So what do you do when every lens has Already been invented and released well You probably go out and you make weirder And weirder lenses that's what Astra Hori did with this 18 millimeter f8 it's A fixed f8 lens now when I got this box In the mail I thought it could not get Any more boring than this but it has a Hidden secret surprise and that is a Built-in tilt feature so in this video I'm going to check it out it comes in a Small black box with a manual a metal Front lens cap and a plastic rear cap The lens is extremely compact I would Say it's a pancake it's all metal and Glass but very light at 168 grams and It's designed for full-frame Sony E-mounts although I would argue it's More suitable for a PSC cameras more on That later around the rear there is an All black metal lens mount no weather Sealing no electronic connections the Astra hori logos here lens specs and Then you have this weird rotate section Of the lens with some markings so what Happens is you line up these red Triangles and you can push the lens to The side and it offsets the entire lens Body you can see the rear element moves To one side of the mount and there are Distinct clicks at each 45 degrees so You can offset your shots at different Angles although primarily you will Probably only use it vertically or
Horizontally in front of all of this is A focus ring that is smooth and well Damped although at f8 who knows if it Will get much use finally around the Front there is an r logo that I don't Understand lens specs again and 58 Millimeter filter thread it has a very Small front lens element and inside There are nine elements in nine groups Which is impressive mounted on a camera The lens looks great it's compact light No complaints and it does look Interesting as soon as you start to tilt It alright so my first question is What's the point uh you guys know that I Like Fast primes give me an 18mm meter F 1.4 not an 18 millimeter f8 but what This lens does and who it's really Tailored to is a very specific group of People those who like to photograph Buildings outside in good lighting and Bright sunlight and have an affinity for Straight lines that's really all I can Come up with so I took this lens out on My Sony a7c and shot some buildings and Let me just say this isn't the most Inspiring lens out there to shoot I did However think it was interesting to play Around with the Tilt aspect of the lens And the results are noticeably different With a typical wide angle lens you shoot A building like this and you'll get Converging lines with this Astra hori Lens you can offset it and get nearly
Perfectly straight lines out of the Camera now you do have to deal with some Vignetting which I will mention later But it's an interesting result and Before you guys go crazy in the comments Yes you can fix this sort of stuff in Post if you want to without anything C Lens get on Photoshop and Lightroom and Most of it can be quickly dealt with so The idea with this lens is you can go Out shoot with less Distortion and Hopefully not have to edit or edit less At least but there are some issues Optically the lens is fine in terms of Sharpness I should expect no less from a Fixed f8 lens there is a little bit of Chromatic aberration still at times Which is disappointing the vignetting on A full-frame sensor is noticeable which Is also not great and as soon as you Start to use the Tilt feature of this Lens you get heavy circular vignetting Which is odd because again this is a Full frame lens according to the specs But I wouldn't say that this is a full Frame lens according to Performance and That's where I have an issue with this Lens if it's designed to help you take Pictures of buildings and not have to Edit them in post for converging lines But instead forces you to still edit Them in post for heavy vignetting that Needs to be cropped is this lens really So solving a problem I don't know if you
Tilt the lens horizontally you get even Heavier vignetting all of this really Proves my point that this is more suited For an aps-c sensored camera than a full Frame one but I'll be honest after Playing around with this lens for two Days I really didn't want to go out and Shoot it on my a6100 ADD to that when You do use it it's tough to use the Focus ring without accidentally rotating The Tilt mechanism of the lens granted With this lens you can focus it at Infinity and never touch it for the most Part when you do Focus up close you get A little background bouquet but not much All in all it's an interesting lens I Have to give them that and it is very Budget friendly just over a hundred Dollars U.S but it's not my favorite Astral hori lens out there so if you Guys are interested in getting this one I'm gonna just give it away so leave a Comment Down Below in the comment Section in three days I'll pick a random Comment and you will will get this lens Shipped out in the original box anywhere In the world so leave that down below And that's going to be it for this Review special thank you goes out to Astra hori for sending this lens out for Review and thank you guys so much for Watching and supporting this channel I Appreciate it very very much if you do Want to see more behind the scenes stuff
Follow me on Instagram at arthur213 and Stay tuned for more videos on this YouTube channel thank you guys so much Have a great day bye
