TTArtisan AF 23mm F1.4 Review | A $125 Disrupter?

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[Music]
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hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
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to give you my review of the new TT
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artisen autofocus 23mm f1.8 lens now
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shortly after TT Artisan's release of
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the mark 2 version of the AF 35mm f1.8
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that I just got done reviewing is the
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new 23 m f1.8 and this kind of completes
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what I would call the traditional
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Trilogy of prime lenses covering the
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full frame equivalence of 35 mm 50 mm
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and 85 mm kind of the Prime primes so to
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speak so is the new 23 mm a lens worth
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checking out particularly since you can
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get it for about 125 bucks well let's
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dive into it and find out first of all
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in terms of build and handling this lens
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will be coming for the Fuji X Sony E and
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Nikon Z apsc mounts I'm reviewing it on
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Fuji X here today it has a 342 mm
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fullframe equivalent basically 35 mm and
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the lens is a it's larger than what the
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uh 35mm Mark 2 was but it's basically
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identical probably the same housing as
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the 35mm Mark 1 so that's a lens that is
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65 mm in diameter 60 mm in length or 2
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point or 2.55 5x 2.36 in it has a 52mm
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front filter thread that is shared
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across the series and it weighs in at
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210 G or
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7.4 Oz now like all of these lenses it
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does have a really kind of sharp looking
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anodized black finished everything is
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metal up and two including the manual
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focus ring there is no aperture ring on
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this lens nor are there any switches so
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I'm reviewing on Fuji and of course that
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is a it's kind of a big deal for
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probably more Fuji Shooters than
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anything else because that's been part
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of the formula essentially for Fuji
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lenses since very early on is that the
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majority of them do have an aperture
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ring so that might be missed here but
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then again it's a $125 lens and and so
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probably worth considering there the
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manual focus ring itself it moves nicely
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it actually does have a nice weight to
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it on Fuji more so than what I see on
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other platforms when you get down to
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fine-tuning what I find on Fuji very
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often is that Focus doesn't happen in
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this manual focus I should say doesn't
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happen in this kind of linear sweep
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rather it's like little blocks of focus
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as you go along so it doesn't really
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feel like a true manual focus simulation
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for me but of course your mileage may
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vary it has nine aperture blades I don't
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find them to be particularly round
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however and so even here in the shot at
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I believe f2.5 you can already see very
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much the nonagonal shape and the shape
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of the aperture blade so not
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particularly rounded
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we have an improved um Hood design
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similar to what we saw in the 35mm Mark
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I in that it's just a traditional Hood
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uh you know it's made out of plastic
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it's nothing special however but what it
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isn't is that kind of odd shape that
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came down to a rectangular open opening
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that hood like we saw on the initial 35
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f1.8 or also the 56mm f1.8 it couldn't
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be reversed you can't really get into
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use filters with it attached it's just
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it was a really odd design so this is
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more conventional but it's better for it
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you can reverse it for storage you can
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get at filters you can just use it as
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normal so all of that is good also
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included is front and rear caps and the
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rear cap design is unique on these ttrs
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lenses and that it does have a USBC Port
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built into it which will allow you to do
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firw updates through the cap as opposed
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to having a USBC Port right on the the
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lens somewhere itself minimum Focus
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distance here is 30 cm and I do find
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that the magnification level is a little
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bit better than what I've seen on some
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of the earlier TTR Artis lenses a little
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bit higher magnification I'm going to
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estimate somewhere in the 0.14 to 0.15
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times uh they don't give us that
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information but as I just kind of
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compared it to previous reviews where I
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did have the magnification level that
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seems to be the range that we are in now
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obviously there are no bells and
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whistles on this other than the fact
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that it's a really nicely built lens
