AstrHori 40mm f/5.6 Leica M Mount (Can a Tiny 40mm Lens Take Good Photos?) | Round Glass Review

There’s a power in being understated, humble, and inconspicuous. Going unnoticed and just doing your own thing is great. When everyone’s attention is focused on something or someone else, that’s the time to do your best work. The AstrHori 40mm f/5.6 is an understated lens with a simple design, easy interface, and a tiny front element that makes it look far less capable than it is. Unfortunately, the Leica and GFX cameras it’s meant to grace are not understated and do command quite a bit of attention.
That said, no one will likely take notice of the little AstrHori 40mm and if your camera doesn’t stand out then you can use this lens quite discretely. The slightly wide angle makes it a great option for candid street shots. The slightly narrow angle makes it a great option for tighter landscapes. The small maximum aperture leads to a suitable depth of field with pleasing out of focus areas that give it good usability for portraits. The 40mm focal length, a bit odd to master, once learned, can provide the best benefits of many different focal lengths and be pretty close to a master of many different photographic subjects.
Maybe one of the best things that I can say about the AstrHori 40mm f/5.6 is that this lens has made me love the 40mm focal length. This isn’t a focal length I use often, and the other lenses in this range that I have used left me feeling unexcited, but the image quality and this lens’ overall usability in so many situations dramatically changed how I feel about this entire focal length. That should be taken as the high praise that it is.
This is a lens that is, honestly, worth trying on any system that you can use it on or adapt it to. I started my time with this lens expecting a lackluster performer that I wouldn’t care for at all. I ended it feeling this lens is a well-above-average performer that can deliver quality images on a consistent basis. The AstrHori 40mm f/5.6 was, for me, rather like a 30th-round draft pick who goes on to be one of the team’s cornerstones.
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Video Index:
0:00 - Intro
0:11 - AstrHori 40mm f/5.6 Round Glass Review
3:25 - AstrHori 40mm f/5.6 Specifications
4:52 - AstrHori 40mm f/5.6 Tips & Tricks
9:35 - AstrHori 40mm f/5.6 Lens Diagram
10:20 - AstrHori 40mm f/5.6 Video Use
12:20 - AstrHori 40mm f/5.6 Strengths & Weaknesses
14:54 - AstrHori 40mm f/5.6 Narrative Review
References:
www.astrhori.com/productinfo/...
leicarumors.com/2022/01/18/ne...
fujiaddict.com/2022/10/13/ast...
www.aliexpress.us/item/325680...
www.aliexpress.us/item/325680...
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"Suffer City Blues" by Suffer City used under active license from Epidemic Sound at the time of this video's upload.

[@Photovintageguy]

utilitarian to be sure, color rendering reminds me a cheap cell phone, or maybe a 1990’s film era lens. Bokeh is ok but the color and contrast kinda ruins what could be a kinda painterly blur. It might need better coatings. Basic design seems pretty competent otherwise.

[@DavidHancock]

I might give it a bit more credit than a cell phone lens. I think the issue is that this lens is so uniformly sharp across the FF image area that it looks like it's not as good as it is. Color and contrast are a hair flat out of the camera, and I tend not to do too many adjustments to those for these videos.

[@Photovintageguy]

@@DavidHancock i mean the look not necessarily the sharpness. They tend to have a look like camcorder lenses. I’m not 100% sure probably color? They just look a certain way. Not horrible just very mundane. I have a bunch of vintage lenses that are sharp low CA etc, ok flare etc. but still manage to produce very bland images that can’t be fixed with editing. A dud lens is obvious after a few minutes of editing. I’ve even seen a few that look ugly in jpgs or raw, but once you change the contrast separation they are some of the best. The information is there. Some lens just have crud coming out of them. If not crud just completely dull. It seems the design of lenses coating is partly art, not just technical.

[@vladnickul]

Looks like the riespray/respray or whatever one from china "20€ special"

[@vladnickul]

I like coating my adapters (and some lens/cameras) with optical black paint, and at a pinch with the carbon black from a candle.

[@DavidHancock]

Are you thinking of the 35mm f/1.7? I believe this design is exclusive to AstrHori. I've not seen this optical design released under another badge.

[@vladnickul]

@@DavidHancock i think its a 1.6. It has a complete diferența frontal element.
I also think they are most likely variations of video lenses from security cameras

[@DavidHancock]

@@vladnickul Got it. I know that lens a little, never owned it, but I can confirm that this is entirely different.