Mitakon Speedmaster II 50mm f/0.95 (M67)

 

The Mitakon Speedmaster II 50mm f/0.95 (M67) arrived in the post yesterday and I began testing it shortly afterwards.  I used a Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f/1.1 several years ago when I still had my Leica M9 and have fond memories of the lens and recently begun craving a lens such as the Nokton to use on the Sony A7r and stumbled across the Mitakon. I first wrote about the Nokton 50mm f/1.1 on August 5, 2011 here.  

The Mitakon Speedmaster was introduced May 6. 2014; available for pre-order by Shenyang Optical Electronics Ltd and made in China; with the first version shipping with a filter thread of 58mm however this was quickly changed as well as other modifications to the current 67mm filter.  The lens was renamed the Mitakon Speedmaster "Dark Knight" and introduced this past September at Photokina 2014. 

Taken with the Nokton 50mm f/1.1 on a Leica f/1.1 August 2011

Taken yesterday; the color is much better than from 2011

We have several Cheyenne Dog Soldier masks that were made by Cindy Jo; they guard us while we're here and the house when we aren't.

I'm just beginning to get used to this wonderful lens and will be sharing thoughts and images to come. In the meantime here are three sample images from this afternoon. All were captured at f/.95 handheld with the ISO set to "Auto". All were taken using ambient light....

 

 

 

I now have 3-lenses to choose from when using my modified Sony A7r; the Sony FE 24-70 that weights 1 pound 1.2 oz; the medium format 45mm Hartblei Super Rotator weighing in at 2 pounds 8.6 oz (which includes the Sony adaptor and tripod plate) and now the Mitakon 50mm which weighs 1 pound 13.3 oz.  I also have the new Sony FE 16-35 that with any luck will be in by hands by the end of next week.  I used my Dymo scale to weigh all 3-lenses just as I began writing this.

 

The Speedmaster is a manual lens; manual focus and manual aperture with a Sony E-mount so unlike the Hartblei there's no adaptor needed thus keeping the weight now.  I've found a manual focus lens on the Sony A7r is easy, especially using the focus peeking option.  I realize I've only had the Speedmaster for less that 24-hours however the files I see are all sharp and well detailed with excellent color thus I highly recommend the lens if you need/require a uber fast lens, with shallow depth of field and great detail.

 

 

A note on the camera used.  These samples were all captured using the Sony A7r modified to capture full spectrum; a filter was used to capture true color after making certain I had a custom white balance.  

 

This is just the beginning so stay tuned if you want more information on this lens.

 

 

Don