Irix 11mm Firefly

I'd been considering the 11mm Firefly lens to use with a K-1. But I'm reticent now after seeing this thread about their 15mm lens. link
If anyone owns the Irix 11mm, in either version, I'd like to here of their experiences please. I've read John Riley's review on Ephotozine, which is what sparked my interest.

Hum think you will find the 11mm is not avaliable yet as it is still a proper type

According to Cambrian Photography it is available to order in this country. it's also listed as available from Poland if you fancied it from eBay link

the thing is the link that you shared on here should not be putting people off as this is not just a problem with irix but with all manifactures in all walks off life that is just one that we have heard about is it doing the same on other cameras ie canon and nikon it would be worth checking to see if it is a commen problem befor you right it off

and it is nice to have a company that is intrested in producing such items for the pentax range when the big 2 are sort of kicking us in the teeth

and to say that sigma back in the 80s and 90s there cameras were all pk fit they should rember there heritage

It is not available yet in K mout I believe. I ha e th 15mm one, since near launch fime and had no issues with it whatsoever.

Looks like the lens hood is permanently attached, so no good for square filter systems.

Given the field of view I'd expect the filter system would have to be extremely huge! One's quite likely to include one's feet accidentally so filters might have to reach to one's shoes! Apparently there's a slot at the rear for gelatine filters. Most grad effects can be done in PP anyhow aided by the dynamic range of current cameras provided the image was taken raw.

It's that I've just assembled the kit to try some long exposure work. Maybe i was being too optimistic about the usefulness of this lens for that type of thing.

I seem to recall that at The Photography Show Irix were showing their own filter system for their lenses.
Correction - round filters for the 15mm, the 11mm has a rear slot for gelatin filters.

I'd seen the 15mm has a detachable hood and can take 95mm dia. filters. But I've just been watching another YouTube video and the front element of the 11mm looks really bulbous, with no chance of fitting a filter

Just an update. I've ended up with the Samyang 14mm f2.8 following a recommendation from a landscaping friend.
I mentioned, I'd scraped together a filter set to try some long exposures, well that was based on the Lee 100 system. According to Lee the Irix 15mm lenses are not compatible with that system. link. So with filters not really an option I went for least expensive. to see how it goes.

What experiences have people had with the 11mm and 15mm Irixes. I've previously bought the Samyang 14mm and returned it because its resolution isn't good enough for a K1. I'm also wondering whether anyone has got hold of the almost impossible to find Laowa 12mm? I've got the 20mm F4 Pentax which is great as long as you're not in too much sunlight and the Sigma 35mm 1.4 which has fantastic sharpness and resolution but I'd like to add an even wider lens because some internal shots still need extra space.

Should have swapped it out under warranty, they're not normally bad.

This is ePhotozine's resolution test of the Samyang 14mm:


Full review: https://www.ephotozine.com/article/samyang-14mm-f-2-8-ed-as-if-umc-lens-review-1...
IMHO You'd be hard put to find an extreme wide angle lens with better resolution!

As to the 15mm Irix. Resolution test for that shows really good centre performance but just look at the edges unless its stopped down to f/11.


https://www.ephotozine.com/article/irix-15mm-f-2-4-lens-review-30126

However the 11mm Irix is the opposite:


https://www.ephotozine.com/article/irix-11mm-f-4-firefly-review-30678

Stop down with that and it goes off.

The problem is with a lot of these reviews is that they are some time in the past. There weren't any 36mp full frame cameras around in 2012 and the majority of cameras would have been approx 12-16 mp apart from the £5000 pro jobs. So excellent is in relation to those cameras . The Samyang is mushy when you drill down into the images. The problem I have with the Irixes is that when I download the sample images from the reviews they don't look particularly good, then theres always the question of whether excellence is an absolute term or relative to price point, which is never made that clear in the reviews. Seriously thinking of dumping pentax because of havng to hunt around for old film lenses which are of variable quality plus the appalling focusing. Did a colour run for my sons school and had a number of back of head shots because the camera refused to lock focus as I followed them round.