A New Ultra Wide Lens - Irix 15mm F/2.4

A new Swiss manufacturer called Irix recently released a set of two ultra wide angle fast full frame lenses

Irix which is manufacturing its lenses in South Korea (Samyang factory?) has some interesting plans for even more ultra wide angle lenses and it has already displayed a prototype of an 11mm f/4.0 that will be coming later on.

The current Irix 15mm f/2.4 comes in two flavours the Blackstone – which is heavier and more expensive and made of metal/magnesium and the lighter and cheaper Firefly. Other than externally, the lenses are very similar.

The Irix 15mm f/2.4 Blackstone with front and back filters and a hood

The Irix 15mm f/2.4 has some interesting touches including both a front and rear filer options (something most ultra wide angle lack), advance coating (called neutrino), focus calibration option, hyperfocal scale, filter window and more.

Some of the feature of the new Irix 15mm f/2.4:

Ultra wide angle – 15mm full frame coverage with f/2.4 aperture.
15 elements in 11 groups including 3 high refractive index (HRI) elements while another 2 extra-low dispersion (ED) and 2 aspherical lenses.
9 blades aperture.
Minimum focusing distance of 0.28m ( around 0.92ft).
Filter – 95mm with optional rear filters as well.
Focus calibration and “infinity click” feature to allow you to set your focus to infinity without having to look at the lens every time.
Weigh the Blackstone is 685g (1.51 lbs) – Canon and 653g (1.44 lbs) for Nikon. Firefly weighs 608g (1.34 lb) for Canon and 581g (1.28 lbs) for Nikon.
Mounts: Canon EF/Nikon F and Pentax K mounts (Sony FE coming in the future).
Price: Still not official but the word on the web is that the Firefly version will sell for around $600 and the Blackstone for around $780.

Short Irix 15mm f/2.4. front and rear filter slot video

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxU53BWhtMM[/youtube]

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Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.