This is probably the only one of these I’ll ever get my hands on since they are only making 100 units of it but it sure is a unique lens. The Mitakon Speedmaster 135mm f/1.4 lens features a clickless aperture and a long-throw focus ring around the massive barrel. It uses 105mm filters.
Weighing in a 6.6lbs, it is a bear to shoot handheld.
It has an incredible 11-blade aperture, which you can see stopped down a bit above.
The background separation when wide open is impressive. A focus confirm chip inside helps with manually focusing through the viewfinder.
It is available as a pre-order in Canon, Nikon and Sony FE moutns with a $500 deposit over on the Zyoptics website. The final price is $2,999 with expected availability in early 2016.
Really, this is too much press for a lens that only a few hundred people can afford and will be “privileged” to buy. Tell me about lenses that are reasonably available–like Sigma “Art” lenses…..
Ordered a week ago – for stage, portrait and location.
It will mightily fill the gap between the 85/1.4 and the 200/2… (and my old 135/2 – crap@34mp)
Wish they had released it in AF. Perhaps in another year or two – and I’ll eBay this one.
THANK YOU, Shenyang Zhongyi Optics/Mitakon – and PhotographyBay for the heads up.
Congrats on the order. At least it has focus confirmation in the viewfinder…
I own the Mitakon Zhongyi 50mm /0.95 lens and use it on my Sony a7s – it has equally incredible background separation when wide open. At PhotoPlus in NY I was able to handle, focus and shoot the 135mmf/1.4 while it was tripod-mounted pn a Sony a7. The manual focus is butter-smooth even for a lens this size, and if one is used to focusing manually with focus peaking on the a7 series this is a snap.
Steve Huff, please get hold of one of these and publish a review! You had a wonderful review of the Mitakon 50mm f0.95 on the a7S and I would love to see a comparison.
I congratulate Mitakon on pushing the boundaries again…we need to see what glass can be capable of…and $2999 for a lens like this is a bargain. My $899 Mitakon may not be an $11,000 Noctilux, but it is affordable and takes incredible pictures with wonderful focus separation and bokeh wide open while being tack sharp at the focus point.