50mm f/1.1 - Bokeh Beast for $160! 

"It's not exactly the sharpest tool in the box. But it's not a tool -- it's a lens. So it doesn't matter." -- Kai W., 2017.

for bokeh: eat greasy food. then smudge it onto your lens. after that, everything in your image will be bokeh.

These kinds of videos from Kai makes photography so much cooler than it already is.

"It's a little bit tight" (That's what she said) "Your mum might be watching this!" 😂😂

I use the 50mm kamlan now for a month and am super satisfied. It is cheap and certainly not the sharpest but who is a cheap and powerful lens has found it. The bokeh is unbelievable and the quality is more than good. In my opinion definitely a clear buying recommendation. Particularly well suited for filming.

Which lens do you think has the better BOKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH?

All Asians look so similar, this guy looks the same as the DigitalRev one.

Really glad to see that you’ve built back up and have such a following. Thanks for all the years of Photo gear guidance.

That lens is faster than Kai's kick.

The 50mm lens for APS-C is 75mm full frame equivalent. The full frame E-mount Sony FE 85mm f/1.8 is a little narrower but it offers shallower depth of field than the Kamlan 50mm f/1.1 for APS-C cameras. Just use any online depth of field calculator.

I don't understand how you can do street photography in the UK, in Hong Kong there are so many people that no one cares but that you do it on that street, damn! You got some huge balls Kai, huge, like an elephant.

Awesome vid, Kai! How about some night testing? I mean, f/1.1... Come on, it's meant for this!

OY! This looks like a great bargain lens! Thank you for wrecking my budget again :) But seriously, you always have great reviews that are not just advertisements, but are indeed critical, and you entertain on top of it. It's like ... you are a one person "Top Gear". Nice work :)

Birocratic - amazing music. Just bought his discography for 15 bucks on Bandcamp. Never heard of him before this. Thanks Kai. Props for crediting the music you use.

Bokeh Ninja

I watched this video ages ago, and bought the lens ages ago. I now realise it makes a really good combo with my a6000 (cheap combo I know, but I'm not a pro and don't have the money to splurge). And to be honest, I really like the photos I can take with this lens, and since it's fully manual, it makes my camera battery not last 10 seconds like it does with a fully electronic lens. It makes me less anxious as I don't have to think of packing extra batteries and charge them all. This lens is awesome for the price (even with the slightly blurry edges above f4 and chromatic aberration).

3:20 kai: "Its a little bit tight! otherguy: thats what she said😆😆

Jupiter 8 for me. Love that eye swimming blur

I don't like that new Lok, is not the real Lok.

You sound just like Jeremy from Top Gear and that is so comforting. Very well done

thank you for uploading your vids at such high resolutions :) 1440p woohoo

Good to see Tim back!

Do you live in Canterbury? Btw, I'm probably going to buy this lens, just for fun, i mean 1.1 is awesome and the price is alright.

3:17 "that's what she said" lol...ahh never gets old

This was the second lens I bought for my Fuji X-T3. (which is an amazing camera btw) I had a brief love affair with it's f1.1 aperature. But as I picked up a couple more Fuji lenses and then a few M42 adapted lenses on ebay, it started gathering dust. I find the images to be kind of washy and not very defined. I could get decent stuff, but I ended up having to lean on it pretty hard in Camera Raw. Compare to Takumar, Yashica and Fuji 50mm it's pretty bland. It just never sharpens up very much. And neither does it give you good contrast. The worst though is trying to use this at a concert. It flares and comas so badly. If there is a saturated spot on stage one half my sensor would see that color. Oddly I find my Yashica 50mm F1.7 to be about as bright? So I wonder about that f1.1/

Hey Kai...how are you? I've watched quite a lot of your videos and I think, apart from you being a photographer, you also have the potential ability to become a stand-uP comedian. Yeah you're a really funny dude.. Your photography reviews are comical but at the same time, provides an enjoyable level of entertainment.

This video definitely gave me a bokehasm on multiple occasions!

