7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4 X-Mount Review

Dustin Abbott

April 28th, 2025

Last year about this time I reviewed the little 7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8, a pretty decent budget autofocus lens for various APS-C mounts (I reviewed in on Sony). This year they are back with another APS-C lens, but this is a much more ambitious option – the 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4. F1.4 is two full stops brighter than an F2.8 lens, and is thus much harder to engineer. They have also elected to bring it to market (at least initially) just for Fuji X-mount. 7Artisans has managed to keep the size small and the price inexpensive ($169 USD), so should you consider this new 7Artisans AF 35mm for your Fuji camera? Find out my thoughts in the video review below or by reading on…

Thanks to 7Artisans 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 visit the product page for the 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4 here.

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The first thing that jumped out to me about the new AF 35mm F1.4 is just how small it is. This is lens not much bigger than a pancake lens (only 49mm long) and which weighs only 184g. That’s incredibly small and light for an F1.4 lens.

35mm on APS-C behaves differently than on full frame. While a 35mm lens on full frame is moderately wide, the 1.5x crop factor of Fuji’s X-mount system means that the lens will behave like a 52.5mm full frame lens, or what is called the “normal” perspective because it is similar to the field of view that the human eye sees.

There are some quirks with this lens that I’ll detail, but put in the right situation, the 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4 can produce some lovely images, with very soft, creamy bokeh and a solid amount of sharpness and contrast even at F1.4:

So is this a lens that you should seriously consider? We’ll explore whether or not that is the case in this review.

Build and Handling

As noted, this lens has a nicely compact size. If you remove the lens hood, the lens looks pretty short mounted on my X-H2. Not much sticks out past that grip!

It is 68mm (2.67″) in diameter and is just 49mm (1.92″) in length. 184g translates to just under 6.5oz, making for a very compact, lightweight package.

The front filter thread size is fairly uncommon 62mm.

The 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4 is wider in diameter (+4mm) but shorter (-5.3mm) in length than the Viltrox AF 35mm F1.7, a lens that has a similar price and may be the top competition for this lens.

The Viltrox is very slightly lighter (-14g) at 170g in weight. Both lenses are have metal mounts, but while the Viltrox has a plastic outer shell (though very good plastics), the 7Artisans is a mix of metals and plastics.

Because there aren’t any real features on the lens, the look of the lens is very clean and simple. Nothing striking, but nothing negative, either. The large tulip shaped hood that is included adds a bit of visual interest.

That hood is strongly needed, as we’ll see in a bit.

The one feature here is a USB-C port covered by a small rubber gasket. Be careful when pulling it out, as it is small and wouldn’t be hard to lose.

The USB-C port will allow for quick and easy firmware updates, which is very smart of 7Artisans considering that they are A) new to autofocus and B) a third party lens maker, so they may have to rely on firmware updates to maintain compatibility with cameras in the future. The lens does include a USB-C cable in the box in case you don’t have one.

There is a metal lens mount but no weather sealing gasket, though no competing lenses at this price offer weather sealing, either. 7Artisans does claim a water and fingerprint resistant coating on the front element.

Some Fuji users are going to be disappointed to find that there is no aperture ring, as that is a fairly ubiquitous feature on native Fuji lenses. There are seven aperture blades in the aperture iris. These blades are clearly not rounded, as you can clearly see the aperture shape even by F2. The geometry near the edges of the frame gets a little weird looking as you stop down further (F1.4, F2, and F2.8 shown below).

The manual focus ring is main object on the lens barrel. It’s made of tightly ribbed plastics, and has a fairly firm amount of damping. While perhaps a little heavy, the damping feels good (tight and connected), but unfortunately (as is so often the case on Fuji) the focus seems to happen in little steps rather than in a smooth, linear fashion.

The minimum focus distance is 35cm. I estimate the maximum magnification figure to be roughly 0.12x, which looks like this:

That’s close enough to be useful but not exceptionally so. The Viltrox, for example, can focus a little closer (33cm) and has a slightly higher 0.13x magnification.

The 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4 is a simple lens, but it does get high marks for being so compact and light for an F1.4 lens. It’s also a very affordable lens at just $169 USD. You aren’t going to get too many F1.4 lenses for that price.

Autofocus for Stills

Most 7Artisans lenses that I have tested have used an STM (stepping motor) focus system, but I could quickly tell that this wasn’t the case with the AF 35mm F1.4. It has the kind of buzzy focus motor that I haven’t heard in a while, and autofocus definitely proved to be the weak link in the equation. Autofocus speed is not quick. In my formal tests there was a bit of a lag while inertia built, and then the main focus pull was relatively quick. The combined focus speed was on the slower side, however.

That’s not a big deal if your subject is still.

Autofocus precision was generally pretty good when shooting at large apertures. My shots at F1.4 (like above) were generally well focused – even if the subject was in profile and the eye was not generally visible.

Shots at F1.4 to F2 of other subjects were accurately focused as well.

So, with still subjects, focus is fine.

If the subject is moving, however, it’s another story. Focus speed is just not reactive enough to adjust to movement. This is NOT an action lens.

There’s a secondary problem, too, though this one will most likely be fixed via firmware. On my X-H2, I could focus well and accurately if I was shooting at larger apertures. This shot at F2.8, for example, locked on quickly and without any pulsing.

But just a couple of minutes later, I tried to take a shot up the street at F5.6. Focus just went back and forth without locking on a target. I went ahead and pressed the shutter to highlight the issue.

Here’s another example. On the left side you can see that I clicked the shutter and happened to catch the pulse where it was totally defocused. On the right side I had to open the aperture up to F3.2 to achieve proper focus.

I do think that 7Artisans will fix this via firmware, as I’ve seen them do similar things before. But, at the moment of this review, it remains an issue on my X-H2. I watched a few other reviews from those using different Fuji cameras and none of those reviewers reported similar issues. I tested a second copy to make sure it wasn’t just my original lens, and I saw the same issue on both, so it is definitely an X-H2 compatibility issue.

Autofocus is definitely the weak link in this design.

Video AF

I saw some mixed results on the video front. Fuji’s state of autofocus for video definitely has some shortcomings at present, and that is a bad combination with a lens that is also a little weak in the autofocus department.

Video focus pulls were reasonably well damped, though as is often the case I found that touch to focus often wouldn’t work, with either the lens stubbornly refusing to shift focus or a serious lag before it happened. I see this often on Fuji, so I put more of the blame there than on the lens. I did see some visible steps in the focus process, however, and sometimes there would be a final adjustment once focus was 95% of the way there. Focusing breathing isn’t terrible, but I did note that it was more pronounced than the Viltrox.

The 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4 did better with with my “hand test” however, where I alternately block the view to my face with my hand and then remove it. While there might be a bit of that lag for a split second, focus would then transitioned nicely from my hand to my face. Fuji’s AF does better when there is a recognizable subject that the AF can track.

Focus results are decent if you are just shooting a normal video clip and focus is making small, minor adjustments.

7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4 Image Quality Breakdown

The 7Artisans AF 35mmmm F1.4 has a simple optical design of 8 elements in 5 groups. There is one ED (extra low dispersion) element in the design. I wasn’t able to to find a published MTF chart for the lens.

I always add the caveat that the Fujifilm 40MP X-Trans sensor in my X-H2 and other cameras is the most demanding platform that I test on…by far. It is the equivalent of over 90MP on full frame, so if a lens can perform reasonably well there…it is exceptionally sharp. The 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4 doesn’t thrive in every optical situation, but, at its best, it is very usably sharp even at F1.4.

7Artisans glass often has a unique look to it. Somewhat cinematic, without deep contrast levels. For the right subject it really works, though I think it is a “taste” thing (you’ll either like the look or you won’t). The Viltrox delivers a higher contrast, higher detail look wide open while the 7Artisans has a more cinematic rendering.

Zooming in to a pixel level shows the more intense contrast and detail that comes from the Viltrox lens.

Like, I said, it’s a look. Some people don’t want intense contrast and detail, preferring something that’s a little “kinder” on skin.

There are some minor issues with longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) which show up before and after the plane of focus. I didn’t notice them in a lot of situations, but as I’ve found with some other 7Artisans lenses, that result is very situational. There’s a mild amount in the contrast points here:

A lot of the optical vulnerabilities for the 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4 come in bright or high contrast situations. Here, for example, you see that contrast drops and some fringing emerges around the subject because of the brightness of the snow.

