SainSonic Kamlan 50 mm f/1.1
11. Summary
Pros:
- sensible build quality of the barrel,
- good image quality in the frame centre,
- moderate lateral chromatic aberration,
- slight distortion,
- nice appearance of out-of-focus areas,
- affordable price.
Cons:
- very weak image quality on the edge of the frame,
- some spherical aberration problems,
- huge coma,
- distinct vignetting,
- weak performance against bright light,
- some casualness when it comes to aperture markings.
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Do you remember our tests of the Mitakon Speedmaster 50 mm f/0.95 and the Nikkor AF-S 58 mm f/1.4G? Their results proved that you dealt with two expensive devices producing photos of low resolution. Many commentators emphasized the fact that these lenses were simply designed that way but personally I feel it is a poor excuse for the incompetence of designers. You don’t have to spend a lot of money in order to get blurry areas in your photos along with other optics flaws (like ghosting or flares) and use them in a creative way. The tested Kamlan showed that much. It doesn’t pretend or dress up as something it is not. It is a simple, cheap device for people who want to play with photography and get results impossible to achieve with slower lenses. It is a lens for people who don’t want to ruin themselves for instruments with similar parameters but more optically complex and better corrected in many aspects. Full stop!
