Mitakon Zhongyi 200mm f/4 1x Macro Lens (Nikon Z)

Very good optics at an affordable price

This is the Zhongyi optics APO 200mm F4 Macro lens for L mount. In the B&H site it is listed as Mitakon Zhongyi but the word Mitakon does not appear on the lens itself, its box and its manual so far as I can tell. It is 212mm long (8.35 inches), from mount face to end of lens, and 81mm wide (3.2 inches) at the end of the included lens hood. With lens hood installed, total length is 278mm (almost 11 inches). The very nice tripod ring adds a few mm to this width. This ring secures to the lens with a fingerable hex nut but you might want to carry a small wrench in the field. On my Weight Watchers digital food scale the lens itself weighs 1293 grams (2 pounds 13.6 ounces). It came in a very nice padded box weighing 315 grams. Balance is good. On my tripod the lens feels a little front-heavy but my camera (Sigma fpL, full frame, 60mp) is very small and light. The lens hood has felt inside, reverses and threads onto the end of the lens without compromising access to the focus ring. I'm using a 67mm Hoya EVO clear protector filter on the front of the lens. Initial testing shows good but not perfect field flatness at 7ft. In daylight, at infinity focus and F4, high contrast sunlit details across the frame are rendered completely without color fringing. This was a main concern of mine, and I see that my copy of it lives up to the APO billing on the front of the lens. The lens focus ring rotates slightly beyond infinity, and this should make it useful for astro. Note the lens is completely manual and has no image stabilization, so to get the best from it you will need a good tripod and considerable care. Even at F8, careful focusing is an absolute must. The lens has a depth of field scale but it is only marked for F32, suitable for a macro lens. Macro is good. Bokeh near and far in my telephoto shots is a little jumpy but might not be an issue with portraiture. I still need to find this out... I was looking for good optics at an affordable price, having failed to find 200mm legacy lenses without strong color fringing. This lens delivers!