The 35mm focal length, or roughly 50mm in full-frame equivalent, has always been one of my personal favourites. The versatility of this focal length works beautifully across genres like street, documentary, travel, and even portraits. That is probably why most manufacturers tend to prioritise 50mm equivalent lens before expanding into other focal lengths.
For Brightin Star, however, this marks their very first 35mm f1.4 manual lens.
Intro
While I continue waiting patiently for Brightin Star’s next autofocus release, the company seems determined to keep expanding its manual lens lineup. I suppose the demand for manual lenses is still very much alive in 2026.
When I first heard about this lens, my immediate thought was: How many 35mm f1.4 manual lenses are already out there? After digging around, I realised the market is actually crowded with options from third-party manufacturers such as TTArtisan, 7Artisans, Meike, Pergear, Kamlan, Neewer, and Zonlai. Brightin Star is simply the latest name joining the list.
Before going further, a huge thanks to the great people at Brightin Star for sending this lens over for review. As always, they had absolutely no influence over my opinions. Everything written here is based purely on my own experience with the lens.
Design and Build Quality
Brightin Star really knows how to make an attractive lens.
This 35mm f1.4 carries a completely different visual identity compared to some of their other manual lenses, such as the Brightin Star 35mm f0.95. It feels like the company is trying to create a more distinctive design language for this series, and honestly, I like it a lot.
At first glance, the lens blends retro charm with modern styling surprisingly well. It has that classic rangefinder-inspired aesthetic while still looking contemporary. It is one of those lenses that simply looks good mounted on any Fujifilm camera.
As I had expected, the lens feels solid in my hand. Weighing only 218 grams with a full metal construction, the build quality is excellent. Weight distribution across the body is nicely balanced, making it comfortable to use for extended periods. The small 49mm filter thread also gives you an idea of just how compact this lens really is. Unfortunately, it comes with a plastic lens cap, which I think could be better if it came with a metal one like their f0.95 variant or the Brightin Star 10mm f5.6 Pro.
One particularly interesting feature is the aperture ring. Brightin Star includes a small switch that lets you toggle between clicky and clickless aperture control. The clicked mode provides gentle but satisfying tactile feedback, while the clickless option will definitely appeal to videographers.
Image Quality
Manual lenses from Chinese manufacturers have often been associated with certain characteristics: soft rendering wide open, low contrast, noticeable chromatic aberration, and heavy vignetting. Of course, some photographers intentionally seek out those imperfections because they add character to the images.
Naturally, I expected something similar here. But after reviewing my shots taken wide open at f1.4, I was genuinely surprised.
No, the lens is not optically perfect, but it is noticeably more refined than many older manual lenses in this category. The improvements are obvious enough that you can immediately tell this is a newer optical design.
At f1.4, sharpness is decent with a touch of softness, which is fairly expected. Contrast is not especially rich, but it is still respectable. Surprisingly, vignetting is very well controlled to the point where I barely noticed it. Chromatic aberration is present, though thankfully not overly distracting.
The biggest weakness, however, lies in the rendering transition between the focused and out-of-focus areas. The foreground and background blur can sometimes appear harsh or slightly nervous, especially in busy scenes. That said, when the background is cleaner and less cluttered, the bokeh becomes much more pleasant and easier on the eyes.
Minimum Focus Distance (MFD)
The lens offers a minimum focusing distance of 30cm, which is relatively close for a lens in this focal range.
That extra close-focusing capability does add versatility, although image quality becomes noticeably softer when shooting wide open at minimum distance. If maximum sharpness is important, stopping down the aperture will definitely help recover more detail.
Focusing
Compared to the Brightin Star 35mm f0.95, the focusing ring here feels significantly smoother. There is very little resistance, making focus adjustments fluid and enjoyable. That said, some photographers prefer a bit more resistance, or at least “can feel” the resistance feedback.
The focus throw, from the minimum focus distance to infinity, is approximately 150 degrees. Some photographers love to have this degree of longer throw because it allows for more precise focusing. Others may find it slightly slower during fast-paced shooting situations since it requires more rotation back and/or forth.
Like many manual lenses, true infinity focus is not located exactly at the infinity marking itself. You will need to pull back slightly before the infinity symbol to achieve accurate infinity focus.
Price Point
At around 190 USD, this lens sits on the more expensive side compared to competing with other manual 35mm f1.4 options.
For comparison:
- 7Artisans 35mm f1.4: around 69 USD
- TTArtisan 35mm f1.4: around 73 USD
- Meike 35mm f1.4: around 100 USD
This definitely makes the buying decision more difficult, especially if you are shopping purely based on value.
However, Brightin Star’s lens is also one of the newest designs in this category, and it does show improvements in optical performance. In theory, the newer optical formula should provide better rendering and image quality than some of the older competitors.
For context, the 7Artisans version was released back in 2023, making it the second newest lens among similar configurations.
Others
Although Brightin Star officially describes this lens as “silver” colour, I would personally describe the finish as more of a gunmetal colour. So do not be surprised if it appears darker than expected in person.
Also, depending on the camera mount you choose, the dimensions and weight of the lens may vary slightly.
Who is this for?
This lens is ideal for photographers who do not mind spending a little extra for a newer manual lens design with improved optical quality and good handling.
It is also a surprisingly good option for photographers who are just starting to experiment with manual lenses. Thanks to its versatile focal length, like I mentioned earlier, it works well across multiple genres, including street photography, documentary, and journalism, portraits, and travel photography.
Conclusion
The Brightin Star 35mm f1.4 surprised me in several ways, particularly with its optical improvements. While it is far from being a flawless lens, I genuinely did not expect such decent and usable image quality at f1.4 from a manual lens in this category.
On top of that, the lens features a beautifully designed exterior that stands apart from Brightin Star’s previous offerings.
It has honestly been a while since I found myself enjoying a slightly bulkier manual lens. Normally, my go-to recommendations are smaller and more compact options like the ArtraLab 24mm f1.7 and TTArtisan 25mm f2. Yet somehow, this Brightin Star 35mm f1.4 has managed to earn a place on that recommendation list as well.
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.
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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Alwin Kok 