The Kipon IBELUX 40mm f0.85 Review (for X Mount)
A few weeks back I wrote a drunken email to Kipon pleading with them to send me this very prestigious lens either free or heavily discounted and in return would use my incredible influencing ways to promote this awesome piece of glass. With a whopping 700+ subscribers on Youtube and a few hundred visiting my site per month… how could they resist. The fools agreed >:D
But no seriously, this review is my own, it is impartial and you all see and hear my thoughts on this very unique lens at the same time Kipon do. The following video is lengthy but fairly detailed, I provide general chapters and bookmarks so that you can navigate to the sections that interest you, but mainly this blog is here to support the Youtube video with a place to leave sample images that I have taken with this lens over the past few months.
Thanks for watching.
A quick comparison with my loyal mannequin for half body portrait shots.
Left is the XF90/2 taken at f2, for this framing I was about 2.5m away (actually quite a comfortable working distance). In the middle we have the XF50/2 taken at f2 with some pleasing (to me) bokeh swirl and more context to the background, and finally on the right we have the IBELUX .85 taken at f0.85.
Both the 40mm and 50mm lenses were taken much closer for a similar framing, I’m about 1m away from the subject here for both the latter shots.
I think it’s important to note that with the IBELUX we have the softest out of focus area, less defined and even certain areas of the body are starting to ‘blur’ (such as the neck and clothing). I refer to this trait in my video review above, central (acceptable) sharpness is a pleasing thing when leading to softer corners and edges for solo portrait work like this. Everything draws the eye towards the middle of the frame where hopefully the important stuff is happening (content/expression etc). Some lenses try to do this effect but it doesn’t always look that great, this I believe is because the bokeh fall off isn’t all that great.
Comparing the IBELUX with the 90/2 can really define that difference between clinical and characterful. It’s not that one is necessarily better than the other, the 90/2 would be arguably better for fashion, or even images where multiple people in the frame are featured, and where you want those people closer to the edges of the frame to be rendered equally sharp to those in the center. It’s a case of different lenses shining in different ways. My only gripe is that the characterful lenses available today seem to provided from only third party vendors and typically all without autofocus. I dream of a day when vendors make classical characterful (optically poor scoring lenses) available with autofocus.
Any questions about these images or this lens please feel free to ask below.
Thanks for looking.