The MK2 version is even better! Came out in 2019 as a kickstarter. I reviewed it on my channel. An absolute beast of a lens

The colors coming out of the lens look like they're from some sort of special color film.

Kai, you should make some videos adapting old lenses for your a7, really good swirly bokeh on dirt cheap vintage lenses.

Kia, you are amazing. Simple as that.

You need your own tv show. Both of you chaps. Well done ..on all your material. 🤟🏻

That lens opens wider than Kai's eyes. 👀

Sold out in all mounts. Kai - you should be demanding a huge commission from these guys.

Kamlan in hokkien means... xxxx xxxx Everytime you said it I giggle

If there was ever a channel dedicated to film and photography stuff, i'd want this to be a full show.

Kai is PUBG Banana Man! I KNEW IT!!!🍌

7:07 "I got a bit of Kamlan" 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣 this guy is awesome... Love your Vid's!!! Thanks for the Video I bought it. Amazing Lens.

3:19 "it s a little bit tight -that s what she said" hahhaah

The Helios 44/2 definitely has the best bokeh to me. I like that the bokeh balls have some edges for definition, but it's perfectly in the middle between creamy smooth bokeh (which looks stunning but sometimes that defined, edged bokeh looks really nice and classy) and that nice, almost rustic looking defined bokeh that you normally get with these cheaper lenses.

I can highly recommend a UV Filter on any of these cheap lenses. Got my Sensor burned from a 7 artisan lens on my xpro2

Thank you for staying around ! Your vids mean a lot to us. They may seem crazy to some but they are entertaining and break up the b.s that some of us have. Funny (Side note) No names.. the old channel, I bought a shirt from there store one time, yes, several years ago. Ordered a 3X, I thought it would be tight but DAMN ! I'm 6' 2" 265 pounds, shirt looked good on my neighbors wife, she was 5' 3" about 90 pounds. That was that ! Anyway, Thank you. Have a great day and a safe year my friend. Kevin

Only Kai would make breaking his phone screen funny 😂

The Kamlan and the Helios, for my money, have the nicest bokeh character. The Helios was already on my wishlist, purely for it's dreamy character.

*I miss Kai, Lok and Alamby*

1:20 “iphone ex ten” 😂

At least that was a little bit of street ph action, reminds me the old days :-) nice vid!

Love the pro yellow ring that matched the yellow hoodie! See one can colour co-ordinate with your gear.

Kai, _your street photography is awesome_

I know this is an old video but I am happy to see people are still using Birocratic music !

Good lens! Bought one off ebay used for 126$ mint!

Kai is the most entertaining RU-vidr I watch!

I like my bokeh to look like quinoa. Boquinoa.

"It's a little bit tight"..."That's what she said"..."I expect better of you. You're Mum might be watching this". Half of the reason I watch Kai is for the reviews. The other half is for the understated humor.

"Chinese Casey" 😂

Nice prop shot in the drone footage. Always get a laugh out of your videos and sometimes I learn something. Thanks!

Anyone notice that fly/mosquito cameo at 0:23 lol

Yellow ring, yellow jacket, yellow Is back ! 🐝

Tip: gain an extra million subscribers if u get a boosted board and act clumsy with the products. Also, get a wife and kid, but don't spend any time with them.

Bought this lense on your recommendation and I’m so happy with it. Your review a have been stellar since the Digital Rev days mate. Keep it up.

i think Kamlan was originally derived from Come Lah!

