2021 comes and goes. In this pandemic year, I have gained quite fruitful experiences. In this year, I have a total of 22 posts, 11 of them are reviews of camera gears and lenses. All thanks to the opportunities given by Mr. Keitaro So, Divisional Head of Fujifilm, and Cles Distribution of Tamron Singapore and Sony, Singapore. Without them, I won’t be able to share my opinions and having these opportunities to wander around Singapore to capture some of the photos that have become to be my favorite. And these are my 12 most favorite photos in 2021. (They are not listed in order.)
#12
Fuji X-S10 . Fuji XF18mm F1.4 R LM WR @27mm . f1.4 . 1/60” . ISO 640 . Classic Chrome
Is there any that you like? Let me know if you have one.
Disclaimer: 1. All the shots taken here are shot by me. 2. Some of the shots are slightly edited in Lightroom Classic to my preferences. Otherwise, the shots are straight out of the camera. 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. 4. I reserve ownership of these images, if you wish to use my images, please notify me
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Due to my work and other personal commitment, this short lens review takes me quite a while to write and share. Here is the review:
I win the TTArtisan 17mm f1.4 over an online photography competition early this year. Coincidentally, this lens completes the uncostly quaternity lenses of my Fujifilm camera setup. Together with the TTArtisan 23mm f1.4, 35mm f1.4, and 50mm f1.2 lens, these 4 lenses give a basic setup that covers most focal lengths for landscape and streets.
Special thanks to Den Poh for lending me the X-T20 for being the model for the lens.
Disclaimer: 1. All the shots taken here are shot by me. 2. Some of the shots are straight out of the camera while others are edited via In-Camera Raw Processing and Adobe Lightroom Classic. 3. I reserve ownership of these images, if you wish to use my images, please notify me. 4. The opinions are based on my experience. If there is any mistake made, please kindly drop me a message and I will gladly make the amendment.
By looking at the name of this lens, I am sure everyone should have noticed that this is an uncommon focal length for a prime lens. It sits right between the popular focal lengths from Fujifilm 16mm and 18mm. It seems to me that TTArtisan is trying to do away with the “common” focal lengths that Fujifilm has. This approach also gives the photographers more choices to look out for.
Fuji X-T20 . TTArtisan 17mm f1.4
Based on the full-frame equivalent, the focal length is 25.5mm. On paper, it is wider than 28mm but slightly narrower than 24mm. In this case, we already know that what is the purpose of this lens. But does it make a huge difference with the 1.5m? Personally, I don’t think so.
TTArtisan 17mm f1.4
When I first hold this lens in my hand, I can feel the metal-constructed premium quality built similar to other TTArtisan lenses. It is small but slightly taller than its 35mm brother. Despite its small size, I can too feel some weight on this lens (248 grams). It has a relatively small filter size of 40.5mm. Not a common filter size if you are looking to give extra protection to the front lens element (which I do not think is necessary to do so) or doing planning to do creative works. But it is also not that difficult to look for one.
The aperture gives a nice and satisfying clicky feedback when I change the aperture value. The manual focus ring gives a comfortable rotation with a little friction to hold me back.
TTArtisan 17mm f1.4
Like all the TTArtisan lenses, this lens also does not come with a lens hood. Hence, lens flare can be an issue when you are shooting directly towards the sun. Unless lens flares are intended for your shots, try to avoid it or try getting a third-party lens hood to overcome the lens flare.
Image Quality
The image quality is decent and sharp. However, if you are shooting wide open, vignetting is considerably strong at the corners, but it is easy to post-process to remove it.
For this lens, I prefer to use an aperture number from f2 onwards. It gives me an acceptable balance between image softness and image sharpness. At wide-open, it gives some sort of softness (or character) to the shot, and unfortunately, it is not my preferred kind of result.
As usual, I do not have high expectations for the third-party lens’ bokeh performance. At f1.4, it gives the overall picture a softer, dreamy look. I believe there are some photographers who actually know how to appreciate this kind of result. I am still learning to appreciate this. the background blur falls off remarkably nice from the subject and it does not give a harsh background blur too.
Sunny star effects are formed easily from F5.6 and the results are more beautiful and sharper from F8 onwards. But on a side note, flares can noticeable too if the lens is facing directly at where the sun direction is.
The MOD is 20 cm and it is considerably close for a compact wide-angle lens like this. With this MOD, we can create different perspectives and creative shots that we cannot achieve with our common lens.