Put the lens in a lower contrast situation, like this, and I think the end result is pretty great even at F1.4; I don’t see any fringing even in the vulnerable spots.

In general, I don’t have a lot of concerns over LoCA.

LaCA lateral chromatic aberrations are another story. There is some strong fringing visible in the transitions from black to white at the edges of the frame.

There is moderate amounts of barrel distortion and vignette present.

I corrected the barrel distortion with a +7 (nothing extreme) and about two stops of vignette (+57). That’s actually not bad at all for an F1.4 lens wide open.

So how about resolution and contrast? My tests have been done on a 40MP X-H2. I have used a steady tripod and two second delay to achieve optimal results. Crops will be shown at roughly a 200% level of magnification. Here’s the test chart:

Here are F1.4 crops at roughly 200% from across the frame (center, mid-frame, and lower right corner).

The center results look reasonably sharp but with lower contrast, the mid-frame has similar lower contrast but dropping sharpness towards the further out edge, while the corners look quite soft. My testing criteria (particularly on this Fuji sensor) tends to exaggerate softness more than what you’ll see with real world images. If you want high contrast, you probably want to choose the Viltrox, which is noticeably sharper and higher contrast across the frame even when the 7Artisans is stopped down to F1.8.

The rendering of the 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4 is more like a classic lens. A little “dreamy” wide open (a glow due to lower contrast), which works nicely in certain situations. In lower contrast situations the results are less dreamy. This show in a restaurant, for example, looks great even at F1.4. I don’t need (or want) sharp corners here.

This street scene at F2.2 has a great look to it.

If you tend to favor the “Instagram look” and put those kinds of filters on your images, then this would be a good fit.

Like many classic lenses, if you want more sharpness and contrast, stop down to F2.8 or smaller, as contrast and detail intensify there. There’s a dramatic difference between F2 and F2.8 in the center:

The corners don’t sharp up until F5.6, though they never get quite as sharp as the center.

Peak consistency across the frame is found at F8. Landscape images look good…but again, if you just want sharpness, there are better options.

Diffraction will start to soften the image after that, with a mild amount at F11 but a more obvious amount by F16,though this is one of the rare lenses where the sharpness gains the lens continues to make as you stop it down offset the softening due to diffraction. I would definitely use it at F11, and would consider using it even at F16.

The subject of bokeh, like sharpness, is a little complicated, as there are situations where I really like the rendering from the lens and others where I don’t.

Here, for example, I think the bokeh is lovely. Very soft and creamy, resulting in a beautiful image.

At F1.4, the geometry of specular highlights is only okay, however. There’s some of the normal “cat eye” effect near the edges of the frame, but what I don’t like is the irregular “clipping” that changes the shape a bit near the edges of the frame.

And, where normally specular highlights will become more evenly round when the aperture is stopped down a bit, the 7Artisans 35mm F1.4 does the opposite. The shape of the specular highlights becomes even more irregular.

Now, to be fair, bokeh is a subjective measure that really comes down to your personal tastes, but I’m not personally a fan of irregular shapes in the bokeh.

I also found that the lens really benefits from being smart about the background. It doesn’t handle complexity well. This shot, for example, has a clean background that is rendered beautifully.

This shot has a more complex background, and I find that a lot of edges in the defocused region are too hard and draw the eye in a negative way.

This shot is pretty good, however, rendering the background in a fairly soft fashion.

Bottom line is that you’ll need to learn to use this lens to its strengths. If you do so, it can deliver some beautiful images.

7Artisans can use some improvement to their lens coatings, which is part of the reason for the more the vintage character of the lens. That remains true when it comes to flare. This is a lens you’ll definitely want to use the lens hood on, as it is particularly prone to ghosting when the bright source of light is angled in the corners.

The lens is better with veiling, as contrast holds up reasonably well when a bright light is in the frame.

A bright wide angle prime like this will be useful in low light situations, including shooting the night sky. When testing for coma I found a few things. 1) Bright light points will have some fringing on them (crop 1) and 2) while coma isn’t too bad, the low sharpness in the corners will mean that star points aren’t very crisp (crop 2).

When viewed as a full image, however, it looks fine. I managed to catch a meteor shower that I didn’t even know was happening!

The look of your images will vary a fair bit depending on your shooting conditions. That may have something to do with the low element count and lack of coatings on the lens. I found that it behaved more like a vintage lens, and often I rather liked it. I felt like it had character and wasn’t the typical modern, perfectly corrected lens. If that look appeals to you, then you might enjoy this lens.

So not a flawless performance, but for a very inexpensive lens there’s a lot of positives here. If you’d like to see more image samples, check out the image gallery here.

Conclusion

The idea that we could get an autofocusing F1.4 lens for well under $200 was unthinkable just a few years ago. Those lenses would more typically be in the $400-500 range, and I’m still pretty amazed at how decent these extremely inexpensive lenses are. $169 USD is a great price for this lens, particularly when you consider that Fuji’s own 35mm F1.4 costs more than $400 more, and even their 35mm F2 costs more than twice as much. Now, to be fair, those lenses are better, with better features, build, and image quality, but as noted in this review, someone on a tight budget can buy the 7Artisans 35mm and will be able to create images you simply couldn’t make with a kit lens.

The autofocus isn’t fantastic (and needs a firmware update!), but it mostly got the job done. And while the optical performance isn’t exceptional by modern standards, it does have a good deal of charm that will appeal to those who feel that modern lenses are overcorrected and overly complex.

There’s no bells and whistles here, but this is actually a really good little lens for the money. If you want a lens with a more modern rendering, then choose the Viltrox AF 35mm F1.7 for similar money, but if you are looking for some vintage charm, check out the 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4. If your dream lens is a classic vintage lens but with autofocus, then the 7Artisans 35mm may be just what you’ve been looking for.

Pros:

Extremely compact and lightweight
Comes with a lens hood
Has an F1.4 aperture
USB-C port for firmware updates
Good focus accuracy at large apertures
Useful center sharpness wide open
Good sharpness across most of the frame when stopped down
Fairly good bokeh
Vignette and distortion not bad
Interesting look to images
Is this the least expensive F1.4 lens you can buy?
Great price to performance ratio

Cons:

Flare issues
Focus issues when stopped down
Focus motor is buzzy
Some fringing issues

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the Viltrox AF 35mm F1.7 @ Viltrox (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 8% off) | B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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Purchase the Fuji 16-55mm F2.8 II @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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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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Purchase the Fujifilm X-T5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Find it Used at KEH

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Purchase the Fujifilm X-S20 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany |

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Keywords: 7Artisans, 7Artisans 35mm, AF, 35mm, F1.4, 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4, Full APS-C, 7Artisans 35mm, Fuji X, Fujifilm, X-mount, APS-C, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Fujifilm X-T5, Fujifilm X-H2, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

2024 DA Awards

Dustin Abbott

December 26th, 2024

In the course of any given year, I review a LOT of gear. In 2024 I did 108 total reviews, including 7 cameras and many dozens of lenses at all price points. At this stage of my career, I have reviewed hundreds of lenses and many dozens of cameras. We are, I believe, in a golden age of photography. 2024 saw a slight shift in the overall movement towards using phones for photography with more people considering a “real camera” instead. But what gear stood out from the crowd in my reviews? Find out by watching the 2024 DA Awards below! There’s also a summary of the awards in this article.

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If you just want a summary of what I covered in the video, you can can see the list of contestants in each category below along with the slide of the winner and a photo taken with each winner. Just to clarify: these are my top picks among the lenses I personally reviewed. I review Canon, Sony, and Fujifilm (APS-C and medium format), and Nikon, so there won’t be any M43 or Leica gear here…even though I’m sure there are several deserving products from those brands.

DA Awards 2024 – Top Camera

List of contestants:

Sony a7CR
Canon EOS R8
Canon EOS R50
Fuji X100VI
Fujifilm GFX100S II
Sony ZV-10 II
Nikon Z8

You can see my review of the Nikon Z8 here…and here’s one photo I loved from it.

DA Awards 2024 – Top Zoom Lens

List of contestants:

Sony 16-35mm F2.8 GM II
Canon RF 24-50mm IS STM
Canon RF-S 18-45mm IS STM
Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 II
Sigma 24-45mm F1.8 ART
Tamron 50-300mm VC VXD
Tamron 70-300mm Z Mount
Tamron 35-150mm Z Mount
Tamron 50-400mm Z-Mount
Sigma 18-50 and 10-18mm RF
Sigma 28-105mm F2.8
Tamron 28-300mm VC
Sony 28-70mm F2

For the second year in a row, Sony wins with the top zoom lens. The Sony 28-70mm F2 GM was a winner to both me and my audience. Here’s one favorite photo from it.

