The fully-manual lens features an all-metal construction and is comprised of 12 elements in 10 groups, including one double-side aspherical element and two extra-low dispersion elements. It has an aperture range of F4 through F22 and uses a ten-blade aperture diaphragm, which helps to create the signature sunstars this lens is named after.
The angle of view is 112-degrees when mounted on full-frame cameras and 78-degrees when mounted on Fujifilm X mount cameras. Other features include a minimum focusing distance of 20cm (7.9”) and a 72mm front filter thread. The lens measures 75.6mm (3”) diameter, 80.5mm (3.2”) long and weighs 470g (1lb).
Below are a handful of sample images taken with the lens and provided by NiSi:
The NiSi 15mm F4 'Sunstar' lens is available to purchase on NiSi's online shop for $579. It will also be available at authorized NiSi retailers, including Adorama, Amazon and B&H.
Do I need 15mm FL when PS easily helps me to 'stitch' excellent quality images together? Cheaper, don't need extra lens, saves weight in the ph.bag. Indeed, I'm not a fan of thoughtless consumerism...
What I really dislike is that they write openly on their website to provide a fake invoice for you to save on customs. They are not aware that tax evasion is a crime in most civilized countries? And the criminal will be the receiver.
They represent physical laws that plague a diaphragm that is not prefect. In the same vein, why not love the rolling shutter effect ? It represents physical laws that plague a slow sensor... Or why not love the noise of a small sensor ? This is also the consequence of physical laws...
^Heh, I'm not sure I'd equate it like that but I can't fault the logic... It's a taste thing I guess, works for some shots but I'm not sure I'd buy a lens with the explicit purpose of more prominent sunstars... That's like JJ Abrams and his phase of lens flare thru half the frame on every other scene.
There's definitely a market for it tho, plenty of people flock to the Voigtlander primes for the sunstars and the most recent Laowa UWAs seem to feature less (and/or uneven #) blades for it, can't fault niche manufacturers (and every UWA prime is pretty much catering to a niche) for chasing trends.
At the end of the day we can get diffraction with our own eyes too (you never noticed that?), so that's not too "unnatural" a way to see, IMHO.
Of course, if everyone starts doing pictures with "hearts bokeh", the thing gets old fast... a sunstar is way less kitsch than hearts/star/puppy bokeh.
True. Sometimes the Sunstar can add to a scene, but one has to be careful that the focus of the image is not shifted. I like sun stars for some of my landscape photos but I prefer not to have the sun directly in the frame most of the time.
I think a sunstar can often help tie the sky and the land together, help to break up a flat horizon line, and really improve the composition if used appropriately.
F4 lens is not going to be at top of astro photographer list I think, although high iso performance of today's BSI sensors is great so I might be wrong here.
I remember when mirror lenses were new, we had claims of the out of focus doughnut rings were artistic, we also had flare from lots of elements forming a line (eg kung Fu TV series) Bokeh and now sunstars will have the 5mins of fame I am not for or against but it seems to be another fad! I wonder how long it will last.
It's overpriced considering you can get larger aperture lenses at the same price. As for the size /weight, i have no complaints.
Laowa might have been able to make f2 lenses at the same size but the images produced by by those lenses vignetted into oblivion. The falloff at the corners are bad. There's always a tradeoff mm image quality when you focus too much on lens size.
Bit late to the party, but looks promising. I have their S5 CPL ("pro" edition, not landscape) for my Sony 12-24 and it's excellent - wouldn't be surprised if this performs well when it's properly tested.
People seem to be missing the point, unless these images were corrected by software it appears to have little to no distortion, add to that beautiful sunstars and if you've seen the MTF charts it appears to have excellent contrast edge to edge and decent sharpness, I'm not sure what the resolution will be like but its already off to a good start. If I were buying a mirrorless system this lens would certainly be on the radar, I can't wait to see a more detailed review on it.
Yes vignetting is average to above average wide open but really doesn't improve at all stopped down so well below average when stopped down. The distortion has a slight mustache wave to it, but far better than many other ultra wides IMO.
If it was a 15mm F2 vs F4 lens, it might be worth the price, IF the AF, sharpness, and IQ was excellent. I can't figure why DPR would post .6 MP images to show the IQ of any lens? Makes no sense to me.