To give you some sensing on how close it is as compared to the Fujifilm 16mm f1.4 and 18mm f1.4, it has the same MOD as the XF18mm f1.4.
Manual Focusing
The smooth yet gentle friction experience on this manual focusing lens is as enjoyable as the rest of the TTArtisan lenses. I can’t find any reason to complain about it.
The focus throw from MOD to infinity is about 160°. Unlike some other lenses which take a huge throw to reach from one end to the other, the TTArtisan 17mm f1.4 is considered reasonable. I suppose there are some benefits for larger focus throw but I prefer a shorter one.
Who is this for?
This focal length is not my commonly used focal length for my shutter therapy. But I will bring this lens along with my other lenses. After all, it is compact and easy to place inside my camera bag.
This lens is suitable for Landscape, architecture photographers, and probably astrography photographers who are on a limited budget and yet want a fast prime lens. I also tested this lens for portraits and I think it is a good lens to catch some environmental portraits with your loved ones.
If you are a photographer who wants to have experience shooting with a full manual lens, you are welcome to try this lens out but I will recommend TTArtisan 23mm f1.4 to start with.
Conclusion
TTArtisan is really good at striking a balance between the price and lens quality. I cannot find any player in the market that can compete with them without sacrificing either one of them. At USD118, I think the money is worth spending if you know what you can do with this lens.
First of all, I would like to thank TTArtisan for inviting me to review this lens and it is my privilege to do so. Nevertheless, you can rest assured that this review will be based on the lens I received and it is purely on my own opinion.
Special thanks to Den Poh for lending me the X-T20 for being the model to the lens.
X-T20 with TTArtisan 23mm f1.4X-T20 with TTArtisan 23mm f1.4
Disclaimer: 1. All the shots taken here are shot by me. 2. Some of the shots are slightly edited in Lightroom Classic to my preferences. Otherwise, the shots are straight out of the camera. 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. 4. I reserve ownership of these images, if you wish to use my images, please notify me.
Intro
While I am eagerly waiting for TTArtisan to release their first autofocus lens for Fujifilm, instead, they release this tiny lens in the market. I am not surprised by its arrival as TTArtisan had shared the news via Fujirumors as early as August 2021. But at that point in time, no one knows how does the lens look like.
TTArtisan 23mm f1.4
TTArtisan 23mm f1.4
TTArtisan 23mm f1.4 with metal lens cap
At 23mm (35mm in full-frame equivalent), this is one of my most commonly used focal lengths. My first prime lens is a 23mm lens and my most used camera is an X100V. Thanks to the versatility of this focal length, it is easily one of the favorites among street, documentary and journalist photographers. But can this lens become part of their photography tool? Only times will tell.
Design and Build Quality
The first thing that strikes me is the lens design. Unlike its peers, this lens has this sweet concave front element with a zebra-like pattern. I actually quite like this new design language and it is also distinguishable from the other players in the market. If you do not like this silver zebra-like version or you love your lens to be low profile, you can opt for the full black version.
Similar to the other TTArtisan lenses, the build quality of this lens is remarkable. The metal build is fantastic and it still comes with a rear metal bayonet. And also, this 43mm filter size lens does not include a lens hood.
In my opinion, this is presumably one of the good changes and it’s the lens cap. The metal lens cap is no longer a screw-in type, but rather, it is replaced by the cap-on type. This changes really saves my time from screwing and unscrewing the lens cap. Not only that, it also gives a satisfying cushion feedback whenever I cap it onto the lens. Personally, I welcome this change.
When you change the aperture, the aperture ring provides gentle and comfortable clicky feedback. The rotation of the manual focus ring from one end to the other is about 160°. It gives a buttery smooth experience when you rotate it.
At 224 grams (and 240 grams with the lens cap – according to my kitchen weighting scale), the weight is well distributed and I do not experience any front element heavier than the other and vice versa. Overall, I have zero complaints in this department.
Image Quality
In my fair use of TTArtisan lenses, I habitually increase 1-stop of aperture instead of using the widest aperture. Not anymore with this lens. For the first time ever, I am happy with the image quality produced with the shots taken at f1.4 wide open. The result is sharp and has good contrast. Of course, the image quality improved further from f2 onwards, especially on the corners.
Unless you love to pixel-peep, otherwise, the chromatic aberration is mild and it is hardly noticeable for day-to-day shoots. For a budget-friendly lens like this, I could say this lens does a good job of managing chromatic aberration.
