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You are here: Home / Third-Party Lens Reviews / Kowa Lenses / Hands-On with the Kowa Micro Four Thirds lenses at TPS

Hands-On with the Kowa Micro Four Thirds lenses at TPS

06/03/2014 By Mathieu 1 Comment

In February 2014, the Japanese brand Kowa announced the development of three MFT manual focus lenses: an 8.5mm f/2.8, a 12mm f/1.8 and a 25mm f/1.8. I had the chance to try two of them at The Photography Show in Birmingham. The lenses I tried had an older exterior design but the optical design inside is exactly the same as that in the definitive versions.

X100S, 1/120, f/ 2/1, ISO 1600
The Kowa 8,5mm, old design version.

The old design seems to be a re-housing of Kowa Four Thirds XC lenses, which were designed for vision optics equipment. Kowa is not a very well-known name in photography. They are more known for binoculars, scopes and machine vision optics. That said, they have ventured into the photography sphere in the past.

The Kowa Prominar 8.5mm f/2.8

This is the widest lens of the trio with a 17mm equivalent focal length on 35mm format. It is a very interesting focal length, I might add, since there isn’t a huge variety of wide angle prime lenses for the MFT system. Samyang has a similar version with the same focal length but it is a fisheye lens. The Kowa 8.5mm, on the other hand, is not a fisheye.

The quality, especially regarding the distortion, left me with a very positive impression. The lens includes low-dispersion XD glass and aspheric elements to reduce distortion and aberration.

E-P5, 1/125, f/ , ISO 1600
E-P5, 1/125, f/4 , ISO 1600
E-P5, 1/125, f/ , ISO 1600
E-P5, 1/125, f/4 , ISO 1600
E-P5, 1/25, f/ , ISO 800
E-P5, 1/25, f/4 , ISO 800
E-P5, 1/25, f/ , ISO 800
E-P5, 1/25, f/4 , ISO 800
E-P5, 1/250, f/4 , ISO 1600
E-P5, 1/250, f/4 , ISO 1600
E-P5, 1/30, f/4 , ISO 800
E-P5, 1/30, f/4 , ISO 800

 

Sharpness also seems to be excellent considering that I took these shots at f/4 and 1600 ISO.

As I said, I tried the version with the old design. The aperture ring is too thin and close to the mount, making it a little bit unpleasant to turn. The focus ring wasn’t very smooth either.

X100S, 1/300, f/ 2/1, ISO 800
The new design next to the old one (on the left)

But the good news is that these defeats will probably be addressed with the new design, which seems stronger thanks to its metal build and more prominent focus and aperture rings.

The Kowa Prominar 25mm f/1.8

X100S, 1/200, f/ 2/1, ISO 1600
Trying the Kowa 25mm (old design) on the Pen E-P5.

This lens has an equivalent field of view of 50mm on 35mm format, which is the standard lens by definition. It is a lens I am less interested in because like the Prominar 12mm f/1.8, there are already excellent AF lenses with the same focal length made by Olympus and Panasonic. There is no word about the price of these lenses yet, but unless they are a very cheap alternative or outperform their AF lens counterparts in terms of image quality, they might be more difficult to sell. But, hey, I could be wrong!

Below are some pictures taken with the 25mm f/1.8. Certainly sharpness at f/1.8 is quiet good.

E-P5, 1/400, f/ , ISO 1600
E-P5, 1/400, f/1.8 , ISO 1600
E-P5, 1/250, f/ , ISO 800
E-P5, 1/250, f/1.8 , ISO 800
E-P5, 1/125, f/ , ISO 800
E-P5, 1/125, f/1.8 , ISO 800

It is worth keeping an eye on these lenses for sure!

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity to take more photos or try the third lens, so this is a very short article. I do hope to get the chance to test these lenses properly as I see lots of potential especially regarding the 8.5mm. Currently, the best wide angle lenses for MFT are the Lumix 7-14mm and the M.Zuiko 9-18mm. An 8.5mm with a faster aperture is certainly good news, and with that kind of focal length, getting the focusing right is less of a problem.

Filed Under: Kowa Lenses, Reviews, Third-Party Lens Reviews Tagged With: kowa, kowa 12mm 1.8, kowa 12mm lens, kowa 25mm 1.8, kowa 8.5mm, kowa lenses, kowa lenses micro four thirds, kowa micro 4/3 lens, kowa micro four thirds, kowa optics

About Mathieu

Mathieu Gasquet is a professional photographer with French and Italian origins. Besides running his own video and photography studio 3Dit Lab, he is also the official photographer for the National Cinema Museum in Turin. You can follow him on Google+, Twitter or Facebook!

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