[Music] Hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today To give you a review of perhaps the most Unique lens that I have reviewed this Year and that is the incredibly tiny Bright and star 28mm f2.8 this is an M Mount lens not only is this lens Incredibly small it fits easily down in The palm of your hand but it is the Shallowest lens that I've ever seen with The distance from the mount to the front Of the lens being less than 10 mm on top Of that while there are some comparable Lenses out there for M Mount they tend To have very small maximum apures like F5.6 whereas this lens has not only a Maximum apture of f2.8 it has functional Image quality at f2.8 as well so the Question to be answered today is this Little micro lens as I'm calling it a Novelty or is this a real camera CA lens And is it worth 325 bucks well let's Find out as we dive in together I'll Give you an overview of performance and Then if you want a more detailed look at The image quality you can either Jump Ahead to that in the timestamps below or You can just stay tuned until the end Now as noted this is a Leica M mount Lens way that Brighton stars is actually Sharing it is that they will sell it Packaged with adapters to work on Different more common mounts like Canon R RF or Nikon Z Sony E Mount even Fuji X
Mount I've actually used this utilizing The tech art LM ea9 adapter the Interesting thing about the tech art Adapter of course is it does give you Autofocus on Sony ount bodies and so That makes for a slightly unique Experience this thing is so small However that it's actually dwarfed by The Fairly slim Tech art adapter but When it's popped in there it almost just Looks like a little bit of a lens cap There in in the front of the LM Adapter as already noted the lens easily Fits in the palm of the hand it is 51.4 Millim in diameter if you look at the Overall length going all the way back Into what kind of goes inside the camera It's 21.5 millim in diameter but as noted It's only 9.9 millim that that comes out Beyond the end of the body the lens Weighs in at only 125 G though the Reason why it weighs even that much is This is actually a really premium con Construction it's all brass and it has This beautiful black lacquer finish Which is quite unique that combined with The various you know yellow imprinting On there it really looks like a little Bit of an art piece now obviously you're Probably not going to have filters in There that are going to fit a lens like This but it does come with a little 25.5 Mm UV filter to put on there as a
Protection and so you can either keep That on there to protect the front Element or you can use this little tiny Screw on metal lens cap I should note That this is an either or Arrangement You either have to unscrew the UV filter And then screw the cap in or vice versa Either way both of these things because They're so incredibly small they're Going to be quite easy to lose this Front cap is basically the size of like A CR I think it's 2032 battery that goes Into even some watches and so it's it's Really really small so you're going to Watch want to watch out for that it has Quite a beautiful nine rounded blade Aperture Iris and as you can see here Because it's so present there it really Becomes a part of the overall look of The lens and again I'm going to have a Lot of fun taking pictures of this lens Because it is quite beautiful the focus Ring is handled via this little lever Towards the bottom of the lens and it Has about 55 degrees of rotation it Moves nice and smoothly no real issues There with the tech art adapter I do get Some measure of autofocus but you do Have have to set focus in the right Position to get uh you know that to work Properly for me I found with this Particular lens that I kept it at about The uh 10 foot range and somewhere in There allowed me to get both infinity
And up close on that note you really Can't focus all that closely it only Focuses as closely as 70 CM I could Cheat that a little bit by using the Adapter which almost acts like a bit of An extension tube and so if I put it to Its minum Focus level and then I used The adapter I could actually Focus Within that which made the lens uh Frankly more useful for my kind of Purposes the aperture ring here is just This little ring that's right here and Particularly once you put on that UV Filter there is very little to get your Finger on there's no actual ring Slim's Too thin for anything like that and so What you have is just more of a kind of A beveled um Edge there that has some Grooves on it that will allow you to get A finger on there and to rotate it this Is the most difficult part of operation For a couple of reasons number one it's It's winter you can forget operating This in gloves because it's difficult to Do with just your finger but on top of That it's because there's there's no Detent there's nothing really hardly to Feel you're very likely to be unable to Do this from the back of the camera You're almost certainly going to have to Rotate it around to where you can see This and you can select an aperture Value between f2.8 and F16 this lens Does have full Rangefinder coupling if
