Arducam 2.8-12mm Varifocal C-Mount Lens for Raspberry Pi HQ Camera, with C-CS Adapter

This lens combines extremely poor quality with extremely challenging operation. The chromatic aberration on this lens is the worst I have ever seen. It's not purple fringing, it's a purple border! Operation of the lens is difficult. Controls are not well labeled. I have no idea which way the zoom works. And is "near-far" a reference to focus or zooming? For this price in a small lens, I was getting at least decent quality. Nope. Returned.

When not in focus, there are a lot of lens imperfections may be visible: scratches, chips or dust that may affect the result. It's not noticeable from the outside and looks like there are internal defects. I ordered two lenses, both had this problem. Had to return them. For $65 I expected better quality.Also, zoom control label is not correct. When turning towards "wide", the picture gets closer; when turning towards "tele", the picture gets wider. Very confusing.

1. The TELE-WIDE ring is mislabeled! TELE expands the viewing angle, and WIDE shrinks it!UPDATE: I received a kind letter from customer service, who offered several options to resolve the issue. It seems I was among the few customers (or even the only ones) who had the wrong zoom ring.2. You cannot focus the image in the entire TELE range.UPDATE: Turns out it's not a fault with the ARDUCAM lens, but with the IFWATER camera body. The distance between the lens seat and the sensor surface was neither 17.53 mm (which is standard for a C lens) nor 12.53 mm (CS lens), but around 14.5 mm, which made it impossible to focus properly. So I have to update the review for IFWATER camera too.

I really like this lens. It's a great multi-purpose lens for c-mount cameras. Very wide FOV when zoomed out and decent telephoto when zoomed in.This lens does NOT have an IR-Cut filter and will show red infrared fringes when used on cameras without an IR-Cut filter. You can see this in Jim G's review photo. I don't think an IR filter can be adapted to this as the focusing element extends past the mounting threads on the back of the lens. You would need a camera with built-in IR-Cut filter.

This is for the 2.8-12mm varifocal lens. It's okay as a wide angle lens. However, it cannot focus on anything if you zoom in more than a little bit. This is complete trash and unusable as anything other than a fixed focal length lens.