Introduction
The Irix 11mm 4.0 is the second widest rectilinear (non-fisheye) lens released for DSLRs. Because it was released at the end of the DSLR era – when many of us already made the shift to mirrorless – you actually can not find a lot of useful information on it online. So when one showed up at a dealer wit a bargain price tag I decided to finally give it a try. Let’s have a closer look!
Sample Images
Most of the sample images in this review can be found in full resolution here.
Contents
Specifications / Version History
The Irix 11mm 4.0 and 15mm 2.4 lenses came in two version: Firefly and Blackstone. The Firefly versions use a little more plastic making them around 30g lighter and they are sold a bit cheaper, apart from that they are the same as the Blackstone versions. This is a review of the Irix 11mm 4.0 Firefly F-mount version which has the following specifications:
-
- Diameter: 103 mm
- Field of view: 126° (diagonally)
- Length: 107 mm
- Weight: 766g (without caps)
- Filter Diameter: rear gel
- Number of Aperture Blades: 9 (rounded)
- Elements/Groups: 16/10
- Close Focusing Distance: 0.275 m
- Maximum Magnification: 1:13 (measured)
- Mount: Nikon F, Canon EF, Pentax K
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How wide is it?
For DSLRs the only rectilinear lens which is wider is the Samyang 10mm 3.5 XP. Taking into consideration mirrorless designs, the currently widest rectilinear lens is the Laowa 9mm 5.6.
On paper the difference between 9mm and 11mm may not seem like much, but as can be seen from this comparison, the difference is significant.
I also cropped the 9mm picture to give the same field of view as the 11mm lens. Here we can easily see that this 11mm shows noticeably less vignetting than the 9mm.
Handling / Build Quality
While all the Irix lenses – including this 11mm 4.0 – are manual focus lenses, they do feature electronic contacts to communicate with the camera.
Like the Irix 15mm 2.4, also this 11mm 4.0 came in two versions, “Firefly” (a bit cheaper and ligther thanks to using more polycarbonate) and “Blackstone” (a bit more expensive and heavier thanks to more metal). The optics are the same and I always wondered if it actually makes sense to have these two series, because the differences in price and weight actually weren’t that big. As later Irix lenses only come in one version titled “Dragonfly”, maybe the people behind Irix had the same thoughts after all.
This 11mm 4.0 is also an internal focus lens. The focus ring rotates ~140° from the minimum focus distance of 0.275 m to infinity – a solid choice. The focus ring is rubberized and as was already the case for the Zeiss Milvus/Otus/Batis and Samyang XP lenses that rubber is really good at attracting dust and other debris. In the picture above you see on the left this 11mm 4.0 new from factory and on the right what the rubber ring looks like after some usage.
The resistance is nice and even though and there is even a click stop at the infinity symbol.
At the front of the lens you can find a focus lock ring. It can be useful e.g. for astrophotography so that you won’t accidentally change your focus setting. It doesn’t lock super tight though, when using a litte more force you will still be able to adjust the focus setting, even when the ring has been fully locked.
At the bottom on the lens you can find a small opening to adjust the infinity setting of this lens. The screw located inside which needed to adjust the focus was fixated with glue on this sample though, so I didn’t bother with it.
A treat shared among all the Irix lenses: this is by no means a small lens, very much comparable to the Samyang XP and Zeiss Milvus lenses. As you can see from the picture above it is even a bit bulkier than the Samyang 10mm 3.5 XP. The even wider Laowa 9mm 5.6 – making use of the short flange focal distance it has been designed for – looks tiny next to those two DSLR designs.
The F-mount version is a “G-Type” lens, so you can use a purely mechanical adapter with aperture control ring to use it on various kinds of mirrorless cameras. I also tried it with the Monster LA-FE1 and LA-FE2 adapters. On the LA-FE1 it works but not on the LA-FE2. As these adapters are a little too short and that really hurts the image quality of a lens like this I do not recommend to use this combination though.
This lens also works flawlessly on my Nikon F80 and hence I expect the same of the F100, F5 and F6.
