Meike 85 mm f/1.4 FF STM
4. Image resolution
Let's find out how the Meike 85 mm f/1.4 FF STM compares here – its results in the frame centre, on the edge of the APS-C/DX sensor, and on the edge of full frame presents a graph shown below.
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I admit I didn't think that a budget lens like the Meike would make me to rewrite the introduction to this chapter. Yet I am going to rewrite it and I'll do it with joy because the Meike 85 mm f/1.4 FF STM showed outstanding results in the frame centre, defeating the rival Sony FE 85 mm f/1.4 GM II that is over three times more expensive. What's more, it was just slightly weaker than the absolute record breaker, the Sony FE 50 mm f/1.4 GM because by f/2.8 it had a result reaching as high as 90.2 lpmm.
As we've already mentioned the rival Sony FE 85 mm f/1.4 GM II let's have a look at a graph below, that shows a comparison of its transmission results to the Meike, tested here, in the frame centre.
Taking into account measurement errors, by f/1.4, f/2.0, and from f/5.6 upwards both lenses fare similarly well, In the range from f/2.8 to f/4.0 the much cheaper Meike is able to prevail, marginally but still.
However, there is a fly in the ointment – more precisely the performance on the edge of the frame. Although the Meike is noticeably bigger than the Sony, and its size might suggest better results also on edges of the frame, it seems that its designers considered an outstanding performance in the frame centre to be an absolute priority and they didn't care as much about the rest of the frame.
On the edge of the APS-C/DX sensor the performance is still very good, even if it has an untypical, stepped structure. By f/1.4 and f/2.0 you still land on a good level of 50 lpmm and then, by f/2.8, and f/4.0, you are able to reach even better values, getting to 60 lpmm. By f/5.6 the lens achieves a very good level of near 70 lpmm and from this moment you see a more natural, diffraction-limited performance.
On the edge of full frame you see even more untypical performance. At the maximum relative aperture the lens lands a tad below the decency level, with a result of 38.2 lpmm. By f/2.0 images become useful with resolution exceeding 40 lpmm but by f/2.8 and f/4.0 they don't improve, staying, within the margin of error, on the same level of 41-42 lpmm. A natural performance can be observed only from f/5.6 upwards, where you deal with good values, exceeding distinctly 50 lpmm.
To sum up the Meike 85 mm f/1.4 FF STM was a joy to test. It was also, as one of the sharpest lenses we've had an opportunity to handle in the whole history of our full frame mirrorless systems tests so far, a very nice surprise, Still, an outstanding performance in the frame centre and very good results on the edge of the APS-C/DX sensor are achieved at the expense of a slight weakening on the edge of full frame. That weakening is what makes the Meike different from the much more expensive Sony FE 85 mm f/1.4 GM II as its rival is able to give you an excellent performance at that place exactly, with values exceeding 60 lpmm already up from the maximum relative aperture.
At the end of this chapter traditionally we present crops taken from photos of our resolution testing chart, saved as JPEG files along the RAWs we used for the analysis above.
| A7R IIIa, JPEG, 85 mm, f/1.4 |
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| A7R IIIa, JPEG, 85 mm, f/2.8 |
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