The Kipon Handevision IBELUX f/0.85 Mark II hasn’t been overly popular considering it’s crazy f/0.85 aperture. To be clear this lens is in no way designed to be as well corrected as a Leica Noctilux f/0.95, but for $1,500 it wouldn’t be. Instead, the Kipon f/0.85 is designed for photographers that like vintage looking photos with lots of character.
You’re going to get CA and some softness with a lens like this, but this lens wasn’t designed for clinical photographers. Kipon has also reduced the price over the mark one, which makes it far more accessible and from the video above the Kipon rep was telling Kai that the Kipon Handevision IBELUX f/0.85 Mark II performs much better on Fujifilm bodies than Sony, but they are unsure why. Below there is a German review that does a good job of discussing the lenses strengths and weakness, but you will have to use the subtitle translation feature if you don’t speak German.
Finally, at the very bottom, there is a video filmed on the Sony a7 that demonstrates how easily you can really blow your final image with this lens. Sony colors really don’t shine with this lens and if you shoot with a f/0.85 lens without fully understanding its characteristics than your final results will suffer greatly. Many photographers have gotten used to trusting their cameras, but a manual f/0.85 lens really requires full manual controls to get good results. They didn’t do Kipon any favors by covering this unique lens, but their video is an example of how not to use this lens.
Maybe the Kipon Handevision IBELUX f/0.85 Mark II will sell better than the first. I’m sure more would be interested in it if they could get it below $1,000, but at around $1,500 many will need more performance to justify the purchase.
alikgriffin – KIPON IBELUX 40MM F0.85 MARK II REVIEW & SAMPLE PHOTOS
HarQ Photography – KIPON IBELUX 0.85 / 40mm Mark 2 Review
Kipon Handevision IBELUX f/0.85 Mark II Red: Amazon
Kipon Handevision IBELUX f/0.85 Mark II Black: Amazon / Adorama