Brightin Star 9mm f5.6 Ultra-Wide Lens Released – With a Rear-Mounted ND Filter

Lens News

by Alexandra ThompsonOctober 18^th, 2023

Brightin Star Optics have just launched a 9mm F5.6 full-frame ultra-wide lens. Boasting a 132-degree field of vision, a near-zero distortion, and a built-in ND filter, let’s take a closer look at this lens!

Brightin Star Optical is a Chinese lens and lens accessory company and they have released some pretty interesting lenses in the past, including a 50mm F0.95 full-frame manual focus lens. As these are manual focus lenses, it seems like they are aimed at photographers who enjoy the idea of taking their time and appreciating the process as much as the result.

Non-fisheye, true ultra-wide lens

The 9mm ultra-wide lens weighs in light at 400g and is compact at 64mm x 87.8mm. The closest focusing distance from the sensor to the subject is 20cm. This is a non-fisheye, true ultra-wide lens. There is also a clicked aperture ring for control of exposure when shooting videos.

The lens has an 11-group 16-element optical structure with 2x aspherical lenses. The 5-blade aperture will give you a 10-pin starburst, and there’s a handy built-in ND1000, which will give you 10 stops of light reduction – great for taking long daylight exposures.

Further, the construction is all metal and available mounts are Sony E, Canon RF, Nikon Z, and L-mounts.

Technical specs

• Format: Full Frame
• Focal Length: 9mm
• Angle of view: Diagonal 132°, Horizontal 123.5°, Vertical 101.2°
• Lens Structure: 11 elements in 8 groups
• Maximum Aperture: F5.6
• Minimum Aperture: F22
• Aperture Blades: 5
• Closest Focusing Distance: 20cm
• Focusing Drive Method: Manual Focus
• Filter Diameter: N/A
• Dimension: 64mm x 87.8mm

A little competition is a good thing

The Laowa 9mm F5.6 with a 135° FOV was released in 2020. Focus is also manual, and the minimum focusing distance is 11.9cm / 4.7in. There is a cine-version of this lens as well for APS-C sensors, which provides a 13.5mm equivalent focal length. The price is higher – between $649 for the Nikon Z mount to $799 for the Leica and Sony E mounts. Very similar to the Brightin Star 9mm is the one from 7Artisans that’s just about the same price, but doesn’t have that very cool built-in ND filter.

Price and availability

All lens mounts for the Brightin Star 9mm lens are priced at $479 and can be purchased on the Brightin Star website.

Do you use a 9mm ultra-wide lens for your photography? Is the ND filter something that interests you with this lens? Let us know in the comments below!