"Michael Lens" brand lenses. 25, 35, 50mm lenses... anybody used them? (Cheap!)

[Daniel Rutter]

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180696379977&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

There are others, such as the 50mm 1.4 and the one linked (35mm at 1.7)... has anyone here used them, or could you give me some insight on them? I'm considering throwing money on one of the lenses just out of curiousity. It's only $50, so it's not much to lose if the lens is crap.

I'm just curious to see how well they'd perform as budget lenses go.

[kenkyusha]

Daniel,

I don't know anything about them but the 25mm @f1.4 is quite a bit faster than my 24mm or 28mm (both 2.8)- for only $44 US I'm gonna give it a shot. Thanks for the heads-up!

[Daniel Rutter]

I posted this on DVXuser as well as they tend to have some industry pros hovering there. Yes, I copied the thread word for word... because I'm lazy.

From the two replies I got over there, the general consensus is that they are crap... and the edge sharpness is almost non-exsistant. Kenkyusha, if you do get it... could you give us a heads up and maybe some video examples? I can't find any on the net besides the one they posted on the ebay auction.

Thanks for the reply.

[kenkyusha]

Yeah, I noticed the lack of edge-to-edge sharpness in their sample video, but I'm thinking that it might be still be useable... if not, I can always mod it to be a dedicated 'faux anamorphic' lens.

[cgbier]

I can sell you a fast W/A I made from a couple of Coke bottles, a toilette tissue core and some duct tape for, let's say, 10 bucks. Quality is about the same.
To get an even better quality, you might try to cut off the lens from a Holga.

Cheap and optics in one sentence don't work together - especially with W/A.