Photographer Dustin Abbott takes a deep dive look at the 7Artisans AF 135mm F1.8 lens for Sony E, Nikon Z, and L-mount. Is the budget 135mm option worth considering? | Read the Text Review: | Purchase the 7Artisans AF 135mm F1.8 @ B&H | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany
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Table of Contents:
=============================
0:00 - Intro
1:32 - Disclosure
1:51 - Build and Features
7:15 - Autofocus for Stills
9:35 - Video AF
11:20 - Image Quality
18:46 - Conclusion and Pricing
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Keywords: 7Artisans, AF, 135mm, F1.8, AF 135mm, f/1.8, 7Artisans 135mm F1.8, 7Artisans Review, 135mm, AF, Sony a7V, Sony A1 II, α1 II, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Portrait, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
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0:10
A few years ago, the number of 135
0:13
millimeter autofocus lenses on either
0:15
Sony or Nikon were pretty few and rare.
0:20
But in the last few years, that has
0:22
radically changed. And I've reviewed, I
0:24
think in the last two years alone, about
0:26
four different 135mm lenses that have
0:30
come from manufacturers like Samyang,
0:33
Viltrox, Sigma, and now Chinese
0:36
manufacturer 7 Artisans. Their new
0:39
autofocusing 135mm f1.8 will be coming
0:42
to both Sony, Nikon, and then also
0:44
L-mount as well. And it comes with the
0:47
lowest MSRP of all of the options. At
0:50
the same time, however, I point that out
0:52
in my intro because it is coming into
0:55
what is now quite a cl crowded platform
0:58
on Sony and Nikon, particularly Sony.
1:02
But maybe on LMount, there's a little
1:03
bit more wiggle room there as many of
1:06
these options have not released on
1:07
LMount to this point. My big question
1:09
going into this review is, is 7 going to
1:13
be able to distinguish itself in any
1:15
area outside of price? And as we're
1:18
going to see in today's review, that is
1:19
where the challenge lies for them. But
1:22
we're going to break down its
1:23
performance when it comes to build
1:24
handling, autofocus, optical
1:27
performance, and I'll double back at the
1:29
end to give you a conclusion and my
1:30
thoughts on that all. Before we jump
1:32
into it, however, I do want to say a big
1:34
thank you to Seven Artisans for sending
1:36
me a review sample for evaluation here.
1:39
As always, however, they have had zero
1:41
input in the review itself. My findings,
1:43
my conclusions are my own. they will not
1:46
see this video before you do. So, all of
1:48
that aside, let's jump in and take a
1:50
look at the build, handling, and design.
1:52
All right, let's take a closer look at
1:53
the build and the handling design here.
1:55
First of all, a closer look at the
1:56
price. $689,
1:59
giving it the lowest MSRP of any of the
2:02
135mm options on Sony or Nikon. However,
2:06
the Samyang 135 F1.8,
2:09
it has an MSRP of 699. However, it often
2:13
retails for less. For example, at the
2:15
moment it's at 599 USD. The Viltrox Lab
2:19
135mm f1.8 has an MSRP of 899 USD.
2:24
However, it is often available for less
2:27
as well. And so, uh, I think that while
2:30
the MSRP stands up as being really good
2:32
here, unfortunately, because some of the
2:34
other lenses have been on the market for
2:36
a while, it does have a little bit more
2:38
headwinds when it comes to the price
2:40
point. Now, when it comes to the weight
2:42
here, this is a hefty lens. It's 1,04 g
2:46
or 35.75
2:48
oz. That is lighter than the Viltrox,
2:51
which is,235 g. But the Samyang, for
2:54
example, is just 772 g. The Sony um is
2:59
about 950 g. The Plenna from Nikon is
3:03
right under a kilogram. And so, this is
3:06
heavier than basically anything but the
3:08
Vtrox lens. And so it is a a big hefty
3:11
lens because it is all metals and uh you
3:14
know heavy grade of of build quality
3:16
here. The lens is 91 mm or 3.58 in in
3:21
diameter and it is 136 mm or 5.35 in
3:26
long. Up front here we have an 82
3:29
millimeter front filter thread which is
3:31
pretty common for 135mm f1.8 lens. At
3:35
the back of the lens, we do have a
3:37
weather sealing gasket along with a USB
3:40
C port. I'm assuming there probably are
3:42
a few other seal points, but I haven't
3:44
seen a diagram, but at the least, we do
3:46
have a ceiling ceiling gasket there.