DA Awards 2024 – Top Budget APS-C Prime Lens (Under $600)

List of contenders:

Viltrox Pro AF 27mm F1.2 (Sony)
Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7
TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8
7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8
Yongnuo AF 11mm F1.8
Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2
Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2
Yongnuo 50mm F1.8 DA DSM Pro
Yongnuo 33mm F1.4 Pro
Viltrox AF 35mm F1.7
AstrHori 25mm 2-5x Macro

Viltrox takes home a win in this category for the second year in a row. The 35mm F1.7 AIR isn’t as high end as last year’s winner, but it (along with the 56mm F1.7 AIR) are big winners for providing very good optical instruments at budget prices.

DA Awards 2024 – Top Budget Full Frame Prime Lens (Under $600)

Here’s the list of contenders:

7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8
7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8
Nikkor 40mm F2
Viltrox AF 40mm F2.5
Nikkor 50mm F1.4
TTArtisan AF 75mm F2
Viltrox AF 28mm F4.5
TTArtisan 75mm F1.5 Swirl
Pergear 100mm F2.8 2x Macro
Thypoch Simera 28mm F1.4
Thypoch Simera 35mm F1.4
Sirui Aurora 85mm F1.4

The Nikkor Z 50mm F1.4 is a very solid lens at a shockingly affordable price of $499. In my review I concluded that it was “enough” in basically every category for most all photographers. Here’s a photo favorite from it.

DA Awards 2024 – Premium Full Frame Prime Lens

List of contenders:

Laowa AF 10mm F2.8
Sigma 500mm F5.6 Sport
Sigma 15mm F1.4 Fisheye
Sigma 50mm F1.2 ART
Voigtlander Nokton 75mm F1.5
Voigtlander Nokton 50mm F1.9
Sony 85mm F1.4 GM II
Fujinon GF 500mm F5.6
Tamron 90mm F2.8 Macro
Viltrox LAB 135mm F1.8
Laowa 55mm F2.8 T/S

I’ve been very eagerly awaiting Viltrox’s LAB series ever since it was announced, and the LAB 135mm F1.8 did not disappoint. It is feature rich, optically amazing, and sported a whole new autofocus system (Hyper-VCM) that allows it to have quick, accurate autofocus. It’s a treat.

DA Awards 2024 – Which Company Had the Best Year?

Sigma released a ton of interesting lenses this year, from intriguing zooms (24-70mm F2.8 II, 28-45mm F1.8, 28-105mm F2.8) to interesting primes (50mm 1.2, 15mm F1.4, 500mm F5.6), to being the first to move into the Canon RF (APS-C) space with both primes and zooms.

DA Awards 2024 – Which Lens Surprised Me the Most?

There’s nothing surprising about a 50mm F1.4 lens. But what is surprising is that a first party brand like Nikon would release a very good 50mm F1.4 for just $500. My conclusion was that this lens was “enough” for most people, and for Nikon to take the risk of undercutting more expensive options took a lot of bravery.

DA Awards 2024 – Most Disappoint Lens?

The sad thing about the Canon RF 35mm F1.4L VCM is that in many ways it is a very good lens, with great autofocus and amazing sharpness, but it also has a number of qualities that I consider inexecusable in a $1500 lens, like massive distortion and vignette along with some really questionable design choices. I wanted to love this lens, but ended up very disappointed by it…even though you can make some lovely images with it.

DA Awards 2024 – Reader’s Choice Awards

I polled my audience on YouTube over a series of weeks in three categories, and got around 1000 votes in each category. Here are the winners:

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So there you have it! Here’s hoping that 2025 brings up more amazing lenses, cameras, and gear!

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Keywords: DA Awards, 2024, Best, Worst, Reader’s choice, Viltrox, Viltrox AF, LAB, Viltrox LAB, #LAB, #LAB135, Nikon Z8, Sony a7CR, Sony 28-70mm F2 GM, Sigma, Nikkor, 7Artisans, TTArtisan, Yongnuo, Tamron, Laowa, Voigtlander, Sony a7IV, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 Review

Dustin Abbott

July 19th, 2024

7artisans AF 85mm F1.8 Review

2024 has been a new seasons for relatively new lensmaker 7artisans. Until this point, 7artisans had largely produced inexpensive manual focus lenses along with a few cine lenses, which were also manual focus only. But in 2024, 7Artisans has made the jump to autofocus, and this is the third autofocusing lens that I’ve reviewed from them over the past 4 months! They are serious about getting into the game! Thus far the AF lenses from 7artisans seem to fall into two baskets. One is very small, lightweight budget lenses for APS-C like the AF 27mm F2.8 that I reviewed here. The second tier are slightly more upscale lenses that are for full frame, physically larger, have more features, and also have higher (but still inexpensive) price tag. The 7artisans AF 50mm F1.8 lens was the first in that category, and this new lens is a natural extension of that series, adding the essential 85mm focal length to the equation. The new 7artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM is a very strong lens optically, and is fairly reasonably priced at $299 USD. But it also comes into a market full of viable 85mm F1.8 options. Is there a reason to choose the 7artisans 85mm over the others? Find out my thoughts in the video review below or by reading on…

Thanks to 7Artisans for sending me a review sample of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.

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In times past, 7Artisans has supported a wide variety of lens mounts as with manual lenses it is just a matter of changing the mounts so that the lenses will mount on the various cameras, but when you introduce autofocus it means developing the various focus algorithms necessary to make autofocus work correctly each camera platform. 7artisans initially brought out the AF 50mm F1.8 only for Sony E-mount, but they have already expanded that to include Nikon Z-mount as well, so I suspect that we’ll see the same here. I’m doing this review on Sony E-mount as before.

As with the 50mm F1.8, this is a fairly large lens, which will probably limit interested parties, though, as before, 7artisans’ focus seems to be on optical quality rather than compact size. Think of these lenses as being akin to a budget Sigma ART alternative. Now, to be fair, it is considerably smaller an lighter than the Sigma ART 85mm F1.4 DN, and while that lens is an F1.4 lens, I also consider it to be fairly compact for an 85mm F1.4.

The 7artisans 85mm comes to market at an MSRP of $299 USD, which is roughly $70 higher than the 50mm F1.8. When I look at alternative lenses I find that prices vary from $350 (Yongnuo) to $1250 (Zeiss Batis), with options from Viltrox and Sony coming at $399 and $598 respectively. The only cheaper autofocusing 85mm lens that I can point to on Sony E-mount is the Meike AF 85mm F1.8, which I reviewed here, but I can safely say that even though the Meike lens is cheaper at $199 USD, it isn’t anywhere near as nice or functional lens as the 7artisans lens. I feel like I can safely say that the 7artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM represents a pretty strong value.

So is this a lens that you should seriously consider? We’ll explore whether or not that is the case in this review.

Build and Handling

When 7artisans introduced the 50mm F1.8, the most common question was centered around the size of the lens, namely, “why is it so big?” The 85mm is very slightly smaller, though it is actually a bit heavier due to the larger glass elements in this focal length. The 85mm measures 72mm (2.83″) in diameter and 96mm (3.77″) in length, or about 8mm shorter than the 50mm. It weighs 421g (14.85oz). The front filter threads are the same relatively uncommon 62mm size as the 50mm, though I do applaud keeping a consistent filter size between these lenses. It encourages people to buy multiple lenses with the idea that they can share filters across them.

The most obvious competitor is the Viltrox AF 85mm F1.8 STM II, which I reviewed back in 2020. That lens was also very good optically, though it has fewer features and yet still weighs about 60g more. That, combined with the age of the Viltrox, might make the 7artisans lens a more compelling buy in 2024.

The lens barrel is made of metal, and it has a nice, anodized black satin finish. The lens design is very clean and elegant.

The lens hood is improved from what I saw on the 50mm F1.8. I complained that the finish of the plastic hood didn’t quite match the finish of the lens’ barrel (the hood was more matte, while the lens’ barrel was satin). The 85mm’s hood is a better match, and the look of the lens is more cohesive now. I also feel like the precision of the bayoneting and locking is improved. 7artisans is starting to nail the little details, which is a sign of maturation.

The 50mm F1.8 had an AF | MF switch and an aperture ring, and the 7artisans 85mm adds a function button as well.