Like most of the TTArtisan lenses, it comes with 10 diaphragm blades too. This means that this lens is also capable of producing bokehlicious results. I will share my opinion about achieving the best bokehlicious result with this lens.
Minimum Focus Distance
While Minimum Focus Distance (MFD) might not matter to some photographers, but this is one of the key things when I am looking for a lens. Understanding a lens’ MFD allows me to know what kind of shots I can achieve with it.
It has a MFD of 0.2m and I am impressed with the TTArtisan design team again. It has the shortest MFD as compared to the XF23mm f1.4 (@0.28m) and XF23mm f2 (@0.22m). This also means that I can take a slightly closer shot of the subject and give a slightly different perspective of the shot.
In my opinion, in order to achieve the best bokehlicious result with this lens is to shoot at its MFD wide open and with a good amount of depth background. That is because I notice that the bokeh is not that beautiful in other focusing distances.
If you want to shoot at infinity, the result is not sharp at the infinity marking. you have to rotate the focus slightly backward to get the right infinity shot. I think this is quite a common issue as the manufacturer is designed for various mounts and different mounts have different flange focus distances.
Another observation is that I notice there is some barrel distortion and this is within my expectation for a wide-angle like this one. But it can be fixed easily in post.
Who is this for?
In this day and age, one might ask who actually wants a manual lens where an autofocus lens is much superior in every aspect? I think there is no right or wrong answer. But rather why does the photographer wants to use a manual lens? The photographer himself/herself should have the best answer. It could be the price factor for such a fast prime lens. It could also be the compact form factor of the lens and the list of possible answers go on.
Fuji X-T3 . TTArtisan 23mm f1.4 @ 23mm . f1.4 . 1/850 . ISO 160 . Post Edit
But in my opinion, if you are a new photographer who wishes to experience a fully manual focus lens; or you want to give your old camera a reason to bring it out and shoot again; or does not wish to spend a fortune for a fast prime lens, then this lens is the one to start with. It is easy to pick up and use for everyday shoots.
However, if you are a commercial photographer or commissioning a project, you know the answer.
Conclusion
I have used this lens for about 2 weeks and what TTArtisan does impress me with is its image and build quality. Its usable f1.4 gives me a taste of what it is like to have it on 23mm. This lens is totally enjoyable and easy to use. And also, this lens makes me look forward to the autofocus lens.
Recently, I have written a short review on the TTArtisan 7.5mm F2 lens and I have had this TTArtisan 50mm F1.2 with me for about 6 months now. So I think it should be nice to share my opinion with this lens as well.
I am no stranger to a 50mm (75mm in 35mm equivalent) focal length. My second prime lens from Fujifilm is an XF50mm F2 lens and I have been using it for quite a long time. And I have also had some hands-on experience with the XF50mm F1 lens before. The reason why I bought this lens is because I am very interested in the usability of the fast aperture it offers with just USD 98.
Disclaimer: 1. All the shots taken here are shot by me. 2. Some of the shots are slightly edited in Lightroom Classic to my preferences. Otherwise, the shots are straight out of the camera. 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. 4. I reserve ownership of these images, if you wish to use my images, please notify me.
TTartisan 50mm f1.2
About The Lens
The build quality is fantastic. Again it is TTArtisan quality standard for such a sturdy build. It is heavy (at 336 grams) for a manual lens like this and it seems to be common thing among the manual lens manufacturers. To give you some sensing about its weight. It is 68% heavier than Fuji 50mm F2 (200 grams), it is about 20.5% lighter than Fuji 56mm F1.2 (405 grams) and it is about 250% lighter than Fuji 50mm F1 (845 grams). Do you think the weight is acceptable for you?
The aperture ring rotates the opposite of the Fujifilm lenses. So take note of it when you are changing the aperture without looking at it. Apart from this, the aperture ring gives you a very satisfying clicky experience when you rotate it. Besides that, the manual focus ring also gives you nice rotating friction when you turning it. The full rotation from 0.5 meters to infinity focus is 180°.
Like most of the other TTartisan lenses, this lens does not come with any lens hood but it comes with screw-in lens caps. In my opinion, for a lens to be this cheap, they have to lower down the cost somewhere and this is where it is. By the way, this lens is not weather-resistant and I do not think it is necessary.
Fortunately, this lens comes with a common filter size of 52mm, and if you need a lens hood for this lens, I think it is easy to source for a third-party one.