3:50
Now, we do have a fairly robust feature
3:51
set, but there are a few quirks in that.
3:54
First of all, the aperture ring here, it
3:56
is clicked, but it's what I would call
3:58
lightly clicked. And so, you can very
4:00
faintly feel the detents, but they're
4:03
not strong. What I do find is if you try
4:05
to turn it faster, however, there's
4:06
almost like a little bit of a drag on
4:08
the aperture ring. Another oddity is
4:10
we've got a big space between f1.8 and
4:13
f2, which is almost identical to what we
4:15
have at the other end. The difference
4:17
between f16 and then the automatic. And
4:19
the problem is is there's almost no real
4:22
kind of like barrier there. There's no
4:24
kind of weight to go between f-16 and
4:26
automatic. So, it's not going to be hard
4:29
to make that switch. So, a little bit of
4:31
quirks when it comes to the aperture
4:32
ring there. I will also note that when
4:34
you change aperture, you will hear a
4:36
little bit of a clacking sound uh due to
4:38
the aperture uh blade. So, it's its
4:40
motor for changing that is not quite as
4:42
quiet as what I would like. What I do
4:45
like, however, is there are 12 aperture
4:47
blades and it has a really nice geometry
4:50
here. Both just in the shape of the
4:52
bokeh balls or specular highlights, but
4:54
then also as you stop the lens down, it
4:56
keeps things very nice and circular
4:58
there. Now, other features include two
5:01
different function buttons. There's a
5:03
one and a two. These don't have separate
5:05
functions, but they're designed to where
5:06
you have this one if you're shooting in
5:08
the typical horizontal mode. If you're
5:10
shooting in vertical mode, this one
5:11
should be close to ham. So, always have
5:14
one uh, you know, accessible there.
5:15
There is an AFMF switch here that isn't
5:18
quite as definite as what I would like,
5:20
but I'm glad to have that. Manual focus
5:22
ring is good. The weight's a little bit
5:24
on the light side, but it moves smoothly
5:26
and there isn't really any lag that I
5:28
noticed between input on the ring and
5:30
the actual focus changes. One other
5:33
thing that I don't love is that while
5:34
the lens hood is included here, it
5:37
doesn't really click into place definite
5:39
at all. As you can see, it doesn't lock
5:41
there at all. It feels like you should
5:42
be able to do one more rotation to make
5:43
it actually lock. So, it's not going to
5:45
be hard to, you know, kind of just
5:48
dislodge that accidentally. We do have
5:51
this kind of faux ring here that's a lot
5:53
like the for example the nicor plano
5:55
lens where it's just a grip section for
5:58
grabbing. It's doesn't it's not actually
5:59
a rotating ring. Another quirk that I
6:02
did notice is that on my cameras the
6:04
inbody image stabilization it doesn't
6:06
seem like it's communicating perfectly
6:08
and I noticed that there was
6:10
unfortunately a little bit more motion
6:11
blur than what I expected. I was able to
6:14
improve that by changing from the
6:15
automatic setting in my bodies to
6:17
manually inputting the uh the actual
6:20
focal length of 135 millimeters and that
6:22
seemed to rectify it. But that is a bit
6:24
of a pain but something I wanted to
6:26
bring to your attention. The one feature
6:28
that is missing that most the
6:29
alternatives have is a focus limiter
6:31
switch. So just know you won't have that
6:33
available to you and that connects to
6:35
our final thing that is a positive and
6:37
that is our minimum focus distance. This
6:39
can focus as closely as 68 cm, which is
6:42
closer than the competing lenses. And
6:44
you can see that it has a very high
6:45
magnification. The Vtrox is rated at
6:48
0.25 times. This, I'm going to guess, is
6:51
getting up there close to 0.30 times.
