It was just a year ago that TTArtisan released the first version of this lens and I covered it in my reviews. It’s rare for a company to do such a quick refresh of a newly released lens, but clearly TTArtisan is in a rush to get things right and felt like there were a few key areas that they could make improvements. My two two negatives from my review were 1) a very odd lens hood design and 2) rather poor minimum focus distance (60cm) and maximum magnification. The new TTArtisan 35mm II deals with both of those issues, with a more conventional hood design, a reduced minimum focus distance (40cm), and a smaller, lighter physical design to boot. Priced at only $125, this new lens is going to be a very hard one to ignore for those looking for a budget “normal” lens for their APS-C camera. Should you get one? Dive into my video review or read on in my text review to find out.

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Thanks to TTArtisan for sending me a review copy of this lens.   As always, this is a completely independent review.  All opinions and conclusions are my own. I’m doing this review on a 40MP Fujifilm X-H2 camera. You can find the visit the TTArtisan listing page for the lens to get more information.

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It’s pretty clear the TTArtisan’s ability to improve their lens designs is rapidly growing, as just a year has gone by and already we have a lens that is improved in pretty much every area. One of the key priorities for TTArtisan was to reduce the size of the lens.

TTArtisan managed to shrink the lens by a full 16mm, which may not seem like a lot, but in a lens this size that is nearly a 25% reduction in size. Weight has also dropped by 23g, making for a truly lightweight 176g. The biggest challenge for TTArtisan comes from a fellow Chinese company, Viltrox, whose new AF 35mm F1.7 Air lens will almost certainly be the chief competitor. The Viltrox lens is made of high quality plastics rather than metal (TTArtisan), but is even lighter at 170g despite having a slightly faster maximum aperture of F1.7. The TTArtisan 35II wins for size, however, coming in shorter by about 5mm.

35mm is a slightly oddball focal length on APS-C, landing at a 52.5mm full frame equivalent. It stands to reason why the 33mm (49.5mm) is more conventional, as it is delivering that typical 50mm “normal” angle of view. That extra 3mm is hardly likely to make much of a difference. This is a great focal length that gives a very normal, relatable point of view.

There’s no question that this is a pretty impressively good little lens for just $125…but how improved is it? Read on to find out.

Build and Handling

The little TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 II makes a very positive first impression. When I opened the box, the first thing I noticed is how small it is, and the second thing is that it is a very nicely made little lens. This is actually quite a handsome little lens. It has an anodized black finish and everything is made of metal and glass.

It’s pretty extraordinary how rich this cheap lens feels. It no looks very stubby when mounted on a bigger APS-C camera like my Fujifilm X-H2:

You’ll note that there are no switches on the lens barrel nor an aperture ring. Very possibly this is cost cutting measure. Fortunately you can function just fine without either thing, and AF | MF switches on Fuji lenses are rare, anyway, though that’s not true on other platforms like Sony or Nikon.

At the rear of the lens we have a metal lens mount complete with the appropriate electronic contacts; aperture will be controlled from the camera. Aperture control seems to work well; it is quick and responsive and the aperture iris blades are not noisy, with just a light click as the blades open and close.

There are nine aperture blades, but you can see (above at F2.8) that they don’t do an amazing job of keeping a perfectly circular shape as the lens is stopped down.

Up front we have a fairly stylish looking front façade complete with 52mm filter threads.

The included lens cap has a new font for the TTARTISAN logo imprinted on it, and I think it looks smart and modern.

One of my critiques of the previous generation lens was the odd lens hood. While the lens hood was made of metal, it had an odd design that terminated in something looks like an anamorphic adapter (a rectangular opening) which prohibited either the use of filters or mounting the lens cap…plus it meant that you absolutely couldn’t reverse the lens hood for storage. The new lens hood (pictured above), is much more plain and conventional, but all the better for it.

The manual focus ring is another positive, however. It is ribbed in metal and moves with a nice amount of resistance. The active focus area will automatically magnify when you start to focus, and this helps visually confirm accurate focus. Focus throw feels like it is somewhere near 160° of rotation.

One final interesting design element is that the rear lens cap has a USB-C port along with electronic contacts inside and will actually allow you to do firmware updates to the lens through a computer. It’s an interesting alternative to having a USB-C port built right into the lens, though I do slightly prefer the built-in option in case you lose the rear lens cap at some point. I’ve seen a similar approach to firmware updates through the rear lens cap with the Techart LM-EA9 adapter I reviewed a year ago.

One core weakness for the previous version of the lens was a rather poor minimum focus distance of 60cm. That often felt very restrictive, but TTArtisan has managed to significantly cut that down to 40cm on the new version of the lens. That’s still not great (the Viltrox 35mm can focus as closely as 33cm), but this feels slightly more usable, with magnification at roughly 0.11x (still on the low side).

Contrast isn’t great at this minimum focus distance, so while this aspect of lens design is improved, it remains somewhat of a liability relative to some competitors.