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that works and it costs 125 bucks so
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hard to complain about that also hard to
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complain about the fact that we do have
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an autofocus system here and for the
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most part it really works quite well
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it's a lead screw type STM Focus motor
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the actual Focus motor produces
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relatively little sound what I do hear
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is a little bit of clacking from the
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aperture blades as they open and close
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but that is really the primary focus
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sound that I hear unless I just put my
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ear right next to the lens itself you
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can see here that the focus speed is
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about average or maybe on the slow side
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of average when you're really forcing
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big Focus changes like what I'm doing in
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that test it's a little bit more
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deliberate it's not like that
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instantaneous back and forth however
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what I found is an ordinary use where
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you're rarely making that big sweeping
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Focus change I didn't really notice the
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focus being slow on a normal basis so I
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don't think for most people in most
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situations it's going to be a problem
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unless you're trying to capture action
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we're having a little bit more thrust
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and a little bit more reactiveness in
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the Focus motor
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uh might be useful for that but again if
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you're trying to shoot really demanding
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Optical situations and going to rely on
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$125 lens you know that might be your
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first clue that you're not not going to
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get maybe top tier results from that
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what I found for ordinary use ordinary
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situations is that the focus accuracy
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was actually very good even here on Fuji
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which remains my least favorite
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autofocus platform of the four platforms
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that I test I found that it worked well
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for family shots I used it at our a New
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Year's party for example and opening
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some gifts with the kids over the
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holidays and in all of those situations
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Focus locked on it gave me well accurate
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or well focused results with good
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accuracy I found in some shots of the
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pets that everything was good there out
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in you know real world shots again no
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Focus issues you know every now and then
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I'd run into the issue which you do
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sometimes where it didn't want to focus
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on a a close subject and wanted to stick
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on the background but I found that even
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with some of the you know the food UI
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first party lenses that cost four or
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five times more that I just recently
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reviewed as well so overall for Stills
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autofocus worked just fine when it comes
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to uh video autofocus I found that pulls
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you can definitely see some visible
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steps that tends to be an issue often on
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Fuji but it was definitely an issue here
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and it stood out to me that you could
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see it there I actually found that my
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hand test went fairly well really I felt
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like it you know wasn't like Flawless or
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you know super reactive but it went back
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and forth in the way that I would expect
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it to you will see some kind of obvious
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Focus breathing so because it's there it
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kind of draws your attention to the fact
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of when the focus thrust starts to
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happen it's as if the the whole kind of
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perspective moves with that due to the
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focus breathing but uh I found that in
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again in situations where I'm not trying
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to force a bigger autofocus change just
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you know for example approaching Nala in
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the shot I don't really see Focus
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jumping around it's not always 100%
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precise but it's not jumping around and
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it felt you know reasonably cinematic in
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that kind of setting without any kind of
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major concerns and so again in general
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as long as your expectations are
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realistic uh you're going to get Fine
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Results even here on Fuji and I suspect
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you'll see better results on either Sony
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or Nikon zount as well so how about the
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optical performance from this budget
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lens I'll give you an overview here and
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then the optical Deep dive will follow
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after that for those those of you that
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want a deeper dive into the performance
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so our Optical design here is 11
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elements in nine groups that includes
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one high index element two extra low
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dispersion elements the MTF chart is
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interesting um it's it's interesting
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because for one thing you'll see that it
