I really appreciate the high quality review of a cheaper common lens. For lenses like this, it’s usually difficult to find a review that is not overly glowy cuz they got the lens for free, or overly harsh because “pros always buy the first-party lenses”.
For experienced photographers who enjoy manual focusing, these low cost Chinese lenses are a godsend. I have the ttartisan 17mm f1.4 and the 50mm f1.2 for Fuji ($200 for the pair new) X and I absolutely adore them.
Agreed they are so much fun. I had the Kamlan 50mm f1.1 on my X-E2 and it’s amazing! It’s technically terrible but has so much character and is so fun to use and produces such interesting looking pictures.
@@iyzyz Exactly. And the TT artisan 50 f1.2 isn't even a bad lens. It was definitely sharper than the converted vintage Nikkor and Zuiko lenses I'd been using before. And being made for APSC makes them such a great, compact pairing with Fuji XE cameras.
Good to see some reviews at DP of the 7 Artisans and TT Artisan lens line. Ya have to give them credit for bringing affordable somewhat exotic lenses to the masses. Many are indeed quirky but affordable and fun to work with.
@@RodolphosTechchannel If the FD 50/1.4 is anything like the EOS 50/1.4 you can have them all. Every one I have owned has been a rather poor performing lens.
I have the first version of this lens for my APS-C Sony cameras and I absolutley love it! I also note that this new version has less aperture blades (9 vs 14) and leads to more "poligonal" bokeh in apertures past f/2 compared to the old version.
Chris makes an excellent point that deserves more emphasis: this lens (along with, I'd go so far as to say, other Chinese-origin, contract-manufactured lenses such as TTArtisan) is NOT intended for photography newcomers who might have started with a kit zoom and are looking for a fixed-focal-length lens with with similar sharpness and contrast. These lenses are designed specifically to be “interesting” and to appeal to knowledgeable photographers who understand things such as field curvature and are willing to deal with quirks in return for getting a certain look… even though you won't know what the look is until you try the lens, which is why I'd love to see more coverage of “interesting” lenses on DPRTV!
This type of review is exactly what I'm looking for. I'm not a beginner (shooting since 1976), so the unique characteristics are the point. More like this, please!
I have a couple of these cheap manual focus lenses. One being the TTartisans 50mm f1.2. I like them specifically for their character. I tend to use them when shooting single subjects in black and white. I think that is where they shine. Great review.
I love Chris here talking about the science of the lens. It’s nice to see a really technical review. It’s $150! I’m sure $10,000 Leica lenses have their problems too.
Depends on which 10,000 Leica lens we're talking about. The 50mm f2 APO is basically technically perfect. The noctulux lenses on the other hand have numerous flaws in an absolute sense but are competitive when you keep in mind they're F1. 0 aperture.
Thank you for also reviewing some more affordable stuff! I like to use manual focus lenses on my Sony FE cameras time and again. Makes me connect to the craft.
@@7artisansOfficial Lately I've only been using my 55-200 mm. I'm finding that I'm a telephoto shooter and while 55-200mm is the longest native lens on the Eos M system, I wouldn't mind a longer lens. Despite saying I don't like 50mm, I still shoot a few pictures at 55mm. Probably over 65% of my current shooting is between 150 and 200mm.
@@7artisansOfficial some lenses in 85-100 mm f1.8 will be great for apsc shooters, thanks
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I use version 0.95 from 7artisans, and after a year. I can recommend it for portraits. but only for personal use. The images are very different from what you can get with other lenses, and for the price, unbeatable, but not reliable for professional work.
Fell in love with this lens from first sight. On my GX85 focus assistance makes focusing easy. This is my street walking lens. Macro is good and closer than my all Canon EF primes. ( EF 24,50,100)
I don't know if the companies are related but 7Artisans and TTArtisan, which made these kind of lenses, tend to have the same overall feel to them, be it look, build quality (which are built great considering the price) and image quality. I have the TTArtisan 21mm f1.5, which the focal length alone is a bit quirky, and the image characteristics pretty much the same to either this 7Artisans 55mm f1.4 in the video, or the TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 I've tried. I bought the 21mm really to just experimenting here and there, especially being a manual lens, which I could say is great. Though a bit of a confession to make, to widen the FoV of my Canon RP's cropped 4K. One thing I hate is the minimum focus distance which is only 50cm, it can't emphasize the background separation enough with the bokeh being such a wide FoV lens. I understand that even before purchasing it (learnt that it has Leica-esque lens elements design in mind), but the real world experience is worse than I thought.
Thank you for reviewing this. It is crazy that so many people pay cartoonish amount of money on certain lenses and cameras for "the privilege" of manual focusing, while dismissing these lenses because they do not have manual focus.
Hey Christ, love your review on this 55mm f1.4 lens. I've bought the 7Artisans 25mm f/0.95 for m43 mount. I agree with you on the out of focus transition, it has more on the dreamy feel to it and the bokeh is just as wonderful. I tried using the 25mm f0.95 on the E-M5.3 with nissin i60 on TTL mode. This combination for portraits work beautifully, but at f0.95 it can be very difficult to nail focus on the eyes especially at dim lighting conditions. Overall it's a great lens at that price point.
I think you made good point, that those lenses are not for beginners, even though they are priced for beginners. They could be easily tempted and then discouraged with such lenses.