6:54
So, a very useful amount of
6:55
magnification. And the up close
6:57
performance is pretty decent. So,
6:59
overall, there's some pros and cons
7:01
here. Couple areas that could use a
7:03
little bit more polish. But you know we
7:05
a few years ago if we were looking at
7:06
the lens like this we would be pretty
7:08
amazed by how much lens you were getting
7:10
for the money. Unfortunately the market
7:12
has gotten pretty competitive in the
7:14
last few years. So how about autofocus?
7:17
Out of the various brands that are
7:19
making these 135mm lenses I would say
7:21
that 7 Artisans is the most recent to
7:25
develop autofocus and in some ways it
7:27
does show. We have what I think is an
7:30
STDM style focus motor here. And while
7:33
the actual amount of thrust or focus
7:36
speed that's available here is not bad,
7:38
there are a few areas where there's a
7:41
little less confidence than what I see
7:43
in some of the competing lenses. Now,
7:45
you can see here in my kind of formal
7:48
test going back and forth that the speed
7:50
from close to distant focus changes is
7:52
actually quite snappy and I don't have
7:54
any major problem with that. However,
7:56
what I did run into is that there were,
7:59
for example, in a portrait session,
8:00
there were just more misses than what I
8:03
expected. And I what I consistently saw
8:06
was if there was a missed focus, it was
8:07
almost always a front focus to where
8:09
instead of getting right to the eye,
8:11
maybe be to the cheek or, you know, the
8:14
chin, something a little bit forward to
8:15
where the results weren't quite as crisp
8:18
as what I would like. And knowing the
8:20
capabilities of the lens, I knew that it
8:22
came down to just being just very, very
8:25
slightly off when it came to the focus.
8:27
Now, the upside here is that this can be
8:30
corrected via firmware. I did also note
8:33
that if I was trying to force focus in a
8:36
certain place, so I maybe touched to
8:38
focus on an area and so I'd switch from
8:39
just all points active to focusing in a
8:42
specific area, if it was too far off
8:44
center, I did get a bit of pulsing back
8:45
and forth. Again, something that
8:47
probably could be fixed via firmware,
8:49
but definitely needs fixing at this
8:51
point. Now, in terms of the actual uh
8:54
the sound from the focus motor, it's
8:57
nice and quiet. I could hear a faint
8:59
like worring sound if I put my ear close
9:01
to the lens barrel, but in normal
9:03
operation, I didn't really notice any
9:04
kind of focus sound. If anything, the
9:06
sound that I'll hear is if I'm changing
9:08
aperture. That's the more likely sound
9:10
that I'm going to hear in the process.
9:12
And so, overall focus there was fine.
9:15
Now, what I find with these seven
9:16
artisan lens lenses generally that if
9:19
you're shooting still or slowmoving
9:20
subjects, not too bad, but if there's
9:22
any kind of persistent movement towards
9:24
the camera, again, in that case, it's
9:26
more likely to be a bit of a back focus
9:27
situation. And so, focus just not quite
9:30
keeping up. And so, if you need to
9:31
capture fast action, there's probably
9:33
better options for you at this point.
9:35
Now, on the video side of things, I
9:37
actually expected worse and got a little
9:40
bit better when it came to my actual
9:42
touch to focus results. results were
9:44
really not that bad. And as you can see
9:46
here, uh, if as far as the actual focus
9:49
pools, they're a little bit, you know,
9:50
fast maybe, but they don't have any kind
9:53
of visible steps, no, you know, settling
9:55
or pulsing things like that. What I did
9:58
notice, however, is that sometimes there
9:59
was some lag between when I touched a
10:02
point to focus on the screen and when it
10:04
actually focused. And so, if you're
10:06
actually utilizing that for video work,
10:07
you might find it a little bit
10:08
frustrating because it may not focus
10:10
when you want it to focus. And obviously
10:12
that could cause you to miss a shot. And
10:14
so again, at the least we need a
10:16
firmware update to improve the
10:18
responsiveness of something like that.
10:21
In terms of my hand test, I felt like it
10:23
did pretty good there with good
10:25
transitions back and forth. Again, those
10:27
focus transitions are a little bit
10:28
abrupt, which is kind of interesting
10:31
considering that really focus breathing
10:32
is not too bad for 135mm lens, and
10:36
definitely in some ways it's better than
10:37
some of the alternatives on that front.
