Greetings again everyone and today I'll Be checking out what is surely the Coolest looking little lens I've ever Seen in my life the fun leader X slim M 28 millimeter F 2.8 pancake lens it's Also one of the smallest lenses I've Ever handled well if mounted onto the Leica M Mount cameras it's designed for That is if you're shooting on a Sony E-mount camera or another system then You will need an adapter which spoils The effect a little but the overall Package still looks gorgeous in my Opinion this is a manual focus manual Aperture lens which offers a full frame Image Circle for Leica M Mount as I Mentioned and it's 360 US dollars or About 300 pounds here in the UK and the Lens is also on sale under the Brighton's tar Name by the way I'd like To thank fun leader very much for Sending me a copy of this lens for Evaluation although as usual this is a Totally independent review and as well As looking fabulous it has desirable Characteristics also a 28 millimeter F 2.8 lens might not be the most Spectacularly creative Optical design in The world but it is extremely useful for Street photography and general purpose Shooting being a moderately wide angle On full frame and offering a nice little Emphasis on your subject when used on Aps-c the lens itself truly is a bit of
A work of art just look at this thing It's very tough metallic and perfectly Assembled with a classic design almost Like something from some bygone era and Its weight is only 113 grams but its Small size does necessitate some rather Fiddly controls the focus is controlled By a lever at the side which does at Least turn very smoothly that bit quite Enjoyable to control actually and as you Can see here Focus breathing is only Moderate Trying to manipulate the lens's aperture Ring is super fiddly though it consists Of a very thin smoothly turning ring Just around the front glass element Itself very often while turning it you Will accidentally turn the manual focus Ring a little too so double check your Focus whenever you change aperture The Lens comes with a lovely little box also With a little carry bag and a very small Metallic screw-on lens cap with a 25.5 Millimeter filter thread that's as Tiny As the rest of the lens overall well the Lens has tight build quality to match Its gorgeous aesthetic look but it Certainly is a fiddly little thing what About image quality though I'll start by Testing it on my full frame camera a Sony a7r III with its 42 megapixel Sensor and Camera Corrections are not Available with this lens at F 2.8 image Quality is a little soft in the middle
But we can still see what's going on Well enough Corner image quality is Non-existent on a full frame camera in My tests I discovered that this was in Large part due to uneven field curvature Well let's stop down to F4 the corners Look brighter now but otherwise no Better however the middle of the image Now looks excellent stop down to F 5.6 For razor sharpness to emerge in the Middle the corners though are still Looking very weak at f8 and f11 there Are small improvements but the good news Is that if he's top all the way down to F16 we finally get some good Corner Sharpness but do you have to stop down Quite so far to get it but still at Least it's possible there for landscape Photographers okay let's see how the Lens performs on an abs-c camera in this Case my little 24 megapixel Sony a5100 F 2.8 looks a bit worse in the middle of The image on aps-c which was to be Expected Corner image quality is very Poor but at least not as bad as on full Frame stop down to F4 and to the corners Look just a little brighter the middle However now looks nice and sharp and at F 5.6 contrast becomes perfect the Corner image quality is a fair bit Better at F 5.6 also stop down to f8 for Great Corner sharpness and at f11 the Lens is razor sharp from corner to Corner so overall as you can see this
Lens is not an optical Powerhouse it Works a little better on aps-c than it Did on full frame although on both Formats I do wish it was sharper at F 2.8 even just in the middle of its Images let's take a look at Distortion And vignetting now on a full-frame Camera the lens project a fair bit of Barrel Distortion here and heavy Vignetting emerges at F 2.8 stop down to F4 or F 5.6 though for those Corners to Mostly brighten up the lenses minimum Focus distance unfortunately is a very Long 70 centimeters and that's probably One of my biggest disappointments about The thing as you can see here close-up Images are a little softer at F 2.8 but Thankfully from from F4 they sharpen up Very well okay let's see how well the Lens works against bright light whoa all Kinds of flowering issues are popping up Here and there's no way to use a lens Hood either so definitely keep this Thing well away from Bright Lights while We're working in the dark let's take a Look for coma and Sun Stars somewhat Unsurprisingly coma levels here are very Strong and this was with the lens Properly focused into the corner even Stopped down to f8 it's still there to Do at F16 and we're not really getting Any decent Sun stars out of it either And finally Boca although it's actually Very hard to get out of focus
Backgrounds out of this lens Particularly due to that long minimum Focus distance the boxer when you do get It looks a little edgy here but there's Nothing too problematic going on overall Well I don't really have much choice but To denounce this lenses poor image Quality unfortunately you've seen the Results for yourselves but is that Enough to put you off earning what could Be officially the world's most beautiful Looking pancake lens and the truth is It's still enjoyable to shoot with Seriously while I technically can't Recommend this thing still it's Certainly a beautiful object and fun to Use and I do think fun leader are going To sell a few of them and and good on Them I suppose Foreign Things actually firstly thank you for Watching secondly if you haven't already Check out the new playlists on a Playlist section of my channel which List my reviews Now by camera mount and In other cool ways to help you bounce The lens reviews that work for your Camera and finally thanks to my patreon Supporters of course patreon supporters Get all kinds of exclusive bonus content And early access to videos as well as a Warm fuzzy feeling deep inside them for Playing such a big part and keeping this YouTube channel going ciao for now
Everyone Thank you
