The Meike Mix 24mm f/1.4 Is an Affordable Do-It-All Wide Angle Prime

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I had never before traveled to the largest Canadian city, and de facto capital, Toronto. However, a opportunity to visit this historic city provided an interesting challenge for me. Could I shoot a large and modern city with only one wide-angle lens and be happy with the results?

The Meike Mix 24mm f/1.4 had just arrived, and Meike sponsored this Showcase so I could spend some time with it. The timing could not have been better and I ventured into a place I had never visited before and explored this major metropolis with only one $589 lens.

Full disclosure: This story was sponsored by Meike.

A Meike 24mm f/1.4 camera lens stands upright on a white surface with a marble-patterned background. The lens is black with white and red markings and features a lens hood attached.

Meike Mix 24mm f/1.4: City Traveler

I am always concerned about fast-aperture glass as a walk-around companion lens. I tend to favor lighter and slower compact primes when I explore a new city. I don’t want to attract attention, and I don’t want to feel burdened by a large optic. However, I had recently tried out the Meike Pro 35mm f/1.8 and found it to be an easy lens to carry. This Meike 24mm is also quite similar in design. It’s slightly heavier, but still only weighs 19.6 ounces (556 grams). It has a rugged chassis which is sealed against dust and splashes, and comes with a bayonet-style hood to prevent flare.

A close-up of a camera lens lying on its side, showing the electronic contacts and metal mount ring with a red accent; the background is soft and out of focus.

Close-up of a black Meike camera lens with a petal-shaped lens hood, labeled "MEIKE LH24-PT7," against a blurred, light-colored background.

I find that Meike lenses have a simple and understated design aesthetic, with smooth lens barrels and a checkered grip pattern on control surfaces. The manual focusing ring was well-damped and turned quite smoothly. I really appreciated having an aperture ring, and the knurling is both modern-looking and functional. At the front of the lens, you will find the 72mm filter threads, and I could see this lens being great as a go-anywhere travel landscape lens that can also take some rough weather.

Close-up of a black camera lens showing "24/1.4" and an aperture scale ranging from f/1.4 to f/16, with textured and ribbed surface details visible.

This wide-angle lens lets in a lot of light when you need it.

A close-up photo of a black camera lens with a textured zoom ring, AF/MF switch, and a red accent near the mount, placed on a white surface with a soft background.

Meike Mix 24mm f/1.4: A Versatile Choice

A 24mm focal length may not be my go-to look for wide-angle shots, but I do appreciate how versatile they are. If I had to pick only one wide-angle lens, from a practical perspective, it would be right around 24mm. I can get dramatic vistas and cover the whole story in tight spaces, but I also have the ability to crop tighter to get focused compositions for street photography. A sharp 24mm lens can easily function as a handy 28mm or 35mm lens without sacrificing too many megapixels.

And this Meike lens is definitely sharp, as it gave me plenty of detail to work with when shooting at f/1.4.

A low-angle view of tall modern skyscrapers and the lit facade of Union Station at dusk, with a bird flying in the blue evening sky.

People walking on a city street as steam rises from a grate, with dramatic light and shadows; most of the figures are in silhouette, and tall buildings are visible in the background.

A man in a plaid shirt crosses a city street at a crosswalk near a brick building with a large “FILMORE’S HOTEL” sign. Tall modern buildings and overhead wires are visible under a blue sky.

Close-up of vibrant green pine needles on a bush with blurred orange string lights and an out-of-focus dark background, creating a soft, warm atmosphere.

Having that fast aperture also meant that I could wander the streets of Toronto at night and not worry about high ISO values or slow shutter speeds. If I wanted to get up close to something and push the background into a soft blur, the Meike 24mm lens could handle it with aplomb. I could also go the opposite way and use extremely tight apertures to bring out pleasant-looking sunstars into the compositions. This turned out to be a versatile lens choice, indeed.

A tall, pointed church steeple with a green spire rises against a blue sky with wispy clouds, partially framed by a dark shadow in the foreground. Warm sunlight illuminates the building's stone facade.