The problem here is thinking "cheap = beginner" You can buy Hasselblad Planar lenses for less than 50mm 1.8 "entry" level lens. 99% of discouragement in photography comes from other people. Either being told you aren't good (When no one asked) or comparing yourself to people on social media and expecting to take the same photos if you by the same gear without the 8 years of experience
These lenses look to me just like the lenses I began with in the 1980s. Anything I could get my hands on then, wasn't high end for the time. I have the 50mm f1.2 TTArtisans for Fuji X, and it's a lot like the vintage glass I shot when it wasn't vintage-except with better coatings and a not-worn-out-helicoid. So I wouldn't feel bad turning a beginner (such as my daughter) loose with this lens.
Excellent review as always. I learned a lot due to your detailed examples on what is good or less good about this type of cheap lenses. I wish you will review more manual Chinese lenses, also for M43. Not everyone can afford the most expensive lenses.
The Yongnuo YN 50mm f1.8 costs about the same, and has _autofocus_ (and communicates its settings to the camera). And I think it is available for many APSC configurations (I have one for Sony). The f1.4 would make this 7Artisans lens interesting, but not if you can't really get good shots with it at that aperture. And 50 or 55 mm for APSC is really no picnic to manual focus.
I have a 25mm Meike MFT lens, $75. Same issues. The CA & lack of click stops puts it in the specialist category. I tend to keep a 10mm macro ring on it for quick changes. OTOH, I'll stack my MC Rokkor 55mm f/1.9 against your $125 wonder any day. Other than a tiny bit of LOCA, it's perfect on an MFT, just like it was on a Minolta SLR.
Well yeah.. of course MD Rokkor glass from back then is going to be optically better than cheap n cheerful glass of today :-) I have some old Minolta cameras and lenses, they are a joy to shoot.
Interesting focal length/speed/price combination. However, all of these inexpensive manual focus lenses have an issue that almost kills them for me: they do not have what in the film days was called an "automatic diaphragm." That is, if you want to shoot at, say, f5.6, you can either focus at f1.4 and then stop the lens down to shoot, which is inconvenient, especially with no clicks on the aperture ring, or focus at f5.6, which isn't easy since the focusing screen is dark and depth of field is deep. Vintage manual focus lenses always focused wide open and then "automatically" stopped down to the selected aperture when you pressed the shutter release.
Of course for the price this lens will have limitations and drawbacks, but for someone with a tiny budget that wants to have something to learn on, it looks like this might fit that type of user.
Very nice with a review of a manual focusing Lens ! I hope you will make more reviews of manual focused Lenses, fx the Voigtländer 35 and 50mm 2.0 APO Lanthar Lenses. I focus manual even with my autofocus Lenses most of the time !
Great to see a review of a cheap lens! the Chinese makers are really getting serious now and while their AF lenses are not so light and cheap as their MF lenses, with Samyang, Venus and others hitting the right notes They certainly have their place. I relatively recently stumbled on a lens for my Fuji XT-4, the Zonlai 22mm f1.8. Now while this lens does have an issue that was highlighted in a review, in the real world it does not matter one bit. When I checked out the prices in the UK I found it new on Amazon for 115 GBP!! At that price I had to try it, but before I pushed the add to my basket button I had a look around the whole UK on a website that scoops all of the ads from dealers, ebay etc into one place and found a used one with a Fiji mount (the only one in the UK!) for 75GBP. When I got it it looked like it had never been on a camera. The mount did not have a mark on it. Yes, if I went out of my way for the issue to appear, it does, but for everyday use it is not visible. I'd love to see what you guys think about it.
I completely agree. I bought a Zonlai 22mm f1.8 second-hand on ebay for £89 about six months ago and have been amazed just how good this lens is when paired with an X-Pro1. Solid build quality and a great focal length for me.
My Nikon Z6 has a 1:1 crop mode. I was wondering whether this lens could be used and cover that image circle. I have a Navitar 50mm f/0.95 that shows minor vignetting at the 1:1 crop on the Z6. (When I contacted Navitar to obtain instructions on adjusting infinity focus, I mentioned my plan to mount it on a Z6, and the tech refused to talk to me further, saying I was planning something beyond the lens' "intended use". I had to figure that out on my own.)
Thanks for the review, not for me but it’s an interesting device. On the other hand a good AF 50mm like the Nikon G cost 216$ and it’s a very good performer for the price , and even if that is too much one can get the 131$ D series. Same for Canon . Finally there is the possibly of getting one used.
Chris, did you notice which direction the field was curving? If you focus the middle at 3M, are the corners 4M or maybe 2.5M? I think most people might prefer the latter, but personally, I would prefer the former. It would generally give the illusion of greater depth of field. There have been some comments about how wonderful some of the older lenses were. One thing I can say is that generally, contrary to modern thinking, the 50 1.4's did not have as much contrast and were not as sharp and as the 50 1.8's by the same mfr. If I bought a Canon, FD, I would take the 1.8. As for the myth of those old lenses being better than this 7Artisans version 50 1.4, not only did I use some of them, I _have_ a Canon FD 50 1.4 which I use on a Sony a6400. The main advantage of the Canon is the flatter field of view, and maybe corner sharpness. That's about it. Not only that, but many of the Canons from that era had oddly shaped very-low-blade-count-apertures. I never minded that. . . .
