Meike 35mm F1.7 Large Aperture Manual Focus Prime Fixed Lens APS-C Compatible with Sony E-Mount Mirrorless Cameras NEX 3 3N NEX 5R NEX 6 7 A6600 A6400 A5000 A5100 A6000 A6100 A6300 A6500 A3000

Let's be clear. This lens has no auto-aperture, no auto-focus, and isn't weatherproof. It isn't a top end lens. What it is, is wonderfully sharp, small, easy to use, and ridiculously cheap. I got it to have something smaller than the large kit lens my a6300 came with and I'm surprised at how often I use it over the more dexterous lens. I feel like the image quality is better too.

I wanted a compact lens for travel and everyday use. The length of the lens is similar to the kit lens (when it’s contracted), but it’s slightly heavier. The affordable price means I don’t have to worry about banging it up. Quality feels good and it’s adaptable to different lighting situations. I was able to shoot without struggle at the end of golden hour and into twilight. The camera could pick up small details that can be edited in post.Update:I've had this lens for a month now and used it during 2 trips.Cons:The lens cap has a tendency to fall off. I put the camera in my bag during a flight and the lens cap came off. Luckily the lens wasn't damaged, but I was shoving stuff in and out of the bag without knowing the cap came off. I'm considering getting a lens cap with a leash.If you don't want to hassle with a shifting aperture ring then this lens isn't for you. The aperture ring does not click into place, so it has a tendency to move. This doesn't bother me since I tend to shoot with a fixed aperture. Next time I take photos, I will put electrical tape on the aperture ring to stop it from moving.Pros:The lens is manual focus, so shooting with the camera is incredibly fast. I have a Sony A6000 and all what I have to do is switch it on and it's ready to go. No waiting for autofocus. I set my aperture and focal length beforehand, and whenever I want to shoot, I just turn it on. This is incredibly helpful for street photography and taking "in the moment" photos when timing is key.The camera's battery life lasts way longer with a manual lens. I quickly turn it on, take photos, then switch it off. I can go a whole day without switching batteries.Teaching your friends and family how to use your camera with manual focus is easy. On a sunny day, I set the aperture to 8, and the focal length to 5 ft-infinity. I tell them to stand 5 ft or further and click the shutter. I also turn on the "focus peaking" in the color red. I tell them anything outlined in red will be in focus. It's that easy.Conclusion:This lens isn't for everyone. If you prefer (or are used to) shooting with autofocus and want better aperture control, I wouldn't recommend purchasing this lens. It doesn't have those features. The lens is very stripped back in terms of features and design. The price is under $100, so don't expect it to have all the bells and whistles. Using this lens is similar to using old film cameras.For me, this lens is a good affordable option for travel and everyday use. Excellent in shooting speed and conserving battery. It's not the best lens out there, but it does what I want it to.

I really like this lens. I use it primarily at lower aperture for headshots and family portraits.I've only shot hand held with an a6000, which has no in-body stabilization. The pictures are beautiful, I prefer the look to them over the stock 16-50mm in many cases, but they photos are a bit "soft". This isn't a bad thing tho, and the minuscule amount of softness could be from the fact that I'm not shooting on a tripod, or lack of stabilization, or the settings I'm using, or maybe I just stink at manual focus...That said, I'll use my other lenses to get the "perfect" shots, and use this lens for a more creative look. This lens produces photos with a personality or style that is difficult to describe.The Bokeh is nice. It has it's own personality as well, it's less soft fuzzy circles and more linear or cinematic. Again, difficult for me to describe, but I love the look I get from this lens.

This lens really impresses me for the price. The packaging is surprisingly high quality, no different than any Sony or Canon brand lenses I have purchased. The build quality of the lens is very good, the body is almost entirely metal, there is no slop or play in the focus and aperture rings and they are damped nicely. The glass is flawless and I didn't even see any dust particles inside the lens at all.The image quality on an A6000 is great. At f1.7 the center sharpness is very good, maybe a tiny bit soft, but very useable. Sharpness across the frame only drops off slightly towards the edges, but the edge sharpness is still good, much better that my Sony PZ1650 kit lens. Stopping down to 2.8 gives an excellent level of sharpness rivalling any of my other lenses (kit lenses and older Canon FD manual lenses I use with an adapter, I don't have anyto high end lenses). Distorion and chromatic aberration are almost non existent! Overall I am extremely impressed with the image quality from this lens.Now for the negative, there are a couple things I don't like which dropped my rating to four stars:The lens is HEAVY. Even though it is fairly small. It tips the camera forward when its sitting on a table. It makes the handling feel a bit off balance.The focus ring rotates almost half a turn from one end to the other, which some people may like as it makes precision focussing easier, but it takes too long for me to quickly change focus from a near to a far subject.The lens feels VERY tight on the mount, and I have to use a bit of force to take it off. I worry if this would cause wear on the mount or the body over time.The aperture ring has the opposite issue of the focus ring, it has a short travel, and for the smaller apertures it jumps up very quickly from f/8 to f/22, with no markings in between. I tend to shoot wide open or close to it, so not as much of an issue for me, but for people who shoot anything above f/8 I could see this being annoying.Overall I highly recommend this lens, I was looking at getting an older Canon FD mount lens, 35mm f2.0 manual focus lens, which would have cost much more, and if my other FD lenses are any indication, would not have been any better. For anyone looking at vintage lenses or just interested in an inexpensive, fast aperture manual focus lens, I don't think you can do much better in bang-for-buck than this lens!