On this video, photographer, Christopher Frost takes a look at the new mirrorless APS-C lens from the Chinese manufacturer Kamlan – the 28mm f/1.4. This lens is still a pre-production unit that will be on sale as a Kickstarter project in the not too distant future for Sony E-mount, Fuji X-mount and Canon M mounts.
The lens is made from metal and feels well made. It is very small and light and of course fully manual. The lens rings feel nice and the focus ring extends the lens a little bit and the lens comes with a hood.
In terms of image quality, the center wide open is very sharp but the corners are soft. At f/2 the center is very sharp and the corners are a bit sharper but you need to go to f/4 or even f/5.6 for true sharpness.
The lens has tiny bit barrel distortion and quite a bit of darkening in the corners wide open. Wide open at close range the lens is soft – you need to go down to f/2.8 to get good sharpness and the lens is not ideal against a bright light (do use hood whenever you can).
You need to understand the limitations of this lens to really get the most out of it but for an expected price of around $200 this just might be a nice inexpensive small travel lens.
Update: here is a link to the Kamlan 28mm F/1.4 Kickstarter campaign.
You can find many more previews and reviews on our Photography review section here on LensVid and you can find more of Frost’s videos here on LensVid.
Iddo Genuth 
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