Ahhh, the old expensive but clinical lens v a less expensive one with character! Might be good to get this one for shallow depth of field work in general not just portraits. No onion rings!
Hi Chris, loved the review. Any plans to review the 7 Artisans 35mm F1.2 Mkii ( clicked aperture ring ) lens?. I use it on Fujfilm X-t2 and X- E3 cameras. Well worth a look at, works very well for Portraits tto. Cheers Ian ( Leicester, UK ).
You nailed it in the head. These cheap manual lenses are NOT for beginners. You need to know the character of the lense and how to apply it to your photography. I have 7artisans 25mm f1.8 and 35mm f1.2. They are far for perfect but I love the images I got from them.
I actually think that this is a great market section where it is still really cheap, but not so cheap that it sacrifices so much image quality to the point where there is basically “character” but nothing else.
What's nice about a non-clickable lens for photography is you aren't stuck to 3 defined clicks per stop. Current Lenses go from f1.4, f2, f2.8 to f4 etc. But sometimes you need F3.1 or F3.5 not F4 or the 3 defined clicks
Another important thing to mention is that you’re always playing the lens lottery when you buy these ultra-budget MF lenses, so make sure to buy from somewhere with a pain free return policy. For my Fuji X cameras I got a Samyang 12mm that was tack sharp and pretty much flawless, but aside from that I’ve had to return every TTArtisan, 7Artisan, Meike, and Mitakon MF lens that I’ve tried. They all had some sort of critical flaw right out of the box ranging from soft focus to stick aperture blades and everything in between.
You make a good point. Personally, I now only buy these types of lenses second-hand and I question the sellers vigorously before buying. This cuts down some of the more obvious faults. This policy was prompted by the experience of buying a new Pergear lens that wouldn't mount on the camera!
i have the artisan 35mm which i use only for portrait on my ff. very similar specs ans pros and cons. love the look, but tricky. btw, do they have a mft mount on this one?
Wait a minute. Did you just say you have to move the focus point after you compose? On a manual focus lens? Lol. But for real, as someone who exclusively uses mf lenses on mirrorless, the ability to focus and composer simultaneously is my favorite part of manual focus.
Hey Jordan, I think I like the video quality of the OM-D E-M1x better than the GH5 footage shown here. Just seemed sharper. Different lens compared to New York review with the M11?
I think with the resurgence of analog photography, reviews of this sort should touch on whether it makes more sense to adapt a legacy lens versus the new cheapo lens. I fully expect, for example, a Canon nFD 50 1.4 costs less, outperforms this lens optically, and at the same time probably adds more desirable character. Same story for practically any of the other major vendors 1.4 manual focus film lenses.
That's not how this works. Modern lenses are optically perfect. There is no vintage lens that is better than a modern lens of the same build. However this is not always desired. Some people want flaring, swirly bokeh, vignetting or less sharpness for portraits etc
@@ReclusiveEagle I own 20 vintage lenses and the majority of them are optically better than the lens they are reviewing here. I don't think you are taking into account the fact that the vintage lenses are designed to cover full frame and when you use them on crop you're in the sweet spot. I use them all the time and have to do fewer corrections for aberrations and most especially distortion and vignette. The one weakness is contrast wide open but frankly that is the easiest thing in the world to fix in post.
I have an olympus zuiko 50mm 1.4 so this lens is not particularly interesting to me. but TTartisan has come out with wide and fast lenses like the 35mm 1.4 and those are not as common in vintage lenses. the recommendations in this review are on point : the strong point of these lenses is center sharpness and to consider this when focusing on the interest point in the shot. also, most of these chinese lenses are clones of old classic lenses, that's why they perform so well.
@@jose.miguelwong7306 Agreed - for wide angle photography the vintage lenses are not as bright. My main point was regarding normal and telephoto though.
@@jose.miguelwong7306 I have a Zuiko 50mm 1.4 but this lens is still interesting to me, because at f1.4 my Oly is useless. Whereas my 7artisans 35mm 0.95 is useable at 0.95...
It'd be sort of interesting to keep the lens set at one focus setting and move a load of test subjects in and out of the frame across the width and height to map the curved shape of the 'plane' of focus.
@@mydearriley Yes, that's what I was reacting to. This lens won't focus on a flat plane all at once. But there must be some curved focus that it could focus on all at once, I was wondering about what shape that would be.
@@barneylaurance1865 I think I see what you mean. For the flat board he uses in the video, we aren't sure if the focal point is in front or even if it's behind the board. Nor do we know how far the focal point is away from the board (in either direction). I can imagine an interesting device, sort of like a push-pin/bed-of-nails/#D impression toy. If you focus on the center nail, you'd be able to move the adjacent pins towards and away from the lens until each pin is in focus. In theory, that would produce a very interesting 3D model of the focal plane.
