I had never before traveled to the largest Canadian city, and de facto capital, Toronto. However, a opportunity to visit this historic city provided an interesting challenge for me. Could I shoot a large and modern city with only one wide-angle lens and be happy with the results?
The Meike Mix 24mm f/1.4 had just arrived, and Meike sponsored this Showcase so I could spend some time with it. The timing could not have been better and I ventured into a place I had never visited before and explored this major metropolis with only one $589 lens.
Full disclosure: This story was sponsored by Meike.
I am always concerned about fast-aperture glass as a walk-around companion lens. I tend to favor lighter and slower compact primes when I explore a new city. I don’t want to attract attention, and I don’t want to feel burdened by a large optic. However, I had recently tried out the Meike Pro 35mm f/1.8 and found it to be an easy lens to carry. This Meike 24mm is also quite similar in design. It’s slightly heavier, but still only weighs 19.6 ounces (556 grams). It has a rugged chassis which is sealed against dust and splashes, and comes with a bayonet-style hood to prevent flare.
I find that Meike lenses have a simple and understated design aesthetic, with smooth lens barrels and a checkered grip pattern on control surfaces. The manual focusing ring was well-damped and turned quite smoothly. I really appreciated having an aperture ring, and the knurling is both modern-looking and functional. At the front of the lens, you will find the 72mm filter threads, and I could see this lens being great as a go-anywhere travel landscape lens that can also take some rough weather.
A 24mm focal length may not be my go-to look for wide-angle shots, but I do appreciate how versatile they are. If I had to pick only one wide-angle lens, from a practical perspective, it would be right around 24mm. I can get dramatic vistas and cover the whole story in tight spaces, but I also have the ability to crop tighter to get focused compositions for street photography. A sharp 24mm lens can easily function as a handy 28mm or 35mm lens without sacrificing too many megapixels.
And this Meike lens is definitely sharp, as it gave me plenty of detail to work with when shooting at f/1.4.
Having that fast aperture also meant that I could wander the streets of Toronto at night and not worry about high ISO values or slow shutter speeds. If I wanted to get up close to something and push the background into a soft blur, the Meike 24mm lens could handle it with aplomb. I could also go the opposite way and use extremely tight apertures to bring out pleasant-looking sunstars into the compositions. This turned out to be a versatile lens choice, indeed.
One of my favorite things to photograph is people on the street, and you might not consider a 24mm wide-angle to be an ideal portrait lens. However, you can make some interesting shots where the environment becomes part of the composition and scale and perspective are distorted in compelling ways. The Meike 24mm also nudges you to engage with people closely and create shots together, and I found that to be a really rewarding part of the experience. Meeting the friendly people of Toronto and coming away with some good shots was a highlight of the trip for me.
I also made a new friend while strolling about the town, and he offered to do some skateboarding tricks for me to photograph. The Meike 24mm lens was ideal for this because I could get up close and really add drama to the scene, but I was also impressed that the STM focusing motor could keep up with the action. The Meike lens fully supported the advanced autofocusing on the Sony a7RV camera that I was using. I had no issues tracking subjects as they whipped past the frame, and the focusing on the eyes was always locked on and precise.
The latest Meike Mix lens can be relied upon to deliver shots you’ll love. I found it to be rugged and convenient to carry, and it gave me the shallow depth of field look when I needed it, and excellent low-light photos when push came to shove.
If you want soft backgrounds, contrasty images, and a lens that captures lots of light, along with an excellent tactile experience, the Meike Mix 24mm f/1.4 is definitely worth a look. The best part is that all of this quality can be had for only $589. It’s hard to find excellent f/1.4 prime lenses, and even harder to find them for a good price, but I can say that the Meike Mix 24mm f/1.4 accomplished this exact task for me among the streets of Toronto.
Welcome to a PetaPixel Showcase, in which our staff gives you a hands-on with unique and interesting products from across the photography landscape. The Showcase format affords manufacturers the opportunity to sponsor hands-on time with their products and our staff, and it lets them highlight what features they think are worth noting, but the opinions expressed from PetaPixel staff are genuine. Showcases should not be considered an endorsement by PetaPixel.
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