There are several manual ultrawide lenses in the market, 1 autofocus one from Viltrox and Samyang, and Fujifilm has 3 ultrawide in their lens lineup. Having said that, Fujifilm photographers do not lack any ultrawide lens options, and then TTArtisan added another lens to this category. But can it stand out from the others?
Intro
TTArtisan has been around in the market for quite some time. If you are a fan of TTArtisan, you will realize that TTArtisan has not tapped into the world of ultrawide focal length. The widest focal length they have for the APS-C world is TTArtisan 17mm f1.4 (excludes the TTArtisan 7.5mm f2 fisheye lens). With this 10mm (15mm in full-frame equivalent), they are now officially on this bandwagon.
This is the second lens of the same focal length I have tested. The first one is Meike 10mm f2. But I will not compare them in detail here. More on this later.
Before I proceed with the review, I would like to thank TTArtisan for sending this lens over and giving me ample amount of time to test this lens. Having said that, TTArtisan has no influence over my opinion. They read the review on the same day as all the readers.
Design and Build Quality
At first glance, it looks pretty compact for a f2 ultrawide lens. It also comes with TTArtisan manual lens design language. That’s to say, it is very recognizable. It weighs 332 grams and the weight is within my expectations for a manual, fully well-built metal-constructed lens. But I do agree that it seems to be heavy but I feel fine on hand.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . TTArtisan 10mm f2 @ 10mm . f2 . 1/80″ . ISO 160 . Nostalgic Negative
As usual, it comes with a clicky aperture ring, which is very similar to most TTArtisan manual lenses. But it comes with a narrow aperture ring which is a little tricky for me to rotate with my big fingers.
More on the focus ring later.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . TTArtisan 10mm f2 @ 10mm . f2 . 1/400″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
At a closer look, it comes with a protruding lens but there is a built-in lens hood that helps to protect the front glass element and it comes with a rear metal bayonet too.
Image Quality
To my surprise, the image quality is pretty usable at wide-open. I am impressed by how much effort the engineers in TTArtisan have put in to improve the usability of the lens over the years. At f2, corner softness is there, and also a little lack of contrast. But it is fine if you do not pixel peep. Apart from that, slight heavy vignetting at the corners can be observed too but this is still acceptable for me since it is an ultra-wide lens.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . TTArtisan 10mm f2 @ 10mm . f4 . 1/1500″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
Distortion is very minimal in my opinion. At least I think that the distortion control is pretty awesome here considering the price tag.
Chromatic aberration is very minimal and I am impressed and I think it is pretty well controlled. In my opinion, the sharpness and contrast at wide open is acceptable too.
Speaking of sun star, it does give fine decent lines but is not as crisp as some photographers want it to be. Circular flares can be observed as well.
Focusing
The manual ring is smooth and has enough room for my forefinger and thumb to rotate approximately 110° from Minimum Focus Distance to Infinity. This gives an ample amount of travel distance to have better precision on the focusing.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . TTArtisan 10mm f2 @ 10mm . f4 . 1/40″ . ISO 3200 . Nostalgic Negative
Minimum Focus Distance (MFD)
For a ultra-wide lens, 25 cm MFD is not that close as I am expecting but it is good to have. After all, the main focus of using ultra-wide lens is not with close-up.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . TTArtisan 10mm f2 @ 10mm . f2 . 1/80″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
Price Point
TTArtisan is known for decent products at unbelievable prices and I think this definition still holds. At 159 USD, it is very affordable.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . TTArtisan 10mm f2 @ 10mm . f2 . 1/3000″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
Just for some money sense, the XF8mm f3.5 is selling at 799.95 USD, Viltrox AF 13mm f1.4 is 459 USD, Rokinon 12mm f2 is 248 USD and the Meike 10mm f2 is 329 USD.
Others
This lens comes with 2 types of lens caps: the first one is the typical TPU lens cover and the second one is the more interesting one. I love how creative the TTArtisan lens design team gives to their lenses. They adapt the same concept from the TTArtisan 7.5mm f2 and implement it into this.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . TTArtisan 10mm f2 @ 10mm . f5.6 . 0.6″ . ISO 400 . Nostalgic Negative
With the filter holder, photographers can screw in the type of filters they want. From ND filter, graduated ND filter, circular polarizer filter, etc, as long as you have the 72mm filters, you can fit it in. Oh yes. If you include the filter holder, the overall weight of the lens will go to 374 grams.
I know there might be a concern about overall camera balancing after mounting a heavy lens. In my opinion, although it weighs over 300 grams, it still feels well-balanced when mounted with my X-T5 likely because it is a compact and shorter lens as compared to bigger ultrawide lenses in the market.
One minor thing to take note of, the color temperature changes as you change the aperture value. I have experienced this with most of the manual lenses and I think this is “common” among them. If you are talking with the raw format, I think there is nothing to worry about. For the straight-out-of-camera photographer, just be mindful.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . TTArtisan 10mm f2 @ 10mm . f8 . 1/350″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
Side by Side
TTArtisan 10mm f2 was announced in January 2024 while the Meike 10mm f2 was announced in July 2022. They are approximately 17 months apart and we can see the obvious difference between the two.
As for optical wise, I will leave it for other day to talk about it.
Who is this for?
This lens is mainly for landscapes, architecture, cityscapes, and astrography photographers. On the other hand, I think whoever wants an ultrawide lens but does not intend to pay for expensive autofocus options, maybe you can consider keeping one. After all, it comes with an attractive price point. It is good to have one for the “just in case I need” scenario.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . TTArtisan 10mm f2 @ 10mm . f8 . 1/1250″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
Conclusion
In my view, this is a great entry level lens. Despite its weight, it is still a compact lens to bring along and easy to keep inside my OneMo sling bag. I am also impressed with the image quality, with very usable wide-open shots. Not forgetting that TTArtisan keeps such an attractive price point, I cannot find any reason for not keeping one in my arsenal.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . TTArtisan 10mm f2 @ 10mm . f2 . 1/3800″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
I hope TTArtisan will be the first Chinese third-party manufacturer ever to release an affordable ultrawide autofocus lens and this will become one step ahead of the competition. If this is true, it will shock the industry once again (like the TTArtisan 27mm f2.8) and also benefit many photographers.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . TTArtisan 10mm f2 @ 10mm . f4 . 1/160″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
Thank you for reading.
Disclaimer:
1. All the shots taken here are shot by me.
2. Most of the shots are straight out of the camera with some shots edited via In-Camera Raw Processing and Lightroom.
3. The opinions are based on my experience. If there is any mistake, please kindly drop me a message and I will gladly make the amendment.
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