Steve, if that's true, then why is the manufacturer providing ONLY such small samples? What do THEY have to hide by not providing full size samples, like other companies have done? Confucius once said, "Sum Tin Wong". ;)
However, it seems like a little big for a 15mm F4 lens, the Laowa 15 F2 si much faster and smaller. nice to see more lenses as such to support all the ML systems.
Well laowa's tiny but large aperture lenses vignette into oblivion. The amount of falloff at the corners are horrendous. There's always an image quality tradeoff when you focus on size.
Usually there is some optical performance trade-off with compact size, (as seen on the Voigtlander Color-Skopar 'pancake' wides). If the extra bulk results in better IQ then it is justified.
Looks good to me. $579 seems high. I think you can get f/2.8 UWA zooms for around this price. But - maybe this lens is about very high IQ or something. I hope it is at that price.
Funny how these things evolve. It wasn't long ago that "sunstars" were just artifacts that happened under some conditions. Granted, they occurred more often because lenses had more diaphragm blades. Even without the stars this looks pretty good.
Not very sure the price really matches it's performance. A couple of years back Irix already have an excellent 15mm F2.4 at similar or cheaper price. Maybe the Irix version is just a tiny bit bigger, but a F2.4 is a saver for astrophotography, but not a F4 I am afraid.
Glad to see more wide-angle lenses caring equally about sunstars as they do about bokeh. Seriously, who obsesses over the bokeh of lenses wider than 24mm?
Gimme that 5-blade, non-rounded aperture iris any day! If it doesn't harken back to old Nikon/Pentax manual focus lenses, it's not doing wide-angle right.
"Seriously, who obsesses over the bokeh of lenses wider than 24mm?"
Anyone who uses ultra-wides to shoot macro or close-ups for dramatic effect.
For example - a photograph of a plant or small creature, showing it's habitat behind it, for context.
You want sufficient background (area and detail) to show the subject in its environment, but at the same time you don't want distracting onion-ring, cat's-eye or wiriness to detract from the primary subject.
I'd even argue that the wider the lens is, the *more* bokeh becomes relevant, because you include a much greater number of potentially distracting background elements within the frame.
That may be true of a very small niche of photographers, but for most, bokeh is meant to be "obsessed over" at portrait focal lengths. The vast, vast majority of wide-angle lens owners are buying lenses for in-focus sharpness, no flare dots, and sunstars if they're into cityscapes.
(BTW, most landscape photographers who do that in-your-face style are focus stacking for infinite DOF, actually, these days.)
Either way, have you ever tried some of those older classic wide-angle lenses, like the Nikon 20mm f/4 AIS and Pentax 20mm f/4, that have utterly gorgeous sunstars?
...their close-focusing bokeh is STILL GOOD!
Thus, I don't know why companies even bother putting so much effort into fancy ultra-rounded aperture blades anyways. If you want bokeh at such focal lengths, you're going to be shooting wide open anyways, where the aperture blades are fully retracted.
You just don't need a perfectly-rounded 9-blade iris.
Astro - The widest lens I had in the days when I shot film, was a 24mm F2.8 Nikkor. I can't remember how many aperture blades it had, or even what the bokeh was like, as the slides are tucked away and forgotten in a filing cabinet.
Anyway, it was the first wide lens that I really enjoyed using for landscapes, having failed to achieve anything much worthwhile with 28mm or 35mm.
From that point on, I used 24mm a great deal, although nowadays I shoot landscapes anywhere between 16-200mm regularly, and use focal lengths up to 800mm in some situations.
We clearly have different tastes in our photography, which is fine as it would be exceedingly boring if we all took similar shots!
Starbursts aren't really my "thing" - I take a few, but for me, having smooth bokeh is far more important.
If I had the option, I'd go for 20-blade irises to eliminate polygons on defocused highlights, and I'd go for optics that didn't suffer from onion-rings, cat's eye or wiriness.
So personally, I wish lens reviews paid considerably *more* attention to bokeh, which I consider even more important than sharpness.
I am going to award the points to Astro this time around. I think UWA macro with lots of OOF background is pretty rarified air - niche as the westerners say. At the same time - I do know what you are talking about and some of those images are spectacular.
