When comes to 35mm f0.95, we are not lacking of any choices in the market. To name a few: Mitakon ZhongYi 35mm f0.95, TTArtisan 35mm f0.95, 7artisans 35m f0.5 and Meike 35mm f0.95. And then, here comes the latest 35mm f0.95 competitor from Brightin Star. This was only announced in September 2023. Can it stand out from the rest?
Intro
Brigthin Star is a name that may not be familiar to everyone. In case someone ever wonders, the name “Brightin Star” is a direct translation of their Chinese brand name, 星曜. It is a strange and catchy English name but good enough to get my attention. I also tried to understand more about this company. Unfortunately, there is very little information about them. So based on my limited capability, this company started off in 2019 (at least from the news announcement they had made) and they did make several manual lenses (both full frame and APS-C) for various mounts like M-mount, E-mount, and M43 mount, etc.
Design and Build Quality
It has been a long time since I mentioned how much I like the design, the color, and the handling of the lens. Yes, this lens design pretty much resembles Leica lens design. Not a bad thing and pretty much other manufacturers did something similar as well. Nevertheless, the lens design from Brightin Star is aesthetically pleasing.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Brightin 35mm f0.95 @ 35mm . f0.95 . 1/7500″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
The 50mm (in full frame equivalent) lens is about 370 grams. You can feel how dense the lens is and how well the built quality is when you hold it in your hands. You can imagine how many glasses are there in this lens. As expected, this lens is metal-constructed.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Brightin 35mm f0.95 @ 35mm . f2 . 1/80″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
It comes with a 52mm filter-size thread. It’s a very good welcome for not burning a deep pocket for filter fans. One interesting detail here, the rear mount comes with black/grey coated. It gives a very premium feel to the overall viewing experience.
The aperture ring is great. It gives you very good clicky feedback when you rotate it. Ergonomic wise, you have no issue with changing the aperture as it has ample amount of space especially for those who have big fingers.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Brightin 35mm f0.95 @ 35mm . f8 . 1/220″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
As for the lens cap, it is a capped-on metal lens cap. Unlike other capped-on lens caps, it has a kind of cushion and you can feel it is there. It gives me a kind of satisfaction whenever I remove and put on the lens cap.
Image Quality
The image quality is phenomenal. It is probably the best f0.95 lens I have tested thus far. The result is not perfect but better than some of the counterparts I have tested. Typically, shooting at f0.95 will present you glowing and soft effect, but this lens does not behave this way. I know some photographers prefer glowing and soft effects, but I personally prefer this.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Brightin 35mm f0.95 @ 35mm . f0.95 . 1/8000″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
If you blow up the shot, you are still able to see the softness of the result. When comes to contrast and sharpness, it is also slightly better.
I have low expectations when comes to chromatic aberration and vignetting at wide open. Well, chromatic aberration seems to be present mildly in my tested shots but not that obvious. As for vignetting, it is present and considerably heavy as expected. Of course, the overall image quality improved from f2 onwards. And it looks the best at f2.8.
The fall-off between the focused subject and the foreground/background is a pleasure to view at. Not forgetting that shooting at f0.95, the focused subject is very pop out from the others and it should be expected to have this result.
As for the sun-star result, seems to be the same as the rest of the 35mm f0.95 lens. They are okay but not a tad sharp. Do bear in mind that flares will be introduced as well but I quite like how the flares are created.
Minimum Focus Distance (MFD)
37cm MFD is fine. Not the shortest or as close to the one from TTArtisan (@ 35cm), but not the worst too. Nevertheless, it does not lose out too much for MFD per se.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Brightin 35mm f0.95 @ 35mm . f0.95 . 1/480″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
As for the image quality, I think this is the weak point of this lens as it provides poor contrast and sharpness. Something to take note of.
Focusing
The focus ring is relatively smooth and there is nothing much to feedback about. It comes with minimal friction and it is comfortable enough to rotate the focus ring.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Brightin 35mm f0.95 @ 35mm . f0.95 . 1/40″ . ISO 3200 . Nostalgic Negative
As for the MFD to infinity, the focus throw is approximately 100°. Also, pretty much the same as the other 35mm f0.95 lenses out there, and it also gives a fair amount of “traveling” for precise focusing.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Brightin 35mm f0.95 @ 35mm . f4 . 1/800″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
Similar to the rest of the manual lenses, the infinity is not directly opposite to the MFD. In order to have the true infinity, you have to rotate back a little to achieve it (somewhere the infinity symbol is).
Price Point
At 199 USD, it is priced the same as the TTArtisan and 7artisan variants and slightly cheaper than the Meike at 259 USD and even cheaper than Mitakon at 399 USD.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Brightin 35mm f0.95 @ 35mm . f0.95 . 1/900″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
Others
If you have noticed, this lens does not come with f5.6. It jumps from f4 to f8, skipping two full stops worth of light. It is a strange lens design and this is my first time encountering this. But does it really affect my day-to-day usage with this lens? Probably not. If I want to bring this lens out for a shoot, what’s more important for me is the usability of the shots taken at wide-open, in this case, f0.95, rather than the missing out of f5.6.
If you are the kind that is into unique details, this lens comes with a black/dark grey coated rear lens element. While it does nothing but aesthetics, at least this is something different from the other manufacturers.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Brightin 35mm f0.95 @ 35mm . f0.95 . 1/150″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
Who is this for?
If you are new to manual lenses or you want to have an experience of what f0.95 is, this is one of the many manual lenses you can consider getting. With its focal length, this lens is pretty much suitable for many genres such as street, cityscape, portrait, documentary, and etc.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Brightin 35mm f0.95 @ 35mm . f0.95 . 1/100″ . ISO 200 . Nostalgic Negative
As for professional photographers, I believe you know whether you will need this lens for your professional works or causal.
Conclusion
I genuinely love this lens. Despite its shortfall on the MFD and missing f5.6, it is a great f09.5 lens to own. It has been a long time that I have enjoyed shooting at wide-open. I have more shots taken at f0.95 than in any other aperture value because I feel it should be the way. Plus given its 199 USD price point, I think it is pretty worth it. It may seem biased but really, it’s not.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Brightin 35mm f0.95 @ 35mm . f0.95 . 1/80″ . ISO 500 . Nostalgic Negative
Thank you for reading.
Disclaimer:
1. All the shots taken here are shot by me.
2. Most of the shots are straight out of the camera with some shots edited via In-Camera Raw Processing and Capture One.
3. The opinions are based on my experience. If there is any mistake, please kindly drop me a message and I will gladly make the amendment.
4. I reserve ownership of these images, if you wish to use my images, please notify me.
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