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actually builds a little bit towards the
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mid-frame which is unusual you'll see
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you know then it it drops off from there
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fairly steeply into the corners I also
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see something interesting in that we're
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typically the two different axes the
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merinal and sagittal um axes they
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actually typically get closer together
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if you see an MTF that's at a smaller
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maximum apture in this case shown at
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f5.6 there's actually as you get towards
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the corners there's actually more
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separation uh between those two axes
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which is is odd which means that you're
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not going to expect to get amazing stop-
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down performance and we'll see if that
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bears out in our real world test what I
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found is that when shooting at large
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apertures f1.8 F2 f2.8 the real world
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Det detail was pretty good if I'm
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focusing in the rule of thirds and
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remember it's actually a little bit
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better a little off center another
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positive that I found is that Distortion
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is really low only a minus two to
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correct a tiny little bit of B pinkish
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Distortion however vignette is another
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story it maxed out the slider so a full
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hundred I needed to dial in uh to deal
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with the vignette and so great on
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Distortion not great when it comes to
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vignette there early on I found that a
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lot of the TT Artisan lenses really
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suffered from some fairly pronounced
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fringing that's something that they've
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worked hard on you can tell I found that
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the LA tunal chromatic aberration were
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relatively low with this lens not a lot
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of obvious fringing and uh likewise with
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the lateral chromatic aberations near
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the edge of the frame they're not 100%
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corrected but not too bad either moving
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on from there and looking at the the
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resolution again remember I am testing
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on a 40 megapixel uh Fuji extra sensor
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here it's the most demanding sensor that
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I test on it's equivalent of over 90
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megapixels on a fullframe camera which
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doesn't even exist so this is a hugely
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demanding platform to work on so
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throwing a inexpensive lens like this a
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budget lens onto this platform is asking
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a lot of it but it didn't really
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embarrass itself either I find that the
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center looks decent and the mid-frame
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looks a little bit better than decent
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the corners are not great and what I did
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find is you know again an expensive lens
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I did think that my copy was a little
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bit Des centered and so in the upper
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left corner it's about what I would
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expect looking at the MTF the lower
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right corner it has like almost no image
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quality so it is it's not properly
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centered in that and and so just
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something to bear in mind and that could
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affect the fact that as I begin to stop
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down and look at at smaller apertures
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what I found is that the improvements
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tended to be really inconsistent based
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on where I was sampling in the front
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some places I could see a nice
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Improvement you know for example in this
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shot sto down a bit looking at the edge
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uh performance looks quite good that
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lower right corner never really got
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super sharp it it got to a place where
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it wasn't bad but it never was fantastic
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I found that in real world shots and
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again those the center 2/3 that contrast
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was obviously improved for example here
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in a rural World between f1.8 and f5.6
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you can definitely only see an
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improvement and so I found for landcape
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escape type shots throughout a lot of
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the frame they look pretty good the
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corners never really impressed me
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anywhere and that's part of what we saw
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on that MTF that um it's it's it's only
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really one axis that is decent in the
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corner and the other drops off quite a
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bit and so as a byproduct you're just
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not going to get really fine details uh
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that are are rendered there and that
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that is in fact the case defraction is
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always going to be an issue when you're
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on a high resolution body like this so
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by f11 I'm starting to see a little bit
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of softening and then by minimum apture
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F16 you can definitely see it a little
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bit more pronounced the bouquet quality
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is interesting from this lens and again