So while this is a rather simple design, it is nicely executed. Other than the lack of features (no aperture ring, switches, or weather sealing), you would easily think of this as being a much more expensive lens. Kudos to TTArtisan for being willing to rapidly improve. One word of caution: don’t do this too often, or consumers will start to say, “Just wait a year and you can get a nicer lens for the same money!“

Autofocus for Stills

As before, TTArtisan has chosen to equip this lens with a lead-screw type STM focus motor.

Fuji remains the least favorite of the four brands of cameras that I own and test, though the recent firmware updates on my X-H2 to V5 and beyond seem to have made some small improvement. Autofocus performance here is about average (though average is getting faster!), with decent speed in most situations though with a occasional rack in the wrong direction if autofocus doesn’t initially detect an obvious contrast point.

There isn’t a lot of noise in focus, with the motor making faint whines and clicks if you put your ear near it. I don’t hear much under normal shooting, however, even with my eye at the viewfinder. What you will hear is a little “clack” from the aperture blades opening and closing if you partially hold down the shutter.

Autofocus accuracy seemed fairly good, able to grab and lock on subjects accurately.

It’s been very cold during my review period, but the lens continued to function fine in sub-zero temperatures, locking on delivering accurate focus.

I did notice one quirk that may be fixed via firmware. Sometimes when shooting at F1.8 either with autofocus or manual focus, focus would reset after the shot. That proved a bit of a pain during my chart tests, as I couldn’t set focus and then just change aperture for subsequent shots. Update: this quirk seems to have been fixed via firmware.

Eye detect worked well (as is pretty expected at this point). I had no problem with people or pets in getting accurately focused results.

No, autofocus isn’t in the upper tier of performance, but the truth of the matter is that this lens focuses better than a number of native Fuji lenses that I’ve tested, so I have no complaints.

Video Autofocus

Video AF is another area that was improved by the firmware update. Fuji’s video AF on their cameras remains somewhat primitive, so take these results with a slight grain of salt and expect them to be better on Sony or Nikon. Focus pulls feature some obvious steps, with the majority of the pull occuring, then a slight pause, and then the final adjustment. In a couple of my pulls I saw a third microadjustment as the focus algorithms debated their final choice.

I saw visible steps in natural focus changes as well as the focus system transitioned from one focus point to another.

My hand test (where I alternately block and then unblock the camera’s view of my face with my hand) showed some similar steps. When my hand was removed, for example, there was a couple of obvious steps as focus returned to my eyes.

Focus seemed to be stable when I had a static subject that wasn’t changing. There wasn’t any obvious focus noise during any of these tests. This isn’t the most sophisticated focus system out there

Image Quality Breakdown

Interestingly, the TTArtisan 35II has a simpler optical design than the lens it replaces, with 10 elements in 7 groups. Though there is one less group, there is an additional ED element (now there are 2) along with two high index elements in the design. The MTF chart shows a completely different optical signature than the older lens, with a much sharper center, a slightly weaker inner mid-frame result, a much stronger outer mid-frame result, and a huge variance between the sagittal and meridional planes (low contrast) in the corners. I’ve charted the two MTF charts so that you can see the different signatures of each lens.

An interest secondary observation is that the stopped down performance on the chart was shown at F8 on the older version of the lens, while the new one is mapped at F5.6, and it generally delivers a much sharper result than the older lens save in the far corners.

There is literally no platform that I test on this is more challenging than Fuji’s 40MP APS-C sensor, as it has (by far) the greatest pixel density. A full frame sensor would have to be more than 90MP to achieve a similar pixel density, which is 50% higher than the current maximum full frame resolution of 61MP. While this little TTArtisan 35II is not anywhere near the top resolving lenses on the platform, it is also far from embarrassing itself and delivers a better than expected resolution result. The single biggest optical challenge is probably lower contrast when viewed at a pixel level. Contrast and detail looks fine when viewed large:

When viewed at a pixel level, however, you can see that the contrast and ability to resolve the fine details isn’t fantastic.

To be fair, the same is true of most lenses on this platform, including many who cost much, much more. When stopped down a bit, the amount of resolution and contrast the TTArtisan 35II can achieve is actually quite good.

So let’s break it down further.

If there is any metric where the new lens takes a step back relative to the first generation version, it is potentially in the vignette department.

The first gen lens wasn’t great in the vignette department, taking a +79 to correct in my tests, but I have to max out the vignette slider for this new lens. What’s more, the vignette is of the nature where there’s also some color attached to it, and you can see that even when maxing out the sliders, I still end up with a somewhat uneven result. Distortion seems to be about equal with the first gen lens – a tiny bit of pincushion distortion that will easily correct with a -2 or -3.

A few other observations. I received a pre-retail copy of this lens for testing (fairly typical), and the keen eyed among you may have noticed that Lightroom isn’t properly detecting the EXIF data for the lens. It is identifying it as the (Tokina) atx-m 33mm F1.4 X. The only thing right there is the “X”! As a result, Lightroom will also automatically assign the wrong correction profile to images. I’ve made TTArtisan aware of this, and they are working on both a new correction profile and a firmware update that should allow for proper recognition of the lens. Update December 17th, 2024: TTArtisan released a firmware update that addressed both this glitch along with a few performance bugs. The lens now properly identifies in Lightroom and a new (correct!) correction profile is applied.

