Mitakon 50mm F/0.95 Speedmaster Review

On this video photographer Tony Northrup looks at the Mitakon 50mm f/0.95 Speedmaster lens (aka Zhongyi) and has an interesting experience.

Can a lens have a whole host of issues and drawbacks but still be a hack of a fun to use? Northrup certainly feel this way about the Mitakon 50mm f/0.95. Apparently you don’t get that much more light in compared to say an inexpensive Canon 50mm f/1.4 (the T-stop of the Mitakon 50mm f/0.95 isn’t T/0.95 but around t/1.4), it also has tons of vignetting and chromatic aberrations and the build quality according to Northrup is horrible (especially in cold weather.

So why did Northrup (in a twist in the plot of this video) seem to like it so much. Well, probably because it brings you back to the basics of shooting and – as he puts it – it is simply fun to use – and for a lot of us – this is all photography is really about (well, unless you are a professional photographer – but we are not sure how many of those will buy this for their professional work).

Anyway, if you were convinced by Northrup’s logic and experience on the matter you can get this lens online for about $850 at B&H.

And if nothing else – this entire video is worth watching for Chelsea’s little song at the end…

More guides and comparisons of photographic gear can be found on our photography gear guides – here on LensVid. If you liked Tony and Chelsea Northrup you can check out more of their videos here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.