Hong Kong-based company iZugar has just launched a pretty quirky, intense little lens.Called the MKX22, it's a 3.25mm F2.5 super fisheye lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras that offers a whopping 220-degree angle of view.
This fisheye lens is said to offer "edge-to-edge sharpness" with suitability for 4K video recording, a 0.6m minimum focusing distance, fully circular 10mm design, and extra-slim build for better parallax control, according to iZugar. All of that in addition to that 220-degree angle of view that can more-or-less see behind itself.
The lens recently appeared for sale on iZugar's website, where the company explains that the MKX22 can be used with the ZCam E1 - iZugar Custom Edition, Blackmagic Micro Studio 4K, Sony A7R2, Panasonic GX80, and similar cameras. For reference, the company offers a full reference guide showing FOV for these cameras at various resolutions.
Some of us definitely have use for a good circular fisheye, so far not properly available for M43. However, is this one good? That single curious video, while impressive, seems chosen not to answer many questions. How about a bunch of sample stills? Also, I wonder about the practical consequences of a fixed aperture. That limitation may explain the lower price . . . unless lower quality does so.
Too much money for such an odd niche lens. How many times in your life will you find a good use for that lens? At $500, that's going to have a prohibitively high price per photo for most people.
Lovely idea, but BIG PROBLEM: a lens that "short" (physically), with a claimed 220-degree field of view, is going to pick up the the front side of your actual camera (eg, grip, hands, etc).
I can't for the life of me figure why they spent the entire video on one scene. Certainly 10-15 examples would better show the Wow factor of the lens and help us think of new applications for it.
I fully agree. And why was it stationary the entire time? And why, in a video, did they not pick something that had more motion than fountains in the distance?
I see, the company claims the "edge-to-edge sharpness" and yet, they present a night time video clip where it is impossible to verify whether the claim is true. If one wants to test it, just buy it. After all, what's $500 in today's world where everybody wants to be millionaire or pretends to be one.
I happen to own the Izugar MKX22 since 2 months. It is a very interesting lens but it can be very frustrating too.
The claim about 'edge-to edge sharpness' is actually true but there is a caveat. I believe because backfocus is very small you need to use a camera with a thin sensor stack, such as Blackmagic (ie VR application).
Normal micro 43 cameras (like a Panasonic GX-85 I tested) have a thick sensor stack which is not optimal for this lens (strange ghosting effect on periphery like a field curvature effect). The YouTube examples are probably designed to mitigate that effect which is acceptable (or not) for some users.
However I get consistent sharp results on the entire field when mounted on my Canon EOS-M5 (with modified adapter). Besides this, the lens has a tiny bit of chromatic and flare is quite frankly bad (on any camera).
Never understood fisheye photography ... maybe it’s an exclusive club or something, but as someone that appreciates a well framed shot (yes wide), I just don’t get the appeal?
Works in some scenes but not in all. Just like landscape always thought just to be taken with a wide angle is same thing, often works with a super telephoto but not wide.
For pano stiching, like used in 360 deg photography, you can cover your scene in less shot using a fisheye, and in the end-result it will be corrected anyhow :)
I am a pretty good supporter of new product, and new offerings even the obscure and cheap stuff. Variety is the spice of life. I think this is a nice new lens choice albeit niche. But that video, I kept waiting for something besides the fountains at Caesars Palace, maybe even an interior of a fresco or something to see the optical IQ.
Ok, this is the first time ever that I have thought: "Wow, I'd wish this lens' equivalent existed for FF..." Really interesting little piece of glass!
I used to own a Peleng 8mm lens for FF, so I have some experience using a somewhat similar, though not quite as extreme lens. While definitely a niche lens, using it was fun from time to time.
Btw, I believe the following is incorrect in the article: "35mm Equivalent Focal Length: 3.25mm". The real focal length is 3.25mm, so the FF equivalent would be 6.5mm.
I thought the same and was disappointed when the specs listed it as a MFT mount. If "edge to edge sharpness" is for real, I could definitely use this for scenery work.
This is a very bad sample movie to show off the possibilities with such a lens. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much empty foreground. The sample will confirm most people's prejudices against fisheye. And that is good, because it will leave fisheye shooting in the hands of those who DO know what to do with it.
Drone shots are a novelty? Are you kidding? Aerial shots are a thing of beauty, and I never get tired of them. We see everything from ground level every day. Drone shots allow us to get off the ground.
They are interesting when they are about your point of interest like your house or so. But after that they become boring like same portrait style time after time but even faster.
It requires a lot efforts to make specific method work for many times.
It is like seeing once more a selfie taken via mirror with a camera on eye.... Booooooooriiiing.....
Wow. There's been so much spectaular aerial photography using drones, and two of you write it off as boring. Incredible. You'd never realise we were on a photography website.
@Tommi K1 - You can say that about any type of photography. Macro photography....Booooooooriiiing. Street photography.... Booooooooriiiing. Landscape photography.... Booooooooriiiing. You sound like a bored, emo teenager. Just because *you* may think that a particular type of photography is boring doesn't mean that everyone else does.
Ah...booooooooriiing to some might be exciting to others. Or to quote the ever popular...”beauty is in the eyes of the beholder”. Your experience with this type of lens is certainly your own. For me, moving to wider perspectives challenges me to think considerably out of the box. I measure my success by how my creativity evolves. Use of unusual lenses stretches the imagination into areas not otherwise accessed. For me, that has a rippling effect into other areas of photography.
