MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

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Florent Piovesan

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MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostMon Oct 24, 2022 3:56 pm

Hey everyone,

Here is my review of the Meike 18mm S35 T2.1. Used on the BMPCC6K and 6K Pro.


In this video I talk about my experience filming with this lens, what I like and don’t like about it and whether or not I would recommend it.

I shot in a wide variety of situations, from harsh light in the middle of the day to golden hour. I filmed people outdoors and indoors, landscapes, interior with practical light and also from inside a truck.

Hopefully this is helpful to some of you.

Let me know if you have any questions :).

Cheers,
Flo
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Marshall Harrington

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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostTue Oct 25, 2022 2:53 pm

Nice review as always. Curious Florent... did you think about going full frame as opposed to S35? Being future proof going forward. Would love to hear your thinking. Thanks.
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Mark Foster

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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostTue Oct 25, 2022 3:11 pm

Marshall Harrington wrote:Nice review as always. Curious Florent... did you think about going full frame as opposed to S35? Being future proof going forward. Would love to hear your thinking. Thanks.


would only make sense if you are thinking about switching to fullframe for the camera as well.
for the BMPCC 6K super35, the meike S35 are optimized and therefore much better suited than FF lenses.


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Ellory Yu

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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostTue Oct 25, 2022 3:37 pm

Mark, I notice on your signature line you have a number of Meike primes. Thoughts that you might share with us on the other focal lengths.
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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostTue Oct 25, 2022 3:45 pm

Marshall Harrington wrote:did you think about going full frame as opposed to S35? Being future proof going forward.


I know I shouldn't but.... You mean "future proof" youtube channels, for generations to come? Humanity's unborn children can't wait to see this stuff?

Or all the amateurs who can't sleep for fear that in 2075 nobody will look at their unproduced masterpieces unless they were shot on a FF camera? And meanwhile, most of cinema from 1900 to 2020 goes down the drain, because the gate was only 21-25mm wide?

And notwithstanding the $200 million budget, Martin Scorsese is indifferent to posterity and his clueless funders have never heard about "future proofing" because they're not on internet forums?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5537002/te ... tt_spec_sm

Among all the marketing scams directed at would-be filmmakers, this one has got to be the most ... well, fill in the blank, rant concluded.
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Mark Foster

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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostTue Oct 25, 2022 4:38 pm

the future in the cinema business is not fullframe
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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostTue Oct 25, 2022 4:42 pm

Ellory Yu wrote:Mark, I notice on your signature line you have a number of Meike primes. Thoughts that you might share with us on the other focal lengths.


florent has a lot of footage with the other focal lengths (except the 75mm) on his youtube channel.
i only do tv commercials so i can't make the material publicly available.

i will also purchase the 18mm, 100mm and the 12mm announced for next year
as i am very impressed with the meike S35 series.


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Florent Piovesan

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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostWed Oct 26, 2022 8:42 am

Marshall Harrington wrote:Nice review as always. Curious Florent... did you think about going full frame as opposed to S35? Being future proof going forward. Would love to hear your thinking. Thanks.


Thank you!!
To be completely transparent I was approached 2 years ago directly by Meike and they wanted me to test out the S35 line so I stuck with it and haven't felt the need to go with the FF since all my cameras are S35 for now.
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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostWed Oct 26, 2022 4:33 pm

Thanks for the reply Florent, appreciate the transparency.

I'm thinking about a set of primes but cannot predict what format the cameras will be going forward. It's a target that's moving pretty fast. Hence the term "future proof". Unlike John, I see value in both FF and S35 formats.

Since I'm not Martin Scorsese with basically an unlimited budget, I'm curious what the differences would be between similar FF or S35 glass in terms of character I guess.

Which might lead to a definition of what character actually means... the basics I guess. Sharpness, contrast, color, bokeh, breathing, for starters. There's also the physical stuff like, weight, focus rotation, coatings, markings, etc. Cost is certainly a big part of all this at least for me.

Are they even comparable?

This is a rabbit hole for sure, but one I believe we all think about. Would love to hear others thoughts though maybe not the rants.
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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostWed Oct 26, 2022 6:54 pm

Marshall Harrington wrote:Which might lead to a definition of what character actually means... the basics I guess. Sharpness, contrast, color, bokeh, breathing, for starters. There's also the physical stuff like, weight, focus rotation, coatings, markings, etc. Cost is certainly a big part of all this at least for me.

Are they even comparable?


You can make a direct comparison of the three Meike sets on something like a RED Komodo or Canon C70 with RF mount. I believe the RF Mount of the Meike's intended for Komodo are the same design from the MFT versions sold for the Pocket 4K. Then they have a compact s35 set and a larger (135) FF set.

To my eye the MFT and the S35 versions perform about the same and are small and best for a cube like Komodo or the Pocket 4K / 6K and the FF version has more weight and a longer focus throw for a larger camera like an URSA.

There is very little breathing on the s35 set overall I think. Anyone check breathing on the (135) FF versions? Maybe a content idea for Florent.
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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostWed Oct 26, 2022 8:21 pm

Ryan Earl wrote:You can make a direct comparison of the three Meike sets on something like a RED Komodo or Canon C70 with RF mount. I believe the RF Mount of the Meike's intended for Komodo are the same design from the MFT versions sold for the Pocket 4K. Then they have a compact s35 set and a larger (135) FF set.

To my eye the MFT and the S35 versions perform about the same and are small and best for a cube like Komodo or the Pocket 4K / 6K and the FF version has more weight and a longer focus throw for a larger camera like an URSA.

