Meike 85mm f1.4 (affiliate): geni.us/Mei85 or howl.me/cm35vvMQjvW Sony 85 GM II (affiliate): geni.us/AdoSny Video Shot with (affiliates): Main Camera: geni.us/fx30SaleMark or geni.us/fx30adora Lens: geni.us/sny15 or geni.us/sony15adMark
Did a wedding with the Meike 2 days ago. Crazy impressed and everything was a keeper. I even shot with it with the bride walking down the aisle, with the sun behind her, and it tracked perfectly.
It just goes to show that these third-party manufacturers are producing very high-quality lenses at a cheaper price. Yes they don’t perform as good as the GM lenses. But for those who are just doing portraits, this is a remarkable lens. I still swear by my SamYang 35 and 85 f1.4 version one lenses. Even though I upgraded my 85mm to the sigma 85 f1.4 dg dn. I still have the Sam Yang as a back up. Viltrox and Mieke are both coming out with high-quality budget lenses that just perform great. Thanks for sharing. I wish they come out with a 50 mm version. I would definitely pick it up.
That was my VERY first thought when I started this video! I’ve used my 1.8 for MANY pro shoots and I would argue that the 1.8 is the VERY best value lens for FF Sony. Great lens and super cheap!
“Don’t go crazy spending money on a body! Spend all of your money on glass!” Man I spent $500 on a Samyang 135 f1.8 and it rocks. $450 on a Sigma 65 f2 and it’s phenomenal. Never spending almost $2k on a lens
The Sony lens is going to beat everything else if you are shooting indoor sports or dance photography thanks to the fast fps and autofocus motor. For portraits and static subjects, yes, the Meike, Samyang, Viltrox, and Yongnuo lenses are very capable and I would definitely choose these to cut cost.
I like it that you include use cases for the lens when talking about features. It is important to know the use to which one intends to put a lens or camera.
It's great when you get good copy...but when i was reading on the forums, reddit, etc...lot's of people had little issues with the lens, regarding AF speed and accuracy, color cast etc... :) But Meike is going in the right direction...couple of years ago, they only had manual lenses...and now they are making optically great lenses, but with little bit of issues...but we will see in a couple years...they will probably be much better :)
Crazy comparison! Thanks for this stuff, Mark! For me it's like déjà vu because the Samyang 135 F1.8 performs the same as its expensive competitors. And I am very happy with the Samyang. The 85mm lens is not an option for me as I have the 75mm F1.2 Viltrox in my APS-C line-up!
Except the Sony 1.8 is more expensive than this Meike or Samyang's 85/1.4 MkI. And, if you're pushing the envelope shooting moving subjects in low light, 2/3 of a stop is not minor.
I have the 1.8 and it's a great lens, but the lack of adequate weather sealing is very annoying. I live in a very rainy location which limits my usage of the 1.8 more often than I'd like. If I could redo it, I'd grab the Sigma 1.4 instead.
Looks like most hobby photographers could easily live with the Meike. That's one of my main problems with recent Canon mirrorless cameras: There are just no such third-party lens options unless you convert EF mount variants (if they even exist!).
Pretty big difference in autofocus and flare/ghosting. If you're shooting family portraits, studio work, etc. then those things are fine, but if you're shooting even the amount of movement that happens at a wedding I wouldn't trust it. I'd go for the Sony 85mm f/1.8, very sharp and good autofocus for the price, though a bit of noticeable CA.
I actually just played with my friend's Meike 85 1.4 on is A7RV this afternoon then I came home to read up on this lens and that's how I found your channel. I was shock to see the image quality came out of this such inexpensive lens, I had original 85GM for 4 years, and also now with Nikon 85 1.2S, Zeiss Milvus 85 1.4 so I am used to image quality from good 85mm, and to my big surprise, the Meike produces such nice Bokeh , I like it even better than the Sony 85 1.8 in tis specific area. I know there is inexpensive 85 tat does well out there too, Samyang 85 1.4 and Sigma 85 1.4, but this is lens is going for $469.99 USD at B&H, crazy !!! I don't need 30 frame per second speed on a portrait lens, after seeing my friend's pic, and now your review, I just ordered mine, I hate channel like this, doesn't help ( my wallet) at all. LOL.
Honestly, really the big thing is just the better autofocus motors, and the support with Sony’s newest cameras. I genuinely feel like unless you’re a top pro. You really shouldn’t need the GM quality.