At aperture F1.2, it does give you a good shallow depth of field, soft-focus feel but it is also easily prone to a small amount of chromatic aberration. It has 10 diaphragm blades which allow a creamy and nice fall-off between the subject and the background. But I prefer how the results look at F2 because it gives a good balance of the overall sharpness and blur background.
The Minimum Focus Distance (MFD) is 0.5 m, which in my opinion is not the closest I have experienced with for this focal length. In comparison, it is better than XF50mm F1 (MFD at 0.7 m) but not as good as XF50mm F2 (MFD at 0.39m). But does it really matter? It depends on individual usage, but nevertheless, it can separate the main subject with decent blur background.
Like all other 50mm lenses, this lens is also suitable for portrait shoots. I have tried both outdoors and studio shoots and I have no complaints about using this lens on both shoots. The sharpness and the details are well-preserved.
Fuji X-T3 . TTartisan 50mm F1.2 @50mm . f2 . 1/750” . ISO 160 . Classic Chrome (lens flare on the bottom left)
I cannot say I have 100% perfectly sharp focus on the models for all photos I have taken. I do have some missed focus shots which is probably a slight movement from the model or myself. Luckily, there is a focus peaking function in modern mirrorless systems which helps me reducing the focusing errors a lot.
If you are the type of street photographer who wishes to stay at a certain distance away from the subject (i.e. not to distract the person or you are not comfortable shooting close to the person), this focal length is really suitable for you.
Furthermore, when you get used to manual focusing, using this lens for the street shoot is actually a fun experience.
Before I give my suggestion, let me emphasize that this is not a lightweight manual lens. The weight of this lens is on par with most of the Fujifilm ultra-fast prime lenses (exclude XF35mm F1.4). But it is way cheaper than any of the Fujifilm ultra-fast prime lenses available on the market.
If you are a photographer who is curious about the full manual lenses and wish to have the experience of using them, you can choose to buy this or the TTArtisan 35mm F1.4 (although the latter is much lighter and more portable).
If you are a photographer who needs an ultra-fast prime lens like this focal length for the casual shoot (not limited to any genres) but on a tight budget, you may consider getting this lens to be part of your arsenals.
If you are a photographer who needs it for a paid assignment, I probably will not recommend this. Unless you know what you are doing, and if it is a statics work like studio photography, then I think you can give it a try and having your autofocus lens(es) standby with you. If the paid assignment is covering an event such as a wedding, then you cannot have my recommendation and I believe you know why.
This is TTArtisan’s second released APS-C lens and it does wow me with everything it can offers. The image quality is decent but it does have some lens flare if you are facing the sunlight.
Yes. it has its flaws but the image coming out from this piece of glass is fantastic and hence this is already exceeded my expectation for a USD 98 lens. For this price range, I cannot find any other manufacturers which are as good as this modern manual lens is.
First and foremost, I would like to thank TTArtisan for inviting me to review this lens and it is my privilege to do so. Nevertheless, you can rest assured that this review will not be biased and it is purely in my own opinion.
Disclaimer: 1. All the shots taken here are shot by me. 2. Some of the shots are slightly edited in Lightroom Classic to my preferences. Otherwise, the shots are straight out of the camera. 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. 4. I reserve ownership of these images, if you wish to use my images, please notify me.
TTArtisan was established in 2019. Being a young company, TTArtisan has launched its 4th APS-C lens and they show no sign of slowing down. When I am preparing this lens review, they have just released their 5th lens, a 40mm F2.8 macro lens. What’s more? They are also planning to launch an auto-focus lens for Fujifilm! TTArtisan is definitely expanding aggressively and also giving the Fujifilm community more lens choices to choose from. Back to this lens, there are two “first” for this 7.5mm lens. The first ultra-wide creativity lens for the company and also the first F2 fisheye lens in the market.
At 7.5mm focal length, it is 11.25mm (35mm equivalent) which also gives a 180° angle of view and this is a really wide perspective point of view. It is not an everyday lens to some people but I will be going to give it a try to be my everyday lens.
Build Quality
Like the other TTArtisan lenses, the build quality is awesome solid. The same sturdy built that never disappoints me. The aperture ring has a gentle and comfortable clicky feedback when you rotate it. The rotation of the manual focus ring from one end to the other is 180° but the process of rotating it is a pleasure. Like many other fisheye lenses, it comes with a built-in metal lens hood. And not forgetting that it comes with a metal bayonet too.
Having said that, this lens comes with a “cost” and that is the weight. It weighs 385 grams with a lens cap and 355 grams without a lens cap. If you have the Fuji 16mm F1.4 or the 18mm F1.4, that is the weight thereabout. When you hold this lens in your hands, you will know that you are holding a premium quality lens. By the way, like many other manual lenses, this lens is not weather resistant.
