A tiny 25/1.8 CCTV lens vs speedboosted Nikkor 35/1.8.

[heart0less]

Hiya!

Another extensive post coming from me - brace yourselves!

Long story short: I tried to minimize my 35mm eqv. setup and see what potential drawbacks would this bring.

 

Left side: newly acquired Newyi 25/1.8 CCTV C-mount lens bought for astonishing 23$.

Right side: Zhongyi Lens Turbo II + Nikkor 35/1.8 G (officialy it's a DX lens [meant for Nikon APS-C cameras], but it happens to cover FF quite nicely).

 

Goliath vs David:

 

Operation-wise, it's difficult to pick a clear winner.

Newyi, being a CCTV lens, is so tiny that it's rather tricky to wield, even with my  small fingers. Aperture ring is stepless and smooth, whereas focus ring is a bit stiff near infinity.
Can't say a bad word about focus throw or focus zones overlaying one another - those are all good and allow to precisely nail the focus.

Nikkor, on the other hand, isn't the most intuitive lens and is rather quirky to operate manually. There are no focus marks and the focus ring has little steps that can be felt while fine tuning.
There is no aperture ring and the only way I can affect the aperture is via an AI - EOS adapter with built-in aperture lever.

Having said that, Nikkor simply feels better in my hands. It may be bigger, heavier and not meant for manual use, but it is what it is.

 

Newyi is advertised as a f/1.8 lens, yet it doesn't gather as much light as it really should.
The same scene, shot in the same conditions, required a shutter speed of 1/60 when I used Newyi wide open, compared to a shutter speed of 1/105 when I used Nikkor (via dumb adapter, not a speedbooster).
Speedboosted Nikkor gave me a reading of 1/160.

That's a 2/3 EV of difference, which makes Newyi rather a T/2.2 (if not less) lens, not a T/1.8 one.
Speedboosted Nikkor is almost a T/1.4 beast.

 

Field of view between those two is almost identical.
Nikkor has some serious barrel distortion, but it's due to it being a DX lens.

 

Sharpness and contrast:

Wide open Newyi is not only tack sharp in the center, beating the Nikkor easily, but also free of any noticeable aberrations/fringing.
Unfortunately, it's less contrasty and introduces some ugly beige/red tint to the shadows.

Some 100% crops.

 

 

Those are my thoughts after owning the Newyi for 3 hours.

I really wanted it to replace its bigger competitor, but to me contrast, color rendering and ability to gather more light is more important than sharpness and portability.

 

Nonetheless, the fairy tale has a happy ending and Newyi managed to find a new host - Sony NEX-5.
I hope my sister enjoys it, lol.

 

Here is a photo taken with it on a NEX-5:

And a 100% crop:

[leslie]

thanks for the post heart0less. Without people experimenting where would we be ? I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that the nikon wins out against the cheaper lens, not sure what the nikon lens costs. However that lens doesn't seem too bad on the nex to my untrained eyes at least.

[heart0less]

1 hour ago, leslie said:

However that lens doesn't seem too bad on the nex

Exactly! I also think it's good enough.

Maybe I didn't put it quite right, but, considering it costs only 25$, the Newyi is exceptional.

 

1 hour ago, leslie said:

not sure what the nikon lens costs

Nikkor alone cost me ~100$ .
Add another ~80$ for the Lens Turbo II.

[Emanuel]

Great thread and find, my friend! : -)

[Chxfgb]

The Newyi looks like the Fujian.  Terrible quality control- half seem decentered, but they are awesone for the $30 or so they cost. Poor for flare unsurprisingly but decently sharp in the right conditions. And not too much vignette on Fuji.

The original narrow C mount Fujian 25mm and 35mm were so bad that they were good. Nearly got the 50mm version for a bit of swirly bokeh fun during lockdown. I expect sonme people have made some cool videos with those C mount lenses on the pocket Black Magic. The Pentax 25mm f1.4 c mount was actually really good imo, but unfortunately too small for FX mount.

Some say the new ish Pergear 25mm f1.8 is very good, which may be a new version of  the Newyi for something like $55. Black with a silver front. Think they were trying to imitate a Voightlander Colour Skopar look.

[noone]

That is very good and all IF you want to carry all that weight and size of the 25mm.

Me, I will stick to more normal lighter smaller and lighter lenses.

 

 

[Chxfgb]

23 hours ago, noone said:

That is very good and all IF you want to carry all that weight and size of the 25mm.

Me, I will stick to more normal lighter smaller and lighter lenses.

 

I can’t tell if that if that is the 15mm bodycap or 9mm fisheye. The latter is great imo. The former is the worst lens ever made and any phone beats it on any body. Enjoyable using the gimmick modes for half an hour, then I realized it was just ruining everything.  The fisheye is a lens I miss from M43. Wish Fuji would do something similar.

[noone]

1 hour ago, Chxfgb said:

I can’t tell if that if that is the 15mm bodycap or 9mm fisheye. The latter is great imo. The former is the worst lens ever made and any phone beats it on any body. Enjoyable using the gimmick modes for half an hour, then I realized it was just ruining everything.  The fisheye is a lens I miss from M43. Wish Fuji would do something similar.

15mm.

Yeah it is not great (this is the second one I have had that I just got for cheap as it is fun to use).

I think it is actually BETTER used on my A7s than it was on my M43 camera though I have to use a bit of clearzoom for jpegs stills and video to remove the vignetting.