I also felt like the action of the AF | MF switch was improved. There’s a more definite “click” into the selected mode, and the switch doesn’t feel like it can be inadvertently bumped out of position anymore.

The new function button is well placed and clicks with nice precision. It doesn’t feel rubbery or unresponsive at all.

Also included is a declicked aperture ring, though this is one area where some of the quirks from the 50mm F1.8 unfortunately remain. The aperture iris is fairly noisy as you change aperture settings, so this is something that still needs refining. The aperture ring shows the one third stop markings, which is great, but it shows a full three one-third stops between F1.8 and F2, which is a bit odd since F2 is only one third stop past F1.8. There are also one third stop markings from F16 to A, though F16 is actually the minimum aperture. It’s not a real issue, but there shouldn’t be any markings there.

These feel like easy things to clean up, and I hope 7artisans does before their next release.

The aperture iris itself is lovely, with 11 rounded blades that create a nice, circular aperture.

Fortunately one excellent trait carried over from the 50mm to the 85mm lens. The manual focus ring is nice and wide and is made of metal with fine ribbing. The damping is firm and the focus simulation is excellent (mirrorless lenses are “focus-by-wire”, where input from the focus ring passes through the focus motor). It feels like a real manual focus experience. The damping is firm but feels very precise. The action and feel reminds me a lot of the Sony Zeiss Planar 50mm F1.4, which is a good thing. It takes about 600° of rotation (two full wrist rotations) to get from minimum to infinity focus.

The feel of the lens and focus action is premium; there’s nothing cheap about this action!

7Artisans has adopted the important standard of building in a USB-C port to the lens mount that will allow for future firmware updates. The firmware update process is very similar to that on Viltrox lenses and isn’t complicated at all.

What is missing from that lens mount is any weather sealing gasket. This is not a weather sealed lens.

The minimum focus distance is 80cm, which is the same as Sony’s own 85mm F1.8. I estimate the maximum magnification figure to be roughly 0.13x, which looks like this:

That’s about middle of the pack for 85mm lenses, and better than many. While the magnification level isn’t high, the ability to strongly blur out the background is there due to having a longer focal length and relatively fast maximum aperture.

At first glance, the 7artisans AF 85mm F1.8 feels very similar to the AF 50mm F1.8, but after spending some time with the lens, I can appreciate that the attention to detail has improved here. The feeling of the switch, the better execution of the lens hood, and the inclusion of a function button allow the 7artisans 85mm to compete fairly directly with the Sony FE 85mm F1.8 with the exception of not having weather sealing. This is a pretty impressive package for the money.

Autofocus and Video

The 7artisans AF 85mm F1.8 features the ubiquitous STM motor that you are most likely to find in lenses under $500 that are designed for mirrorless. This motor feels relatively smooth and quiet. I can faintly hear a little scratching and whirring during focus if I listen closely. Focus smoothness and general accuracy is all good.

Focus speed is about average for an STM focus motor, which is to say quick but noticeably slower than a top notch linear focus motor.

A few of the AF problems from the 50mm have been solved, though a significant one persists.

You are able to focus on a moving object and nail precise focus…for one shot.

But if the subject is moving towards you, the autofocus motor simply doesn’t keep up with even slow movement. Focus seems to stick on the original point of focus and doesn’t continuously autofocus. In this burst of Nala, focus is impeccable in the first frame (though she was already in motion), but focus doesn’t seem to change from that first focus point in the burst (I’ve selected a few other from the sequence).

This is clearly not a lens to purchase if you intend to capture action in bursts.

Fortunately a secondary issue has been solved. With the 50mm F1.8, I observed a quirk where a burst of photos with a still subject (a posed human, for example) would experience focus drift as the focus moved away from the subject throughout the burst. That is no longer the case, as I had my wife shoot a burst of photos of me, and even when critically evaluating focus at 100%, it remains accurate throughout the burst.

You see that focus is indeed very accurate on the iris rather than the eyelash, brow, or something else.

I had excellent focus accuracy across a series of shots detailing a friend’s wedding. I had good results both during their civil ceremony and with posed photos afterward, which I shot exclusively with this lens.

So autofocus for stills works just fine so long as you aren’t trying to capture action in bursts. If you don’t want to do that, you probably need to look elsewhere. Focus precision for non action shots was excellent.

On the video front I found mostly good results. Focus pulls were smooth and quick in the initial transition, with no visible steps. I didn’t see any pulsing or settling like I did with the 50mm. Focus breathing is fairly strong, however.

The 7artisans 85mm did well with my “hand test” however, where I alternately block the view to my face with my hand and then remove it. Focus transitioned nicely from my hand to my face with good precision.

In summation, I see some clear areas of improvement in autofocus. Focus is pretty much excellent outside of bursts during action sequences.

7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 Image Quality Breakdown

The 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 has an optical design of 10 elements in 7 groups, and this includes some ED (low dispersion) and HRI (high refractive index) elements. Like the AF 50mm F1.8, this is a very impressive optical instrument for the money.

This is a sharp lens all across the frame even at F1.8, and I was immediately impressed by the real world performance. Here’s a real world shot at F2, and you can see that the detail is strong right across the frame (shot on a 50MP Sony Alpha 1). Note also my shot…which almost rolled in for a hole-in-one!

This is a lens that shows a very nice mix of sharpness and bokeh, and provides images that look much more expensive than the price tag of the lens.

We’ll break down the performance on a more technical level. One area where the 85mm trumps the 50mm is when it comes to longitudinal chromatic aberrations, or LoCA. Fringing on my test chart is extremely low.

But real world results were also nice and neutral, and I never really saw any issues with fringing.

There’s a bit more of lateral chromatic aberrations that are visible in the transitions from black to white at the edges of the frame.

Both distortion and vignette are well controlled on the 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8.

I corrected a tiny amount pincushion distortion (-2 to correct) and just a hair over one stop of vignette (+35). Both of these were mild enough that I didn’t notice them in real world shots. Interestingly, those two figures are EXACTLY the same as I recorded with the 50mm.

That’s a very strong start optically!

So how about resolution and contrast? My tests have been done on a 61MP Sony a7RV. Here’s the test chart:

Here are F1.8 crops at roughly 180% from across the frame (center, mid-frame, and lower right corner).

That’s a great performance at F1.8, and when I looked back over the last six 85mm lenses I’ve reviewed on Sony E-mount, I found that only the Sigma 85mm F1.4 ART (which costs 3.5x as much) was sharper, though the 7artisans is actually better in the corners than the Sigma. The Viltrox lens is close, but the only cheaper option (Meike 85mm F1.8) looks absolutely terrible by comparison. Very impressive!

There is only a minor improvement to contrast at F2, but there is a more obvious improvement from F2 to F2.8.

Landscape apertures (F4-8) look great. There’s plenty of information there to deeply crop on a high resolution camera.

But real world contrast and detail is high enough at F1.8 already that you probably can just use stopping down to control depth of field rather than for a need for more sharpness.

Diffraction will start to soften the image after F8, with a mild amount at F11 but a more obvious amount by F16:

Despite having excellent sharpness, the 7artisans 85mm manages to deliver really gorgeous bokeh as well.

A shot of the early morning dew shows some geometric deformation, but the look of it is pretty pleasing to me.

Look at how softly blurred the background is on this shot of unripe blackberries.

Colors were also good for such an inexpensive lens. Images just look great, period.

I did notice a bit of flashing with the sun right out of the frame.

Shooting into the sun in the evening went fine, however, with nothing destructive.

Nothing too extreme to me, however. I didn’t particularly notice anything obvious about flare issues during ordinary use, so I’m not not too concerned.

In general, I just thought images looked great for this kind of price tag.

This is a very impressive optical performance in general. I don’t think I’ve ever used a 7artisans lens that compares to this lens optically. If you’d like to see more image samples, check out the image gallery here.

Conclusion

7artisans has only been making autofocus lenses for about four months, but I already see a tremendous amount of growth in their products. I felt like the AF 50mm F1.8 STM was a solid lens with real strengths, but it also had a few rough edges. The 7artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM shows definite refinements in areas like build, autofocus, and even the optical performance. This is a LOT of lens for just $299!

Even autofocus is fairly good here, though focus speed isn’t top tier and obvious the ability to capture moving action is limited. Still, for most people the autofocus will provide everything that they need (just don’t buy this lens to take photos of toddlers or young children who are constantly on the move!)

Yes, there are already a number of 85mm options available for Sony E-mount, but I can safely say that none are providing this level of performance at this kind of price. I already own a premium 85mm lens, personally, but, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t mind using this lens myself. It’s that good.