You're actually using it on an Mount Camera like it's designed for obviously That was not pertinent to my particular Review but anyway this is a lens that It's it's beautiful beautiful to look at It does handle well except for that Aperture ring is very difficult to Operate but uh you know the lens does Actually work and it is beautifully made Now optically this lens has six elements In five groups and what you will find as You begin to examine the optical Performance in the MTF MTF shows a quite A sharp Center and mid-frame mid-frame Stays at a very high level but you get That out to about the apsc image Circle Edge and after that and out to the the Edge of the fullframe image Circle There's a huge drop off and by the way We're going to see that definitely Happens in real life as Well now what's interesting is that this It's not that this lens has any kind of Mechanical issue with not covering the Fullframe image Circle there is Vignetting but it's all kind of natural Optical vignetting about right under Three stops of vignette but that's Manageable and it's correctable so it's Not a mechanical vignette and this lens Not being able to cover that full frame IM image Circle it does have a bit of Barrel Distortion it took about a plus Eight for me to correct that uh
Surprisingly uh a aberration fringing Was really well controlled both the Longitudinal style before and after the Plane of focus and then the lateral Along the edges of the frame there Really wasn't issues with either one so That actually surprised me now while the Lens in real world use is surprisingly Sharp in the center and mid-frame this Is a lens that really works well if You're composing in the rule of thirds Area um it's really strong in those Zones it's actually stronger in some Cases when particularly when stop down In my experience my test I actually Found it to be sharper in the mid-frame Rule of thirds area than what I did in The center of the frame but what you Will find is that there is basic Ally no Image quality in the corners ever uh Even stopped down to f8 I did my test on A 61 megapixel Sony a7r Mark 5 so you Know defraction starts to kick in after That and even at f8 there is basically No image quality in the corners it Actually surprisingly was better at F-16 Even though defraction is starting to Soften the image elsewhere the corners Were probably at their best and they're Still not very good so if you're someone That prioritizes needing sharpness in The corners this lens is not for you at All but I do think the lens will work Well for those that don't actually
Typically need sharp corners and just Need sharpness more in the rule of third Zones the bouquet quality is actually Quite good for such a tiny little lens There is some outlining but I found that I could get fairly decent background Blur and so that wasn't really an issue Although if you're using it on Mount and You don't get that advantage of being Able to focus a little bit closer you Will be limited by how much you can blur Out of Background by the fact that you Can't focus any closer than 70 CM so you Can't get much magnification of your Subject this lens is incredibly flare PR Obviously with this kind of design There's not really any room there for Any kind of lens hood and as a byproduct I found that the lens was susceptible to Lots of different kinds of flares but Particularly to side flare even if the Sun is not in the frame at all even a Fairways out of the frame if it's Directional or a light is directional You are going to get some significant Flare artifacts as you can see here now Color Edition I found to be kind of a Mixed bag in in some situations I found Like color saturation was on the low Side and there was maybe a very slight Magenta shift to the look of images Shooting raw I could obviously process Lenses to taste and so I like the images That I got but that's something to bear
In mind in other situations it suited The subject and I thought that images Looked great it is a piece of art if You're into photography it is definitely A beautiful beautiful little piece of Art but it is a functional lens I think That it's probably best suited for Someone who's looking for a very Lowprofile street photography type setup And so maybe you're going to use a Compact or even a range find finder Style Body this lens it's basically like You don't even have a lens on there at All so it makes for a very very slim Profile and I think that it probably Suits where you're not looking at having Corners really all that uh sharp and as A byproduct I think it it can really Work for that kind of situation if You're someone who really likes more Quirky kind of Photography gear and You're not really a big fan of the Conventional approach to Modern lenses This may be just the kind of lens that You're looking for and as an added bonus It looks very hipster cool when mounted On your camera I'm Dustin Abbott and if You look in the description down below You can find linkage to my full text Review and also to an image gallery There are buying links there and if you Want a more Deep dive into the image Quality stay tuned we'll jump in right After
