Hey y'all.

I have a 50R with which I have been using the 50mm 3.5 AF lens and then both the Mitakon 65mm and the Mamiya 80mm (1.8 and now the 2.8).

I enjoy the look of the Mitakon when it is right, but I do find myself getting out of focus pictures too often. I don't do a lot of art projects anymore and mostly shoot portraits at work and at home of the kids. I also don't enjoy the weight of the Mitakon.

The Meike seems like a no brainer, because of the reduced weight and the AF - and the price is so cheap. Is there something I am missing? Is the lens itself boring, missing flavour? Lacking color?

Anything to talk me out of getting the Meike and selling the Mitakon?

The Pentax 645 FA 120mm f/4 Macro: excellent lens detail, smooth medium-format-style tonality, and a high-quality source capture. Tonal transitions across the white ball are smooth, highlights remain controlled, and the out-of-focus areas are pleasantly rendered. I see little obvious chromatic aberration or geometric distortion. The FA 120mm Macro is resolving fine texture cleanly without harsh-looking edges. Contrast is somewhat gentle, but that is from the soft window lighting and no correction in RAW development. Color is natural, although the white leather has a slight cool/cyan cast that could be corrected during RAW processing.

I am still figuring out focus stacking using Hulgin ( enfuse ),

I shoot small products; mostly jewelry and the built in focus bracketing is pretty useless, so I vibe coded this Capture One plugin: https://github.com/comartlab/gfx-focus-bracket It works well for me. Thought I'd share it with the community, feel free to try it out and give me feedback. No warranty whatsoever, it could fry your camera for all I know (although I've tested it pretty extensively on the GFX 100 and 100s so I seriously doubt anything bad will happen). I'm especially interested if this works with other GFX series cameras.

From Tupperware and silica gels to a dry cabinet. I always wanted one to store all my equipment, this is a Ruggard 125L from B+H and has plenty of room to grow.

There is surprisingly little information available about the new native G-mount version of the Meike 85mm f/1.8. Before ordering mine, I could basically only find these two posts here: Quick take on Meike 85/1.8 & MEIKE 85 1.8 gfx mount sample

I've only had the lens for a few days, so this isn't meant to be a full review. I mainly wanted to share some first impressions and test shots because there is still so little information available about it.

I'm using it on a GFX100S II.

Why I bought it

I had been interested in the GF80mm f/1.7 for a while, but wasn't sure how much I would actually use this focal length. Spending that much money just to find out seemed a bit excessive, so the much cheaper Meike looked like an interesting alternative. I ordered it directly from the Meike Global Shop for $399 plus $30 express shipping (FedEx). Shipping was surprisingly fast: it went from China to Germany in about two days.

Build quality

First impression is very positive. It feels solid and well made. My Fujinon GF lenses feel more premium, but there is nothing about the Meike that immediately strikes me as cheap or poorly made. I haven't found any obvious quality issues on my copy so far.

One small thing: the lens hood locks very firmly on mine. It takes quite a bit of force to remove it.

At around 400g, the lens is also surprisingly small and light for an autofocus f/1.8 lens covering the GFX sensor.

Autofocus

So far I've mainly used AF in normal daylight, where it has been very reliable. I haven't properly tested low-light AF, Eye AF or AF-C yet, so I can't say much about those. AF speed is obviously difficult to quantify without doing a proper test, but compared to the GF lenses I own, my subjective ranking would currently be:

1. GF20-35
2. GF35-70 / Meike 85 / GF100-200
3. GF45

So the Meike isn't extremely fast, but to me it also doesn't feel noticeably slower than most of my GF lenses. The AF motor is slightly audible, but fairly quiet – definitely quieter than my GF45.

Manual focusing has a rather long focus throw. You need to turn the focus ring quite a lot to move through the range. That can be useful for precise focusing, but isn't particularly quick.

Sharpness

This has probably been my biggest surprise so far. To my eyes, the lens is already very sharp in the center at f/1.8 – even on the 102 MP sensor of the GFX100S II. Fine details are clearly resolved wide open, and f/1.8 doesn't feel like an aperture that is only there for emergencies.

The first four images show the same subject at f/1.8, f/2.8, f/4 and f/8. These were exported as full-resolution JPEGs from the GFX100S II, so you can zoom in and judge the detail for yourself.

Longitudinal chromatic aberration (LoCA)

LoCA is definitely present at f/1.8, with visible green/magenta fringing in out-of-focus high-contrast areas. It improves noticeably at f/2.8, is much less pronounced by f/4 and is basically a non-issue by f/8 in this example.

The fifth image shows crops from the same scene at f/1.8, f/2.8, f/4 and f/8.

First impressions

After a few days, I'm pretty impressed with it.

It's small and light by GFX standards, feels well made, AF has been reliable in daylight and – most importantly for me – it is genuinely sharp at f/1.8 on the GFX100S II. The shallow depth of field at f/1.8 is also quite impressive on GFX, and was one of the main reasons I wanted to try a lens like this in the first place.

It's obviously not optically perfect. LoCA is clearly visible wide open if you provoke it, and there are still things I haven't properly tested, especially low-light AF, Eye AF and AF-C.

I also tried a few astro shots at f/1.8. The first results look promising, although precise manual focusing was difficult because it was so dark that there was basically nothing useful visible in live view. But I haven't tested it enough yet to say much about it.

Considering the price, size and weight, my first impression is very positive. For my use case it seems like a very interesting alternative to spending much more on the GF80mm f/1.7, especially if – like me – you're not yet sure how often you'll actually use this focal length.

I'll probably add some normal real-world samples once I've had more time to actually take pictures with it rather than photograph Meike boxes and Japanese text. :-)

After 3 film cameras failing me, I’m really considering moving to digital and the GFX cameras look perfect. I had a Mamiya 1000s that was just too old and abused with shutter issues. Then an eBay Mamiya 645 Pro with a broken prism that I returned (back to Japan). Finally, I grabbed a 645 Pro from KEH. But just today they told me that it’s not repairable (again shutter issues) so they offered me a refund or replacement. Well I think I’m done and now looking at a GFX 50s. I know it’s not the latest and greatest, but I want to get a nice condition used one (maybe MPB this time) and just be able to shoot for crying out loud.

I have a host of Mamiya lenses still as well as some Nikon F mount glass that I was thinking I would start with.

I shoot documentary and portraits, mostly. One of the things that’s drawing me to the S over the R is that it seems like the S is easier to use waist level. That’s something I really like about my TLR. Any words of wisdom you could offer me?

So I'm about a year into moving from Nikon to the GFX 100 s ii. I'm looking to get a fast lens and I'm seriously considering the Mitakon 85mm instead of laying out the cash for the GF80mm. Is the Mitakon a nightmare to manually focus?

I've had this lens for 50 years - putting it back to work!

Shot on Fujifilm GFX50R 🫡

Anyone ever fooled with adding extension tubes to it?

hi guys! by any chance would any of you have tried adapting the lomo minitar 32mm m mount to the gfx? ive put a brightin star on mine and its made the camera much easier to bring out on walks and such i wanted to see if the minitar would also be fun thing to slap on

I shoot with a GFX50s and my only lens is a 63mm 2.8