How's that 12mm Meike Cinema lens treating me? Pretty well. There's some barrel distortion and some fun flares but...

OMG. Worst Case Scenario? Maybe...

I wrote few things about Meike Cinema lenses in this morning's post and it started me wondering how much of a test I'd really given the ones I already have. So I attached the 12mm, T 2.2 model onto my current camera flame; the GH5S, and headed out for a nice, broken up, three and a half mile walk through the concrete jungle. Following is my report.

First off I'll mention that my time with the lens and camera today was a formal camera exercise I call: Gear Trust. It's my belief that people hone in on some performance parameters like a pig after a truffle and never let go. And by "letting go" I mean they can't give up the thought that something like absolutely critical focus is essential to their imaging success. They might want to try out my Gear Trust Exercise. 

How does it work? Get over your need to micro-manage focus (for example) by putting your favorite wide angle lens on your favorite camera and then putting the lens in manual focus mode if it's not already a fully manual focusing lens. Set the aperture to something like f8 and set focus to around 15 feet. Set your camera to "A" priority and put the ISO on auto. Now, let go of the need for AF and just estimate your distance and tweak the lens as you go. A lens like the 12mm on a smaller format camera should have enough depth of field to handle just about any situation you put it in. You'll need to exercise some "tweak" if you get really close to stuff; say anything less than about six feet, but nearly everything you point the camera and lens at will be acceptably in focus and otherwise sharp which leaves you free just to react to whatever is in front of you.

I'm still working on being able to "let go" myself so I need to practice more. I set the lens to f8.0 and the distance to 15 feet but if I was photographing a building that I knew was a couple hundred feet away I'd tweak the system by putting the focus mark right between the 15 foot mark and infinity. A post production assessment shows me that it's all good. The photo with the raccoon in the show window is the opposite situation. I had the lens about 2.5 feet from the subject. So I tweaked by setting the distance scale to a touch less than 3 feet. I resisted the urge, with my manual focus lens, to punch in and fine tune the focus. The idea is to trust the system and let it do its work. And to embrace the idea that some scenes actually work best with more depth of field instead of less.

Anyway, that's what my mindset was today as I went cruising through the streets. I tried to banish all my mental turmoil about what to do next in life by just watching and responding to visual stimuli. I also tried to keep from chimping exposures or composition on the rear screen, after the fact. I figured that the camera's 14 bit raws files would save me from small variations in correct exposures. It seemed to work just fine. 

The lens is fun. It's solidly built and nicely dense for its size. The apertures are clickless but once set to f8.0 (actually, t-stop 8.0) there was enough friction in the ring to stay put. The closest focus is .72 feet which is about 9 inches. I tried to find subjects that ranged in distance from camera at between 2.5 feet and infinity. I'd have to chimp to get good focus at the closest range....

One thing I wanted to check was the propensity of the lens to flare when a light source is well within the frame. As you can see from the image above that it flares well. As opposed to not flaring at all. I love the sun rays and I'm sure the multicolored striations are a result of reflections off the imaging sensor bouncing off the rear element of the lens and re-imaging themselves. I don't mind the flare. If I keep the light source out it's not an issue and with the light source in I'm delighted by how much character it has. 

I'm wearing my hat all the time. I don't look forward to another dance with the 

dermatologist and surgeon. But I have to say that my new scar is very popular with beautiful, young women. When they hear about it they beg me to take off my mask and show them. But you know that I'm diligent about public safety; even if it disappoints my fans...except in the pool. 

Darn mermaids.

I love shooting into the round convex mirrors that buildings have installed at the exits to their parking garages. The fisheye-ness of the resulting images is fun. 

Back to the lens. When I think about its intended use I can only say that I think it's optical performance for that application is quite good. The only failing the lens has as a video lens is the obvious (but not severe) barrel distortion. If your subjects for video are mostly architecture or stuff that requires straight lines you'll have trouble mixing the images from this and better corrected lenses but if your videos lean toward story-telling narratives you won't even notice a little edge curvature. It's mostly at the top and bottom of the frame and not as obvious on the sides. 

In terms of sharpness and resolution I can only say that it resolves more that what you'll need for 6K video and will look sharp while doing it. It doesn't feature the sometimes brutal sharpness of some pricier lenses but the trade off it that it looks really natural and pleasant with human skin. So, more than sharp enough for video but at the same time kind to actors. The 12mm has a smaller image circle that other lenses in its family so it is only available for m4:3 format cameras. The others, from 16mm to 85mm will work on APS-C cameras as well. 

I'm pretty impressed with the results of the lens and especially so given its price of less than $400. I use it a lot on a gimbal mounted camera where AF is less, or not at all, important to me. But I also find it charming for walking around just trusting that all this technology will take care of me if I set it to the most practical settings and just leave things alone. That's my review. Buy this lens if you intend to use it for video. If you are more interested in stills either the Panasonic/Leica 12-60mm used at 12mm, or the Olympus 12-100mm used at 12mms will give you just as good an image (but in a different and more analytical way) and will also deliver stuff like image stabilization and autofocus. But for video? Meike had me at the 270° throw on the well damped and exceptionally smooth, manual focusing ring....

That window on the top right was the site of my very first and very rudimentary photography studio. 

The building is right across the street from what is now one of the main homeless shelters in downtown and rather than still being the light and wide open space I was used to the old studio building is locked tight and the windows are boarded up against illicit entry. I'm pretty sanguine about personal safety in urban environments and I would no longer feel at all safe walking through the old neighborhood after night fall.

don't know why, but I love this. If you can figure out the attraction please let me know!

the bulky sweatshirt makes me look fat!! Sad. 

That's all we've got for today. Vaccines are on the way but don't let your guard down just yet. 

It would be super frustrating to catch Covid-19 just a month or so before the solution arrives for you. 

Hope everyone is having a chill and happy holiday season. 

We're just cooking, chilling, swimming and walking around taking photos. 

No clients need apply.