ROBIN WONG : Brightin Star 35mm F0.95 Mini Review

When I was sent the Brightin Star 35mm F0.95 for testing, my expectations on the lens was quite low, considering the budget price tag (the last I checked it was at USD179). However, I was pleasantly surprised after spending enough time with the lens, the performance exceeded my expectations. In short, the Brightin Sar 35mm was already quite sharp at wide open F0.95, and it does render beautiful bokeh. This could be the sharpest F0.95 manual focusing lens I have encountered, and I was very satisfied with the lens quality. Of course, it does come with some flaws, which I have discussed in detail in my video review here (click).

Lens is quite compact in size, but weighs about 370g

DISCLAIMER
This is not a sponsored post, though Brightin Star did send me this lens for review purposes. I did make sure in our communications that they have zero say in this review and I am free to voice my opinion about the lens. Usually I'd reject requests from third party manufacturers to review their manual focusing lenses, unless there is something specific that intrigued me. In this case, neither Panasonic nor OM System had made any F0.95 lenses, so I thought it would be fun to play with some "bokeh". All images were tested on OM System OM-1 camera, shooting in aperture priority.

DESIGN/BUILD

The Brightin Star 35mm F0.95 is very well made. Despite its large aperture F0.95, they managed to keep the size of the lens down, it actually is quite compact. The lens is quite hefty for such a small size, weighing at 370g. I like the all-black, minimalist and sleek design of the lens, it matches any of my Micro Four Thirds camera bodies very well. There are only two controls on the lens - manual focusing ring, which is smooth and easy to operate, as I find no issue nailing my shots in critical focus quite effectively, and an aperture ring which is clicked. I guess this lens is more suited for stills shooting rather than video, as video shooters would prefer clickless aperture ring. Handling of the lens was quite good and well-balanced on my OM System OM-1 camera body. The lens is also solidly built - Brightin Star claimed they used "aviation grade aluminum" for the lens body construction, and it does feel very well constructed.

SHARPNESS & BOKEH

Based on my previous experience dealing with extra bright aperture lenses (I had Kamlan 50mm F1.1 II and 7Atisans 35mm F0.95, and I have tried the variants of Voightlander F0.95 lenses for Micro Four Thirds before), the results are usually consistent, the lenses were expected to be somewhat soft and underwhelming when it comes to sharpness shooting at full, wide open. I was caught off guard when I saw what the Brightin Star 35mm F0.95 can do, this was my first time seeing images coming out quite sharp at wide open F0.95! It was already good enough, and I have no complains, the F0.95 images resolved plenty of good details and contrast. The bokeh is also excellent, being smooth and buttery, not distracting or nervous. Having sharp center rendering and beautiful creamy bokeh is a great combination for a good portrait lens, I must say!

TECHNICAL FLAWS

Being a budget lens, the Brightin Star 35mm F0.95 does come with some flaws. There is noticeable barrel distortion, as the straight lines at the edges do not appear to be perfectly straight, but the curvature is not too extreme and can be easily corrected by any software of your choice. There is also some serious flaring issue, if you shoot the lens against strong sources of light, and you get ghosting problems with huge blobs of light covering a huge part of your frame, which is something that is impossible to fix in post. It does not help that Brightin Star did not include a lens hood. The corners performance was quite poor shooting wide open but improves significantly when stopped down to F2.8. The chromatic aberration is quite severe, especially at brighter apertures F0.95 to F1.4, shooting at high contrast scenes, and the purple fringing can be a problem which may not be easily corrected. However, stopping down to F4, the chromatic aberration is almost entirely diminished. All in all, these are typical weaknesses of a cheap, budget manual focusing lens, and I expect no different from this lens.

CONCLUSION

The Brightin Star 35mm F0.95 deserves some praise - for the first time ever, it is actually sharp and perfectly usable shooting wide open at F0.95. Despite the few technical lens flaws, they are not dealbreakers and I don't expect the lens to have better flaw control at such low price point. This is truly great value for money, and I have not encountered any other F0.95 lens that can perform this well, shooting fully wide open. I cannot help but wonder, one day soon, maybe we can get a third party cheap F0.95 lens with full AF! That would be game-changing.