Ah, the cheap manual lenses. I dared to buy a 7artisans 23 mm f1.8 as a lens for my facecam (in meetings, streams...) because at this price point you can afford the experiment. If it's bad, it doesn't hurt. And it is not bad. Yes, it has some barrel distortion and the corners are soft and vignetting is noticable. But actually I like this look for this use case. And some lack of sharpness doesn't really show in FHD video. Only the lack of auto focus can be annoying sometimes. So I think this cheap manual lenses are worth a try, for photography as well. Even if they turn out to be too bad for your demands, you can resell them and would lose barely any money. And often restrictions leads to creativity. Just remember Jordans K-01 videos. :)
Wait wait wait, a month of phone internet is 125 dollars there? I pay 5 euros and I get 55gb which is enough, and basically unlimited phones and sms… I feel for you guys, 125$ a month for internet… what a robbery
The difference is that in Europe, Corporations can't double dip like they can here in the USA. John Q Taxpayer pays for infrastructure in both places, but in Europe the phone companies aren't allowed to charge as if they don't. In other words, Euros get to reap the rewards of Socialist infrastructure. Here in the US, we pay for it just the same-but the Corporation and shareholders get to keep the profits while we keep on paying them to do so. And bonus: They don't have to pay taxes!!
Chromatic aberration is the optical fault I most despise in any glass, new or old. There are fantastic lenses CA free at affordable prices, so reviewers should stop downplaying it because it's a product of sloppy design and you should be able to shoot jpeg without having to tweak each single photo in an image editor. Lightroom is not the excuse for lenses getting worse: I got rid of most of my Lumix lenses because of how poorly corrected they are compared to Olympus ones and I would neve accept CA on any Fuji of Canon lenses I bought. Back in the days, when lens design was some sort of alchemy made without computers, Chromatic Aberration control was among the things that define a good glass from a bad one, so I don't get why every review I see now states "it's not a big deal". Do the lens maker gives me a refund for the time I have to waste correcting energy single picture (and I should say patching because definition in lost at the borders) because of the faults they left behind in the design of the lens they sell to save some money and increase their margins?
Yes. Please more ttartisan/7artisan/3rd party mf lenses. Available for a whole lot of cameras, fun, and affordable so it will be hitting a lot of consumers (:(:(: Edit: maybe if youre looking at manual lenses taking a look at some m42 legends adapted to mirrorless. Im thinkin pentax smc 55 1.8 for $40. Revamp gear of yesteryear?
This seems like a clone of the Petzval or Lensbaby lenses, where you get that sharp middle but then you get that swirly out of focus area everywhere else.
The perfect hair is distracting Chris. Time to play with my TTArtisan. A little reluctant to do so. Thanks for the gentle push. So it’s real hair, right? 😉
It is an APS-C, not full frame, lens at 55mm. He is giving you the full frame equivalent field of view on a 1.5x crop sensor, which would be 82.5mm. They reviewed it on a Nikon Z7 in cropped 19MP DX APS-C mode.
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I really appreciate the high quality review of a cheaper common lens. For lenses like this, it’s usually difficult to find a review that is not overly glowy cuz they got the lens for free, or overly harsh because “pros always buy the first-party lenses”.
For experienced photographers who enjoy manual focusing, these low cost Chinese lenses are a godsend. I have the ttartisan 17mm f1.4 and the 50mm f1.2 for Fuji ($200 for the pair new) X and I absolutely adore them.
Agreed they are so much fun. I had the Kamlan 50mm f1.1 on my X-E2 and it’s amazing! It’s technically terrible but has so much character and is so fun to use and produces such interesting looking pictures.
@@iyzyz Exactly. And the TT artisan 50 f1.2 isn't even a bad lens. It was definitely sharper than the converted vintage Nikkor and Zuiko lenses I'd been using before. And being made for APSC makes them such a great, compact pairing with Fuji XE cameras.
I too have love the 17mm.
Good to see some reviews at DP of the 7 Artisans and TT Artisan lens line. Ya have to give them credit for bringing affordable somewhat exotic lenses to the masses. Many are indeed quirky but affordable and fun to work with.
I would rather buy a canon fd 50mm f1.4 for the same price and it’s much better. Sure no autofocus but who cares
@@RodolphosTechchannel If the FD 50/1.4 is anything like the EOS 50/1.4 you can have them all. Every one I have owned has been a rather poor performing lens.
@@d30gaijin totally different lenses…are you sure you know about photography? Lol
@@RodolphosTechchannel I was referring to their optical formulas but I guess that went over your head. Why do some people have to be so insufferable?
Probably because it is a slow season!
I have the first version of this lens for my APS-C Sony cameras and I absolutley love it! I also note that this new version has less aperture blades (9 vs 14) and leads to more "poligonal" bokeh in apertures past f/2 compared to the old version.
Chris makes an excellent point that deserves more emphasis: this lens (along with, I'd go so far as to say, other Chinese-origin, contract-manufactured lenses such as TTArtisan) is NOT intended for photography newcomers who might have started with a kit zoom and are looking for a fixed-focal-length lens with with similar sharpness and contrast. These lenses are designed specifically to be “interesting” and to appeal to knowledgeable photographers who understand things such as field curvature and are willing to deal with quirks in return for getting a certain look… even though you won't know what the look is until you try the lens, which is why I'd love to see more coverage of “interesting” lenses on DPRTV!
I have this lens what I need is an adapter for it to use with my bm4kcc 4/3 sensor
This type of review is exactly what I'm looking for. I'm not a beginner (shooting since 1976), so the unique characteristics are the point. More like this, please!
I have a couple of these cheap manual focus lenses. One being the TTartisans 50mm f1.2. I like them specifically for their character. I tend to use them when shooting single subjects in black and white. I think that is where they shine. Great review.