Pros:

Nice looking lens with nice build
Includes aperture ring, function button, and AF/MF switch
USB-C port for firmware updates
Good manual focus ring and experience
High aperture blade count
Autofocus motor is quiet and accurate
Excellent sharpness wide open
Very low vignette and distortion
Good control of fringing
Nice bokeh
Good colors
Excellent price to performance ratio

Cons:

No weather sealing
Aperture makes some lot of noise while opening and closing
Autofocus speed is only average
Doesn’t track action well

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 @ Vitopal (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 10% off) | B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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Purchase the Sony a7IV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

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Keywords: 7Artisans, 7Artisans 85mm, AF, 85mm, F1.8, STM, 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM Gallery

Dustin Abbott

July 19th, 2024

7artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM Gallery

2024 has been a new seasons for relatively new lensmaker 7artisans. Until this point, 7artisans had largely produced inexpensive manual focus lenses along with a few cine lenses, which were also manual focus only. But in 2024, 7Artisans has made the jump to autofocus, and this is the third autofocusing lens that I’ve reviewed from them over the past 4 months! They are serious about getting into the game! Thus far the AF lenses from 7artisans seem to fall into two baskets. One is very small, lightweight budget lenses for APS-C like the AF 27mm F2.8 that I reviewed here. The second tier are slightly more upscale lenses that are for full frame, physically larger, have more features, and also have higher (but still inexpensive) price tag. The 7artisans AF 50mm F1.8 lens was the first in that category, and this new lens is a natural extension of that series, adding the essential 85mm focal length to the equation. The new 7artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM is a very strong lens optically, and is fairly reasonably priced at $299 USD. But it also comes into a market full of viable 85mm F1.8 options. Is there a reason to choose the 7artisans 85mm over the others? Find out my thoughts in the video review below, by reading my text review linked here, or by enjoying the photos below.

Thanks to 7Artisans for sending me a review sample of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.

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In times past, 7Artisans has supported a wide variety of lens mounts as with manual lenses it is just a matter of changing the mounts so that the lenses will mount on the various cameras, but when you introduce autofocus it means developing the various focus algorithms necessary to make autofocus work correctly each camera platform. 7artisans initially brought out the AF 50mm F1.8 only for Sony E-mount, but they have already expanded that to include Nikon Z-mount as well, so I suspect that we’ll see the same here. I’m doing this review on Sony E-mount as before.

As with the 50mm F1.8, this is a fairly large lens, which will probably limit interested parties, though, as before, 7artisans’ focus seems to be on optical quality rather than compact size. Think of these lenses as being akin to a budget Sigma ART alternative. Now, to be fair, it is considerably smaller an lighter than the Sigma ART 85mm F1.4 DN, and while that lens is an F1.4 lens, I also consider it to be fairly compact for an 85mm F1.4.

The 7artisans 85mm comes to market at an MSRP of $299 USD, which is roughly $70 higher than the 50mm F1.8. When I look at alternative lenses I find that prices vary from $350 (Yongnuo) to $1250 (Zeiss Batis), with options from Viltrox and Sony coming at $399 and $598 respectively. The only cheaper autofocusing 85mm lens that I can point to on Sony E-mount is the Meike AF 85mm F1.8, which I reviewed here, but I can safely say that even though the Meike lens is cheaper at $199 USD, it isn’t anywhere near as nice or functional lens as the 7artisans lens. I feel like I can safely say that the 7artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM represents a pretty strong value.

So is this a lens that you should seriously consider? We’ll explore whether or not that is the case in this review.

Images of the 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM

Images taken with the 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 @ Vitopal (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 10% off) | B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

__________________________________________________________________

Purchase the Sony a7IV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Keywords: 7Artisans, 7Artisans 85mm, AF, 85mm, F1.8, STM, 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8 Review

Dustin Abbott

April 25th, 2024

Just a month ago I released my first review of an autofocusing 7Artisans lens (all previous reviews had been of manual focus only lenses). The AF 50mm F1.8 was an interesting lens with a surprising number of premium elements for its relatively inexpensive price. But 7Artisans was immediately back with a new lens; in this case a radically smaller 27mm F2.8 autofocusing lens….this time for APS-C cameras. The new 7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8 is a surprisingly complete and competent little prime lens for a bargain price of just $129 USD. I’ve reviewed it on Sony E-mount, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see other lens mounts follow in the future. Is this a lens you should consider? Find out my thoughts in the video review below or by reading on…

Thanks to 7Artisans for sending me a review sample of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the APS-C mode (26MP) of my Sony a7RV camera.

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Designing for a smaller APS-C sensor has allowed 7Artisans to create a very different kind of lens here; one radically smaller than the 72mm (2.83″) in diameter and 104mm (4.09″) in length of the 50mm F1.8. The new lens is 64mm in diameter (2.51″) and just 48mm (1.89″) in length. It weighs just 172g (6oz), a far cry from the 421g (14.85oz) of 7Artisans last lens.

27mm is an odd focal length for full frame, but on APS-C it is one of my favorite focal lengths. This is roughly 41mm in a full frame equivalent (Sony’s APS-C crop is 1.5x), which makes it a nice compromise between a 35mm and 50mm lens. I love it as a walkaround or everyday focal length, as it captures images similar to the way that the eye sees them.

It’s really astounding how good of lenses we are getting from companies like 7Artisans at such an inexpensive price. One wouldn’t expect much from a lens costing just $129 USD, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by pretty much all aspects of this lens. It’s surprisingly sharp even at F2.8, has solid autofocus, and has a build quality that is really pretty fantastic.

So is this a lens that you should seriously consider? We’ll explore whether or not that is the case in this review.

Build and Handling

As noted, this lens has a nicely compact size. I do my Sony E-mount APS-C tests on the APS-C mode of my Sony a7RV, as its 26MP in APS-C matches Sony’s a6700 for resolution. That means that I’m doing my test on a larger camera, but the AF 27mm is clearly small enough to work nicely even on the smallest of cameras.

7Artisans included several features on the 50mm F1.8, including an aperture ring and AF/MF switch, but they’ve gone for a paired down, simpler lens here. You’ll note that the side of the lens is devoid of any switches or controls.

The lens barrel is made of metal, and it has a nice, anodized black satin finish. The lens design is very clean and elegant.

The one feature here is a USB-C port covered by a small rubber gasket. Be careful when pulling it out, as it is small and wouldn’t be hard to lose.

The USB-C port will allow for quick and easy firmware updates, which is very smart of 7Artisans considering that they are A) new to autofocus and B) a third party lens maker, so they may have to rely on firmware updates to maintain compatibility with cameras in the future. The lens does include a USB-C cable in the box in case you don’t have one.

There is a metal lens mount but no weather sealing gasket, though that is clearly not an expected feature at this price point.

There also isn’t an included lens hood, which is unfortunate, as frankly the lens could use one.

Up front we have common 52mm filter threads.

Take a closer took inside and you’ll see six straight aperture blades.

In theory that should allow for nice sunstars, but I found the sunburst effect rather aggressive with the lens stopped down a bit.

The manual focus ring is main object on the lens barrel. 7Artisans has elected to make it raised rather than flush, which does make it easy to grab. It’s reasonably wide and is made of metal with fine ribbing. The damping is medium first and the focus simulation is quite good (mirrorless lenses are “focus-by-wire”, where input from the focus ring passes through the focus motor).

The feel of the lens and focus action is premium; nothing about that feels cheep.

The minimum focus distance is 30cm. I estimate the maximum magnification figure to be roughly 0.14x, which looks like this:

That’s close enough to be useful but not exceptionally so. Here’s a real world close shot of a pineapple.

I did notice one quirk that manifests in a few ways. In Lightroom the focal length isn’t communicating correctly in the EXIF data, and I think that was a factor in communicating to the camera for setting the focal length for the camera’s stabilization system. I noticed I was getting a little more motion blur than expected in some images, so I tried manually setting the focal length instead of allowing the camera to automatically set it for Sony’s “SteadyShot”. This made a clear and obvious improvement.

So a little tip – manually set the focal length for IBIS (if your camera is so equipped), and you’ll get more stable results.

The 7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8 is a simple lens, in many ways, but a well executed one. It feels much nicer than its bargain price tag would suggest.

Autofocus and Video

I can already tell a welcome improvement to autofocus performance from their first AF lens that I tested. Companies like this tend to learn fast, and it helps that this lens has a narrower maximum aperture and shorter focal length, putting a little less stress on its STM (stepping) focus motor.

