Fisheye lenses are perhaps not as common Today as they were let's say in the late 90s I remember watching skateboarding Videos and every single person shooting Skateboarding was using a fisheye lens But that's not to say that companies Still don't manufacture fisheye lenses Even though maybe their popularity has Declined over the years this is a brand New one from a company called Astra hori I've reviewed a couple of their lenses On this channel and this is a 12 Millimeter F 2.8 full frame fisheye lens That I'm not going to spoil it for you But it's pretty good it comes in a black Box with some nice foam padding keeping The entire lens safe there is a little Manual and that is it the Lens comes With a plastic rear lens cap and a large Friction mount front lens cap and this Is where I have my first complaint the Lens cap for a fisheye lens is important Because the front lens element is large And protrudes quite a bit the problem With this cap is that the little felt Inner liner comes up in spots and it has Already left some sticky residue on my Lens hood and it makes removing and Replacing this lens Hood well difficult Onto the lens it is a heavy one coming In at 762 grams that's over one and a Half pounds of metal and glass it feels Solid as a result with good finishes and Tolerances starting at the rear there is
A metal mount with no electronic Connections no weather sealing it's a Simple lens moving up there is a fisheye Lens label next to a very clicky Aperture ring eight clicks moves you From F 2.8 to F 16 and it has some nice Dampening and it also sounds good take a Listen Next up the lens is labeled 12 Millimeter F 2.8 and there is a focus Ring here the focus ring is heavy a bit Hard to turn because the grip isn't the Best but it is smooth in terms of Rotation there is a focal distance scale Here that is engraved not just printed And not much in terms of rotation right About 45 degrees takes you from one Extreme to the other at the top there is An aster hoary logo and this built-in Lens hood that not only blocks unwanted Flare but protects that huge front lens Element there's no writing around the Front it's Simple and Clean Interestingly inside this lens has a Five bladed diaphragm which is very Simple and maybe why this fisheye Performs the way that it does mounted on My a7c it's a nice combo it matches well Yes it does make for a very front heavy Setup but it's not unbearable certainly Something that you could carry around With you to capture that unique fisheye Perspective so I've used this lens on my Sony a7c for just a couple of days now I
Normally you want to take a longer Period of time to get a feel for the Lens and understand what it's about and What it's really like to live with but I Form my opinion very quickly after just Using this lens and then pulling up some Images on my computer And if I had to simplify everything Really this lens only has two problems Which is not bad at all the first Problem is the flare performance it Creates some very evident kinda strange Flares this is somewhat to be expected With a fisheye lens because of that huge Front lens element and the fact that you Are getting greater than a 180 degree Field of view with this lens on a full Frame sensor but there are some Interesting rainbow effects with the Flare at times as well which is unusual You might like it you might not but it Is there and the second problem is Corner performance and that is it in Terms of overall sharpness this lens is Excellent wide open at F 2.8 you get Remarkably good performance across I Would say 80 of the frame but then those Very corners and edges they get a little Soft and you start to see some chromatic Aberration show up as well and this is Unfortunate because for the most part The rest of the frame doesn't suffer Much from chromatic aberration it's Unusual for me to see so little of it on
A fisheye lens especially one as Inexpensive as this one but if you are Looking for your fisheye lens to be Sharp in the corners well this lens Isn't going to give you that and Realistically if you are shooting with a Fisheye you are looking for that strange Curved distorted look anyway so I don't Think the softer performance in the Corners is that big of a deal for this Lens because of what it is used for if You do need that sharpness however you Can stop this lens down to f8 and that Sharpens up the corners and improves Chromatic aberration in the edges quite A bit in terms of bokeh this lens isn't Going to give you a lot of it but when You focus on something close up I was Surprised to see the bouquet was smooth In the background it's not too Distracting and even with that five Blade diaphragm it did create bouquet Balls not bokeh pentagons focusing this Lens is easy I just program a button on My camera body to zoom in and then Focus Take the shot and then take a second Shot when my metering and white balance Has properly exposed the full frame so It's a great little fisheye lens if you Want to play around with a cheap manual Focus fisheye lens this thing is Available right now for about 230 Dollars US it's available in Sony E-mount Nikon Z Leica L and one more
That I'm forgetting but another Mount as Well I think it's the Canon RF and Really when you think about it for 230 Dollars there is a small handful of Lenses that are even available for Sony Full frame so in my mind this little Fisheye is quite the bargain and the Other thing to realize is that with just A few tweaks you could crop in and Correct some of this Distortion and Create perfectly usable Ultra wide shots With this lens yes it's more work than Just aiming and clicking but this lens Is significantly cheaper than any other Full-frame Ultra wide prime lens out There so that is my review of this lens It's better than I expected with good Chromatic aberration performance Excellent sharpness it's easy to use It's built well as long as you're okay With the less than optimal corners and The iffy flare performance it's not a Bad one let me know what your thoughts Are down in the comments section below If you are interested in reading more About this lens or possibly purchasing It I'll leave a link down in the Description as well and if you really Just want to get it for free then you Can leave a random comment down in the Comment section three days from now so That will be Friday the 30th I believe I Will pick a random comment and contact You and you can send me your address I
Will ship this out to you free of charge So you can get your hands on a Free Ultra wide angle fisheye lens so that's Going to be it for this review hope you Guys enjoyed it and you learned Something from it stay tuned for more Have a great day thank you and bye-bye