I disagree with the novelty label, I think it's become a staple shooting technique. All blockbuster movies more or less use them, they help show scale/distance in a way that can't be done on the ground. Directors can choose to use drones or avoid them altogether, it's just another shot from another angle.
To call drone photography boring just highlights a complete lack of understanding for this medium; bordering on ignorance, from those with a serious lack of imagination. Might I suggest Tommi K1 continues shooting his garden birds and buses with his EOS 100, and leaves the imaginative stuff to those with the mindset to experiment and deliver never before seen stunning shots with this exciting new medium.
Personal insults Hyperboles Straw man arguments ...
And where did i say that everyone sees them boring? Where did i say that everything is boring? Where did i say there ain't great work using those? Where did i say that you can't use them creatively in some cases? Where did i say that i find them all boring etc?
What i said was that "too much is too much" and when you use the same thing over and over again, it becomes boring.
That is the thing in creativity that you are creating something unique (base for copyright and creativity), something that pleases the moment and the scene or situation by adding something that awakes something inside you.
I always wondered what the water show at the Bellagio would look like if I watched it through the peephole in my front door. Cross that one off my bucket list!
Wow! Unfortunately, this has very limited application but if one can get a couple of money shots out of it, it will pay for itself. Great for funny snapchat faces :)
I love my little Olympus bodycap fisheye. It is great fun for occasional use. This new lens is an extreme version of that, in a way, but with more limited utility in my opinion. I would buy it if not for one thing. The price! While it may well be worth the money in so many ways, its worth no more than double the Olympus bodycap fisheye……. to me. Perhaps there is a big market out there for it? I sure hope that there is and that it drives further innovation.
If this was a Meyer-Görlitz Kickstarter project the lens would have 11 diaphragm walls, would ne made of metal, and would be priced $2000+ . Oh and it would be a "rebirth" of some historical lens which no one cared when it existed.
um those lenses that MG re-releases now were state-of-the-art at the time when they were introduced. Even more, digital sensors didn't exist back then and people had to shoot film! xD They could not pixel peep into corners of 24 mp image back then.
Same angle of view as the old Nikon 6mm f/2.8, a used copy of which recently sold for $160,000. It would be interesting to see a comparison between the two ;-)
I used the Nikkor 6mm 2.8 back in the early 70's, it was not my lens. It was big with a very impressive front element and price of $895.00 in 1969, around the price of 3 Nikon F Photomic FTn with 50mm 1.4. I wish I had purchased one back then and still had it. IZUGAR 3.25mm f/2.5 57mm x 42mm 160g 11 in 10 Nikkor 6mm f/2.8 236mm x 171 5.2kg 12 in 9
How does it focus? I would expect manual, as with the Samyang 7.5mm, but the ring on the lens doesn't look like a focus ring. Could the focus be fixed on such a short lens?
At 3.25mm it doesn't need to focus, even wide open. HUGE depth of field. Even at 1m from your subject, the DoF will be about 150cm to infinity... wide open.
The depth of field may be huge but the depth of FOCUS will be tiny, requiring adjustment for variations in flange it sensor distance. Even with much more normal short MF lenses I've had adapters that allowed focus past infinity on one MFT body yet not on another - it's not like film where the registration could be very precise, "floating" IBIS sensors are by definition not in a fixed location.
It's not important with AF or long MF lenses but can make a very short MF lens unusable unless it has focus adjustment of some sort.
Yes it is manual focus, the front of the lens (blue ring) is actually the focus and the lens is delivered with an Allen wrench to optionally lock the rotation from the back end.
I tried this lens a on a Canon EOS M5 as well (using a modified E adapter). Because of its short back-focus, the lens is very close from the mechanical shutter and this causes uneven exposure at high shutter speeds.
@abe4652, Mike, YouTube will adjust the video stream to account for your bandwidth. Blurry if the bandwidth is insufficient. Some things you might try is to pause the movie to allow the buffer to fill up before restarting, or manually selecting the top quality from the little settings icon on the bottom right. If you have other stuff downloading at the same time, that could cause a problem too.
This video shows 10 to 20% of peripheral lack of focus, and I don't think that that plus the circular characteristic of it (kind of a not-that-interesting-anymore feature, maybe because the wider format photo and video of today makes the circle look smaller and also small viewing in contrast to full page paper prints) justifies paying 500.
There is a Samyang 7.5mm that, although not as wide and still having the circular distortion, fills the whole frame and has better corners, which allow for barrel correction and still look better, and it still costs quite less.
It is my experience that when I mount the Izugar 220 lens on a Panasonic GX-85 the edges are showing severe loss (looks like a ghost or reflection effect) while center was good. You can refocus for edges but then center is blurry.
@Saurat -- Your comment seems like uncalled for sarcasm. Since all you do is comment on news articles, according to your posting history, why not buy a camera and do some photo shooting instead of shooting verbal barbs at someone simply stating their opinion.
My point was that a circular fisheye is a lens of very limited usefullness. A real one trick pony, if you will. It makes for some nice novelty photos when you first get it, but the novelty wears off very quickly.
A full frame fisheye, such as the Samyang 7.5mm, is a MUCH more useful lens. Still a bit of a novelty, but much less so than a circular fisheye.
Looks pretty good. Don't get the "Angle of View (MFT-4k): 220 x 150" spec. -- it's 220 degrees in a 10mm circle, which doesn't seem like it is clipped to 150 degrees in the vertical by the 4K 16:9 aspect ratio...?
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