That Sony GM II is definitely a nice bit of kit but if you don't have money falling out of your pockets, that price difference is a bit hard to walk past ... Another quality review with great examples and direct side-by-side comparison 👍
The GM is really for professionals. A bride walking down the aisle is one of the hardest set of shots. Someone far away coming close, a super distracting background, with faces all over. Maybe the bride is wearing a veil. You’re constantly going back and forth between the bride, groom’s reaction, and some other wedding party members. At the front of the aisle you have the father of the bride shaking the groom’s hand, and the bride hugging her mother. Maybe 4 seconds that you have to take several critically important shots. Sometimes down the aisle is where the sun is and all of the shots are backlit. You have to get shots the bride and groom will love regardless of flare and glare. A enthusiast photographer can spend their whole life and never encounter a situation where fast auto focus accuracy is not as critical.
@@I922sParkCir as someone who have heard this about rokinon as well, i dont have issues gettin those shots and I shoot hybrid by myself regularly..ppl cant tell the difference between my rokinon and samyang lenses often mixing them up for GM. though weddings are fast, hey aren't sports so the speed things happen, especially if you remind your couple/ wedding party not to run down he isle, you can totally use this meike lens! for the price you can buy a whole prime kit instead of one GM lens.every few months there are less and less reasons to buy branded OEM lenses. I would argue it hasnt been necessary for 5yrs now unless you shoot fast action, animals or sports.
It get's kinda scary how good china brands get so fast with these prices. In my opinion a Sigma Lens was missing in this comparison, but great Video as always!
the Meike looks astounding! It's huge and wide! If I had to choose between the three (if I had money and an E mount Sony) I would go for the GM1 o. I don't like the GMII, it's smaller and narrower. Same for the Meike.
Wow, I guessed wrong. I thought the Meike was the GM image. I have come to realize that IQ differences have become a point of 'diminishing returns'. So as you pointed out, features and build quality play a big role in choosing depending on my use. I also find with software in post, it's easy to edit images to make it hard to tell differences between different lenses. Really comes down to what you value. I have come to like and appreciate how Sony lenses work soo well, especially AF so I will pay for the Sony lenses.
love this video..but...it's so hard to carry fixed lenses when I travel. I badly need to get the smallest size possible. I understand that zoom lenses won't deliver such great image quality, but when I travel using the sony a6700 I can get shots from 18-520mm equivalent just by bringing two zoom lenses. (18-135/70-350 (520mm equiv full frame). I also have the sigma 10-18mm but now tend to just leave it at home. I also bring my sony rx100 vii (incredibly tiny and effective camera).
Watching your video made me wanna buy the Meike, so i did 😅 the picture quality looks amazing, and it just seems too good to pass up so i had to order it. I can't wait to test it out on my A7RV tomorrow
I would have considered this if it was available when i had bought the Samyang 85 1.4, 3 years back. it's pretty good and around same price. Im looking for a budget 50 1.4 and 35 1.4, and meike as a company seems interesting and impressive.
4 дня назад
from wedding perspective, where 85 is insanely popular lens, GM I is still better than Meike, mainly due to more reliable AF, but even the close up sharpness where you want to take a close up picture of couple putting rings on each other... sure meike is good enough, but then you see the images in lightroom and you're like... well I wanna crop even more and it's not thaaaaat sharp to crop... but if you wanna save money, hey, it's 1.4 and it's good overall
The information o this video is extremely professional and helpful!. But i would like to share my opinion on meike products. I have a 85mm lens that was the love of my life, it works incredibly well on my a6000(since is crop its like 115 or something). But when i bought my a7 iv i was very very excited to finally be able to use the lens and guess what? It is not compatible with this camera, i can't change the aperture and sometimes it freezes my camera, the worst part is that meike doesn't have client support so k could get help. So if your saving to buy a lens, please avoid these types of brands and save up a little more so you can skip the headache
From what I've seen, at this point the real question is are you willing to give up some of the luxury features that GM lenses give you. Image quality has gotten so good, that it doesn't seem to matter for 90% of people. Wonder if Canon locked down RF because they saw this coming?
Not a good picture to compare. We need something sharp edge to edge and you need to compare it at all apertures, in particular wide open and closed way down. We also need some high contrast and images with backlighting to test for fringing.
You're priceless ...take camera in the bag and leave it out for 30-45 minutes to acclimatize. You'd have to stay with it of course to avoid it being stolen. You should come up to Canada here, and try that in -35 or -40. You won't have to worry about the camera fogging up, because you will be too frozen to notice.
This is a strange comment. I am Canadian. I didn’t say walk away from your bag. You can acclimatize it in a car too as long as the heat is off. But if you think it’s a good idea to take a camera out in -35 from a heated room - be my guest.
