If you've ever felt boxed in by the rectangular frame of a traditional lens, the AstrHori 6mm F2.8 might just break that box entirely. This lens doesn’t just widen your field of view - it explodes it.

Design, Build & Handling

From early hands-on impressions, the build quality is solid: metal (or alloy) construction, large front-element bubble typical of extreme fisheyes.

The manual focus ring is smooth, and the aperture ring features click stops.

Because of the huge front element, the lens doesn't support standard screw-on filters, so you’ll need to rely on what you have.

Handling wise: At ~340 g it is manageable, but the very ultra-wide field of view means that you must be acutely aware of what’s in the frame - your feet, the edge of the table, your tripod legs, etc, can all show up. The 220° view means “everything and more” is included.

Optical Performance & Visual Impact

Visual Style & Bokeh

The circular fisheye nature means images appear as a round “bubble” of image surrounded by black border (on full-frame), delivering a surreal, immersive look. Much distortion is intentional: straight lines will curve, the scene wraps.

The F2.8 aperture is fairly bright for this type of lens, helping in low-light and potentially astrophotography applications. Given the ultra-wide depth of field produced by 6 mm lenses, “bokeh” is less a priority than immersive depth and distortion.

Sharpness, Aberrations & Image Quality

It has a very good to excellent sharpness in the centre of the image, with good colour rendition. That said, because of the extremely wide angle, corners (or rather the outermost edge of the circle) may show softness, and flare/contrast when shooting into strong light can be a limitation.

Use Cases

• Astrophotography & night sky: The F2.8 and ultra-wide coverage make it interesting for capturing large sky areas.
• Creative portraits and environments: Combined with extreme distortion, you can create absolutely weird portraits with exaggerated perspectives.
• Street photography and symmetries: Playing in the street is great fun, and finding unusual frames is no challenge at all, because everything looks weird.

Autofocus, Mount Compatibility & Practical Considerations

Focus: The lens is manual focus only (no AF) in all announced versions. This aligns with its creative, experimental role rather than fast action autofocus.

Mounts: Confirmed for Sony E, Nikon Z, Canon RF, Leica L mounts, making it broadly compatible across full-frame mirrorless systems.

Stabilisation: The lens lacks optical image stabilization (OIS), and because of the nature of ultra-wide field of view (camera shake is less critical), this is acceptable; for handheld work pair with a body that has IBIS for best results. I tested it with my Sony A7RV and it performed really well.

Close-focusing: Very reasonable for this type of lens, it shows min focus distance ~0.08 m (8 cm) which allows very near-subject fun distortion.

Framing / Composition: Because of the 220° view, everything, including what’s behind you and above you, may enter the image. Be mindful of the floor, tripod legs, hats, etc.

Practical limits: It’s not a general-purpose lens. If your goal is subtle distortion or “normal” wide-angle, you’ll likely be frustrated. This lens shines when you want distortion.

AstrHori 6mm F2.8 - Tips For Shooting With It

Embrace the distortion: place your subject off-centre, use curvature to your advantage.

For best sharpness: consider stopping down a little (e.g., F4 - F5.6) if you can tolerate deeper depth of field.

Use a body with IBIS (in-body image stabilisation) if shooting handheld in low light, since the lens has no optical stabilisation.

Consider this lens in unique environments: tight spaces, large scenes, immersive interior rooms, night sky, or creative portraits.

Overview & Key Specifications

The AstrHori 6mm F2.8 is a manual-focus circular fisheye prime built for full-frame mirrorless cameras. Some of the standout specs:

• Focal length: 6 mm (full-frame)
• Maximum aperture: f/2.8 (minimum around f/16)
• Field of view: 220° (yes, two hundred-twenty degrees) - capturing a true circle image on a full-frame sensor.
• Minimum focus distance: as low as 0.08 m (8 cm) in some mount versions.
• Optical design: 10 elements in 8 groups (for certain mounts) including HRI/low-dispersion elements.
• Size/Weight: Compact for such an extreme lens - about 340 g, length ~61 mm in some mounts.
• Mounts: Available for major full-frame mirrorless mounts (Sony E, Nikon Z, Canon RF, Leica L).

Why this matters: In a world where many lenses try to be “versatile”, this one is unapologetically specialized. It’s about creativity, distortion, and ultra-wide immersion.

Conclusion & Final Verdict

The AstrHori 6mm F2.8 Full-frame Circular Fisheye is not for everyone, but for the right creator it is a powerful tool. If your goal is to expand the frame, to explore wildly wider visual territory, to bend perspectives and create stunning visuals, this lens delivers a tremendous value.

It may not replace your standard wide-angle lens, but it doesn’t pretend to. Instead, it invites you to re-think composition, space and distortion.

If you have a full-frame mirrorless system, love shooting creatively, and are comfortable with manual focus and intentional distortion, then yes, the AstrHori 6mm F2.8 is a strong buy. It offers one of the most extreme full-frame circular fisheye experiences for its price.

I tested it on the street in Warsaw and here are the results: