, making it a 50mm-equivalent in 35mm-format terms and this costs £455. The Zhongyi Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 is around £260.

The KamLan looks superb VFM against this backdrop.

For more options have a look at the Top 23 Best 50mm Standard Prime lenses.

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