@@MarkBennettCameraCrisis @MarkBennettCameraCrisis I used to shoot Sno-x in horribly cold weather (past what should have been the cancellation temperature but they ran anyway because the forecast offered no hope). I used several cameras including a prosumer Fuji s100fs with fixed 28-400 lens. It was in and out of heated trailers, heated cars and trucks, snack shops etc. Still works fine today. Similarly my D7000 followed by D7100 then D7200 all survived the same treatment. On the Nikons I had to choose a 'weather sealed' lens to use, but never had a moisture problem. I kept a good, absorbent micro-fibre cloth in a plastic bag in my pocket, waited for the fog to form, wiped the lens and viewfinder and started shooting again. I never removed the lenses all day. I often reviewed images while warming up too, and all the equipment survived just fine. The thick microfiber cloths were a must though.
I don't think the GM II is very exciting, for me, the Sigma 85mm Art is the sweet spot. It is near the GM II's level of performance and can be had used in great condition for less than half of the new GM. I expected Sony to come out with an 85mm f/1.2 and I would've paid full sticker for that, because 85mm is my favorite focal length. But for an incremental gain in IQ with basically the same features as the Sigma, I won't switch. I do prefer the new design though, but that doesn't really affect image quality now, does it? ;D
The Sigma is great. The Sony GM II is a little better, if you are on a Sony body, but the Sigma is an excellent lens. Better than the Meike, but it is a lot more expensive
I was thinking that if you don't really trust how weatherproof the cheap one is, that's actually too bad. Because as far as I understand, if it's not perfectly sealed, like 100% sealed, humidity will get in the lens, start building up and ruin the lens from inside.
Hi Mark, I've just ordered the Yongnuo 16mm 1.8 for my Sony ZV-10 based off your previous videos, before it arrives, is there anything within my camera I need to set to make sure it works OK with the body? settings etc? or does the body just "know" what lens is attached?
Mark! My ZV-E10 is corrupting itself with the 2.0.1 new update: Taking photos are fine for a second until you view them again and theyll say its unable to display, and are unable to delete it, sometimes deleting the file also locks up the camera and or its stuck reappearing. Looking at the imaging edge app the photos are all garbled mess
nice lens, but, my gripe with all these Chinese lens is the quality control throughout their productions, my experience with vitrox 20mm 2.8 is very bad, i have a bad copy, and the i went to the store where i bought it in intention to change the unit but all of them comes with 'not sharp copy'.
Its a tightrope walk we understand. Sony pays or gives, a lot more than the other cheaper brand. I Don't envy you Mark, and we can see that you are bending backwards not to upset Sony. All good.
I would never compromise when it comes to lenses if I can choose the one that shares the same brand with the camera, even if the alternative is 10 times cheaper. You buy a lens for life! The only time I buy a 3rd party lens is when the camera manufacturer does not have an equivalent. So for cinema lenses, anamorphics - I'm all for 3rd parties.
it’s a good budget option, but Sony is not worried about Meike. They welcome 3rd party because it gets people buying Sony bodies. and the market share gains reflect that. Canon needs to hurry up. Sony is passing, Nikon is gaining, Lumix has L-Mount.
Proud to say I figured out which one was which on my own. Skin tones gave it away. Anyways I need build quality, fast autofocus, and a lens that lets me shoot 30fps with my A1
Аз избирам GM II, ако някой ми го подари, също така избирам МЕКЕ, ако някой ми го подари. Подготвям се за докторантура, затова само вариант като подарък е наличен, но никой няма да ми подари Нико МЕКЕ, нито GM II. 🙂 Неслучайно снимам с новото за мен тяло ZV-E10 със стари лентови обективи като Fujinon 1:1.8/55 или Canon FD 135mm 1:2.5 (третия обектив AUTO KINOR MC 1:2.8 135mm не струва, дори не мога да фокусирам с него, а е и блокирал на F 2.8). Надявам се ви харесва мнението ми. 😁
Why you switched photos before 1:25 mark? I mean, first you described a photo as MEIKE one and the other one as Sony, and then suddenly photos are switched places while descriptions stay as they were. This makes the test completely untrustworthy, as it's unclear whether you made a mistake with a description, or it was done for purpose of proofing your point. Please correct the video and rectify it. Thanks!
The video is correct. I am showing the Meike lens vs the Sony GM ii in the first shot. Then I go into Lightroom and show another example of a close up of the Meike vs the GM ii. Then at the 1:34 mark I switch to show the Meike lens vs the GM original which I also said audibly in the video. All of the labels are correct. Please read more carefully before throwing around words like untrustworthy. The metadata of each photo is literally written on the screen by Lightroom. I repeated these shots many times in similar poses. You may have assumed the first photo was switched because I was standing in a similar way. It was not switched, it's just another photo of the same lens and the same fstop. It is all accurate. What you’re seeing are several photos.
The Meike doesn't look the same as the G-master, it actually looks way better in my opinion. Does anyone want to buy some film cameras from me so I can get this Meike asap
When are you going to shoot a short film starring yourself? Seeing you do the tracking photo tests made me realize, "This dude should do a serious creative short. I'm sure he could do something compelling and interesting."
