For most of my years in photography, I have been shooting with lenses made by the same manufacturer as the camera. I have always been a fan of Nikon F-mount glass (and, more recently, the Z-series S lenses), as well as Fujifilm’s X series camera bodies and XF lenses. I never spent much time considering third-party lens options.
Recently, however, that has changed with the purchase of a Tamron 18-300 lens for my Fujifilm APS-C cameras. I find it every bit as good as most of my XF lenses. Since that time, I have been intrigued by all the affordable Chinese-manufactured lenses- especially for the Fujifilm APS-C system.
The subject of this post is my recently purchased 35 mm f/0.95 lens from a Chinese manufacturer, Brightin Star. During the recent Amazon Deal Days sale, I was browsing the lens discounts when the Brightin Star caught my eye. A 0.95 f-stop is a fast lens; only a few manufacturers even offer this, and the ones that do cost thousands of dollars. They are mainly used in video productions. The Brightin Star lens was on sale for $159 (Regularly $199). I immediately pictured it on my Rangefinder-style Fujifilm E Series camera. The user reviews all checked out; they, like me, knew not to compare it with those lenses that cost thousands of dollars but to rate it for what it is - a $159 alternative.
With an upcoming month-long trip on the Maine coast scheduled for July, I figured this would be an excellent opportunity to give this lens a workout. I hit the “Buy Now” button, and two days later, it arrived. My first impressions were positive. The construction is all metal with engraved markings and was considerably heavier than I was anticipating. It felt solid and well built. You can visit the company’s website if you need to know all the lens specs.
The lens is fully manual, meaning focus and aperture are set mechanically on the lens barrel. My Fujifilm camera does not recognize the lens because there are no electronic contacts present. To shoot with it, you need to enter the camera menu and select the “Shoot with no Lens” option. The camera’s electronic viewfinder display will not show the current aperture; it just shows a constant F0. When the files are loaded into Adobe Lightroom for editing, the program displays the EXIF data as 21mm at f/1.0. This means if exposure data is important to you, you will need to record it manually out in the field. None of this is an issue for me. All I am concerned with is image quality and ease of use in the field.
I enjoyed shooting with this lens, and the image quality is very good. Both the focus and aperture rings operate smoothly with just the right amount of resistance. I find obtaining focus via the camera’s small viewfinder challenging, especially in bright sunlight. I assigned a function button on my camera to quickly toggle the image to 100% magnification for focus. I did find the larger apertures (f0.95, f1.4, f1.8, f2.0) were a bit soft with a dreamy glow; this was not present at an aperture of f2.8 and above. Most of my photography is done around saltwater and in inclement weather, and this lens is not weather sealed; however, it handled adverse weather conditions with ease. When shooting on sunny days, lens flare did not seem to be an issue even though there is no lens hood. My conclusion is this lens was $159 well spent. If you are looking for a solid, affordable walking-around lens with a roughly 52mm field of view, I would have no problem recommending this option.