I love Chris here talking about the science of the lens. It’s nice to see a really technical review. It’s $150! I’m sure $10,000 Leica lenses have their problems too.
Depends on which 10,000 Leica lens we're talking about.
The 50mm f2 APO is basically technically perfect.
The noctulux lenses on the other hand have numerous flaws in an absolute sense but are competitive when you keep in mind they're F1. 0 aperture.
with a compact f1.4, shortcomings like this are typically inevitable so at least now you can choose to pay less.
Thank you for also reviewing some more affordable stuff! I like to use manual focus lenses on my Sony FE cameras time and again. Makes me connect to the craft.
Wow the snow at 3:39 looks super cool! Very picturesque Canadian winter day there.
Especially since this is July in the frozen North, he he.
I love Canmore! Such a cool mountain town. Hope you guys shoot out in the mountains more often!
You should try the tt artisans 50mm f1.2. I got mine new for $80. Hard to beat that price.
Paid a little more than $100 for mine. Quickly learn I don't like 50mm, but otherwise a great deal for the price.
@@arthurmarshall6825 Good day, may I know which focal length you usually use?
@@7artisansOfficial Lately I've only been using my 55-200 mm. I'm finding that I'm a telephoto shooter and while 55-200mm is the longest native lens on the Eos M system, I wouldn't mind a longer lens. Despite saying I don't like 50mm, I still shoot a few pictures at 55mm. Probably over 65% of my current shooting is between 150 and 200mm.
@@7artisansOfficial some lenses in 85-100 mm f1.8 will be great for apsc shooters, thanks
I use version 0.95 from 7artisans, and after a year. I can recommend it for portraits. but only for personal use. The images are very different from what you can get with other lenses, and for the price, unbeatable, but not reliable for professional work.
Agreed.
I have out of the Fuji X-T3 and performs well definitively I would only consider it for portrait work. Good budget lens.
Thanks
Excellent video 😊!
Fell in love with this lens from first sight. On my GX85 focus assistance makes focusing easy. This is my street walking lens. Macro is good and closer than my all Canon EF primes. ( EF 24,50,100)
Thanks to remember us, people with low budget...:)
Best regards from Brazil!
i have a 25mm f1.8 and a 7.5mm f2.8 fisheye, both 7artisans, and I love them!
👍, thanks !! and a merry Christmas too !
I don't know if the companies are related but 7Artisans and TTArtisan, which made these kind of lenses, tend to have the same overall feel to them, be it look, build quality (which are built great considering the price) and image quality. I have the TTArtisan 21mm f1.5, which the focal length alone is a bit quirky, and the image characteristics pretty much the same to either this 7Artisans 55mm f1.4 in the video, or the TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 I've tried. I bought the 21mm really to just experimenting here and there, especially being a manual lens, which I could say is great. Though a bit of a confession to make, to widen the FoV of my Canon RP's cropped 4K. One thing I hate is the minimum focus distance which is only 50cm, it can't emphasize the background separation enough with the bokeh being such a wide FoV lens. I understand that even before purchasing it (learnt that it has Leica-esque lens elements design in mind), but the real world experience is worse than I thought.
Thank you for reviewing this. It is crazy that so many people pay cartoonish amount of money on certain lenses and cameras for "the privilege" of manual focusing, while dismissing these lenses because they do not have manual focus.
An excellent review (you and Jordan--I'm assuming he was shooting the video--always do such a compelling and entertaining job of it). Thank you.
Please do more reviews like this! 🙏
Hey Christ, love your review on this 55mm f1.4 lens.
I've bought the 7Artisans 25mm f/0.95 for m43 mount.
I agree with you on the out of focus transition, it has more on the dreamy feel to it and the bokeh is just as wonderful. I tried using the 25mm f0.95 on the E-M5.3 with nissin i60 on TTL mode.
This combination for portraits work beautifully, but at f0.95 it can be very difficult to nail focus on the eyes especially at dim lighting conditions.
Overall it's a great lens at that price point.
Love this look at more affordable optics!
Thanks ~
Thank you for reviewing a lens for those of us where money is still an object. And pixel perfection isn't the bottom line.
I'm planning on moving onto mirrorless and lenses like these seem interesting, far from perfect but you can seemingly get interesting results.
Nice, thanks! Love the symetrical car pass shot with Chris on the bridge. Sound is a little low.
1:25 ahh I see you guys have stepped up your game and use extras/drivers to spice up your videos. great work.
Thanks for another great review. I appreciate the APS-C love.
I think you made good point, that those lenses are not for beginners, even though they are priced for beginners. They could be easily tempted and then discouraged with such lenses.
The problem here is thinking "cheap = beginner"
You can buy Hasselblad Planar lenses for less than 50mm 1.8 "entry" level lens.
99% of discouragement in photography comes from other people. Either being told you aren't good (When no one asked) or comparing yourself to people on social media and expecting to take the same photos if you by the same gear without the 8 years of experience
These lenses look to me just like the lenses I began with in the 1980s. Anything I could get my hands on then, wasn't high end for the time. I have the 50mm f1.2 TTArtisans for Fuji X, and it's a lot like the vintage glass I shot when it wasn't vintage-except with better coatings and a not-worn-out-helicoid.
So I wouldn't feel bad turning a beginner (such as my daughter) loose with this lens.