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this is where I think it kind of redeems
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itself you can see that it's definitely
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not going to be a pin sharp landscape
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style lens but if you're using it kind
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of as a you know large aperture prime
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lens for street or you know I've got
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some shots here that I shot in a
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restaurant actually found that I I kind
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of liked the look of the images it had a
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had personality to it and there's
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reasonable amount of sharpness and
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contrast bokeh quality is pretty good
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the you know the the color and even the
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natural vignette produces kind of
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interesting images to my eye so the
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bokat quality is is is decent but you'll
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see for example from this shot that
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there is enough deformation near the
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edge of the frame uh that it almost
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creates a bit of a swirl effect now you
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either will like or hate that but it is
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a quality that at least some of us find
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desirable and when it's used well and
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for example like some of the old older
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Helios lenses uh they did really really
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cool things with that and then of course
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more recently TT Artis had their own
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kind of dedicated swirl lens and in some
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ways the bouquet quality is a little bit
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like that and so I could see that even
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without the specular highlights that
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there is a little bit of a swirl you
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this is not the time of year where I can
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really shoot to optimize that because of
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winter but I'm interested in just seeing
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maybe when spring comes the kind of
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images I can create with the lens in
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other situations where it's less about
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seeing kind of the swirl in the corners
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the falloff is is pretty decent I mean
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it's not exceptional or anything but
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it's not bad at all one other thing that
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is worth mentioning however is that you
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will see some flare issues depending on
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the circumstance which you're using it
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so kind of the worst case scenario for
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me was this shot at night where you can
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see that even though a street light is
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out of frame it really caused this kind
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of almost Corona uh Prismatic effect
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taking place and and so that was
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obviously a very obvious thing that
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entered into the frame and you can see
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in some of these other real world shots
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or even pans here back and forth that
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particularly wide open at large
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apertures you see some some just
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blooming and loss of contrast
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discoloration that comes in the image
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stop down you're going to see a little
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bit more uh precise ghosting patterns
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but what I also see is better contrast
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and it doesn't really lose contrast or
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get kind of that washed out look that it
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did at large apertures so you know some
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give and take there are a few flaws my
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conclusion is this this is you know it's
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got flaws but it is a fairly complete
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lens for 125 bucks and I I think about
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this that you can get all three of the
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lenses in the series The 23 35 and then
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56 mm f1.8 lenses all three of them you
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can get for about under
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$380 you know that's pretty amazing to
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me when I think about the fact that
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seven or eight years ago very likely a
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single lens like this would probably
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cost about that amount of money and so
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it's it's just a tremendous amount of
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value I don't know what's happening to
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TT Artis but in their most recent
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releases of the 56 then the 30 the
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second generation 35 and this 23mm lens
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almost right at the same time within a
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week or two of them coming out with
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theirs vrox is releasing a competing
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lens and so there's a 56 mm f1.7 then
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there was a 35mm f1.7 and now we are
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seeing the announcement of a vro 25mm
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f1.7 air lens coming all of these lenses
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typically cost about $50 more than these
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TT Artisans yet you know they are at the
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next level in terms of the optical
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performance and so I kind of feel bad
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for TT Artis that their Thunder keeps
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getting stolen from them it is a
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competitive market these days and I also
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recognize that for some of you on a very
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tight budget another $50 may you know
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break the bank for you to where it's
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just not an option to buy if you're
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buying this lens or frankly any of the
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three lenses in this series you're
