Meike 25mm T2.2 MFT Cinema Lens Review | BMPCC4K Footage

Hello everyone, today I will be reviewing the Hong Kong-based Meike 25mm T2.2 Micro Four Thirds (MFT) Cine Lens that I love very very much. 

For the review, I used the lens on my ever favorite Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and you can find what I filmed here:

Meike 25mm T2.2 MFT Cine Lens

The Meike 25mm T2.2 Cine Lens is a brilliant MFT mount cine prime that works wonderfully well for high-resolution cinema cameras. The T2.2 maximum aperture allows you to operate in low-light situations and gives you more control over the depth of focus.

It utilizes a multilayer coating in strong lighting circumstances to prevent flare and ghosting for better contrast and color accuracy. Working with subjects as near as 9.8″ away is possible with this manual focus lens, and prefocusing techniques are aided by a printed focusing scale.

The lens is totally manual, with an optical structure consisting of ten elements in eight groups and a 49.7-degree field of vision. 

And guess what, it is available for $399 only. I mean what better steal can you get, right?

If you’re looking to buy this beautiful lens, then you can find it here:

MEKE 25mm T2.2 Large Aperture Manual Focus Low Distortion 4K Mini Cine Lens for Micro Four Thirds Mount Compatible with Olympus Panasonic Lumix Cameras and BMPCC 4K Zcam E2 GH5 GH6

• Compatible with M43 MFT Cameras
• Lens Not Attached : MANUAL LENS need you to enable "M mode " or "Release without lens" in the setting of camera
• The equivalent focal length is 50mm on Micro 4/3 mount camera bodies

Check Price on Amazon

Last update on 2024-04-26 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Product Specifications

Physical Features

The Meike 25mm T2.2 is a cinema lens that is “compact.” It’s larger and heavier than its similar still lenses, but it’s a fraction of the size of a standard cine lens. With a lens of this size, it comes with a set of advantages and disadvantages. The aperture ring is “de-clicked” for smooth adjustment from T2.2 to T22, and both the focus and aperture are geared to standard .8 mod.

Build

The Meike is built entirely of metal and has a solid feel to it. Even though it is solid, it somehow does not feel that heavy, which is pretty cool. It worked flawlessly on my Pocket 4K as you can see in the image and my video that I have added at the beginning of my article.

You know what, I feel that since the lens markings aren’t machined, excessive handling may cause them to wear off over time, but like I can still love it till the time the markings are there. 

Size And Weight

In my opinion, the Meike lens is tiny by cinema lens standards, measuring 89mm long and 80mm in diameter. Its filters of a diameter of 77mm can be threaded into the front.

Well, you can say that the Meike 25mm is small by cinema lens standards, but it is somewhat similar to a conventional M43 zoom lens than a small prime lens like the Lumix 25mm.

The Meike’s all-metal design is much heavier than the Lumix’s inexpensive plastic build.

Handling

As I said, a small lens comes with a set of advantages and disadvantages; being compact isn’t all cool, to be honest. While one can say that a small lens keeps the entire ring size modest and makes balancing on a gimbal easier, it can be more difficult to handle, I mean I almost dropped it twice. 

Owing to its small size, one could find it hard to install FF (follow focus) on the right side since the built-in hood is so close to the focus ring. When it comes to the focus ring, the lens has a 200 percent throw from 10″ to infinity.

It’s well-damped and feels wonderful in the hand, whether you grab it directly or with a follow focus.

Image Quality

I know I’ve been bragging about the lens and saying all good things about it, but I can’t deny the fact that no matter how comfortable a lens feels, it won’t be used if it doesn’t work well.

This lens is super comfortable to work with, I must say. It has a really transparent personality and you can always alter the results with filters.

This review is not all talk with zero action, the lens is actually pretty amazing and I adore it. I have all great things to say about it. Moreover, you can see the results here to see what I mean by an amazing lens at such a cheap price.

Distortion

Compared to the Lumix 25mm f/1.7, the Meike 25mm T2.2 has very low distortion.

I was blown away by how clear the images were, I use this lens for a lot of my YouTube videos and I would say the distortion limit is perfect for YouTube vlogging.

Chromatic Aberration

I won’t call it a flaw but Meike’s only visual defect is color fringing in areas of intense contrast. I’d like to mention here that this is the absolute worst-case situation. You can totally eliminate color fringing in post-processing, but many people don’t want to deal with it.

