Brightin Star’s distinctly unusual 50mm f/2 Tri-Sight lens announced at CP+ has officially launched. The manual focus lens is available for E, L, RF, and Z-mount full-frame cameras and promises three rendering modes.

The Brightin Star 50mm f/2 Tri-Sight looks like any other manual-focus prime lens at first glance, with the expected focus (with focus scale) and aperture control rings. However, unlike other lenses, the Tri-Sight has a third control ring on its barrel, one with Smooth, Prime, and Foams settings. This is where Brightin Star’s new portrait prime hopes to truly separate itself from the competition.

This third control ring moves a floating lens group inside the lens, and its position in the optical path changes how the lens renders a scene, especially concerning its bokeh.

The “Smooth” setting promises more diffuse highlights and softer out-of-focus rendering without making the subject itself too soft. This results from forced under-correction of spherical aberrations, which creates blurrier out-of-focus areas.

The Prime setting is the default look, promising the expected rendering with relatively typical sharpness and bokeh rendering for a 50mm f/2 prime lens, which is to say less blur than a 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.8.

Rounding out the three options, Foams gives bokeh a distinct ring-shaped look. While lens manufacturers typically work hard to eliminate this look, some photographers prefer it, at least in certain situations. Effectively, this overcorrects spherical aberration, giving out-of-focus highlights a harder edge.

For even more bokeh customization, the Brightin Star 50mm f/2 Tri-Sight also works with rear-mounted creative bokeh inserts. Some photographers may be familiar with DIY projects that rely on customized, handmade inserts that sit on the back of the lens to change the bokeh shape. This is the same idea, except purpose-built for this specific lens. Brightin Star has ones with triangles, butterflies, clovers, and five-pointed stars, and they ship with the lens.

In total, the lens features seven optical elements arranged across six groups. This is a relatively small number of lenses for a modern lens. The lens weighs between 429 and 454 grams (15.1 to 16 ounces) depending on the lens mount, and it’s between 70 and 74 millimeters (2.76 to 2.9 inches) long.

Pricing and Availability

The full-frame Brightin Star MF 50mm f/2 Tri-Sight is available now for Sony E-mount, Nikon Z-mount, Canon RF-mount, and L-Mount cameras. It is $349.99 for a limited time, regularly $399.99. It’s also available with a custom, ultra-thin protective UV filter for $369.99 (regularly $434.99).

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Image creditsBrightin Star