Excellent review as always. I learned a lot due to your detailed examples on what is good or less good about this type of cheap lenses.
I wish you will review more manual Chinese lenses, also for M43. Not everyone can afford the most expensive lenses.
The Yongnuo YN 50mm f1.8 costs about the same, and has _autofocus_ (and communicates its settings to the camera).
And I think it is available for many APSC configurations (I have one for Sony).
The f1.4 would make this 7Artisans lens interesting, but not if you can't really get good shots with it at that aperture. And 50 or 55 mm for APSC is really no picnic to manual focus.
i wish we had that lens for Z mount. i wanted to get the zv e10 with the yongnuo instead of the kit lens
Nice. Need more of these cheap lens reviews.
Lovely X-Pro 1 in the video. Soon 10 years old!
great review, as always. Looks like an interesting lens to play around and experiment.
I have a 25mm Meike MFT lens, $75. Same issues. The CA & lack of click stops puts it in the specialist category. I tend to keep a 10mm macro ring on it for quick changes. OTOH, I'll stack my MC Rokkor 55mm f/1.9 against your $125 wonder any day. Other than a tiny bit of LOCA, it's perfect on an MFT, just like it was on a Minolta SLR.
Well yeah.. of course MD Rokkor glass from back then is going to be optically better than cheap n cheerful glass of today :-) I have some old Minolta cameras and lenses, they are a joy to shoot.
Interesting focal length/speed/price combination.
However, all of these inexpensive manual focus lenses have an issue that almost kills them for me: they do not have what in the film days was called an "automatic diaphragm." That is, if you want to shoot at, say, f5.6, you can either focus at f1.4 and then stop the lens down to shoot, which is inconvenient, especially with no clicks on the aperture ring, or focus at f5.6, which isn't easy since the focusing screen is dark and depth of field is deep.
Vintage manual focus lenses always focused wide open and then "automatically" stopped down to the selected aperture when you pressed the shutter release.
Of course for the price this lens will have limitations and drawbacks, but for someone with a tiny budget that wants to have something to learn on, it looks like this might fit that type of user.
I tried and reviewed the 7Artisans 7.5mm and I was very surprised by the quality of the lens, even if there are quirks there too!
I have the mark 1 and I simply use it like a Lensbaby type lens, for a specific dreamy old school look. Fun to use.
I just got into vintage lenses so I appreciate you guys reviewing more cheap lenses with unique character a lot. Great review - thanks!
A very good lens review. Enjoyable all the way through!!
I mean, you’re filming today’s episode on the GH5. We know you can deal with a lack of autofocus 😉
Very nice with a review of a manual focusing Lens ! I hope you will make more reviews of manual focused Lenses, fx the Voigtländer 35 and 50mm 2.0 APO Lanthar Lenses. I focus manual even with my autofocus Lenses most of the time !
Xpro 1 in the house 😍😍
I wonder how well this compares with 7Artisans 50mm 1.2? The 50mm is cheaper and faster so it would be interesting to see how the two compares.
Hey look! The GH5 is back as the filming camera!
There's no mention of any aspherical elements in the product page for that lens, which I think is why the bokeh is so smooth
Cool to see a review of this cheap, manual lens!
Hey, could you guys maybe review the Tamron 18-300mm lens. It seems like an amazing range on paper but I really wonder how it actually performs.
Great to see a review of a cheap lens! the Chinese makers are really getting serious now and while their AF lenses are not so light and cheap as their MF lenses, with Samyang, Venus and others hitting the right notes They certainly have their place.
I relatively recently stumbled on a lens for my Fuji XT-4, the Zonlai 22mm f1.8. Now while this lens does have an issue that was highlighted in a review, in the real world it does not matter one bit. When I checked out the prices in the UK I found it new on Amazon for 115 GBP!! At that price I had to try it, but before I pushed the add to my basket button I had a look around the whole UK on a website that scoops all of the ads from dealers, ebay etc into one place and found a used one with a Fiji mount (the only one in the UK!) for 75GBP. When I got it it looked like it had never been on a camera. The mount did not have a mark on it. Yes, if I went out of my way for the issue to appear, it does, but for everyday use it is not visible. I'd love to see what you guys think about it.
I completely agree. I bought a Zonlai 22mm f1.8 second-hand on ebay for £89 about six months ago and have been amazed just how good this lens is when paired with an X-Pro1. Solid build quality and a great focal length for me.
@@stevieb7121 Glad I'm not the only one!
The Canon 50mm STM is also $125 and it's an excellent lens......we also use it on Sony FF, Super 35, m4/3 there's a fully electronic adapter for $35.
My Nikon Z6 has a 1:1 crop mode. I was wondering whether this lens could be used and cover that image circle. I have a Navitar 50mm f/0.95 that shows minor vignetting at the 1:1 crop on the Z6. (When I contacted Navitar to obtain instructions on adjusting infinity focus, I mentioned my plan to mount it on a Z6, and the tech refused to talk to me further, saying I was planning something beyond the lens' "intended use". I had to figure that out on my own.)
I missed comparison to alternatives here. How far up in budget do you have to go to get rid of half of the problems, for example
your videos are good ! they help me to sleep! works every time. 😴😴😴
Thanks for the review, not for me but it’s an interesting device. On the other hand a good AF 50mm like the Nikon G cost 216$ and it’s a very good performer for the price , and even if that is too much one can get the 131$ D series. Same for Canon . Finally there is the possibly of getting one used.
