Zonlai 22mm F1.8 Review

The Zonlai 22mm F1.8 is a compact and relatively fast manual focus prime lens for APS-C and MFT mirrorless camera systems. It provides a focal length that is a full frame equivalent of around 35mm on APSC and 44mm on MFT sensors.
I bought a copy for the Fujifilm X mount and used it on the X-T2.

The zonlai sports an all metal body which has a reasuring weight for something so compact, it feels sturdy and well built with tight tolerances on all of the machined parts.

The focus ring is extremely smooth to turn, with a good level of resistance and solid stop points at either end of the focus range that allign with the distance markings.
However the problem lies in the distribution of the focus throw, the lens appears to be weighted heavily towards macro ranges. There is about 180 degrees of rotation to focus between 0.15 and 1 metre and then maybe 10 degrees or matter of millimeters between 2 meters and infinity. This design choice makes this lens almost impossible to focus manually at these middle ranges, espcially at larger apertures and as such almost makes the the f1.8 rating pointless. I have found that it is essentially imposible to nail perfect focus at these mid distances below f5.6.

The aperture ring is placed at the front of the lens which is in contrast to the standard convention on the first party lenses of placing it behind the focus ring closest to the camera body, for stills this works well however for video it means that fingers can get in frame when adjusting the fstop. Thankfully the ring is clicked which is my preference as this dramatically reduces the chance of the aperture being changed while focusing or carrying the lens around which is a not insubstantial problem with the low resistance clickless apertures on other manual focus primes.

The lens performs reasonably well image quality wise, from wide open it is acceptably sharp in the centre frame and stopped down sharpness across the frame is good enough with no degradation seen towards the corners. It is sharp enough to be very useable and provide pleasant images.
Shooting close subjects wide open provides a good level of subject seperation with a soft bokeh that almost seems to swirl. Vignetting is present but minor and not enough to really need correcting for beyond f4.
I have found that distortion is minor enough that I have not noticed it in any of the images taken so far.

Like all of these cheap modern prime lenses coming out of china it will flare if you shoot into bright light sources but this can be used artistically or mitigated by using the included lens hood, i personaly find that it is a non-issue. The main issue is the noticeable loss of contrast and almost haze that can be seen with backlit subjects at wider apertures.

As i mentioned previously this lens certianly seems geared up more for close focus than infinity, even at f1.8 you can achieve sharp results at the minimum focus distance whereas at infinity it feels slightly softer.

In summary, I feel that this lens could have been a solid product for its budget price. It is compact and better built than any of the other chinese lenses that I have owned, It has good image quality and a focal length that few other chinese manufacturers are producing however for me it is spoilt by the focus scale that makes it unnecessarily difficult to accurately focus between 2 metres and infinity. This lens comes close to greatness but falls short.