10:39
However, it just needs it to be damp
10:41
just a little bit more for a little bit
10:43
smoother results in that kind of
10:44
situation. When I approached the camera,
10:46
it had no problem keeping up with me. It
10:49
went to the background when I stepped
10:50
out of the frame. When I came back in
10:51
the frame, it picked me up quickly. And
10:53
so, again, I like the performance there
10:55
as well. And in other shots, you know,
10:57
for example, this shot of Nala, focus is
10:59
stable, so no concerns on that front.
11:02
You've probably noticed in all these
11:03
outdoor segments which I am filming on
11:05
the lens that it's done a perfectly good
11:08
job of focusing on me and keeping me in
11:10
focus throughout. And so in general, uh,
11:12
other than the kind of the the lag issue
11:15
when doing touch to focus, actually felt
11:17
like autofocus for video was really
11:19
pretty good. All right, let's start by
11:21
taking a look at the optical design.
11:22
We've got 16 elements in 13 groups. Here
11:25
you can see that the highest number of
11:28
elements are actually extra low
11:30
dispersion followed by equal amount of
11:32
high refractive uh index elements and
11:35
then also five normal elements. So a lot
11:39
of exotics as a part of the design.
11:41
Taking a look at the MTF chart and we're
11:43
focusing on the red line which is the
11:44
third is the 30 lines pair. You can see
11:47
that we start right under 90% here in
11:50
the center of the frame. Mid-frame is
11:52
still looking quite good. uh contrast is
11:54
holding up pretty well and we're still
11:56
well above the 80% threshold with a mild
11:59
fade into the corners and we're kind of
12:01
averaging out in around the 75% range um
12:05
where those two come together. Now, as
12:07
far as other metrics here, we can see
12:09
when it comes to vignette and
12:11
distortion, a very very mild amount of
12:13
pin cushion distortion. I just used a
12:15
minus one to correct over here a bit of
12:16
vignette in the corners. I used a plus
12:19
42 to correct for it. probably in many
12:21
situations you won't need to worry about
12:23
correcting it. Now the control of
12:25
longitudinal style chromatic aberrations
12:28
is very good here. You can see next to
12:30
no fringing before and after the plane
12:31
of focus. If we zoom in here on my dad's
12:34
old SLR, we can see almost no fringing
12:37
in this area. And if we look at those
12:39
shiny bits, it's basically next to
12:41
nothing there around the specular
12:42
highlights. Nice and clean in that
12:45
regard. Taking a look at those specular
12:46
highlights, we can see a pretty good
12:49
geometry. wide open. Stop down to f2.8.
12:52
Then at f4, we can see it's continuing
12:55
to largely keep a circular shape due to
12:57
having that high 12 aperture blade iris
13:00
there. We also don't have any
13:02
significant issue with lateral style
13:04
chromatic aberration. It's just hinted
13:06
at there, but not going to be a factor
13:08
for anyone. So, let's talk resolution
13:10
and sharpness here. Here is the chart
13:12
test that we're going to be looking at.
13:14
And this test is done on a 61 megapixel
13:16
A7R Mark II. results will be shown at
13:18
200%. Now, in full disclosure, this is a
13:21
second copy of the lens that I'm going
13:23
to be showing you here. My first copy
13:25
that I tested, it was definitely
13:27
desentered. And as you can see here, the
13:30
results were radically different between
13:31
the first and second copies. The second
13:34
copies being far more representative of
13:36
what you should expect out of this lens.
13:39
And that is quite good. Here in the
13:41
center of the frame, we see very high
13:42
resolution, very good contrast.
13:45
mid-frame looks very strong, very
13:47
excellent. And as we pan down all the
13:49
way into the corners, we see that up
13:51
here it's looking great and just
13:53
slightly falling off in the extreme
13:55
corner. So, how does that compare to one
13:57
of the very best in the Viltrox 135mm
14:00
f1.8,
14:01
uh, we can see that in the center of the
14:03
frame, the two lenses are actually very,
14:06
very close and there's not really a big
14:08
margin between them at all. here in the
14:11
mid-frame. Also close. The Viltrox is a
14:14
little bit stronger, but it's not by a
14:16
terrible margin, but actually the seven
14:18
artisans is the better lens in the
14:21
absolute corners and delivers a little
14:24
bit sharper a performance than what we
14:26
see out of the Viltrox. For a few real
14:28
world examples here, we can see that
14:30
detail and contrast look really great
14:32
and of course the rendering is lovely.