[Music] This So the Brighton star 28mm really kind of Looks like a novelty so I was Interesting to see how it actually holds Up now you can see through the tech art Adapter I have set the proper focal Length but for some reason it registers As the 40mm F2.8 so looking at vignette and Distortion you can see there's Definitely some pronounced vignette There and there is some Barrel Distortion though it's not too severe I Corrected the barrel Distortion with a Plus eight that doesn't get me 100% There but close enough to where I feel Like it's the correct balance before it Starts to create some inversion uh along The edges and so I'm happy with that you Can see that it takes a pretty Significant amount of vignette Correction to correct for the corners And I could probably Edge it up even Just a little bit more so we're we're Talking about over three stops of Vignette in the corner probably not Surprising considering how tiny the Thing is now the lens does have some Longitudinal type chromatic aberration But you can see it's not terrible there Is mostly a little bit of green fringing After the plane of focus not a whole lot Before the plane of focus and we can see
That actually here I would say that the Overall contrast is pretty good and the Detail is quite nice there valuing for Lateral chromatic aberration is a little Tougher because as we're going to see This lens does not really resolve the Corners on a fullframe sensor however You can see that here along the edges of The frame in this section the black to White transitions look really nice and Clean and so lateral chromatic Aberration is not really an issue either So of course throwing this little tiny Optic on a 61 megapixel sensor and then Showing the results at 200% seems a bit Onfair but hey we're not really about Fairness around here you can see in the Middle of the frame that while contrast Isn't off the charts there is a decent Amount of contrast and detail there Mid-frame looks really quite decent not Like topnotch but definitely better than Average and it's really only when you Get towards the corners that you can see This lens really does not resolve the Corners on a full-frame sensor it's Going to get you about 90% of the way There but that is that's not even Resolution there so for a quick point of Comparison against a recent 28mm lens That I reviewed on this exact same Camera and that's the vrox 28mm f1.8 now I'm going to look at both lenses wide Open so this is the V Ro at f1.8 it's
Actually maximum apture of f2.8 it just Doesn't report correctly through the Adapt Tech art adapter there in the Middle of the frame you can see as I Pointed out that contrast is in detail Is it's not anywhere near what the vrox Is the vrox really is quite a sharp lens And in the middle of the frame you can See that the vrox is definitely has Better contrast and detail as well it's When you get into the corners of course That it is night and day because the vro Is doing a quite a good job in the Corners whereas this brighten star lens Doesn't really resolve the corners now If we stop down to f4 on the right we Can see that um it doesn't really make a Radical difference as of yet I do think The mid-frame contrast is improving There and in the Corners you know it's starting to take a Little bit of shape but it's still far From resolving anything by f5.6 you can See that resolution is trying to creep Its way towards the edge not really Quite there in the middle of the frame However things are looking a little bit Better there and the mid-frame is Looking excellent I would say the Mid-frame to me looks better than what The center does let's just take a look Here at other spots over here on the Left side we can see also still looking Really really fantastic and if we go
Down into this edge here you can see That it's definitely making an Improvement as resolution attempts to Reach there but as we get down towards This corner obviously nothing there and Thus if we look up in this corner you Know there's a little bit of resolution Up to this point and then it starts to Fade and then up into the right corner Similar kind of scenario and so the Centering seems to be quite good it just Doesn't quite cover the fullframe image Circle if we stop down to f8 we can see Once again just a little bit more into That corner down on this side you can See that you know resolution is trying To creep into the face a little bit Start to see this Tech starting to Resolve still a long long way to go but Elsewhere I mean that's looking really Really fantastically sharp and if we Come back to the center of the frame the Center is looking quite good though Again I still stand by comparatively I Would say that the mid-frame performance Is better than the center now at f11 We're starting to lose a little bit of Contrast due to defraction but it still Looks really quite good there where it's The best and in some ways we're getting Our best performance performance into The corner thus far not amazing but Better but everywhere else in the frame It actually looks really really good now