Vignetting
Light Falloff
| f/4.0 | 2.3 |
| f/5.6 | 1.5 |
| f/8.0 | 1.2 |
| f/11 | 1.1 |
In this category the bulky DSLR designs actually have an advantage over the compact mirrorless designs. As you have already seen in the How wide is it? category, the Laowa 9mm 5.6 shows noticeably higher vignetting, whereas the Samyang 10mm 3.5 XP (also a DSLR design) shows the same vignetting amount as this Irix 11mm 4.0 within the margin of error.
It is recommended to have a look at this article first to get an idea how this brightness graph works.
Color Cast
Lenses this wide often show a greenish color cast on modern BSI sensors. This is true for many of the DSLR as well as mirrorless designs. The worst contender here so far was the Samyang 10mm 3.5 XP, (DSLR design) but also the Laowa 9mm 5.6, Laowa 12mm 2.8 (DSLR design) and Voigtländer 10mm 5.6 show such a color cast. The Laowa 10mm 2.8 AF was one of the better performers.
Compared to all these lenses this Irix 11mm 4.0 can be found in the midfield. In scenes with an overcast sky you can spot it, but in most scenes it will not be noticeable.
Sharpness
MTF Graphs
According to these MTF graphs we should expect very high contrast across the whole frame and no midzone dip. The higher frequencies show some Astigmatism, so the resolution seems to drop a bit towards the corners. Let’s see how this translates to the real world performance.
infinity (42mp Sony A7rII)
When it comes to ultra wide angle lenses this is a very important category to me. Indeed the contrast is as high as the MTF graphs promised. Also the midframe looks surprisingly good, which isn’t always the case for these ultra wide angle lenses.
The resolution in the corners is also lower, as was shown in the MTF graphs. I already corrected the lateral CA here, but some traces are still left.
Generally, esepcially for a lens this wide, this is a very good performance. I compared it directly to the Laowa 9mm 5.6 and this Irix actually created crisper details in the central part of the frame as well as in the midframe, whereas the Laowa looks slightly better in the corners. The Samyang 10mm 3.5 XP showed a similar performance, I did not compare these two directly side-by-side though.
As this lens features a floating elements design the correct flange focal distance is of utmost importance to achieve optimal performance with this lens, so when using too short adapters it may show worse image quality.
close (0.275m, 1:13)
Also at close distances this Irix 11mm 4.0 shows a very good performance.
Many ultra wide angle lenses, especially simpler ones with a unit focus design like e.g. the 7Artisans 9mm 5.6 or the Brightin Star 9mm 5.6 (which is identical in construction), may look decent in the central part of the frame, but look absolutely awful in the border and corner regions.
That is not the case here. The Irix shows a surprisingly flat field at closer distances with also the corner and border regions looking decent, even at wider apertures. Now we just need to come up with an application for an 11mm lens where this is relevant…
Flare resistance
The first Irix lens was the 15mm 2.4 and from initial tests it showed a bad performance in this category with huge ring flares. Does this 11mm 4.0 perform better even though it is wider? Let’s find out.
Nikon Zf | Irix 11mm 4.0 | f/4.0
With a strong light source in the center of the frame also here ring flares can appear at the maximum aperture. If the light source is located in the midframe, much bigger and obtrusive ghosts can appear.
Nikon Zf | Irix 11mm 4.0 | f/11
Stopped down the performance is actually very similar, with the ghosts being a bit smaller.
The good thing is, the contrast stays on a very high level, even in backlit scenarios.
What I found rather bothersome are the artefacts that can appear with the sun outside the frame, as can be seen in the following example:
My subjective opinion: the Laowa 9mm 5.6 does best in this category followed by the Laowa 10mm 2.8 AF and this Irix 11mm 4.0. The Samyang 10mm 3.5 XP showed a worse performance.
Coma
Sony A7rII | Irix 11mm 4.0 | 100% crops from extreme corner
The Coma correction looks very solid to me, already starting from f/4.0. Point light sources actually stay round. The Samyang 10mm 3.5 XP showed a similar performance as do the one stop slower Laowa 9mm 5.6 and Voigtländer 10mm 5.6. The Laowa 10mm 2.8 AF shows bigger artefacts unless stopped down to f/5.6.
Distortion
For a lens this wide the disortion it surprisingly low and easy to correct. There is a correction profile available in Lightroom and I used it for many of the sample pictures in this review, but as the distortion is mostly uniform you can also just use the slider to correct it.
Bokeh
Now obviously this is not a lens you should buy if you are into shallow depth of field photography. Nevertheless, in close focus scenarios you can actually create some bokeh.