14:33
More on that in just a moment. Jumping
14:35
ahead another season and you can see
14:38
that the detail and the contrast looks
14:41
very good here. And then the background
14:42
is nice and soft. Uh here's one that I
14:45
took just this morning and you can see
14:46
really really crisp line of delineation
14:49
and then really nice, you know, bokeh
14:51
ball specular highlights all throughout
14:53
the image. So do we see greater
14:55
improvement as we stop down? Well, the
14:56
answer is yes. By f2.8 you can see that
14:59
there is even more contrast and detail
15:01
showing up there in the center of the
15:02
frame. mid-frame is looking really
15:05
fantastic and off into the corners.
15:07
Corners are getting a little bit more
15:09
consistent a little further out. We'll
15:11
take a look in the upper left corner as
15:13
well. And it's not a big margin, but you
15:16
can just see like at this text right
15:18
here. And then over here, very, very
15:20
slightly crisper. Checking back in with
15:22
the Viltrox. The Viltrox is basically
15:24
caught up in the corners here. If we
15:26
look in the mid-frame, we can or the
15:28
center of the frame, we can see that the
15:30
Viltrox is a little bit sharper, better
15:32
contrast, and definitely in this
15:34
mid-frame, it just has more pop to it.
15:36
And so the Viltrox has greater capacity
15:38
to sharpen up, but the 7 Artisans is
15:40
still very good. By f.6 and f8, we've
15:43
got very consistent results across the
15:45
frame, but I wouldn't say a whole lot
15:47
sharper. It's mostly just the
15:49
consistency from corner to corner. Now
15:52
you see defractions start to set in at
15:54
f11 and then at f-16. Though frankly
15:58
it's really not all that terrible. This
16:01
lens is sharp enough that it's able to
16:02
offset the effects of defraction I would
16:05
say to a pretty strong degree. Now we
16:07
can see that 7 artisan does deliver a
16:09
higher level of um magnification
16:12
compared to the Viltrox as we saw
16:14
earlier. Though the Viltrox is
16:16
definitely sharper up close. It's just a
16:18
little bit more consistent. It has those
16:20
floating elements that allows it to
16:21
perform better up close. Going to a
16:24
three-dimensional object, we can see
16:25
that the uplose performance again is is
16:28
good, but contrast is not like amazing
16:30
here. And so, it's not as good at the
16:33
close focus distance, but you can see it
16:35
will obliterate the background. And that
16:37
really is a strength for this lens. The
16:39
general rendering is really beautiful
16:41
from it. It just in whatever situation I
16:44
shot in, I felt like the bokeh was just
16:46
consistently really really nice from
16:48
this lens. Not a lot of hard edges, a
16:51
lot of artful looking images with really
16:53
softly defocused backgrounds. Even here,
16:55
there's a lot of, you know, degrees of
16:57
complexity in this shot. But I think
16:59
that it's handled quite nicely. And you
17:02
know, here for example, you know, you
17:04
can see good, you know, detail and
17:05
contrast. Not Viltrox level out in the
17:07
real world, but it's good. But the
17:09
background is really softly defocused.
17:12
Looks really beautiful. Here's another
17:14
shot here. And you again, you can just
17:16
see that, you know, detail and contrast
17:18
are good here. And the background is
17:21
nicely blurred. There's a lot of
17:22
potential in this shot for just hard
17:25
edges and things like that. But to me,
17:26
it kind of renders it fairly artfully.
