Introduction

Ease of Use

With a maximum diameter of 60mm and a length of 64mm, the Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 is well-suited to Sony's full-frame mirrorless camera bodies. Weighing in at around 220g, it's a surprisingly light lens.

The Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 lens mounted on a Sony A7R II body

The Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 lens mounted on a Sony A7R II body

The Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 lens mounted on a Sony A7R II body

The Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 lens mounted alongside a Sony A7R II body

The Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 boasts superb build quality. The lens has an all-aluminium casing and it features a metal bayonet. With no need for a zoom ring, the manual focusing ring spans a significant width of the lens barrel and is exceptionally smooth to operate, complete with a useful depth of field scale.

Side of the Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 lens

Front of the Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 lens

Rear of the Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 lens

At the end of the lens is the aperture ring, with the aperture ranging from f/1.9 to f/22. Note that this ring rotates smoothly throughout the range, with no actual hard stops (except at f/1.9 and f/22), which is perhaps better suited to movie recording than shooting stills.

Side of the Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 lens

Side of the Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 lens

The Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 is a relatively simple lens with 5 elements in 4 groups. A 12-bladed rounded diaphragm, combined with the fast maximum aperture, helps provide incredibly smooth bokeh blur. There’s no optical image stabilisation, but the Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9's short telephoto focal length and fast maximum aperture largely alleviate the need for it.

The Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 lens in-hand

A small round metal lens hood that screws into the front of the lens is supplied in the box. The filter diameter is 35mm.

Focal Range

The diagonal angle of view is 40° 50, i.e. the same as that of a 58mm lens in a 35mm full-frame system.

Field of view at 58mm

Manual Focusing

The Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9's manual focusing ring is positioned at the end of the lens barrel and is exceptionally smooth to operate, complete with a useful depth of field scale. It also has a large rotation angle which enables precise focusing and moves smoothly without any play. The precise engravings in meters and feet help make manual focusing a veritable pleasure, especially in conjunction with the excellent Peaking feature offered by the Sony A-series cameras.

Chromatic Aberrations

Lateral chromatic aberrations, typically seen as blue or purple fringes along contrasty edges, are well controlled with the Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 lens. The crops below give you an idea of what you should expect in a worst-case scenario.

Light Fall-off

Wide open at f/1.9, there's some noticeable light fall-off in the corners, but this clears up quickly upon stopping down.

Vignetting at 50mm

Macro

With a close-focus point of 0.6m, the Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 isn't really a macro lens. The photo below shows how close you can get to your subject.

Close-up performance

Bokeh

Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc. The Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz Primoplan 58mm f/1.9 lens has an iris diaphragm with no less than 12 circular aperture blades, which has resulted in outstanding bokeh, as you can see in the crops below.

Sharpness

In order to show you how sharp this lens is, we are providing 100% crops on the following page.