Autofocus speed is actually quite good here. Not GM level good, but so fast that you’ll never think about it. The focus motor works smoothly and quietly. If I put my ear right up to the barrel, I hear a light shuffling sound of the focus group moving back and forth, but nothing loud enough to be picked by the camera microphone. The quality of focus felt good, too.

I took a series of photos of Nala rolling around enjoying the spring sun, and focus was nailed (and the lens is surprisingly sharp!)

I didn’t notice any evidence of the focus drift I got with the 50mm F1.8 during bursts. Focus just seems more mature.

On the video front I found mostly good results. Focus pulls were smooth and quick with no visible steps, though there is definitely some mild focus breathing.

The 7Artisans AF 27mm did fine with my “hand test” however, where I alternately block the view to my face with my hand and then remove it. Focus transitioned nicely from my hand to my face.

I also had fairly good results with video clips where I slowly moved the camera to force change from one subject to another at varying depths of field. Focus transitions were fairly well damped, and I feel like this could be an interesting lens on a gimbal if you’re on a budget. It’s light, focuses with some confidence, and seems fairly mannerly for video AF. I shot a number of my YouTube video episodes with it and got very stable focus and a very nice looking picture.

Autofocus is definitely trending in the right direction for 7Artisans.

7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8 Image Quality Breakdown

The 7Artisans AF 27mmmm F2.8 has a simple optical design of 6 elements in 5 groups. The MTF chart shows a very sharp center, some mid-frame regression, and a bit of a rebound in the corners. We’ll see if that pattern holds up in our results.

I would say that in general I was very impressed with the sharpness and contrast of the lens, though it has an interesting signature in some situations I’ll address in a moment.

I didn’t really notice any kind of issue with longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) which show up before and after the plane of focus.

There’s also very little lateral chromatic aberrations visible in the transitions from black to white at the edges of the frame.

There is moderate amounts of barrel distortion and vignette present.

I corrected the barrel distortion with a +9 (nothing extreme) and about two stops of vignette (+61). I will note that vignette dramatically reduces by F4.

It seems like people inevitably are interested in seeing how much of the full frame sensor APS-C lenses cover. In this case, basically nothing more than what the typical APS-C crop covers. There is serious mechanical vignette if I switch to full frame.

If I compare the out of camera APS-C crop to what I cropped from the full frame image, I find that the two crops are basically identical.

Bottom line: don’t buy this lens thinking that you are getting some cheat code to a bargain full frame lens!

So how about resolution and contrast? My tests have been done on a 26MP APS-C mode of my Sony a7RV. Here’s the test chart:

Here are F1.8 crops at roughly 180% from across the frame (center, mid-frame, and lower right corner).

There’s a very strong showing in the center, and I feel like the midframe is a bit better than I expected. There’s fairly good detail entering the corner, though it fades right near the edge. Contrast in the corners is not exceptional.

Real world results composed in the rule of thirds zones look pretty great, with good detail and contrast.

Stopping down to F4 shows little improvement in the already excellent center, but there is a fairly dramatic improvement in contrast in the mid-frame and corners.

By F5.6 detail across the frame is impressively good.

That tells us that there is plenty of sharpness potential at landscape apertures, and that proves the case. Landscape images have nice detail across the frame.

Sharpness peaks around F5.6, with F8 being very close to the same. Diffraction will start to soften the image after that, with a mild amount at F11 but a more obvious amount by F16:

The 50mm F1.8 stood out for its lovely bokeh, but the 27mm isn’t quite as nice in this regard.

It’s not bad, but there is a bit more outlining than what I would like. There’s also a bit of a swirl effect due to the cat eye shape near the edges of the frame. You either like that look…or you don’t.

I did find that the subject isolation was fairly nice, as the good contrast in the center two thirds helps the subject pop.

7Artisans can use some improvement to their lens coatings, as flare is definitely an issue. Certain angles will produce pronounced flare artifacts of varying kinds. It’s not completely destructive, but there’s no question that it is very obvious.

Some of those effects can be used artistically, but it will take a little skill to ensure that they are constructive rather than destructive.

The colors from the lens were interesting. I sometimes got a slightly lower contrast look that was quite cinematic.

In other settings contrast seemed strong.

I suspect you’ll find that the look of your images will vary a fair bit depending on your shooting conditions. That may have something to do with the low element count and lack of coatings on the lens. I found that it behaved more like a vintage lens, and often I rather liked it. I felt like it had character and wasn’t the typical modern, perfectly corrected lens.

So not a flawless performance, but for a very inexpensive lens there’s a lot of positives here. If you’d like to see more image samples, check out the image gallery here.

Conclusion

I actually had a lot of fun with the inexpensive 7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8. I mostly said “yes” to reviewing it because it is an autofocus lens from a company that is still very new to making autofocus lenses, but I found that I often liked the unique look of images I got from the lens, and also appreciated its very small form factor that was very easy to throw in my bag as an extra to bring along.

Though priced at just $129 USD, the AF 27mm F2.8 actually has a nice build quality, pretty decent autofocus, and, as we’ve just seen, surprisingly strong optics.

There’s no bells and whistles here, but this is actually a really good little lens for the money. If you want an inexpensive near “normal” lens for your Sony APS-C camera that is easy to bring along, the 7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8 is well worth your consideration.

Pros:

Nice looking lens with nice build
USB-C port for firmware updates
Good manual focus ring and experience
Autofocus motor is quiet and fast
Good sharpness wide open
Excellent sharpness stopped down
Fairly good bokeh
Interesting look to images
Good colors
Very useful focal length
Great price to performance ratio

Cons:

No lens hood
Flare issues
Focal length doesn’t seem to report properly
Sunstars a little ugly

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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Purchase the Sony a6600 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase the Sony a6400 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

_________________________________________________________________

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Keywords: 7Artisans, 7Artisans 27mm, AF, 27mm, F2.8, STM, 7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8, Full APS-C, Review, Sony a6700, a6000, a6400, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8 STM Gallery

Dustin Abbott

April 25th, 2024

Just a month ago I released my first review of an autofocusing 7Artisans lens (all previous reviews had been of manual focus only lenses). The AF 50mm F1.8 was an interesting lens with a surprising number of premium elements for its relatively inexpensive price. But 7Artisans was immediately back with a new lens; in this case a radically smaller 27mm F2.8 autofocusing lens….this time for APS-C cameras. The new 7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8 is a surprisingly complete and competent little prime lens for a bargain price of just $129 USD. I’ve reviewed it on Sony E-mount, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see other lens mounts follow in the future. Is this a lens you should consider? Find out my thoughts in the video review below or by reading my text review here…or just enjoy the photos below.

https://youtu.be/eOX9gvIqrNM

Thanks to 7Artisans for sending me a review sample of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the APS-C mode (26MP) of my Sony a7RV camera.

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Designing for a smaller APS-C sensor has allowed 7Artisans to create a very different kind of lens here; one radically smaller than the 72mm (2.83″) in diameter and 104mm (4.09″) in length of the 50mm F1.8. The new lens is 64mm in diameter (2.51″) and just 48mm (1.89″) in length. It weighs just 172g (6oz), a far cry from the 421g (14.85oz) of 7Artisans last lens.

27mm is an odd focal length for full frame, but on APS-C it is one of my favorite focal lengths. This is roughly 41mm in a full frame equivalent (Sony’s APS-C crop is 1.5x), which makes it a nice compromise between a 35mm and 50mm lens. I love it as a walkaround or everyday focal length, as it captures images similar to the way that the eye sees them.

It’s really astounding how good of lenses we are getting from companies like 7Artisans at such an inexpensive price. One wouldn’t expect much from a lens costing just $129 USD, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by pretty much all aspects of this lens. It’s surprisingly sharp even at F2.8, has solid autofocus, and has a build quality that is really pretty fantastic.

