Meike55mm F1.4 Standard Aperture APS-C Frame AF STM Lens Auto Focus Fixed Prime Portrait Lenses for Nikon Z Mount Mirrorless Cameras Z30 Z50 Z fc

This is a great lens. I had a hard time getting my hands on one. They sold out fast.Given the quality and versatility, it’s an amazing value. I have paid a lot more for a lens this good. The autofocus is fast and excellent. The color is partly controlled here and partly on the camera, but I use this for an online oil painting class (Evolve) and the colors are perfect. For my purposes, they absolutely need to be.It brings in a lot of light, expected given the size of the aperture, which makes it great for low light photography as well as for portraits. It’s great at softly blurring the background.It’s easy to attach, easy to use. It’s pretty small and very lightweight. Honestly, it’s a perfect lens.

This review is for the Z mount Meike 55mm f/1.4 APS-C autofocus lens.SpecificationThis lens is an APS-C lens so the 55mm field of view is 'equivalent' to an 82.5mm full frame lens - an ideal portrait lens.The aperture of f/1.4 means it lets in a lot of light so you can use faster shutter speeds. This is great for APS-C Nikon Z cameras like the Z30 , Z50 and Zfc as they do not have in-body image stabilization, so faster shuttler speeds help reduce blur due to camera movement.The f/1.4 aperture also allows for pleasing blurring of the foreground and background making your subject stand out. The depth of field of an APS-C lens at f/1.4 is similar to a full frame lens at f/2 , again , very appropriate for people images.This lens is autofocus , which is rare on a sub $200 lens for the Nikon Z system. I was able to confirm that Autofocus works on a Nikon Z30, top of the range Z9 and the newest Nikon Z6iii on the latest firmware (the Nikon Z9 and Z6iii in crop mode)The Meike 55mm f1.4 has a USB-C port on the base for future firmware upgrades .HandlingUnlike Nikon Z mount lenses the Meike 55mm 1.4 has an aperture ring (yay), with clicks every third of a stop. I like being able to glance at the lens and see the settings without having to wait for the screen to switch on. If you want to use the standard control wheel on the camera , you can set the lens to A and it behaves like other lenses.The lens is a good compact size for the smaller Z30 body (the first image shows it in the middle between a Nikon 40mm F2 and a Nikon 50mm F1.8) I like that it is a slightly longer focal length than the Nikon 50mm 1.8 and also approx 2/3 stop faster , all in a smaller , lighter lens, although the Nikon lenses are both full frame lenses.In Use.I was very pleased with the handling and the eye autofocus worked well, tracking the eye even when the subject was not looking straight at the camera. Initially I thought the auto focus was slower than the Nikon lenses , but this was only apparent when moving from close focus to long distances. When shooting portraits, once the subject was found, it stayed on them and I was not missing focus even wide open at F1.4, so excellent.I tested against backlit subjects in near mid-day sun and didn't suffer from lens flare, the contrast was good and both foreground and background blur looks pleasing. Some CA (chromatic aberrations) visible on the leaves. Lightroom has a setting to remove CA.Lens sharpness , especially in the central area , was more than good enough for portrait use with eyes , eyelashes and hair strands all clearly defined in the in-focus areas.Minimum focus distance was fine for portrait use , although I sometimes had to back up for close up product photography.The lens hood travels about 1/8 turn to click into place and I found it needs a bit of pressure applied towards the lens while you turn it. Once in place it stays locked and adds protection to the front glass.Summary,A very good compact , fast aperture , autofocus portrait length lens for APS-C Nikon Z mount cameras that I really enjoy using with the lightweight Nikon Z30 .This will be my goto people lens for my travel Nikon Z30, when I don't want the bulk of a full frame camera or full frame lenses.The price of just under $200 makes this an easy recommendation 5/5

I shoot professionally with another brand, and use Fuji for my more fun and personal stuff. As such, I don't love the idea of spending a fortune on Fujinon lenses, especially considering so many of them are showing their age at this point. I watch and research lenses a lot, and saw people talking about how high of a quality this lens from Meike is and thought I'd give it a shot. I mean, for the price why the heck not?A couple of things I noticed about it:-The build and feel of this lens is shockingly premium. Everything about the lens just feels great in the hand, and it looks like Canon's pro lenses at a quick glance. Starting off great!-Straight out of the box (and again, I'm on a Fuji [X-T5 to be specific]), and attaching it to my camera to test it and I will say that I felt like the autofocus left quite a bit to be desired. It hunted a ton and seemed to struggle to actually focus quickly or accurately, let alone hold onto focus while tracking. Uh oh. That isn't great.-I looked online and saw that there was already a firmware update for this lens, and that firmware is said to be for autofocus performance. Great, let's try that!I have a Mac, and as such every time I connected the lens using several different cables the lens was never discovered or seen by my laptop. Crap. Looking on their website it says that Windows should be used for firmware updates instead of Macs. Double crap. It's also worth noting that the firmware file will kick back a warning that it's insecure when you go to download it. If you don't trust it, then you won't be able to update your lens.I tried several different attempts then on the only Windows laptop in the house, and it still wasn't being seen by the computer, AT ALL. At this point, I was getting irritated, but figured I'd try one last thing.The lens's port is USB-C, and as most laptops these days have USB-C ports I was trying every USB-C cable I had to no avail. Being that the lens doesn't come with a cable, I was a bit out of luck so far. I eventually, in one last effort, tried a random USB-C to USB-A cable, and ALAS! The lens was finally seen by the Windows computer.The firmware was finally updated, and the lens was like a completely different lens.The autofocus now is incredibly fast, very accurate, and the lens is SUPER sharp. Quite honestly, I can't really tell any difference in sharpness or quality between this lens and lenses that are multitudes more expensive. I've never used a Meike lens before this one, but if they're this high of quality I am absolutely going to try more in the future (and am actually looking at some for my Sony bodies now). Very impressive, and very worth the money ONCE YOU UPDATE THE FIRMWARE.As a quick last note, I did then use an adapter (usb-a to usb-c) so that I could connect the lens through the usb-a cable to my mac out of curiosity, and the lens was finally seen by the mac and I was able to update the firmware with my mac without any issues. So, moral of the story - you oddly may need a USB-C to USB-A cable to update the firmware.Thanks for reading!

I have been eyeing a short telephoto lens for my Fuji. This lens fits my budget, so I am happy to give it a go. The lens is compact and light, weighing just above 260g and having a filter thread of 52mm. At 1.4, it is sharp enough and very sharp at f2.The lens is provided with a single rubber gasket around the mount, which provides some basic weather sealing, which I appreciate as I like to shoot in light drizzle. It also comes with a lens hood; though I also like to shoot against the sun, the provided lens hood ensures I don't have light hitting the lens across the face and ensures a higher contrast. When light hits the lens, the flare is rendered softly. The picture of the signage in blue and green demonstrates this.Finally, I like that the lens focus motor is almost silent and relatively quick. I manage to use AF-C mode to track walking subjects and even cylists without an issue.