Tag: Brightin Star

We all know that 50mm is a very popular focal length among manufacturers, and many Chinese manufacturers are doing the same focal length with a slight difference in aperture value. To name a few that I have shared before: TTArtisan 50mm f0.95, Artralab 50mm f1.2, AstrHori 50mm f1.4 tilt, and even their released not all ago Brightin Star 50mm f1.4.

Intro

While I thought Brightin Star was focusing on producing more autofocus lenses, they decided to release this manual lens. So I guess there is still demand for manual lenses in the market.

Before I proceed further, I appreciate the kind people in Brightin Star for their continuous support for sending me this lens for a sharing session opportunity. Having said that, Brightin Star has no influence on my opinion.

Design and Build Quality

At first glance, the bold, bright yellow brand immediately grabs attention—a clever way to stand out in a crowd. Upon closer look, you’ll notice the lens body is made of metal with a matte finish, giving it a sleek, modern look that helps it stand apart from the rest.

Like all manual lenses, it features an aperture ring, and it’s clickable. I’ve had a great experience with this ring, as it provides a light and smooth tactile feedback when you adjust it to different aperture settings.

Weighing in at 443 grams, the lens feels surprisingly dense. You can definitely sense its weight, especially when paired with a smaller camera like the X-M5, where the unbalanced heft becomes more noticeable. And, by the way, it has a 62mm filter size.

Image Quality

Like the Brightin Star 35mm f0.95, the image quality is soft and lacks contrast when shot wide open but slightly usable. Some photographers may appreciate this look, but it’s not quite to my taste. I find that stopping down to f2 or higher gives me better contrast and sharper results that is within my acceptance. Additionally, for the best optical performance, it’s ideal to center your subject, as the corners tend to be much softer.

When it comes to background or foreground blur, I am not particularly fond of the rendering. It feels a bit busy to some (but very busy in my own opinion) and can be quite distractive from the main subject. One notable issue is barrel distortion, which becomes quite apparent when shooting wide open. If you’re particular about distortion, this could be a concern for you.

On the plus side, I didn’t notice any chromatic aberration in the shots I took. Vignetting is present at wide open, though it’s relatively mild.

As for the sun stars, the lines are visible but not as well-defined as I would have liked.

Focusing

The focus ring is smooth, but I can feel slightly damp when I rotate. Nevertheless, it is an enjoyable experience.

As for the focus range between MFD to infinity, the focus throw is approximately 90°. The focus throw is similar to Brightin Star 35mm f0.95, giving a fair amount of “traveling” for precise focusing.

Minimum Focus Distance (MFD)

50cm minimum focus distance is decent, fair, and also similar to many other lenses of the same focal length. However, the softness and lack of contrast have elevated, even more obvious for wide-open shots.

Price Point

The introductory price is 199 USD, and then it will be priced at 219 USD thereafter. I have no idea how long this introductory price will last. But if you really like this lens, I think you can act quickly.

However, this is a very competitive price point. Because Meike 55mm f1.4 is selling very similarly at this price point, and Brightin Star 50mm f1.4 is trading at 239 USD. Both are autofocus lenses, and they have a pretty good IQ.

Others

One standout feature of this lens is its built-in lens hood, a unique touch I haven’t encountered before. Typically, manual lens manufacturers rarely include a lens hood with the lens itself, but Brightin Star goes a step further by not only providing one, but also integrating it directly into the lens body. However, there is a small downside: the hood feels a bit flimsy. Hopefully, Brightin Star will refine this innovative design in future lenses.

Like the 35mm f0.95, this lens doesn’t have an f5.6 option. Instead, it jumps from f/4 to f/8, skipping two full stops of light. However, this may not be a significant issue if you’re looking for a brighter lens.

There’s one more distinctive feature that I haven’t fully tested yet: it’s the first time a Chinese manufacturer has added luminous paint to the numbers on the scale marks of APS-C lenses, making it possible for photographers to see the numbers in low-light conditions.

Who is this for?

If you are looking to experience manual handling experience, this 75mm (equivalent to 35mm format), is a nice-looking manual portrait lens for someone who is looking for one. When it comes to genres, it is suitable for most typical ones like street, documentation, product shots, etc.

Conclusion

I had a very positive impression of the Brightin Star 35mm f0.95, the 50mm f0.95 is no exceptional.

The Brightin Star 50mm f0.95 is a decent lens, but given its price, I might find it hard to recommend, especially for those looking for a portrait lens. There are several solid alternatives in a similar price range that offer autofocus. Unless you’re specifically attracted to its design, the unique lens hood, or you love its sibling, it may not be the best choice. On the bright side, the handling experience is quite enjoyable.

I’m hopeful that Brightin Star will continue to innovate and improve, and I’m particularly looking forward to seeing more autofocus lenses from them in the future.

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.

If you like my works, please follow me on either one of the 2 Instagram accounts:

https://www.instagram.com/alwinkok_

https://www.instagram.com/alwin.portraits

If you have a Facebook account, feel free to join Fujifanboys FB group.

If you like my content and you want to show some support and keep this blog alive, you can buy me a coffee here.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If you like my works, please follow me on either one of the 2 Instagram accounts:

https://www.instagram.com/alwinkok_

https://www.instagram.com/alwin.portraits

If you have a Facebook account, feel free to join Fujifanboys FB group.

If you like my content and you want to show some support and keep this blog alive, you can buy me a coffee here.