17:28
And you can see it it's handled with
17:30
enough contrast to not fall apart on
17:32
this daisy, which daisies can be murder,
17:35
particularly in sunlight. As far as
17:37
rendering for portraits, I shot these
17:39
several months ago and so it wasn't
17:41
obviously the season was different. You
17:43
can see that the background is nicely
17:45
blurred even with all of those hard
17:46
edges. Here's another one here a little
17:48
bit closer and you can see again
17:50
handling those backgrounds nicely. Now,
17:53
when it comes to flare resistance, it's
17:55
very much a mixed bag. Uh in this kind
17:57
of shot, not too terrible. A little bit
17:58
of veiling, a little bit of ghosting. Um
18:02
up here in the corner, it's handling
18:03
that fairly well. Where the weakness is
18:06
is if the sun or the light source is
18:09
right up above the frame and you see you
18:11
get quite a flashing effect. You can see
18:13
it kind of bursting through here. That
18:15
can be used to artful effect, but it's
18:17
going to be strong and pronounced. Just
18:19
be aware of that. And here in this shot
18:21
with that sun in that position, you can
18:22
see that the veiling is covering a lot
18:24
of the frame. Stopping on down and
18:27
you're going to see a little bit more of
18:28
the ghosting type artifacts regardless
18:30
of the position of the sun. and so I
18:32
don't like it as well in those settings.
18:34
Overall, it's a a pretty good pretty
18:37
strong optical performance. The
18:39
rendering is beautiful from the lens. In
18:41
terms of the detail and contrast, it's
18:43
not quite at the level of a lens like
18:45
the Viltrox, but not far off either. So,
18:48
what's my conclusion? In many ways, the
18:50
7 Artisans 135mm f1.8 leaves me a little
18:54
bit conflicted. On one hand, it is I
18:57
think the finest optical instrument that
18:59
I've ever seen from seven artisans. It
19:01
delivers really beautiful optical
19:04
qualities in many ways with good control
19:06
of aberrations with beautiful rendering
19:10
and excellent sharpness throughout and
19:12
so it is a very strong lens optically.
19:15
At the same time, however, it is held
19:18
back by the fact those optics are held
19:20
back by the fact that Seven Artisans is
19:22
still in a maturation process as a
19:25
company. And so, the finished product is
19:27
frankly still a little bit glitchy. As I
19:29
pointed out during the optical qualities
19:31
portion, uh I am finishing this review
19:34
filming in a completely different season
19:35
several months later because we had to
19:37
replace the initial review lens that I
19:40
was using and obviously Seven Artisans
19:42
had to delay what was their intended
19:44
early release date for it. So, I'm
19:46
filming right now on a second copy of
19:48
the lens months later and yet it's still
19:50
a little bit glitchy. For example, on my
19:53
cameras, if I try to use the uh aperture
19:56
ring and to control aperture, it's as I
19:59
begin to move throughout the aperture
20:00
ring, it's still delivering some quirky
20:02
results. I go to f2, it shows f6.3,
20:04
though it's actually exposing for f2.
20:07
And beyond that, it's not really
20:09
stopping the aperture further down. I've
20:10
got to switch over into the automatic
20:12
mode and control the aperture from
20:13
within the camera to get accurate
20:15
results. And it's things like that, just
20:17
little quirks, quirks of the autofocus
20:19
that show that there's still some
20:20
firmware updating that is necessary and
20:23
that the lens is not yet as mature as
20:26
what I would like to see, even though
20:28
the release date has been pushed back a
20:30
little bit. I very sincerely hope that
20:32
seven artisans can solve the final
20:35
quirks that remain on this lens because
20:37
optically it is well worth investing in.
20:39
At the moment, however, uh unless those
20:42
firmware updates happen, I would have a
20:43
hard time recommending this over
20:45
something like the Viltrox or the
20:46
Samyang lens on at least on E-mount and
20:51
then um over the hard to recommended
20:53
over the Viltrox on Zmount. Lmount,
20:56
however, you know, there's nothing else
20:58
yet there on that platform. And so that
21:00
might be a compelling option to look for
21:03
there. But I do think that Seven
21:04
Artisans is coming to a field that
21:07
already has a lot of really excellent
21:08
challengers, but also some challenges
21:11
that are maybe a little bit more mature
21:13
in their development and their
21:15
presentation at this point. So again,
21:17
this is a nice lens. It's a beautiful
21:19
lens optically, but it just needs a
21:21
little bit more fine-tuning in the
21:22
details, and I certainly hope the 7R is
21:25
able to achieve that. If you want more
21:27
more information, feel free to check out
21:29
my full text review, which is linked in
21:30
the description down below. As always,
21:32
thanks for watching. Have a great day
21:34
and let the light in.
Science