Kai, love your videos! Hey, I saw an ad on RU-vid (earlier today), with a white Brit dude doing an impression of you. I forget the product or service, I was just taken aback by what I thought was a deliberate mimicking of your style and energy. I can't be the only one who saw and thought that. Would you consider that a compliment? They should have just used you!

the Bokeh Board: Inspired my Top Gear's Cool Wall

The only reason for buying this lens with 150$ is for using it at f/1.1 and only at f/1.1. At f/1.8 there are much better autofocus lenses by Canon, Nikon, Sony at nearly 200$. I have bought the Kamlan 50mm f/1.1 e-mount and I am very satisfied with it. At f/1.1 the corners are inevitably very soft with very low contrast. The center is sharp enough with decent contrast. It is a portrait lens and usually portraits have out of focus corners. So any problem with the corners doesn't appear. With poor lighting and full open aperture, it is certainly not a landscape lens. From f/5.6 until f/11 the corners are quite sharp with decent contrast. All Sony e-mount cameras can increase the sharpness, contrast and saturation in three levels with jpeg files. With f/1.1 I select the third level of sharpness, the third level of contrast and the first or second of level of saturation. The results are very good. A better solution is too correct the low sharpness and contrast with raw files inside Lightroom or Photoshop. At f/1.1 the chromatic aberration of corners or even the center is very obvious in the cases of high contrast objects, like tree branches in front of the clear sky or white statues behind a dark background. Lightroom doesn't have a profile of this lens for automatic digital correction of chromatic aberration but some manual digital correction can help. The typical easy digital correction of photos are essential with this lens. I like Kamlan because it has permitted the experience of very shallow depth of field for low budget amateur photographers. I have to say that the manual focus at f/1.1 isn't very easy even with focus peaking and focus magnification. The high level of focus peaking isn't very accurate. I prefer the low or sometimes the medium level of focus peaking. Also I prefer the second level of focus magnification for more focus accuracy. With daylight a cheap ND filter is useful at f/1.1 because the very low ISO and the faster shutter speeds can't prevent overexposed photos. With poor lighting and handheld shooting, shutter speed speeds slower that 1/80th sec may cause blurry photos. I prefer 1/120th sec for no blurry photos. The 1/120th sec shutter speed increases the ISO noise a little but I correct it digitally. As I said before some basic digital corrections are essential with this lens and you don't have to be an expert. The iOS app Photoshop Express by Adobe can correct the contrast, sharpens, saturation and noise of raw files. The mirrorless cameras don't allow the wireless transfer of raw photos into the iPhone but the Toshiba FlashAir wifi SD card and its iOS app permits it.

Honestly just based on your face I can't tell if you're a 20yo guy or a 37yo woman.

You can get a Nikon and Canon 55mm 1.2 for around that price. I have the FL 55 1.2 and I love it, super usable wide open.

I really like Kai's videos but his crusty lips make my head hurt

Kai going Topgear with the Bokeh Board 😂

Am I the only one that wants to have Kai's voice?

It just arrived and I am loving it Thanks Kai for a great review

Did Kai declare war on his hair?

0:34 kick was actually a pretty good kick

Chinese Casey HAHAHA 6:45

This goes down as one of the classic Smiley Kai content vids ever. Keep 'em coming, Bruce!

I what this vid and watch 7 years ago vid And there is no different .

Your jacket game is always on point

For a cheaper price you can get an old Nikkor 50mm f1.4, in your opinion which is the best choice between them?

Bought a Helios 44-2 on your recommendation and am very satisfied with the results! Love you videos Kai, keep up the good work!

Someone setup a gofundme page for Kais haircut..

honestly one of the best youtubers imo. been watching for years, only recently subbed for some reason. Keep goin up

SOLD OUT ?

The Casey tunes and the boosted board was classic. :)

:) Loving all this delicious content

wow good old DigitalRev TV style KAI is back

Chinese Casey 😂

I was wondering if he saw my comment... this is fantastic...

There was a render error at 1:40. It doesn't affect the video enough to be taken down though.

‘The Chinese Casey...’ nice! 😎

Love your content!!!

This for DSLR would be something I'd buy :x

Ive not started the vid yet and i want 1!

Love your sense of humor dude 👏

50th...

KaiW isn't only about câmeras but is about fun too.

Hi из России

i love that Chinese Casey 😎👍 6:45

Very Fun beginning :p

Could have gone for "Call this number for a cheeky polish!" at 2:21 😆

A little bit tight.. that’s what she said...hehe

Nice job Kai , loving the creativity that goes into your videos!