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getting Great Value they they have flaws
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yes but they also have character and
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they're pretty nicely performing little
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lenses for the money so I actually
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enjoyed using it and that's pretty great
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when you consider how inexpensive the
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lens was now if you want more
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information you can check out either my
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full text review that is linked in the
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description down below there's also
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linkage to an image gallery if you want
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to see more photos some buying links if
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you'd like to PCH purchase one and of
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course if you want a deeper Dive Right
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Now into the optical performance stay
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tuned let's jump into it together okay
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we're going to start by taking a look at
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vignette and Distortion the Distortion
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is really basically a non-issue there is
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the tiniest amount of pin cushion
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Distortion you can see a little bit of
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curvature towards the corners however a
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minus two eliminates that all together
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vignette is another story vignette is
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heavy it is uh fairly concentrated in
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the corners but then it starts to creep
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into the frame as well and so it had
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required me to maximize these sliders a
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full 100 to try to eliminate the
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vignette you can see there's a little
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bit of kind of like a discoloration
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that's left behind so certainly not a
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perfect vignette correction now
17:14
fortunately TT artison has made huge
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strides in improving their ability to
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control longitudinal style chromatic
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aberration you can see that this lens
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isn't exempt from it there's a little
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bit of fringing before a little bit of
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fringing afterward but it's not strongly
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pronounced and not going to show up much
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in real world images you can see in this
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shot yes there's a little bit of the
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magenta fringing before a little bit of
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the green fringing afterward but you can
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see that it's neutral enough that as you
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look at this image it's not any kind of
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you know fringing or chromatic
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aberration that you see you're able to
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just kind of see more of the image
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itself without too much distraction
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likewise in the shiny and reflective
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surfaces like on the front of this
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camera you can see that from the lens
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there's not really any kind of bleeding
17:59
over no contrast isn't fantastic you
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know detail isn't amazing but you can
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see as far as fringing there is a bit in
18:06
some of these shiny surfaces but again
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as we step back and look at the image
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you don't really see any chromatic
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aberration looking at the image at large
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and I think that that's kind of the
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Baseline that I'm looking for now if we
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look for lateral style chromatic
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aberration you can see there is a little
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bit that is here it's not exempt from it
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it's not perfectly neutral in the
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transition from black to white at the
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same time it's not particularly strongly
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pronounced either so you're unlikely to
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see it in most real world images now in
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terms of resolution and contrast this is
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going to be shown at 200% magnification
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and this is on the 40 megapixel uh
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sensor on the xh2 so the center of the
18:45
frame you can see that detail is okay
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it's it's fairly good contrast isn't bad
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it's not exceptional however looking up
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here into the mid-frame the result
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actually looks a little bit better to my
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eye I think there's a little more detail
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that's rendered cont
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is a little bit better particularly on
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this side of the bill but still pretty
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decent here if we pan down here you can
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see that there is definitely better
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result on the upper left corner than
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there is on the lower right here now if
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we go down to our typical spot you can
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see that I think due to a des centering
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issue this corner is just it's kind of
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trash there's not a whole lot going on
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whereas if we look up in this corner you
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can see that it definitely gets really
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soft towards the edge but uh in this
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Zone there's definitely more image
19:28
quality quality there than what there is
19:30
here likewise if we look on this side of
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the frame again it's not great but you
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know there is some image quality there
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if we look over on this side it is much
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much softer as we get over to this side
19:41
if you look at this stamp where there's
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almost no resolution and look at this
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damp it's not high contrast or detail