Things a little bit softer at F-16 due To defraction but I just wanted to see Out of interest to see into the corners And yes the one place where that's an Exception is that the increasing kind of Resolution more and more being in Focus Allows us to see more in the corner There so how does this play out in the Real world we can take a look at a few Real world shots here we can see in the The middle of the frame resolution looks Fantastic however if we get off to the Edge of the frame doesn't look so good There because of depth the FI but Interestingly we see that up here Doesn't look too bad until you get right To that corner you can see almost like a Line where resolution stops there and so That's definitely a factor for this lens One more example here this shot I think Looks really good if you accept that Little bit there some cases you may just Want to crop in just a little bit in Eliminate those corners but in the Center of the frame that looks really Really crisp very very good detail and Across most of it here until you get Right to that edge looks quite good now Another thing that I noted is that Colors can be a little flat from this Lens and so you can see here on the uh Left side before I started to process That colors are quite low saturation and On the right I've tried to introduce
Some saturation back into there now all Of that is a taste related thing but it Is something that I observed likewise Here I had to dial in a little extra Saturation but again the image I think Looks pretty good in this shot it's low Contrast and kind of low saturation but It kind of worked for the setting and so I actually really liked the overall Aesthetic here and thought this was a Great looking image now natively this Lens has very very low magnification you Can see here that it doesn't even look Like an attempt to get maximum Magnification by the way it looks really Sharp there that's one nice thing is you Get a really flat plan of field if You're looking at my typical test Subject because it's occupying just a Little bit of this if you go over to the Towards the corners things not looking So hot but very very low levels of Magnification I'm able to game that a Little bit by using the tech art adapter Which actually allows you to kind of Focus closer than what a lens natively Will and uh and so as a byproduct I was Able to get in a little bit closer up Close really doesn't look too bad you Will see a get to flare in just a moment This lens does flare quite heavily and Of course there is no hood for it and This shot here again because of the tech Art adapter I could get closer and I was
Quite impressed by how good the detail Was there but then also you can see Looking at the background that the the Bouquet is actually fairly nice there There's a little maybe a little bit more Outlining than what I would like but you Know some bokeh is is about taste some People like more definition and so if You like that then you'll maybe Appreciate the lens and again subject Looks pretty good there here's another Shot that I felt like the background Looks quite creamy really in that shot And the detail looks really fantastic And so it's lens is like this where I Feel like this tiny thing punches above Its weight now again because I was able To get extra close due to the tech art Adapter I was able to you know almost Use it like an extension tube at this Close it's not 100% in terms of it's the The detail is delivering but you know Makes for a usable image now in this We'll start to look at our flare Resistance so in this case the sun is Actually out of the frame I like the Look of the image I will say that but You can see that we're getting these Kind of shafts coming uh shafts of light Coming off kind of a flare type artifact The image is low contrast and low Saturation but it it kind of works and So I like it here again this is going to Be a taste related thing a lot going on
Just catching the light coming through The window there and so you can see it's Doing a lot of wild and wacky things in A more conventional type shot you can See it's it's not quite so artistic just Some kind of blobs in this case as I Stop down a bit we get more pronounced Colors like that and stopping down Further that pattern becomes much more Defined and you can get a little bit of Look at the Sunburst effect probably the Biggest negative that I would associate With the flare resistance is any kind of Side light again because it's such a Tiny narrow little optic with a uh glass Element right up there up front it is Susceptible to any kind of in this case The sun's not even close to being in the Frame it's just a s side light but you Can see it really has impacted the image So if youve stuck around to the end Thank you so much for watching here Today I hope that this has helped to Answer the questions and the Deep dive As to whether or not this is a lens for You as always thanks for watching have a Great day and let the light [Music] In F