@entoman Horses for courses... I myself would always prefer perfect sunstar to perfect bokeh - yet there is no such a thing as perfect bokeh as this is very individual, but there is are more of thing as perfect sunstart for sure.
brownie - "points" don't come into it, it's not a competition, just shared opinions about individual preferences.
Astro shoots primarily landscapes and astro, as far as I can gather. I shoot landscapes, macro, wildlife, botany and insects. We both have equally valid viewpoints regarding our subject matter and how we want it to be rendered. It's natural that we have different preferences.
Astro's priorities seem to be for sharp lenses, maximum d.o.f, and an attractive starburst rendition. Personally, and this is no condemnation of his choices, I find sunstars gimmicky, so I rarely aim for the effect.
I shoot a wide range of subjects, some requiring huge d.o.f, while others require subject isolation, or subject/environment context, in which bokeh is a major element of the image.
As Vit Adamek implies, we are all different. We have different desires and expectations for our images. No one is "right" or "wrong", we just choose the lenses that give us the imagery that appeals to us.
@entoman, I totally understand, and agree that it would be optimal if ALL aspects of image character were considered in a review. It's actually what I aspire to in my own lens reviews, as someone who can go from photographing portraits and weddings one day, to nightscapes and cityscapes and landscapes the next day/night.
But, again, keep in mind that most of the things you described, things like onion bokeh, etc, are characteristics of the GLASS itself, not the aperture iris blades.
You're getting into an extremely, extremely small category if you are both shooting wider than 24mm, AND stopping down and hoping for your bokeh to stay perfectly round.
From what you're describing, it sounds like your favorite lens would be a Canon DS lens, or a Sony STF lens, but those are telephoto portrait lenses, of course. They'll probably never make such a lens in wide-angle form, unfortunately.
The only point I'm trying to make is that the vast majority of photographers care more about in-focus sharpness, and things like sunstars and minimal flare dots, when it comes to lenses going wider than 20mm, than they care about bokeh.
Also, for those who do care about bokeh; how many ultra-wide lenses have had truly terrible bokeh anyways? It's almost all in the optics, too.
A perfect example is Nikon's 20mm f/1.8 G, the DSLR lens. It has pretty smooth bokeh, and yet has some of the most incredible sunstars we've ever seen from any modern autofocus lens, period. Google my review of that lens on SLR Lounge for some perfect examples of BOTH smooth bokeh and incredible sunstars.
Edit - Yikes! Astro managed to fit 2 posts into the gap between the 2 halves of my reply. I must speed up!
Yes, the use of ultra-wides with minimal d.o.f. and nice bokeh is more niche than sunstar landscapes with a zillion miles d.o.f.
But botanical subects are very often photographed with ultra-wides. Imagine e.g. a beautiful alpine flower (the subject), with a mountain in the background for context. A prime candidate for the treatment I'm describing. The same applies to photographing fungi, small animals, insects etc.
In such images, it's vital to have just the right *degree* of defocus on the mountain, and equally vital to avoid "wiry" looking stems or "busy" defocused foliage in the background, or distracting polygonal aperture-flare.
It was a joke. Obviously there are no points here. Don't get your aperture blades in a bunch. I was just saying I agreed with astro that uwa macro with great bokeh was pretty niche. The points thing was just for fun.
" If you want bokeh at such focal lengths, you're going to be shooting wide open anyways, where the aperture blades are fully retracted." I pretty agree with that...
Karroly - Indeed that's true, but a wideangle takes in a much wider area of background, reducing the size of all the individual elements within it, so *effectively* the depth of field looks much greater than it actually is.
I've used this technique many times to photography flowers with mountain backgrounds, and fungi with woodland backgrounds. The depth of field (and bokeh) varies considerably with even a one or two stop increase/reduction of aperture.
Let's face it, if you're shooting an UWA prime *at all* you're already within a pretty small niche. :P Personally I care more about close focus and speed for certain shots (like ento) than I care about sunstars, but I don't think there's a right/wrong or better/worst side of this subjective preference either.
Some manufacturers like Laowa have a nice mix of UWA lenses with different numbers of blades (and different max aperture, sizes, etc.), it's nice to have even more choices from the likes of NiSi in such a niche space, specially since they're supporting a bunch of mounts from the get go (not always a given).