Photos of the 7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8

Photos Taken with the 7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

___________________________________________________________________

Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

__________________________________________________________________

Purchase the Sony a6600 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase the Sony a6400 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

_________________________________________________________________

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Keywords: 7Artisans, 7Artisans 27mm, AF, 27mm, F2.8, STM, 7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8, Full APS-C, Review, Sony a6700, a6000, a6400, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 Review

Dustin Abbott

March 18th, 2024

Late 2023/early 2024 has thus far proven to be the season where a number of newer lens makers have taken the plunge and transitioned from less complicated fully manual lenses to more complex autofocus designs. I’ve spent time in the past three months with autofocus lenses from no less than four brands who previously made only manual lenses. One of those is the new 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 lens – a serious leap forward for the brand 7Artisans, who have, to this point, mostly made relatively inexpensive manual focus lenses to this point. Taking the plunge into autofocus is always a big deal, as both the risks and rewards elevate. So has 7Artisans pulled it off? Find out my thoughts in the video review below or by reading on…

https://youtu.be/WC21Ec_q_nM

Thanks to 7Artisans for sending me a review sample of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

In times past, 7Artisans has supported a wide variety of lens mounts as with manual lenses it is just a matter of changing the mounts so that the lenses will mount on the various cameras, but when you introduce autofocus it means developing the various focus algorithms necessary to make autofocus work correctly each camera platform. For that reason, the 7Artisans AF 50mm will come initially for Sony E-mount (tested here), though I suspect the lens will be rolled out for other camera brands.

You can probably tell from the image above that this isn’t really a small lens, particularly for a lens with a maximum aperture of F1.8. It is actually a bit longer than the Sony 50mm F1.4 G Master lens and dwarfs the Samyang AF 45mm F1.8 lens.

You might also notice that it looks like a quality lens, with a nice looking design and some features. The 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 is coming to market at $228 USD, $309CAD, $359AUD, £216.00, or €251.00. That makes it slightly more expensive than the Sony FE 50mm F1.8 at the moment (normal price is $250, but it is discounted to $200 at the moment), but this is also a much more serious lens optically (and in build) than the Sony. The more comparable Viltrox AF 50mm F1.8 costs nearly $375 USD, making the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 a relative bargain.

So is this a lens that you should seriously consider? We’ll explore whether or not that is the case in this review.

Build and Handling

7Artisans introduced this lens via an Instagram post, and as I looked through the responses, the most common question was centered around the size of the lens, namely, “why is it so big?” This is a valid question, as the lens measures 72mm (2.83″) in diameter and 104mm (4.09″) in length. It weighs 421g (14.85oz). The front filter threads are in a relatively uncommon 62mm size.

The most obvious competitor is the Viltrox AF 50mm F1.8 STM, which I reviewed in 2022. The Viltrox is 88.2mm long and 70mm in diameter, a good 26mm shorter. At 340g, the Viltrox is 80g lighter. If you are concerned about size, this lens may not be a top pick for you.

The lens barrel is made of metal, and it has a nice, anodized black satin finish. The lens design is very clean and elegant.

The lens hood is plastic, which is fine, though I wish the finish matched the lens better. It has more of a matte finish that doesn’t quite look it belongs to the lens.

I appreciate the fact that 7Artisans has included some important features. The first inclusion is an AF/MF switch, which is always welcome.

The action on the switch isn’t as definite as what I would like (it feels easy to knock loose), but it is a welcome addition nonetheless. A switch like this remains the quickest, most ergonomic way to select between these functions.

The manual focus ring is nice and wide and is made of metal with fine ribbing. The damping is firm and the focus simulation is excellent (mirrorless lenses are “focus-by-wire”, where input from the focus ring passes through the focus motor). It feels like a real manual focus experience. The damping is firm but feels very precise. The action and feel reminds me a lot of the Sony Zeiss Planar 50mm F1.4, which is a good thing. It takes about 600° of rotation (two full wrist rotations) to get from minimum to infinity focus.

The feel of the lens and focus action is premium; nothing about that feels cheep.

Also included is a declicked aperture ring, though on my copy it has a few quirks. The aperture iris is fairly noisy as you change aperture settings, so this is something that will need refining. The first quirk is that the aperture ring shows the one third stop markings, which is great, but it shows a full three one-third stops between F1.8 and F2, which is a bit odd since F2 is only one third stop past F1.8.

There are also one third stop markings from F16 to A, though F16 is actually the minimum aperture. It’s not a real issue, but there shouldn’t be any markings there.

The aperture iris itself is lovely, with 11 rounded blades that create a nice, circular aperture. There is some of the typical lemon shaped geometric deformation near the edges of the frame, but, as you can see in the sequence below, the aperture iris keeps things round when stopping down to F2.8 and then F4:

7Artisans has adopted the important standard of building in a USB-C port to the lens mount that will allow for future firmware updates. As this is their first AF lens, it remains to be seen how committed 7Artisans will be updating firmware for their lenses. They did release a firmware update for the initial prototype lens I looked at to bring it up to release standard. I’ve also looked at a subsequent retail copy of the lens that already had the firmware updated. The firmware update process is very similar to that on Viltrox lenses and isn’t complicated at all.

What is missing from that lens mount is any weather sealing gasket. This is not a weather sealed lens.

The minimum focus distance is 50cm, which bests the Viltrox 50mm F1.8 by 5cm (55cm) but falls behind the Sony FE 50mm F1.8 by 5cm (45cm). I estimate the maximum magnification figure to be roughly 0.12x, which looks like this:

That magnification figure isn’t high, obviously (a little below average for a 50mm lens), but the reasonably large maximum aperture and focal length allow one to produce a fairly shallow depth of field at minimum focus.

As someone who has spent time with hundreds of lenses, I do tend to pick up on the little details of lens design. 7Artisans has been nicely ambitious with this design, producing a lens with a nice feeling build quality (it almost feels upscale at moments) and a number of good features. There is some room to grow, however, as the execution of the ideas isn’t perfect. There are a few details that are a little off, but nothing deal breaking.

Autofocus and Video

At the time of this writing 7Artisans has not confirmed the type of focus motor in the AF 50mm F1.8, but I’m assuming it is the ubiquitous STM motors found in most mirrorless lenses outside of those higher end lenses that get a higher powered linear motor. This motor feels relatively smooth and quiet. I hear no focus noises during normal operation, though I can faintly hear a little scratching and whirring if I put the lens right up to my ear while focusing. Focus smoothness and general accuracy is good, though there is some evidence near the margins of focus that this is a first autofocusing effort.

Basic, undemanding photography works great. The light isn’t great here (I was shooting at ISO 1600 as we were playing a board game at night), but you can see that focus has accuracy locked onto the eye and produced a well focused result of my daughter-in-law’s cute little face.

Autofocus speed in my tests was about average indoors (not instant, but quick), and focus speed picked up outdoors in better lighting. I likewise got well focused results when taking photos of the cats, so long as they were still or moving very slowly.

If they were moving a bit quicker (even walking steadily), however, focus did not stay up with them. You can see from some shots from this burst that focus did not keep up with the movement…at all.

That trend was repeated in about a half dozen attempts. Focus during bursts was consistently backfocused and got steadily worse as the subject moved towards the camera.

But there’s more than just autofocus speed going on here, as I had my wife take many short bursts of photos of me as a still subject. Single shot portraits are always well focused, but a burst will start well focused on shot one, but then immediately progress to backfocus on the second shot, and by the third or fourth shot, the backfocus is extreme. After about seven shots the focus will return to accurate and the process starts over again. In one burst of 13, there were only 3 accurately focused shots.

I suspect there are two separate issues at play here. The first is inexperience with Sony focus algorithms and autofocus in general, so a firmware update might help the autofocus be consistent during a burst of a static subject…and to be more reactive during bursts with a moving subject.

The second issue is more complicated, as I detect the need for more torque/power in the focus motor. Autofocus speed is a okay, but a bit deliberate in some focus scenarios…I can tell that it is a bit underpowered. That obviously isn’t going to help when there is a moving subject. Sony has demonstrated that they will use two and even four focus motors in their better lenses to ensure that there is always sufficient power for fast focus. At the least, the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 could use a single upgraded (higher powered motor) to drive focus quicker. Some improvement can be made via firmware, and I fully anticipate that 7Artisans will get better and better with focus algorithms over time, but some of the need here can only be met by upgraded hardware…not just software.

But not everyone needs blazingly fast autofocus for their work, and this lens is perfectly capable of capturing some action…just not in fast bursts. It seems to perform better for single shot.

The burst performance is a little disappointing, as focus accuracy for normal shots was very good:

I tested in low light and found that while autofocus slowed a bit, the lens continued to accurately autofocus.

On the video front I found mostly good results. Focus pulls were smooth and quick in the initial transition, with no visible steps, though I sometimes saw some minor pulsing and settling on the subjects after the transition.

