AstrHori macro 25mm 2x-5x full frame macro lens

A full frame macro lens for mirrorless

Looking at the AstrHori 25mm f/2.8 2x-5x Macro lens. A lens that could well replace my MP-E65 for the 2x to 5x range?

The lens is available for a range of mirrorless mounts.

Price $249 – full details

A Jade plant flower [2x] click to enlarge [ Hand held f/4 ]

For this example [see the video] my EOS RP is on the AstrHori Macro slider [see review]

The AstrHori Macro slider is listed on the AstrHori site at $119. As of April 2024 it’s available bundled with the 25mm macro lens for $329

AstrHori Macro 25mm 2-5x

I’ve been looking at the new AstrHori macro 25/2.8 lens.

Using it on the EOS RP lets me use it tethered with EOS Utility, so I can see the view on the screen at the back [it includes focus peaking if enabled] and live view  on my screen.

AstrHori Macro: Review video overview

The macro range 2x-5x is where you start getting dedicated macro lenses which have a fixed focus point in front of them and you move the camera or subject to focus them.

Two diodes – click to enlarge. Crop from a 2x image at f/5.6

I’ve looked at several different macro lenses over the years – see the Macro category in the dropdown list at the right.

AstrHori is one of the newer Chinese companies making an interesting range of lenses.

For more info on this lens see the AstrHori info page

AstrHori macro 25mm specifications

• Price: $249.00, €279.00, £239.00 [AstrHori]
• Focal length: 25mm
• Mount: E/FX/RF/Z/L
• Full frame
• Working distance: 37.5mm — 45mm
• Aperture range: F2.8-F16
• Weight: 474g
• Magnification: 2X-5X
• Aperture ring: Clicked Aperture
• Focus mode: manual
• Field of View:  [at 2X] 20° [at 5x] 9°
• Minimum focusing distance: 2X(113mm), 3X(137.8mm), 4X(162mm), 5X(186.4mm).
• Lens structure: 10 elements in 7 groups. ( 2 pieces of high refractive glass, 2 pieces of ED glass.)

One ‘feature’ I noted is that whilst there are whole stop aperture stops, there is an additional ‘un-named’ one between f/2.8 and f/4.

A half stop would be f/3.5. It’s enough to reduce vignetting a bit from 2.8, but not enough that you’ll likely notice any change in DOF.

The aperture has 8 blades, and if you look carefully you can detect a slight octagonal look to OOF highlights at any aperture other than f/2.8. This example is at f/4

I’d just note that this is not as obvious as the hexagonal ones I can see with my MP-E65mm.

AstrHori Macro: Video review [2] : A Quick look

As well as the review above, I’ve a quick intro to the lens, from when I first received it.

The lens…

The lens is available for a number of full frame mounts – the lens I’ve got here is RF mount and here it is on my EOS-RP.

AstrHori 25mm Macro info

The lens extends considerably as you go from 2x to 5x.

Internal design

Lens MTF

The charts supplied by AstrHori. Note that one set is in an uncommon format.

As ever read published charts with care. [click to enlarge]

AstrHori Macro magnification range

Stepping through magnifications at f/5.6.

Without very precise test targets and setup, and more megapixels, I’m loathe to draw any specific conclusions relating to settings and quality – also this is just one lens – I’ve no idea of unit to unit variability. Just bear that in mind if you see reviews praising or criticising the lens too firmly.

This one worked well and I’d use it for my commercial work…

Stepping through apertures [2x] f/2.8 to f/16

A bit of vignetting at f/2.8, but chromatic aberration is minimal

AstrHori macro – Evenness

The best performance at all magnifications is in the central half of the frame.

With the 26MP sensor of the EOS RP any slight loss of detail is only really visible at the far left/right edges of an image in landscape orientation, and then it’s not that obvious.

Use the lens on a crop sensor and you’ll have no worries over vignetting at any aperture. The lens is available in Fuji X mount as well, so for that system it is a very good performer.

How noticeable is this? A lot depends on your subject – many macro shots tend to focus on central subjects. If you are photographing a planar subject, you’ll need to take far more care in focus, alignment and placing than concern over any edge fall-off.

Stacking shots

The tiny depth of field means that to expand it, you really do need to consider stacking multiple shots taken with the camera/lens moved between shots.  If you’re unfamiliar with this I’ve a detailed 3 part article/review looking at using Helicon Focus for this.

In this example, I’m using a motorised stackshot rail to step the camera. The magnification is 5x and I’m using the lens at f/4.

For my commercial work I’d likely be using flash, but that LED lamp is powerful enough for testing [GC30 review]

With the very small DOF, the image is a stack of 58 shots. [click to enlarge]

Using macro at 2-5x

I’ve always taken ‘true’ macro as starting at1x or ‘life size’ reproduction.

This is where your field of view at the focus plane is the size of your sensor – so 36mm x 24mm with the RP here.

The AstrHori macro starts at 2x, so your focus plane FOV is half that or 18mm x 12mm.  Go to 5x and the coverage is 7.2mm x 4.8mm

If you’re thinking of trying macro at this scale just remember how small that coverage is.

An example here shows some details of some daffodils at 2x and 5x.

The setup is quite simple, using the continuous light I used in the video. Fairly high ISO lets me shoot at 100th a second even at f/16.

Shooting at f/11 or f/16 gives enough DOF to get a feel for things out of focus, but does show dust on your sensor really clearly.

A bee’s eye view… 2x,2x,5x,2x  [click to enlarge]

As you can see, objects often become quite difficult to identify.

AstrHori Macro 25mm Compared with my Canon MP-E65

The Canon MP-E65mm f/2.8 1-5x macro has been my lens of choice for many years for much of my commercial macro-photography. How does the AstrHori macro compare?

Very favourably from an overall image quality POV, but there’s more to it than that.

The MP-E goes to 1x, so if I needed 1-2x x I’d be using the MP-E

The OOF highlights look slightly better with the Astrhori macro, since the 8 aperture blades don’t have some of the harshness you can occasionally get from the six blades of the MP-E.

There is almost no CA with the Astrhori – it’s minimal with the MP-E but there’s more of it.

Of course, the MP-E works on my 50MP 5DS and, with an adapter, on my Fujifilm GFX100S whilst the RF AstrHori macro won’t.

The MP-E is also quite a lot bigger, which can cause issues sometimes.

The Astrhori is quite a bit cheaper too…  Currently listed at $249 new compared to the MP-E65 at $850 [used B&H]

Some personal thoughts about ‘macro’

if you are just looking to experiment, don’t be put off just having a go. Macro sometimes attracts photographers of a ‘somewhat precise’ nature – don’t let their perfectionism spoil your fun or choices of what to photograph. However I suspect some will dismiss this review as insufficiently rigorous anyway ;-)

Just remember that lighting and camera support all become more critical as the magnification goes up. With care, the AstrHori Macro 25mm is eminently usable hand-held – just expect to have to take rather a lot of shots to get it right…

AstrHori Macro 25mm conclusions

The lens is solidly built and has a smooth extension for varying magnification. The extension is smooth and there is no ‘creep’ if you point the lens directly downwards.

There are minimal optical distortions and aberrations. The working distance [37.5mm – 45mm] is enough not to cause great difficulties in lighting

if you’re looking at getting into more detailed higher magnification macro photography, this lens represents a relatively economic path to experiment.

The lens is available for a range of mirrorless mounts [ E/L/RF/Z/FX ]

Price $249 – full details