It can be best described as something between weird and unique, so depending on what you are looking for you may find it either refreshing or odd.
Sunstars
Nikon Zf | Irix 11mm 4.0 | 50% crops from center
Sunstars are not a strong suit of this lens. The alignment of the aperture blades does not seem to be particularly great, as the rays have uneven lengths and are not spread equidistantly – similar to the Samyang 10mm 3.5 XP. Here the Laowa and Voigtländer lenses do a lot better.
If you want to learn more about sunstars have a look at this article.
Chromatic Aberrations
lateral
Not too uncommon for ultra wide angle lenses this Irix 11mm 4.0 shows a noticeable amount of lateral CA. Even after the correction some traces remain which is rather unfortunate.
longitudinal
As this is a very wide and rather slow lens bokeh fringing is nothing to worry about.
When it comes to purple fringing there is also none to be found, already at the maximum aperture.
Conclusion
good
|
average
|
not good
|
Like the Samyang XP and Zeiss Otus/Milvus lenses also these Irix lenses had a bad timing. By the time they hit the market many already made the switch to mirrorless and had no use for these huge manual focus DSLR lenses anymore. If you compare the size of this Irix 11mm 4.0 to the mirrorless 9 to 11mm ultra wide angle options from e.g. Laowa or Voigltänder you can clearly see why.
Optically and mechanically this is generally a fine lens. Contrast is surprisingly high and compared to those mirrorless options also the vignetting is low. The infinity locking ring is a nice and useful feature as would be the focus calibration (if it wasn’t glued).
What sets this lens apart from the competition is its low price. I bought mine for way less than 300 bucks new in box from a dealer. That is half of what you have to pay for most the alternatives mentioned below and for that price it is a real bargain, especially compared to the other DSLR options (Samyang 10mm 3.5 XP and Laowa 12mm 2.8 Zero-D) which are usually noticeably more expensive.
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | ebay.com | ebay.de | B&H (affiliate links) for around $350
Alternatives
SLR Designs
Samyang 10mm 3.5 XP:
The Samyang 10mm 3.5 XP is the only rectilinear lens designed for DSLRs which is wider than this 11mm Irix lens. Generally, I found their performance to be similar. The Samyang has worse flare resistance and stronger color cast, but if you want the widest lens for your DSLR you may be able to overlook those issues.
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | B&H | ebay.com | ebay.de for $899 (affiliate links)
Laowa 12mm 2.8 Zero-D:
This was one of Laowa’s first lenses and it is a strong performer. It is the widest f/2.8 lens designed for DSLRs, making it an interesting choice for astrophotography. At shared apertures it shows a similar performance, in terms of CA correction actually a better one. Despite being faster it is also more compact. If you don’t need wider than 12mm this is sure worth a closer look.
buy from manufacturer’s online shop | ebay.com | ebay.de | amazon.com | amazon.de | B&H (affiliate links) for $849 (new)
Mirrorless Designs
You can find many of the modern ultra wide angle zoom as well as prime lenses discussed in our Guide to Ultra Wide Angle Lenses for the A7 Series. There are two lenses worth mentioning in more detail though:
Laowa 9mm 5.6:
This is the widest rectilinear lens available. I already compared these lenses in most of the sections above. If you can live with the higher vignetting and price this is the easy choice for not only being wider but also so much smaller.
buy from manufacturer’s homepage | B&H | ebay.com | ebay.de for $699 (M-mount) and $599 (E/Z/L-mount) (affiliate links)
Laowa 10mm 2. 8 AF:
All the alternatives mentioned so far were manual focus lenses whereas the Laowa 10mm 2.8 AF is an autofocus lens and it is the only lens mentioned here that features a normal 77mm filter thread. It has noticeably higher vignetting but surprisingly almost completely lacks any kind of color cast in the corners.
buy from the manufacturer’s homepage | B&H | ebay.com for $799
Sample Images
Most of the sample images in this review can be found in full resolution here.
Further Reading
- Guide to 9-18mm Ultra Wide Angle Lenses
- Review: Laowa 9mm 5.6 – The World’s Widest fullframe lens
- Review: Sony FE 12-24mm 2.8 GM
- Review: Samyang 14mm 2.4 XP
- Analogue Adventures
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