Brightin Star 11m 2.8 fisheye lens

[BFR]

Hello guys,

here I share my impressions of the Brightin Star 11mm 2.8 fisheyelens for night photography, and share some photos taken with it at the end of the post.

 

Introduction

The Brightin Star 11mm 2.8 is a fisheye lens, with manual focus, which is available for different mounts, including Sony's E mount. It is a very interesting lens because of its focal length, large aperture and price - it currently costs just 213 euros (https://brightinstar.com/products/brightin-star-11mm-f2-8-full-frame-wide-angle-starry-sky-fisheye-lens-suitable). After some time using it with the Sony A7IV, here are my impressions of using it.

Construction

The construction of the lens is excellent; it is a tremendously robust lens, made primarily of metal. It weighs about 600 grams but, even so, it has a contained size compared to its competitors (such as the Samyang or the Astrhori 12mm 2.8). Its diaphragm ring, which is located on the front of the lens, has no clicks. Behind it is the focus ring, and it is followed by a (focusing) scale that is a great help when shooting at large apertures, especially at f2.8. The construction of the lens is generally very good.

 

 

Image Quality

The image quality of the Brightin Star 11mm 2.8 surprised me. It is a lens that, despite its price, is super sharp, especially in the center of the image. That sharpness drops off, as expected, in the corners. And although its sweet spot is at f5.6 to f8, it performs very well at f2.8, which makes it an ideal lens for night photography. As for vignetting, it is present at full aperture, and fades (without disappearing completely) as the aperture closes. As for chromatic aberrations, they are significantly present, but are easily correctable in processing. Regarding other distortions, it has the fisheye distortion, and some coma in the corners at full aperture. Finally, as for flares, I did not notice any special flare in the presence of lateral light sources. All in all, image quality is a plus for this lens.

 

Sunstar

Another of the lens' strong points, in addition to its sharpness, is the sunstar it creates. This sunstar appears easily from f4. It is 8-bladed and very beautiful. This is a feature to take into account as it can be used as another element to compose with when photographing the sun, the moon or some other point of light in our night photography.

 

Use

Due to its 2.8 aperture and the good performance at it, the Brightin Star 11mm 2.8 is a very interesting lens for night photography. Personally I have used it mostly for floors, combined with a longer focal length (previous pictures) to get the milky way in more detail. But even so, because of its wide angle of view, I have also found it useful for panoramas, since with just 6 vertical shots you can cover 240 degrees.

 

Conclusion

The Brightin 11mm 2.8 is a very economical fisheye lens that performs very well in both landscape and night photography, both for simple shots (correcting its distortion) and for panoramas. It stands out, above all, for its build quality, performance at full aperture and for its beautiful sunstar that comes out easily from f4.

 

I got it at the official website:

https://brightinstar.com/products/brightin-star-11mm-f2-8-full-frame-wide-angle-starry-sky-fisheye-lens-suitable-for-l-sony-e-nikon-z-canon-rf-mount?srsltid=AfmBOor8dl4EwqFJ5z6IUvL5VPiwkVKfjhW0r90r8MDCQR6AscZER9j0

 

Here I share some photos taken with it (the first two, only the foreground was tanken with it; the thrid one, all the photos of the panorama were taken with it).