Kase Announces a 200mm f/5.6 Catadioptric (Mirror) Lens
Kase, a Chinese filter company, announced the release of its first ever lens. The Kase 200mm f/5.6 is a catadioptric lens and will be available in six different mounts, including RF, GFX, and Z.
Up to now, Kase has focused on filters. The company makes a wide variety of filters, including ND, UV, graduated, and infrared filters. It also recently released a filter to assist with focusing during astrophotography shoots.
Many of its offerings utilize a magnetic adapter ring that screws onto the lens, allowing users to quickly attach and remove the actual filter without screwing it on and off. That’s especially ideal when someone wants to layer multiple filters together. Its magnetic system is extremely popular because of its ease of use, along with its excellent quality, durability, and lightweight design.
Beyond circular filters, the company also makes drone and DJI filters, clip-in filters, rear-mounted filters, and a range of larger square filters and filter holders for different formats.
A lens seems like a big jump from filters, so it will be interesting to see how it performs. Not much information is available yet, so photographers must wait and see to a certain extent.
What is known is that the Kase 200mm is a full-frame format lens with a f/5.6 maximum aperture. Kase designed the lens with six elements in five groups, as reported on Weibo. It features nano and multi-coatings to improve image quality and an aluminum lens barrel.
The Kase 200mm f/5.6 will be available in six different mounts, including Fuji medium format G mount, Fuji X mount, Canon RF mount, Canon EF mount, Sony E mount, and Nikon Z mount. It weighs between 380 to 450 grams (13.4 to 15.9 ounces) depending on the selected mount.
The new lens is a catadioptric lens, otherwise known as a mirror lens. It’s essentially like a compact telescope with a series of angled circular mirrors that reflect light around to magnify a portion of the original image before it reaches the camera’s sensor. The benefit of these lenses is that they are lightweight and compact. They are also more affordable than other lens designs.
This telephoto prime lens can focus as close as two meters and offers a maximum magnification of 0.11x. It features a 67mm filter diameter. It is a manual focus lens and doesn’t offer image stabilization or weatherproofing. That’s not much of a surprise, though, given the roughly $528 price (converted from 3,800 CNY).
Image credit: Kase
