Review: Meike 35mm f/1.7 Manual Focus Prime Lens

2023 update: I'm importing this post from an old backup; I don't have the originals for these photos offhand, so they're the scaled down versions I had elsewhere.

I recently picked up a Meike MK-FX-35-1.7 35mm f/1.7 lens for my X-Pro2. At $90, it is the cheapest lens I could find for the camera (and 35mm, too, which is the focal length I was looking at).

I'm still getting used to the lens. The focus and aperture ring both operate in the opposite direction of the other lenses I've used, which makes it difficult. The aperture ring also doesn't have click stops, which is another thing I'm not used to. I don't have focus peaking working well with it, so focus is still troublesome. It's been a while since I've used this focal length, which means I have to learn how to frame and compose shots with it. And yet, I have to say, I like this lens. It's compact, the shots are good enough for now (especially during the stage where I'm still getting used to the camera itself), and I think with more time I'll become more proficient with it. One thing I do wish is that the lens reported the aperture setting, but that's a minor thing and hardly to be expected from such a cheap lens.

The first shot I took was while I was waiting for the bus this morning. Focus is obviously an issue, but as I was framing the shot, I noticed the bus was just up the street so I took it in a hurry. It's not a good shot, but it's also not terrible.

When I went for lunch, I brought the camera with me and wandered around a bit. One nice thing about the camera and lens is that the pair fits in my hoodie pocket. I'll probably adjust the strap to use microlock S-biners so I can take it off when it makes sense to without having to do the reattachment dance. I took roughly 20 shots, of which only three turned out at all; about half of photos were rejected were due to focus, and the rest rejected due to composition. I processed all of these in Lightroom; I picked up the VSCO Modern Films collection to get the Fuji 400Z and 800Z profiles.

This image was cropped to remove a distracting out-of-focus light pole in the foreground. It uses the Astia profile, and is mostly untouched.

This picture uses the Fuji 800Z colour profile with the VSCO F2 preset.

This shot of the Salesforce tower in the fog uses the Acros+R colour profile with a CPL.

There's a lot of work to do to get familiar with the camera, but that's a matter of time, I think.