Japan is one of the most popular countries for photography for many reasons — including all the weird and wonderful photography accessories. Among these are what Paris-based Mathieu Stern called “Japan’s craziest lenses” in the video above. If you’re a collector of unique niche photography gear and accessories, you might find just find them interesting!
“I found some Japanese lenses that may be the weirdest lenses I ever tested,” said Stern in his intro on Yasuhara lenses. The brand, he added, is known for creating some weird lenses for a small niche market. The Yasuhara Nanoha X5, for example, offers a much higher magnification than the usual macro lens, making it essentially almost a microscopic lens.
Meanwhile, other interesting lenses from the brand are the Madoka 180 circular fisheye lens for Sony, and the Momo 100mm f/64 soft focus lens for Nikon, inspired by the 100-year-old lens of the Kodak Vest Pocket Camera. Both are geared towards very specific artistic effects, so if you’re picking up these lens, you’ll definitely need to be mindful of what you’re using them for.
However, if you’re specifically looking for something to add an artistic look to your portraits, the Yasuhara 35mm f/1.8 for Sony EF is your best option. Leaning more towards the traditional full frame lens, Stern noted that it’s the “least crazy” of the Yasuhara lenses but one that he will use the most — and it’s easy to see why!
What do you think of these Japanese lenses? Are you likely to pick any of them up? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