19:47
but you can at least you know make it
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out and so definitely not a perfect
19:51
centering now for those of you that are
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wondering if this is just a focus issue
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in this particular shot I focused in the
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corner instead this corner since I knew
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this was a decent corner I focused here
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as opposed to the center of the frame if
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we go back to the center you know the
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center's not really looking any worse
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but you can see that that certainly has
20:10
not fixed this corner so I wanted to see
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if that carried out into real world
20:14
shooting at Infinity we can see in the
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center of the frame that resolution
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detail contrast all looks really pretty
20:20
good as we pan towards the side we can
20:23
see that things just you know start to
20:25
generally get softer here and just not
20:28
quite as good
20:29
if I look over on this side of the image
20:31
I you know this corner is it's it's hard
20:34
to make too many determinations though I
20:36
would say that that actually doesn't
20:37
look terrible to me and so it definitely
20:40
the corners are softer in general but I
20:42
think that the centering issue shows up
20:44
more at the distance in which I'm
20:46
looking at my chart now if I compare a
20:49
wide open shot to a stop down f5.6 we
20:53
can see that definitely contrast
20:55
improves here in the center of the frame
20:57
as we move off a little bit bit to
20:59
mid-frame here yeah it's still looking
21:01
definitely better moving off to the
21:03
corners it's it's sharper it's not like
21:05
pin sharp but you can see for example if
21:07
we look compare this with this
21:09
definitely looking better as we look up
21:11
here towards the corner it's you know
21:14
it's improved it's probably not
21:15
radically improved over here on the left
21:17
side it's you know it is definitely
21:20
improved but those Corners never really
21:21
get super sharp I'm not convinced
21:24
however that that is the best use of a
21:26
lens like this I mean the truth of
21:28
matter is is that if you're shooting
21:29
even at f1.8 and you're shooting in a
21:32
more typical shot like this I mean I
21:34
think that detail looks really quite
21:36
good there you can see all of the kind
21:38
of the textures of the mannequin uh it's
21:40
very very interesting shot likewise here
21:43
a little bit further a distance in my
21:45
focus area I mean there's great detail
21:47
there image looks really really nice um
21:50
in this shot of Ferrari here again the
21:53
detail doesn't pop off the chart I think
21:55
the lens actually performs better a
21:58
little little bit further out but it's
22:00
not like there's anything wrong with
22:01
that either it's not exceptional but
22:03
it's not bad or soft in any way the
22:05
image itself holds up fine looking at it
22:07
at large if we stop The Lens down to F2
22:11
you can see there's not really much of a
22:13
difference in the middle of the frame I
22:14
do think there's a little bit better
22:15
contrast there in the mid-frame so there
22:17
is some minor Improvement if you compare
22:19
the blacks on the writing here compared
22:22
to the blacks on the Canada here I think
22:25
there's definitely some difference there
22:27
uh up into this Corner the difference is
22:30
not really all that noticeable there
22:33
moving from F2 to f2.8 again I don't
22:36
really see a significant difference and
22:38
particularly if for looking at this side
22:40
it's very very minorly getting better
22:42
but in not any kind of significant way
22:45
now as we move from f2.8 to F4 it is
22:48
starting to make some improvement at
22:50
least this is starting to essentially
22:52
like come into focus it feels like over
22:54
on this side if you look at the one here
22:56
and the texture around it it's
22:57
definitely improving there if we look
22:59
down in this bottom right corner it is
23:01
starting to look better but it's still
23:03
far from good likewise even at f5.6 you
23:07
can see that that bottom right corner it
23:09
just really hasn't gotten great center
23:11
of the frame is looking good uh if
23:13
you're looking in The Sweet Spot in the
23:15
mid-frame now this is looking really
23:17
crisp in this mid-frame likewise if I
23:19
pan over to the left side mid-frame is
23:23
looking really nice and crisp and up
23:24
here into the upper left corner it's
23:27
looking quite good it's not like again
23:29
it's not pin sharp and if you get right
23:31
off near the edge definitely not pin
23:33
sharp but you know usable now but after
23:36
f11 you'll see that defraction starts to
23:38
soften the image further and that's
23:40
minimum apture is F16 and you can
23:42
definitely see it starting to soften up
23:44
due to the effects of defraction now
23:46
what we can see is that while the level
23:49
of magnification it isn't exceptional
23:51
but it's not bad either up close
23:53
contrast is just very ho hum at f1.8 if
23:57
you're working up close close you're
23:58
probably going to want to stop down to
24:00
try to get more detail when you start to
24:02
stop The Lens down this is at f2.5 I
24:05
believe you can see that first of all I
24:07
mean obviously our contrast is improving
24:09
on our subject but uh as far as the
24:12
bouquet quality while the inner lining
24:14
is not too bad you can definitely see
24:16
the shape of the apture blad so they're
24:17
not particularly rounded so that is
24:19
going to be a factor that you're going
24:20
to quickly get to this nonagonal shape
24:23
from the nine aperture blades the other
24:26
thing is that when composed near the
24:28
edge of the frame there is definitely
24:30
kind of a enough of a pinch to produce
24:32
kind of that swirl type effect as I
24:34
mentioned earlier and so that is going
24:36
to show up a little bit in shots like
24:38
this I'm not really at the peak kind of
24:40
swirl point but it is uh for those of
24:43
you that kind of like the swirl effect
24:45
this is an image or a lens that's going
24:46
to you know kind of be interesting in
24:48
that regard if you're shooting without
24:50
any kind of specular highlights and this
24:52
is of course shooting up close you can
24:54
see again detail and contrast isn't
24:56
amazing but the over all bouquet it you
24:59
know Fades off pretty nicely looks
25:01
pretty good in this shot here you
25:03
obviously you have more specular
25:04
highlights but again I I think that the
25:08
bokeh quality is is nice enough that the
25:10
lens is going to be useful for shots
25:12
like this now while I don't think that
25:15
TT Artisan's Optical glass is high-end
25:17
at all at the same time I didn't mind
25:20
the look of colors coming off of the
25:22
lens I do feel like it probably renders
25:24
a little bit on the warm side but you
25:26
know that can be a look that a lot of
25:29
people actually like now as mentioned
25:32
previously flare is continues to be a
25:34
factor for uh for TT Artisans lenses and
25:38
it seems like their Coatings can
25:39
probably use a little bit of improving
25:41
in the shot right out of frame there is
25:43
a street light and you know I was trying
25:45
to get rid of this but I wanted to
25:47
compose with the building in the frame I
25:50
couldn't really get away from the corona
25:52
kind of uh Prismatic effect that was
25:54
taking place some other little ghosting
25:56
artifacts this is f2.8 for the
25:58
particular shot what I found is that at
26:01
larger apertures you know up to about
26:03
f2.8 there tends to be more of just
26:06
flare related issues so in this case
26:08
we've got uh obviously we've got some
26:10
veiling we've got you know Shadows that
26:12
are lifted we've got some Prismatic
26:14
effects you kind of got a lot of
26:15
different effects that are going on you
26:17
take this pretty much same shot with the
26:20
lens stop down and while there's a
26:22
little bit more of a defined ghosting
26:23
pattern you can see that contrast is
26:26
just much improved and so you've
26:27
eliminated a lot of that uh it can here
26:30
again stop down some I think that
26:32
contrast is held up really nicely and
26:34
the image itself looks really nice and
26:36
so it really is somewhat situational in
26:38
how you use the lens overall however it
26:41
is an interesting Optical performance
26:43
some good some bad so hopefully the
26:46
deeper dive into the optical performance
26:48
of this little lens has helped you to
26:49
decide whether or not it is the lens for
26:52
you add to your own kit as always thanks
26:54
for watching have a great day and let
26:56
the light in sh

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