So it’s really crucial to mention that it exists, and it’s worse than the Lumix’s 25mm.

Image Sharpness

By now, you must have figured it out that I’m openly endorsing the Meike 25mm cine lens. The Meike’s camera lens is razor-sharp even when it’s wide open. Exceptionally crisp. It is completely balanced, not too sharp, not too soft.

Yes, there are comparable lenses that are noticeably sharper than this one, but they are pricier too. So, for me, the price point matters. 

Lens Speed

Since the Meike Cine lens is a T2.2, it allows you to get a pretty decent depth of field in low-light situations, which is why I was sold for it. With the given depth of field, the image quality is spectacular and I’m a big fan of it. 

Bokeh

You can totally imagine that with Meike’s ten blades, the out-of-focus areas should be rendered smoothly, and that’s exactly what you get here, and I loved that bit too. I’ve already said in one of my blogs that the standard of bokeh is highly subjective.

In other words, what may be a good bokeh for one may not be good for another. 

The Meike is refreshingly peaceful, unlike many inexpensive lenses, which are noisy and bothersome. It deviates somewhat from a perfect circle at the margins, but not much, and I love it like that. 

Flare

The Meike has a really good flare, and it isn’t susceptible to bloom. The flare effect is modest, I must say. If you try to make it flare, the result is not that intriguing.

I have used this lens for several projects and have been very happy with the flare results.

Color Accuracy

You know what, it’s pretty simple to compare the color results of one lens to that of another. More magenta, warmer, cooler, greener. It’s simple to quantify and typically visible, it’s quite challenging to determine which lens is technically superior. 

While the Lumix is already a color-neutral lens, the Meike takes it a step ahead. The Lumix is a cool camera. The Meike is just a smidgeon too hot.

Contrast

The Meike 25mm T2.2 is remarkably better than most of the comparable lenses. It loses very little color in transmission, which naturally makes it one of the best lenses out there.

Now that I have highlighted all the features of one of my favorite lenses, I will list down some of the pros and cons of it, because hey, no product is perfect.

Meike 25mm t2.2 Footage

Curious to see some footage recorded by Meike 25mm T2.2 (MFT) Cine Lens? I have got you covered.

I’ve been using the Meike 25mm T2.2 MFT Cine Lens to shoot some cinematic footage. Look at the beauty!

Here’s another video I recorded the last winter:

Still need more visuals? Here’s another one to fulfill your hunger:

Pros

In each paragraph, I have established that I absolutely love this camera lens, so I have a whole lot of good things to say about it, and here they go:

• Amazing price point. From where on earth can you get such an amazing lens at such a low price? 
• The image quality is great, it is phenomenally crisp. 
• The bokeh is just the kind I like. Yes, to each their own, but since this is my blog and my opinion on the product, I will voice it out.
• There’s little to no distortion in the image results, which tells a lot about its quality.
• It has a good, solid body. The Meike 25mm even feels heavy and not like cheap plastic.
• The focus ring is pretty adaptable, and since it is a manual lens, you can pretty much adjust a lot with it.
• The quality of the glass is so good, it gives you smooth focusing.
• It is an extremely user-friendly interface.
• It has zero focus breathing and smooth gears.
• Amazing to use on the BMPCC 4K.

Cons

As I said, no product is perfect, so the Meike’s cine lens has a set of cons too. Here they go:

• The markings aren’t machined and it can be difficult to look at them once you’re adjusting the focus.
• Even if its quite compact and light, it is a bit heavy for handheld setup. 
• There is one minor flaw: the rear lens cap fits in a very precise way, unlike other lens caps, which have three or four settings in which they will lock into place. This one requires a lot of precision alignment, which slows me down when I’m attempting to change lenses quickly. 
• The lens’ only flaw is chromatic aberration, which is visible in situations with high contrast. But you can totally fix it in post processing if you know what you’re doing, and isn’t very distracting if you’re not searching for it.

Conclusion

All in all, the Meike 25mm is an amazing lens for amateur filmmakers, who are starting off on a budget. Moreover, it gives high quality image results that are a pleasure to see and it is quite easy to work with, tbh!

Hence, You must definitely buy it if you don’t want to spend a fortune on a good lens.