Chris, did you notice which direction the field was curving? If you focus the middle at 3M, are the corners 4M or maybe 2.5M? I think most people might prefer the latter, but personally, I would prefer the former. It would generally give the illusion of greater depth of field.
There have been some comments about how wonderful some of the older lenses were. One thing I can say is that generally, contrary to modern thinking, the 50 1.4's did not have as much contrast and were not as sharp and as the 50 1.8's by the same mfr. If I bought a Canon, FD, I would take the 1.8. As for the myth of those old lenses being better than this 7Artisans version 50 1.4, not only did I use some of them, I _have_ a Canon FD 50 1.4 which I use on a Sony a6400. The main advantage of the Canon is the flatter field of view, and maybe corner sharpness. That's about it. Not only that, but many of the Canons from that era had oddly shaped very-low-blade-count-apertures. I never minded that. . . .
Good review! Great way to learn about how lens work - and don't.
I really hope you guys review the new Viltrox 13mm f1.4 ! Much love!
Why is it not shown with the Nikon Zfc…
you mean like a pentax 1.4?
How does this lens compare to the 50mm 0.95 by the same company in terms of bokeh??
How is manual focusing, is it short travel and has hard stops on both sides?
I had it on Fuji x-pro 1 and i loved the lens!
Ahhh, the old expensive but clinical lens v a less expensive one with character! Might be good to get this one for shallow depth of field work in general not just portraits. No onion rings!
I have canon EOS 200D ii which Lens should I have to buy for portraits ( low budget )
More budget gear please!
Hi Chris, loved the review. Any plans to review the 7 Artisans 35mm F1.2 Mkii ( clicked aperture ring ) lens?. I use it on Fujfilm X-t2 and X- E3 cameras. Well worth a look at, works very well for Portraits tto. Cheers Ian ( Leicester, UK ).
You nailed it in the head. These cheap manual lenses are NOT for beginners. You need to know the character of the lense and how to apply it to your photography. I have 7artisans 25mm f1.8 and 35mm f1.2. They are far for perfect but I love the images I got from them.
I think it would be really helpful if, when you're talking about LOCA, you used a "digital Sharpie" to circle the areas you're talking about.
Z7 in dx has plenty of resolution left. I might wanna upgrade to that just for that reason
I actually think that this is a great market section where it is still really cheap, but not so cheap that it sacrifices so much image quality to the point where there is basically “character” but nothing else.
Thank you so much for this.
What's nice about a non-clickable lens for photography is you aren't stuck to 3 defined clicks per stop.
Current Lenses go from f1.4, f2, f2.8 to f4 etc. But sometimes you need F3.1 or F3.5 not F4 or the 3 defined clicks
Another important thing to mention is that you’re always playing the lens lottery when you buy these ultra-budget MF lenses, so make sure to buy from somewhere with a pain free return policy. For my Fuji X cameras I got a Samyang 12mm that was tack sharp and pretty much flawless, but aside from that I’ve had to return every TTArtisan, 7Artisan, Meike, and Mitakon MF lens that I’ve tried. They all had some sort of critical flaw right out of the box ranging from soft focus to stick aperture blades and everything in between.
You make a good point. Personally, I now only buy these types of lenses second-hand and I question the sellers vigorously before buying. This cuts down some of the more obvious faults. This policy was prompted by the experience of buying a new Pergear lens that wouldn't mount on the camera!
I think I've tweeted this at you in the past, but can you do the Voigtlander 35mm f1.2 Fuji lens next?
i have the artisan 35mm which i use only for portrait on my ff. very similar specs ans pros and cons. love the look, but tricky. btw, do they have a mft mount on this one?
Thank you so much for this
I love y’all’s stuff
I've often wondered if lenses like this are worth it or if I should stick to hunting down and adapting vintage lenses.
As a person who loves to shoot on analog camera, do you think this would be just fine for me? ( also a student haha )
Its a great lens for the money. I have one on my XE-1 and XT2 .
i shoot full frame but i am tempted to still buy it for such a low price
Wait a minute. Did you just say you have to move the focus point after you compose? On a manual focus lens? Lol.
But for real, as someone who exclusively uses mf lenses on mirrorless, the ability to focus and composer simultaneously is my favorite part of manual focus.
Hey Jordan, I think I like the video quality of the OM-D E-M1x better than the GH5 footage shown here. Just seemed sharper. Different lens compared to New York review with the M11?
Why don't they offer an EF-S mount? I would have thought that would be more common than EF-M.
I think with the resurgence of analog photography, reviews of this sort should touch on whether it makes more sense to adapt a legacy lens versus the new cheapo lens. I fully expect, for example, a Canon nFD 50 1.4 costs less, outperforms this lens optically, and at the same time probably adds more desirable character. Same story for practically any of the other major vendors 1.4 manual focus film lenses.
That's not how this works. Modern lenses are optically perfect.
There is no vintage lens that is better than a modern lens of the same build.
However this is not always desired. Some people want flaring, swirly bokeh, vignetting or less sharpness for portraits etc
@@ReclusiveEagle I own 20 vintage lenses and the majority of them are optically better than the lens they are reviewing here.
