Note: I have already reviewed the 25mm f/1.4 CCTV C-mount lens on my Nikon 1 V1 – you can read the review here. Because of borderline unusable image quality on my Olympus OM-D E-M10 I have decided to write this review, in course of which I will be analyzing its performance on Micro 4/3.
In the original review I have made the argument that this no-name 25mm f/1.4 CCTV C-mount lens isn’t worth getting, unless you are a huge fan of swirly bokeh and other “Lo-Fi” effects usually associated with Lomo and Instagram. This is even more so when you use this lens on a micro 4/3 body. This is unusual, since its cousin, the no-name 50mm f/1.4 CCTV C-mount lens, performed much better on the larger sensor of the E-M10.
Anyway, this review is more of a warning than anything else. Read on to find out why you shouldn’t get this lens.
This is probably the last batch of photos I will ever take with the 25mm f/1.4 CCTV C-mount lens. I don’t enjoy using it, partly because of focusing ring and aperture ring positions and partly because of bad image quality. In the next couple of days I will write a micro 4/3 centric review. Expect a very negative verdict.
I’ve bought the 25mm f/1.4 C-Mount lens last August with its larger sibling, the 50mm f/1.4 C-Mount, which I’ve reviewed here. This is a new record even for me in regard to long term usage of a lens, before writing a review. It took me four months to review the 50/1.4 C-Mount and a whopping eight to do a review of the Nikon 1 Nikkor 18.5mm f/1.8. Despite having the 25/1.4 and using it for such a long time, I don’t have that many photos to show for it. One reason is that it is a specialized lens, which I only use when I feel that its characteristic look adds something to the photo opportunity at hand. Otherwise I go with the 18.5mm f/1.8, which is similar in terms of focal length and DOF control, and doesn’t have the swirly bokeh I don’t like that much. The other reason is that I have the afore-mentioned 50/1.4 C-Mount. Unlike the 25/1.4 it cannot be substituted with the 18.5mm, because it is an entirely different beast in regard to focal length and bokeh. Having smoother focus and aperture rings, whereby the former is further away from the body (25/1.4’s focus ring is next to the body), makes it easier to use. I will go into more detail on that later. This is what the 25/1.4 C-Mount lens looks like mounted on the Nikon V1 and in the hand.
Unlike with my previous photos I’ve developed the photos you see below in Lightroom 5.4 and used the fringing and CA tools to reduce color artefacts on edges with strong contrast. Not that it did much good, considering just how flawed the 25mm f/1.4 C-Mount lens is in this regard. 😉 You can find my previous posts about the C-Mount lens here. I will be posting the review of the lens tomorrow. In the meanwhile you can view all my photos taken with the 25/1.4 C-Mount in my Flickr set.
After a pause lasting two months, over the course of which I’ve been shooting with my Micro Four Thirds gear, I took the Nikon V1 with the 25mm f/1.4 C-Mount lens for a spin. Unlike the 50mm f/1.4 C-Mount, the 25/1.4 is not a lens I enjoy shooting a lot, which is why I still haven’t gotten to writing a review. I simply haven’t taken enough photos with it to be confident enough to pass a final verdict. I hope that it won’t take 8 months, like it did with the 18.5mm f/1.8, until I’m ready to sit down and write a proper review. Btw. you can read my long term review of the 18.5mm here.
It’s been more than a month since the last time I’ve posted some photos taken with the cheap 25mm f/1.4 C-Mount lens on the V1. I was quite busy shooting with the 18.5mm f/1.8 (my review) and reporting on all the new 1” releases, like the Nikon V3 and Samsung NX mini. But finally here are half a dozen photos I’ve shot since last time. I hope you like them. 🙂
After a long break due to holidays, bad weather and poor health (sinusitis) I’ve finally managed to take some photos with my cheapo C-Mount 25mm f/1.4 lens. It will take a while until I’ve taken enough images and until I’m confident enough to write a review, but many things I have written about its “big brother”, the C-Mount 50mm f/1.4 (link to my Review), also apply to the 25mm f/1.4. Click on the photos to view them in Full HD resolution on Flickr. The image quality is not very good, so don’t be shocked if there are CAs and if the resolution/sharpness is vastly inferior to the 1 Nikkors. 🙂
I must confess that I was naive when I bought my first set of C-mount adapters for my Nikon 1 V1 and Olympus OM-D E-M10. I assumed that it was very easy to make a so called “dumb adapter” – meaning an adapter that doesn’t pass through electrical signals from the camera to the lens and vice versa. Boy was I wrong! As it turns out it is quite a challenge to get the design right, in order to ensure compatibility with as many lenses as possible. At least it seems to be a challenge for manufacturers like “Kiwi”. I posted a couple of images down below, so you can identify the adapters in question.
Egami, a Japanese blog known for releasing patent specifications of lenses designed and made by all notable manufacturer, reports that Ricoh has patented four prime lenses for the 1” sensor format. 25mm f/1.8, 35mm f/1.8, 50mm f/2.4 and 70mm f/2.8. Supposedly these lenses are meant for industrial cameras (so called machine vision applications), which predominantly use C-mount and CS-mount.
For a long time I wanted to introduce myself and my family with pictures. Not just any pictures, but those taken with the Nikon V1, 1 Nikkor 18.5mm f/1.8, 50m f/1.4 C-Mount and 25mm f/1.4 C-Mount. Let’s begin with me, the admin of this blog. My name is Ivan.
