Review on 📷 Meike 35mm f1.7 Manual Focus APSC Lens for Fujifilm X Mount Mirrorless Cameras: X-T3, X-H1, X-Pro2, X-E3, X-T1, X-T2, X-T4, X-T10, X-T20, X-T200, X-A2, X-E2, X-E1, X30, X70, X-M1, X-A1, X-S10, XPro1, etc - Enhancing SEO by Brad Blake

An interesting lens. I was very wary of this lens due to its price and the fact that the company is unknown to me. I upgraded one of my X series cameras and donated my Ex-1 rear camera to an aspiring photographer. Unfortunately I didn't have a spare lens with me. So I bought this lens to build a good starter kit. I tested this lens extensively before handing in the camera. He played impressively. There's definitely some vignetting and softness around the edges wide open. I deduct a point for the optical performance. When used correctly, e.g. in portrait photography, that vignetting and softness can be a bonus. The copies I used were surprisingly sharp in the middle 70-80% of the frame at full aperture. Of course, it sharpens a lot more from edge to edge and stops down. Colors and contrast weren't outstanding, but definitely acceptable. One thing that's hard to characterize is the feel of the lens. As a professional photographer I have been shooting with Sinar, Hasselblad, Nikon, Canon and Fuji for many years. Some of the best technical lenses I've owned lacked life and soul. What this lens lacks in edge sharpness and color reproduction it makes up for in the beautiful, organic images it delivers. A few important notes.1. The aperture ring is great. This makes it an interesting artistic choice when pairing a lens with an x-series camera with more video capabilities.2. This lens does not interact in any way with the x-series camera body. Be sure to enable the lens-less shooting function in the camera menu settings before attaching the lens.3. The manual focus is very well dampened. It feels like a good manual focus lens should. This not only makes it easier to use for still images, but also opens up opportunities for precise focusing in videos where focusing with wired lenses sometimes fails. The lens is very solidly processed. It has a solid metal feel. I'm not sure what all the parts are in it, but it seems very durable. I paid about $85 for this lens. I think anything around $100 is good value. It will not replace the Fuji 35 1.4 AF variant; It's a killer lens, but it was a lens interesting enough for the right purpose that I bought a copy after I got my first copy out.