meike

Is Meike’s 84mm f/1.4 RF lens the first 3rd party AF lens to be Canon-approved?

Apr 20, 2023 by John Aldred Add Comment

Meike has announced a new 85mm f/1.4 lens at NAB 2023 this week. This in itself is not really big news. Neither is the fact that it’s a full-frame lens nor that it’s an autofocus lens. What is big news, though, is that they’re saying it’ll be available in a Canon RF Mount. Yes, that’s right, an autofocus lens with a Canon RF mount (as well as E, Z and L mounts). Is this the first 3rd party autofocus RF lens to be approved by Canon itself?

Canon has a bit of history when it comes to 3rd party AF lenses. They’ve shut down a number of manufacturers including Samyang and Viltrox, and after the Viltrox news broke, Canon confirmed it. In a recent interview with DPReview, Canon did suggest they’d be open to third-party lenses using the RF mount, but has that happened here? Is this small Chinese lens company beating the likes of Sigma and Tamron to the punch?

Meike releases two new drop-in filter adapters to use EF lenses on Sony E and and EOS R cameras

Feb 16, 2023 by John Aldred 2 Comments

Meike has released two new drop-in filter lens adapters. There’s the Meike MK-EFTE-C which allows you to mount Canon EF mount lenses onto Sony E mount bodies. The other is the Meike MK-EFTR-C to adapt Canon EF lenses to Canon RF mount lenses. Both lens adapters appear to offer a passthrough connection for electronic communication, allowing full control over your lens from the body itself.

It will be interesting to see if and how Canon responds to the announcement, given their recent actions towards 3rd party RF lens makers. This isn’t exactly a lens, but it will communicate with the camera in the same way autofocus lenses do, translating everything to EF signals to be passed along to the lens you have mounted on the other side. Still, both adapters come supplied with clear and VND filters.

Holiday Gift Guide – The best and strangest new lenses of 2022

Dec 13, 2022 by John Aldred Add Comment

It’s December again, which means lots of us are sitting there wondering what to buy for ourselves or the photographer in our lives this holiday season. We’ve been saving up all year to get that something special, but we don’t want to deal with in-store queues – or maybe we’ve just slacked on our Christmas shopping this year. We want to stay at home where it’s nice and warm and see what we can find online that gets delivered straight to our door!

So, this means it’s time for the 2022 DIYP Holiday Gift Guides. It’s Day 2 today, so that means lenses. These are some of our favourite lenses that have been released over the last year. Keep visiting back this week as we release our other guides, including cameras, lighting, tripods, sliders & gimbals, and accessories and gadgets.

Meike releases manual focus 25mm f/0.95 lens for APS-C mirrorless cameras (including Canon RF)

Dec 7, 2022 by John Aldred Add Comment

Meike has announced a new 25mm f/0.95 lens for APS-C mirrorless cameras. It’s a manual focus lens, which means it’s coming in Canon RF mount as well as Canon EF-M, Fuji X, Nikon Z, Sony E and Micro Four Thirds. This isn’t the first 25mm f/0.95 lens on the market, but it is Meike’s first at this focal length and aperture, which should keep Meike lens fans happy.

Being an APS-C lens, it offers a field of view similar to 37.5mm on full-frame. When used on MFT cameras, it’s equivalent to 50mm on full-frame. It has a 13-blade aperture for as round a bokeh as possible with 11 elements in 9 groups and a minimum focus distance of only 25cm. The Sony E mount version has already been released, with the others coming later in December.

Meike has released an autofocus adapter to let you use Canon EF/EF-S lenses on Nikon Z bodies

Sep 27, 2022 by John Aldred 1 Comment

No matter which team you shoot for, it seems that the Canon EF mount has sort of become the de facto universal standard for (almost) all of them. Kind of like the lens equivalent of a Bowens mount. And if the camera you’re using doesn’t have a native EF mount, whatever mount you do have can be easily adapted. Now that adaption seems to have come to Nikon Z cameras, thanks to Meike.

Meike’s new MK-EFTZ-B adapter lets you mount Canon EF and EF-S lenses onto Nikon Z bodies with full autofocus support and aperture control from the camera body. It even appears to support Canon’s IS lens stabilisation system, too, according to Meike’s description of the product on their website and also transmits EXIF data along to the camera body.

Meike launches a 16mm T2.5mm full-frame cine lens for PL, EF, RF E and L mounts

Jul 5, 2022 by John Aldred Add Comment

This one slipped by us the other day when Meike announced their new low-budget 50mm f/0.95 APS-C lens for mirrorless cameras, but the company has also announced the new Meike FF Prime 16mm T2.5 Cine lens, too. This full-frame lens offers a maximum aperture of T2.5 that goes all the way down to T22, covers a full-frame sensor with a 96° horizontal field of view, and comes in a variety of mounts.

The new lens brings Meike’s Cine lens line up to seven lenses in total (six that actually exist so far), including the 24mm, 35mm, 50mm 85mm and 105mm T2.1 and the yet-to-be-released 135mm T2.4 lenses, rounding out the range quite nicely with the new ultrawide. There’s still no word yet on when we’ll see the 135mm T2.4.

Meike has announced a new $249 50mm f/0.95 APS-C mirrorless lens

Jul 1, 2022 by John Aldred Add Comment

Meike has announced their new 50mm f/0.95 manual focus lens for APS-C mirrorless cameras. It’s available in five different mounts including Sony E, Fuji X, Canon EF-M, Nikon Z and Micro Four Thirds. With a maximum aperture of f/0.95, it joins the wave of low budget ultra-wide aperture lenses being released lately, and it’s very competitively priced at only $249.

It’s not quite the cheapest of the bunch – that honour goes to TTArtisan at $218 – but when compared to much of the 50mm f/0.95 and similar competition, it’s still a very low price point. The only question is how well it holds up to the competition.