Fuji X-T3 with TTArtisan 7.5mm F2.Fuji X-T3 with TTArtisan 7.5mm F2.
Image Quality
At F2, the center of the photo is really good and usable. The contrast, sharpness, and preserving the details are impressive. However, corners of the photo can be soft but this is acceptable for a USD150 manual lens. Shooting at F5.6 will improve better on the sharpness and contrast. Surprisingly, this lens gives good chromatic aberration control. Only mild chromatic aberration is observed in my day-to-day experience. You might not even notice it unless doing pixel-peeping.
This lens comes with 7 diaphragm blades which also means that the bokeh renders normally. It is not the best bokehlicious result you can find in the market. But hey, this lens is not focusing on bokeh. On the other hand, it is capable of creating a nice sunburst effect.
There are two things that I think TTArtisan does right for this lens and they are just a sweet touch to provide a better user experience for the photographers.
Unscrewed lens cap. Unscrewed lens cap on the lens
First is the lens cap. This lens cap is unique. You can remove the center of the lens cap by unscrewing the top while the lens cap still covering the lens. This approach allows you to shoot like circular fisheyes results. I suppose those who love to have this effect will love this gesture.
Fuji X-T3 . TTArtisan 7.5mm F2 @11.25mm . f5.6 . 1/480” . ISO 320 . Classic Chrome . with lens cap .
Fuji X-E3 . TTArtisan 7.5mm F2 @11.25mm . f5.6 . 1/125” . ISO 200 . Post-edited . with lens cap .
The second is about the filter. We know that it is not possible to place any filter in front of the protruding front lens. Nevertheless, TTArtisan does provide a screw-in type ND1000 filter and this ND filter will be screw in from the bayonet. This is really thoughtful especially for photographers who want to shoot landscapes with long exposure.
Bayonet without ND filter. Bayonet with ND filter.
Minimum Focus Distance
It has a Minimum Focus Distance (MFD) of 0.125m and I am impressed with the TTArtisan design team. Although it is not a true 1:1 macro kind of photography, it can shoot a subject really up close and allowing the photographers to use this capability upon their creativities (pardon me, I have close to zero creativity). For me, I love to photograph food and this MFD really makes the perspective another level of viewing pleasure. But do note that with such a short MFD, you might even capture the shadow of the lens hood under certain lighting conditions.
With such an ultrawide lens, it is easily prone to having lens flare and lens halo. Especially when you are pointing the camera towards the sun, you will receive it. I cannot say it is a bad or good thing to have the lens flare and lens halo effect. It is more towards individual preference. And in this case, I am accepting it and making it part of my photos.
There are two small issues but I feel that the readers should take note of and not panicking when observing the same issue.
For the first issue, assuming you are shooting a landscape shot, usually, you will rotate the manual focus ring to infinity. However, the result is not sharp. But what you can do is to turn it back a little to get the right in-focus shot. For my received lens, I feel that the best sharp result is achievable when I rotate the manual focus ring to between 0.5m to 1m.
I have asked this question to TTArtisan and they inform me that this might be due to the different focus peaks of the different cameras. I have also encountered this small issue with other manufacturers’ manual lenses too. So please do not panic. You can try to find the best result by exploring with the lens. My guess about why this could be a common issue is because when the manufacturers are manufacturing for various mounts and different mounts have different flange focus distances and thus having this issue.
For the second issue, it could be my problem. Whenever I equip the ND filter and shoot, I couldn’t get sharp images. I have tried it with all the focusing distance and am not able to find the sweet spot like I mentioned earlier. If there is any reader out there who knows how should correct this issue, please let me know.
After weeks of using this lens, it does impress me with its image and build quality. Using this lens on the street is a breeze and a fun experience to have. It makes the world looks more interesting through this fisheye lens.
I have tried other manufacturers’ manual lenses before and nothing comes close in terms of the image quality of the product. Most manual lenses often have some level of softness and lack of sharpness in the photos at wide open. Usually, I have to step down to at least 2 stops to have my preferred sharpness. But for this lens, I can use it wide open without any worry.
If you are a landscape photographer, astrophotography photographer, time-lapse photographer, and photographer who is looking to do creative portraits and creative streets, you may consider getting this lens as part of your arsenal of lenses. After all, it is not an expensive lens to try out with.
Alwin Kok 