I don't think you are taking into account the fact that the vintage lenses are designed to cover full frame and when you use them on crop you're in the sweet spot. I use them all the time and have to do fewer corrections for aberrations and most especially distortion and vignette. The one weakness is contrast wide open but frankly that is the easiest thing in the world to fix in post.
I have an olympus zuiko 50mm 1.4 so this lens is not particularly interesting to me.
but TTartisan has come out with wide and fast lenses like the 35mm 1.4 and those are not as common in vintage lenses.
the recommendations in this review are on point : the strong point of these lenses is center sharpness and to consider this when focusing on the interest point in the shot.
also, most of these chinese lenses are clones of old classic lenses, that's why they perform so well.
@@jose.miguelwong7306 Agreed - for wide angle photography the vintage lenses are not as bright. My main point was regarding normal and telephoto though.
@@jose.miguelwong7306 I have a Zuiko 50mm 1.4 but this lens is still interesting to me, because at f1.4 my Oly is useless. Whereas my 7artisans 35mm 0.95 is useable at 0.95...
Really cool lens! The portraits are really beautiful, but my favourite photo is absolutely the puzzle one. Just really nice image.
Will it fit to Fujifilm X-T2?
It'd be sort of interesting to keep the lens set at one focus setting and move a load of test subjects in and out of the frame across the width and height to map the curved shape of the 'plane' of focus.
7:30
@@mydearriley Yes, that's what I was reacting to. This lens won't focus on a flat plane all at once. But there must be some curved focus that it could focus on all at once, I was wondering about what shape that would be.
@@barneylaurance1865 I think I see what you mean.
For the flat board he uses in the video, we aren't sure if the focal point is in front or even if it's behind the board. Nor do we know how far the focal point is away from the board (in either direction).
I can imagine an interesting device, sort of like a push-pin/bed-of-nails/#D impression toy. If you focus on the center nail, you'd be able to move the adjacent pins towards and away from the lens until each pin is in focus.
In theory, that would produce a very interesting 3D model of the focal plane.
@@mydearriley Yes exactly. I expect lens makers and some lens testing labs do have some way of doing this.
Ah, the cheap manual lenses. I dared to buy a 7artisans 23 mm f1.8 as a lens for my facecam (in meetings, streams...) because at this price point you can afford the experiment. If it's bad, it doesn't hurt.
And it is not bad. Yes, it has some barrel distortion and the corners are soft and vignetting is noticable. But actually I like this look for this use case. And some lack of sharpness doesn't really show in FHD video. Only the lack of auto focus can be annoying sometimes.
So I think this cheap manual lenses are worth a try, for photography as well. Even if they turn out to be too bad for your demands, you can resell them and would lose barely any money. And often restrictions leads to creativity. Just remember Jordans K-01 videos. :)
Wait wait wait, a month of phone internet is 125 dollars there? I pay 5 euros and I get 55gb which is enough, and basically unlimited phones and sms… I feel for you guys, 125$ a month for internet… what a robbery
The difference is that in Europe, Corporations can't double dip like they can here in the USA. John Q Taxpayer pays for infrastructure in both places, but in Europe the phone companies aren't allowed to charge as if they don't. In other words, Euros get to reap the rewards of Socialist infrastructure. Here in the US, we pay for it just the same-but the Corporation and shareholders get to keep the profits while we keep on paying them to do so. And bonus: They don't have to pay taxes!!
It's a 55mm right, but you mentioned many time it is an 85?
Chromatic aberration is the optical fault I most despise in any glass, new or old. There are fantastic lenses CA free at affordable prices, so reviewers should stop downplaying it because it's a product of sloppy design and you should be able to shoot jpeg without having to tweak each single photo in an image editor. Lightroom is not the excuse for lenses getting worse: I got rid of most of my Lumix lenses because of how poorly corrected they are compared to Olympus ones and I would neve accept CA on any Fuji of Canon lenses I bought.
Back in the days, when lens design was some sort of alchemy made without computers, Chromatic Aberration control was among the things that define a good glass from a bad one, so I don't get why every review I see now states "it's not a big deal". Do the lens maker gives me a refund for the time I have to waste correcting energy single picture (and I should say patching because definition in lost at the borders) because of the faults they left behind in the design of the lens they sell to save some money and increase their margins?
Shortcomings(quirks) become Character depending on Your perspective.
Yes. Please more ttartisan/7artisan/3rd party mf lenses. Available for a whole lot of cameras, fun, and affordable so it will be hitting a lot of consumers (:(:(:
Edit: maybe if youre looking at manual lenses taking a look at some m42 legends adapted to mirrorless. Im thinkin pentax smc 55 1.8 for $40. Revamp gear of yesteryear?
This seems like a clone of the Petzval or Lensbaby lenses, where you get that sharp middle but then you get that swirly out of focus area everywhere else.
The perfect hair is distracting Chris. Time to play with my TTArtisan. A little reluctant to do so. Thanks for the gentle push. So it’s real hair, right? 😉
is aps-c o full frame????????
Chris keeps on calling this an 85mm lens, but the title says 55mm. Which one is it?
It is an APS-C, not full frame, lens at 55mm. He is giving you the full frame equivalent field of view on a 1.5x crop sensor, which would be 82.5mm. They reviewed it on a Nikon Z7 in cropped 19MP DX APS-C mode.
We are living in a world where full frame is the standard. Everything is normalized to that