I did ask myself if the Mitakon 35mm f/0.95 could indeed be the hardest lens for street photography. Despite the clickbait title, this was a genuine question I had. And so I decided to give it a good test.
To this day, Fujifilm does not release blueprints for its lenses to other manufacturers. So you don’t often see other brands produce lenses for the X-Mount. One brand that comes to mind is Sigma that produces great quality lenses for Sony, Nikon and Canon but not for Fujifilm. Or Tamron as well. And the companies that decide to go down this route can only make a lens that fits the mount. Not lenses that use camera features like the autofocus. Viltrox seem to have reversed-engineered the autofocus so it should work, but I never tried their lenses.
UPDATE September 2020: The rumour is that Fujifilm is finally welcoming third-party lenses (and I started my reviews with this one).
But one widely praised among photographers is this Mitakon (Zhongyi) 35mm Speedmaster f/0.95. The 0.95 aperture is a well-sought feature to any portrait photographer because of the incredibly shallow depth of field that blurs pretty everything that is not in focus. Perfect for isolating a subject.
Note that because of the crop sensor or Fujifilm mirrorless cameras, f/0.95 is equivalent to f/ 1.4 (still great). It’s debated that only the light is affected, not the depth of field, but there is no definitive answer yet.
Manual lenses may slow you down because you must focus and refocus all the time. And f/0.95 can be extremely tricky in a fast-paced action. So, is this the hardest to use lens for street photography?
It does seem to be.
The Video
So, you guessed it, in my latest YouTube video, I extensively test this in the streets of London. And ask if it could be a good lens for street photography.
I also give you important tips to master manual lenses in these shooting conditions. Not to miss!
And here’s the direct link, in case the embed doesn’t work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwqozPt2SD8
What are your thoughts? Do you use manual lenses in your work? And do you think this Mitakon 35mm can be a good lens for street photography? Let me know!
See ya all next time!