There is very little breathing on the s35 set overall I think. Anyone check breathing on the (135) FF versions? Maybe a content idea for Florent.



no, the S35s are much closer to the FF lenses than to the MFTs

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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostSun Feb 05, 2023 1:26 pm

Hi ! Thanks for your review of this lense ! I have one question :

I wan't to shoot close up with some distortion, and i wanna know if this lenses have some distortion when i'm close to the subject !

Thank you ! :)
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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostTue Feb 07, 2023 12:53 am

What kind of distortion? Do you mean the distortion of straight lines when shooting e.g. architecture? Or rather what any wide lens is doing to faces on close-ups due to exaggerated perspective, like in horror or comedy?
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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostWed Feb 08, 2023 8:46 am

The distortion like in the movie or horror comedie ! :)
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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostThu Feb 09, 2023 1:36 am

Use the widest lens you can get and move up close.
No, an iGPU is not enough, and you can't use HEVC 10 bit 4:2:2 in the free version.

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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostThu Feb 09, 2023 6:52 am

Marshall Harrington wrote:I'm thinking about a set of primes but cannot predict what format the cameras will be going forward. It's a target that's moving pretty fast. Hence the term "future proof". Unlike John, I see value in both FF and S35 formats.

I don’t think in terms of future proofing. I too, do not have Martin’s kind of budget. But I think of Full Frame useful for still photography and S35 as what is considered to be closed to 35mm motion picture film. Therefore, not only are the S35 fulfilling my needs, it is also the cheaper investment that keeps me honest of making my pictures closes to shooting in 35mm film.
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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostThu Feb 09, 2023 8:56 pm

Marshall Harrington wrote:I'm thinking about a set of primes but cannot predict what format the cameras will be going forward. It's a target that's moving pretty fast. Hence the term "future proof". Unlike John, I see value in both FF and S35 formats.

Since I'm not Martin Scorsese with basically an unlimited budget, I'm curious what the differences would be between similar FF or S35 glass in terms of character I guess.

I asked the question about using FF glass on an S35 sensor to "future-proof" my lens collection on this forum, and got an education on it.

If a company were to come out with a 16K full frame camera that has a similar pixel density to the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K, a lens that resolves (16,384/(36x2)) 227 line-pairs/millimeter would be needed to keep up with it. Such a lens does not exist, and a Canon 16-35 L f/2.8 III that can resolve around 45 line-pairs/millimeter is not a good temporary solution for future proofing.

Tom Roper wrote:

"The problem is fundamental, inherent to the sensor size. To resolve the full pixels of the sensor, you take the horizontal pixels divided by twice the horizontal millimeters to get line-pairs/millimeter needed from the lens.

The lens for 12K footage on an (Blackmagic) Ursa needs to resolve 227 ln-pr/mm.

For 8K from the Ursa the lens needs to resolve 152 ln-pr/mm.

For 8K from the A1, the lens only needs to resolve 114 ln-pr/mm.

Because the sensor out-resolves the lens by more with smaller sensors than large ones, the same lens on the larger sensor will give the higher overall system resolution, which is what counts."

Robert Niessner wrote:

"...There are 4 different 16-35 L lenses from Canon. But regardless of the version, all of them are sharpest at f/5.6 In the center at f/5.6 the 16-35 L f/2.8 II and III can resolve around 45 line pairs per mm (MTF50)."

Re: 12k Ursa Not Sharp When Punched In

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=145731&p=780841&hilit=+take+the+horizontal+pixels+divided+by+twice+the+horizontal+#p780841

John Brawley wrote:

"...And if anything, using a LARGER image circle on a smaller sensor size CAN lead to unexpected flares and a loss of contrast because that extra large circle of light is now bouncing off other surfaces in-between the back of the lens and the sensor.

...Also interesting

"If you’re shooting Super35, why would you go back to a Super35 lens instead of a new future-proof Full Frame lens?

Part of the Cooke Look is the focus fall-off at the edges. Our lenses are not “flat” meaning that we do not try to make the corners and the center equally sharp.

If you draw a vertical line through the center axis and you spin that around and make a circle, that’s what we call the picture height area. Obviously, that’s a larger circle in Full Frame than it is in Super35. This area on a Cooke lens, the sweet spot, is where we pay a lot of attention. Outside that circle, we let the image fall off to the corners. The center is as sharp as can be, and as we move to the edges of frame, it gets slightly softer. We do that because most of the time you are filming people or things where the area of interest is towards the center, and the edge fall-off adds a pleasing dimensionality to the image and brings the viewer’s attention toward the center.

Now, if you think about a Full Frame lens, keep in mind that the picture height circle is bigger. It is usually 24mm high instead of 18mm. So, if you put a Full Frame lens on a Super35 camera, the image is going to be cleaner because all that pleasing fall-off area is outside of frame."

From Les Zellan, legendary chairman of Cooke Optics

101-FDTimes-4.07-300-Cooke-Tour-2020.pdf

https://www.fdtimes.com/2020/04/07/cooke-tour-2020/

Re: The Blackmagic LF Camera - Is Full Frame ever coming?

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=135602&p=828097&hilit=+more+resolving+power+than+an+8K+#p828097

r/Filmmakers How to "future proof" my lens and gear purchases

https://www.reddit.com/r/Filmmakers/com ... purchases/
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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostFri Feb 10, 2023 2:44 am

And then, most FF stills cameras with their massive pixel counts offer a S-35 option these days.
No, an iGPU is not enough, and you can't use HEVC 10 bit 4:2:2 in the free version.

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Re: MEIKE 18MM T2.1 S35 | BMPCC6K / 6K PRO

PostFri Feb 10, 2023 11:17 am

Uli Plank wrote:And then, most FF stills cameras with their massive pixel counts offer a S-35 option these days.


also makes sense for still photography, since even FF still lenses can't keep
the sharpness 100% to the edge and usually also struggle with chromatic aberration.
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