Seems an excellent lens. Full resolution photos shot by Mark Gaier, Dylan Toh and Bastian are available to see. Great price too. There are better lenses for flare resistance according to Bastian and the Laowa 15 f2 could be a hair sharper.
1.) They might have made this an f/2.8-capable optic, and just stopped down to f/4.
2.) Even if the iris blades are just barely visible from their "fully retracted" wide-open setting, you can start to see a sunstar.
3.) Yes, sunstars are possible at f/4. On lenses like the Rokinon AF 14mm f/2.8, I have seen epic sunstars at f/4, though only under truly perfect conditions, such as teeny-tiny, ultra-bright christmas lights that are a few yards away from the camera.
....Having said all that, it is VERY likely that this particular lens is not making THOSE epic sunstars at f/4. Those sunstars look like f/11 or f/16.
Ok, I stand corrected that some lenses do make sunstars "wide open" - it was just my understanding from my lenses that when they are "wide open" the blades hide out of the way, so as to let as much light through as possible!
How refreshing to see a lens with a depth of field scale. Often when photographing landscapes I want to focus at the hyperlocal distance so as to get maximum depth of field. Without a depth of field scale this is impossible. Instead the fashion seems to be for a restricted depth of field with bokeh - yawn. Promoted, no doubt, by manufacturers wanting to sell expensive large aperture lenses.
Come to think of it - how about an automatic hyperlocal distance setting on cameras. I’m sure it wouldn’t be beyond the limits of modern electronics.
HYperfocal techniques are just too outdated to be worth any more effort than a cursory understanding. Pixel density, and personal standards for pixel-peeping, dictate that you'd have to do a whole CoC setup before the feature would be of any use, and even then it would likely only work in the dead-center of the frame, the edges of most lenses' frames are still wildly misbehaving these days.
So, it would be a great feature for those who don't really pixel-peep their image edges/corners, and who are still shooting ~24 megapixel images, but other than that, it'd only be a gimmick.
But, now I'm giving away my landscape photography sharpness secrets, haha. I need to get around to writing my book on this subject...
@AL I concur. For a depth of field scale to be actually useful, it has to take those current parameters instead of the old ones. Else you'd have to compensate every time.
The Ricoh GX8 had a hyperfocal "snap photo" mode in 2005 - but I am sure others do too. It was a nifty camera and I liked it a lot, but even with that tiny sensor, hyperfocal setting was often unsatisfactory and I barely used it - partly because I was quite happy with its AF performance.
One button press to infinity on electronic lenses would be interesting, one of those things that you wonder why nobody has at least tried... Along with having an adjustment screw on manual lenses so you don't have to just live with infinity being somewhere near where it's marked rather than precisely there (provided the lens hasn't been too cold/warm since adjustment). Was that ever common on vintage lenses? I saw it on a recent Laowa...
@Astro Landscapes, you're right at least in the case I tested (laowa 9mm) that the scale is outdated. But it's far from useless. In my case I found that just reducing 1stop gives me an accurate DoF for my T3 in that lens. So e.g. if I use f11, I know I have to use the DoF for f8.
Actually the manufacturer could have added a proper scale for the later sensor model pixel sizes. Not sure why they haven't.
@Txoni, I think lens makers would be smart to be a little more generous with their considerations now that we're in to the territory of 40-60 megapixels for full-frame cameras, indeed.
HOWEVER, there is a fundamental aspect of hyperfocal measurements that were part of what kept it so simple in the first place: It's not about sensor resolution, it's about an 8x10 print held at arm's length, or something along those lines. And, as such, well, we haven't needed to update hyperfocal lens markings since the days of ~12 megapixel full-frame sensors, LOL!
Personally, I used to do what you described- I hit the hyperfocal point of my aperture-plus-one, and usually that worked out.
However, again, that often only works in the central area of the image. At the edges and corners, on so many modern wide-angle lenses with complex optical formulas, all bets are off when it comes to the behavior of DOF and hyperfocal measurements.
Again, this is something I'm writing an entire book about...
look on phillipreeve.net for bastians review and full res samples. Interesting lens! Let's hope lens sample variation turns out to be low. Good start for NiSi so far.
$579 seems a fair price if the lens is sharp, but the lo-res images in the gallery look soft and devoid of detail ("dreamy bokeh", in marketing-speak...)
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