This AstrHori 18mm 8.0 Shift is already the third AstrHori lens I am reviewing here. Their lenses often feature a “little extra” over the competition to make them more interesting. In this case this isn’t just a compact 18mm lens, a ±6mm shift function has been added on top. Judging by the size of this lens, especially the diameter of the lens elements, I am wondering how useful that shift function will be though. But let’s have a look together in this review.
Fisheye lenses have a somewhat limited range of possible applications and I would definitely consider them niche products. Probably this is also the reason most of the big manufacturers seem to have given up on having any of these in their portfolios. So if you are looking to add a fisheye lens to your kit your only real option are lenses like this AstrHori 12mm 2.8 Fisheye from smaller manufacturers. As can be seen from the picture above this is a huge lens, but can its performance keep up with its dimensions? Let us find out in this review!
Fisheye lenses are not exactly hugely popular and the fact that we haven’t seen a fullframe fisheye lens designed for mirrorless yet – in more than 60 years of the Leica-M system we haven’t seen a single one – only supports this. So maybe this 11mm 2.8 from TTArtisan is a welcome surprise, being the first of its kind? Let us find out in this review!
February 2023: Alternatives section updated
A 50mm 1.4 Tilt lens? Some of you might be having a Deja Vu now, as just recently I reviewed the AstrHori 50mm 1.4 Tilt lens. This TTArtisan 50mm 1.4 Tilt features a completely different optical and mechanical design though, so let’s find out together in this review which is the better lens.
Tilt/Shift lenses are rather exotic, they are mostly used for architecture or table top photography, and with the wide availability of post processing (correcting converging vertical lines and focus stacking) you see them very rarely nowadays, even amongst professional photographers.
In this article I will tell you what Tilt/Shift lenses are all about and what they can be used for.