A person wearing dark pants and a light blue shirt uses a broom to clean an empty concrete fountain or pool in an outdoor urban area, with greenery and buildings in the background.

A black-and-white photo of a person working inside a small street food cart at night, surrounded by city lights and tall buildings, with a sign on the cart that reads "Have a Nice Day.

A woman in a dress walks down a staircase while looking at her phone in a dimly lit, modern building. The scene is in black and white.

One of my favorite things to photograph is people on the street, and you might not consider a 24mm wide-angle to be an ideal portrait lens. However, you can make some interesting shots where the environment becomes part of the composition and scale and perspective are distorted in compelling ways. The Meike 24mm also nudges you to engage with people closely and create shots together, and I found that to be a really rewarding part of the experience. Meeting the friendly people of Toronto and coming away with some good shots was a highlight of the trip for me.

A person wearing a white cap, sunglasses, and a denim jacket exhales a cloud of smoke while standing on a city sidewalk in front of a store with a glass door and display shelves.

A man in a white sweater and gray pants performs a trick on a skateboard in front of a geometric metallic sculpture in an urban setting.

An older man with long hair, wearing sunglasses, a beige blazer, light pants, and cream shoes, sits on stone steps outdoors holding a wooden cane, with city buildings in the background.

A smiling barista with dark hair stands behind a coffee counter, holding a tablet. Coffee equipment, cups, and framed pictures decorate the cozy cafe setting.

I also made a new friend while strolling about the town, and he offered to do some skateboarding tricks for me to photograph. The Meike 24mm lens was ideal for this because I could get up close and really add drama to the scene, but I was also impressed that the STM focusing motor could keep up with the action. The Meike lens fully supported the advanced autofocusing on the Sony a7RV camera that I was using. I had no issues tracking subjects as they whipped past the frame, and the focusing on the eyes was always locked on and precise.

A woman sits alone with a backpack in a city plaza, surrounded by tall glass skyscrapers. Sunlight shines through the clouds, casting dramatic shadows across the scene.

A person wearing a red jacket and backpack stands alone in a beam of light on a large, empty, textured concrete surface with darkness surrounding them.

Nighttime view looking up at tall office buildings with illuminated windows, forming a circle against a dark blue sky; a single lit dome or spire is visible in the distance at the bottom center.

A person wearing headphones works on a laptop at a bright yellow outdoor table in an urban setting. A coffee cup and backpack are nearby, and tall buildings are visible in the background.

Meike Mix 24mm f/1.4 Is Easy To Love

The latest Meike Mix lens can be relied upon to deliver shots you’ll love. I found it to be rugged and convenient to carry, and it gave me the shallow depth of field look when I needed it, and excellent low-light photos when push came to shove.

A man stands behind a curved wooden railing in a modern building with sweeping architectural lines, illuminated by natural light. The photo is in black and white.

A man in a white sweater and gray pants rides a skateboard on a city sidewalk. Behind him is a black fence, a decorative car sculpture, and a tall building with a large CTV sign.

A man in mid-air performs a skateboard trick on a city street, surrounded by tall buildings. The CN Tower is visible in the background. The scene is black and white, with a lively urban atmosphere.

If you want soft backgrounds, contrasty images, and a lens that captures lots of light, along with an excellent tactile experience, the Meike Mix 24mm f/1.4 is definitely worth a look. The best part is that all of this quality can be had for only $589. It’s hard to find excellent f/1.4 prime lenses, and even harder to find them for a good price, but I can say that the Meike Mix 24mm f/1.4 accomplished this exact task for me among the streets of Toronto.

Welcome to a PetaPixel Showcase, in which our staff gives you a hands-on with unique and interesting products from across the photography landscape. The Showcase format affords manufacturers the opportunity to sponsor hands-on time with their products and our staff, and it lets them highlight what features they think are worth noting, but the opinions expressed from PetaPixel staff are genuine. Showcases should not be considered an endorsement by PetaPixel.

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