One improvement, however, is in the longitudinal chromatic aberration department (LoCA), which is color fringing that shows up before and after the plane of focus and is typically most pronounced at large aperture values. There is still some fringing here, but it is definitely less pronounced than the first generation lens.

On these reflective Christmas decorations there is a bit of green fringing, but it’s pretty minimal.

There is some minor issue with LaCA (lateral chromatic aberrations) in the corner, though to be fair, I noticed it much more on my chart:

…than I did in real world shots.

So how about sharpness and contrast? Here’s a look at the test chart:

And here are the crops from across the frame at F1.8 at a 200% magnification.

As the MTF suggested, contrast in the center isn’t bad but the lens isn’t radically sharp. The midframe is interesting to me, as there’s quite a bit of variation even across that one crop, with the left side looking quite good and the right side looking much worse. The corner crop is the most interesting, however, as it is quite soft on the left side (closer to the center), but obviously better on the right side (right in the absolute corner). The MTF does suggest an unusual loop up towards the edge of the frame, however.

The bottom line to me is that there is enough resolution here even on the most demanding scenario to produce credible looking images:

Those shooting on lower resolution bodies will find their apparent sharpness quite a bit stronger.

At F2, contrast improves a bit. At F2.8 the contrast looks stronger still.

By F5.6, the corners look fairly good (but never exceptional). This is the upper left corner.

You can see that contrast has improved but detail is not exceptional.

Real world results are a little kinder, however, and I actually found the lens to be fairly sharp in many situations. This example at F5.6 (viewed at 100% in the crop) looks fairly impressive.

There’s a nice amount of detail in the shallow plane of focus in this F2.2 shot:

I actually think the lens is slightly sharper at F8 than it is at F5.6, and that’s true pretty much everywhere in the frame.

After that, however, diffraction will become a factor, and the image quality will be slightly softer at F11 and then moreso at F16.

I do want to add a caveat to my tests here, as there’s no question that Fuji’s 40MP sensor is easily the most demanding place to evaluate a lens. Look at how much better the apparent resolution and contrast look at 100% magnification if I scale the image down from the 40MP on the left to the more common 26MP on the right.

That’s the space that Fuji’s own 26MP sensors along with Sony’s most recent 26MP sensors occupy, and you can see that everything looks sharper, and brighter at that lower resolution level. On many cameras the TTArtisan 35II is going to look sharper than my results here show.

This is a budget lens, but it doesn’t mean that the performance is terrible. While bokeh rendering is high end, the lens is caprable of producing beautiful looking images.

This shot shows fairly good bokeh perforamce and good detail where it matters at F1.8:

The geometry of the specular highlights will definitely turn lemon-shaped towards the edges, but that’s hardly uncommon.

I was basically able to get the images that I wanted, and for an autofocusing lens that costs $125, that’s pretty impressive.

The previous version of the lens flared terribly, and that’s definitely an area that has gotten improved. A shot like this would have been full of flare artifacts, but I’ve let very bright sunlight coming though a window backlight this scene without any negative impact:

With direct, bright sun right in the frame, things aren’t quite as rosy. There’s some loss of contrast but also some light flashes, particularly when the lens is stopped down (image 2 below.).

I do think there is some improvement here, but it is perhaps unrealistic to expect high end coatings on such an inexpensive lens.

All told, however, this is a pretty good little lens optically, even though it seems a little unfair to test a $125 optic on one of the most optically demanding sensors in the world!

If you’d like to see more images, check out the image gallery linked here.

Conclusion

The TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 II is a unique lens. It is incredibly rare to see a second generation lens arrive so swiftly on the heels of the first generation lens. I’m not sure if this swift turnaround is due to less interest in the first generation lens than expected, or simply because TTArtisan wants to showcase their ability to produce ever better lenses.

There’s no question the lens IS improved. It’s smaller, sharper, has a better minimum focus distance (though not really an improved up close performance!), has a better lens hood design, and I think even the autofocus is somewhat refined. Not bad for a lens that still has one of the cheapest price tags I’ve ever seen for an autofocus lens.

The biggest question might be how it will compete with the Viltrox 35mm F1.7 AIR lens, particularly considering that Viltrox has really got a lot of momentum right now. But there’s no question that the TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 II is a valid option if you’re looking for an inexpensive yet fully functional “normal” prime lens for your APS-C camera.

Pros:

• Significantly improved over the first gen lens
• Smaller and lighter than competitors
• Very nicely built
• More conventional hood design
• Good autofocus for stills
• Reduced fringing and flare
• Acceptably good sharpness on 40MP
• Very good sharpness when stopped down
• Amazing price

Cons:

• Increased vignette
• Still some flare issues
• Video AF can shows a lot of steps (on Fuji)

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 II @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Pergear

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Purchase the Fujifilm X-H2 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany 

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