The 7Artisans AF 50mm did even better with my “hand test” however, where I alternately block the view to my face with my hand and then remove it. Focus transitioned nicely from my hand to my face, and focus breathing is relatively low. I also had fairly good results with video clips where I slowly moved the camera to force change from one subject to another at varying depths of field, though focus transitions were a little more abrupt than I prefer.

I feel like any video AF confidence issues I’m seeing can be fixed through firmware. It seems like a focus algorithm issue and not a hardware problem. 7Artisans just needs a little more familiarity with doing AF, but I think a firmware update or two will make a big difference.

In summation, while I can see areas that suggest this is a first attempt at autofocus, this is a perfectly functional lens for many types of photography. I can remember other first attempts at AF where the focus motor was scratchy, focus was slow, and the whole process felt unsophisticated. That’s not the case here. Just don’t buy this lens (at least right now) to do focus bursts.

7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 Image Quality Breakdown

The 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 has an optical design of 11 elements in 9 groups, and this includes two aspherical elements, 1 ED (low dispersion) element, and 2 HRI (high refractive index) elements. That’s nearly half of the optical design being sophisticated elements, which is impressive for a more budget oriented lens.

The main thing that stands out about the MTF chart is consistency; there is less than a 15% variance between the center and extreme corners.

There were moments when the sharpness and contrast from the lens were impressive.

The crop on the right above shows impressive sharpness and contrast at F1.8. Another shot and crop shows that impressive sharpness, but also a minor issue.

You can see in the high contrast zones where the needles stand out against the bright snow that some fringing is present – longitudinal chromatic aberrations, or LoCA.

It wasn’t as bad on my test chart, though you can see it there.

It’s a little more obvious on this closeup of my a7RV:

There’s also a bit of lateral chromatic aberrations visible in the transitions from black to white at the edges of the frame, though these are pretty mild.

Both distortion and vignette are well controlled on the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8.

I corrected a tiny amount pincushion distortion (-2 to correct) and just a hair over one stop of vignette (+35). Both of these were mild enough that I didn’t notice them in real world shots.

Here’s an F1.8 shot with snow in the lower corners, but you can see vignette is not an issue (there is no corrections here).

That’s a very strong performance for vignette, and is perhaps one area where the large size of the lens is paying off. Overall I would call these early tests encouraging other than having a bit more fringing than what I would like.

So how about resolution and contrast? My tests have been done on a 61MP Sony a7RV. Here’s the test chart:

Here are F1.8 crops at roughly 180% from across the frame (center, mid-frame, and lower right corner).

That’s a very consistently good performance all across the frame. I went back and compared to the optically strong Sigma 50mm F2 DN lens and found that the Sigma was slightly sharper in the center of the frame but the 7Artisans fought it to a standstill in the mid-frame and corners.

There is only a minor improvement to contrast by F2, but there is a more obvious difference by F2.8:

Corners are good at F2.8, but look noticeably better at F4:

That tells us that there is plenty of sharpness potential at landscape apertures, and that proves the case. Landscape images have nice detail across the frame.

If you are shooting with a lower resolution body, this lens will easily out resolve the sensor. If I shot at the 26MP MRAW setting on my a7RV, sharpness is basically perfect even at F1.8:

Sharpness peaks around F5.6, with F8 being very close to the same. Diffraction will start to soften the image after that, with a mild amount at F11 but a more obvious amount by F16:

We’ve seen earlier that the bokeh geometry varies according the aperture, with some obvious lemon shape along the edges at F1.8. You will see that in ordinary images, though not in a pronounced way.

But I do feel like bokeh is a strength for this lens. It’s not as “magical” as some of the premium options out there, but the rendering of the defocused areas is a cut above both the Sony 50mm F1.8 and the Viltrox AF 50mm F1.8, in my opinion.

I had an opportunity to test coma due to a clear night with some bright stars. There’s good and bad here, with fairly well controlled coma in the edges of the images but some obvious fringing around really bright star points.

Flare resistance is another area of some vulnerability of the 7Artisans 50mm F1.8. Certain angles will produce pronounced flare artifacts of varying kinds. It’s not completely destructive, but there’s no question that it is very obvious.

The last image reveals a nicer than usual sunburst effect for a 50mm lens, so one positive there.

So not a flawless performance, but for a relatively inexpensive lens there’s a lot of positives here.

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

Conclusion

It’s very exciting to me to see these new lensmakers taking a risk and tackling autofocus. That takes some guts, as the level of complexity goes way up. Essentially the responsibility for focus goes from the photographer (manual focus) to the lensmaker (autofocus). Expectations completely change because autofocus opens the door to so many different photography subjects and scenarios. So kudos for 7Artisans for taking the risk and releasing the AF 50mm F1.8.

In many ways it is a very ambitious lens, with a number of quality features and a very nice build quality. 7Artisan’s inexperience with a lens like this shows in a few areas where some fine tuning of the process is needed, but there are other places where the lens feels reasonably polished. Autofocus in particular shows some areas that need shoring up through firmware. Autofocus performance and size are the greatest weaknesses here, and I would say that the optical performance and build count as the greatest strengths.

The 7Artisans 50mm F1.8 comes first to Sony E-mount, which has perhaps the deepest catalog of lenses ever due to Sony maintaining an open platform since the earliest days. There are more than a dozen autofocusing 50mm lenses already available on the platform (and more if you broaden the search from 45-55mm), so 7Artisans faces an uphill battle to carve out a space for their newest offering. I do think this is a very strong lens optically, particularly relative to the $230 USD price tag. This lens is much more sophisticated in both build and optical performance than the typical nifty fifty, and if your typical autofocus needs are more modest, I think you will be very pleased with what you get optically from this lens.

Pros:

Nice looking lens with nice build
Includes aperture ring and AF/MF switch
USB-C port for firmware updates
Good manual focus ring and experience
High aperture blade count
Autofocus motor is quiet
Good sharpness wide open
Very low vignette and distortion
Nice bokeh
Good colors
Excellent sharpness when stopped down
Good price to performance ratio

Cons:

No weather sealing
Aperture makes a lot of noise while opening and closing
Autofocus speed is slightly below average
Some autofocus issues
Video AF not always confident
Some fringing
Some flare issues

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

___________________________________________________________________

Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

__________________________________________________________________

Purchase the Sony a7IV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Keywords: 7Artisans, 7Artisans 50mm, AF, 50mm, F1.8, STM, 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 Photo Gallery

Dustin Abbott

March 18th, 2024

Late 2023/early 2024 has thus far proven to be the season where a number of newer lens makers have taken the plunge and transitioned from less complicated fully manual lenses to more complex autofocus designs. I’ve spent time in the past three months with autofocus lenses from no less than four brands who previously made only manual lenses. One of those is the new 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 lens – a serious leap forward for the brand 7Artisans, who have, to this point, mostly made relatively inexpensive manual focus lenses to this point. Taking the plunge into autofocus is always a big deal, as both the risks and rewards elevate. So has 7Artisans pulled it off? Find out my thoughts in the video review below or by reading my text review here.

Thanks to 7Artisans for sending me a review sample of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

In times past, 7Artisans has supported a wide variety of lens mounts as with manual lenses it is just a matter of changing the mounts so that the lenses will mount on the various cameras, but when you introduce autofocus it means developing the various focus algorithms necessary to make autofocus work correctly each camera platform. For that reason, the 7Artisans AF 50mm will come initially for Sony E-mount (tested here), though I suspect the lens will be rolled out for other camera brands.

You can probably tell from the image above that this isn’t really a small lens, particularly for a lens with a maximum aperture of F1.8. It is actually a bit longer than the Sony 50mm F1.4 G Master lens and dwarfs the Samyang AF 45mm F1.8 lens.

You might also notice that it looks like a quality lens, with a nice looking design and some features. The 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 is coming to market at $228 USD, $309CAD, $359AUD, £216.00, or €251.00. That makes it slightly more expensive than the Sony FE 50mm F1.8 at the moment (normal price is $250, but it is discounted to $200 at the moment), but this is also a much more serious lens optically (and in build) than the Sony. The more comparable Viltrox AF 50mm F1.8 (my review here) costs nearly $375 USD, making the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 a relative bargain.

Enjoy the photos of the lens and those taken by the lens to get a feel for whether the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 is the lens for you.

Photos of the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8

Photos Taken with the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8

_________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Purchase the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

___________________________________________________________________

Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

__________________________________________________________________

Purchase the Sony a7IV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Keywords: 7Artisans, 7Artisans 50mm, AF, 50mm, F1.8, STM, 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4 X-Mount Review

Dustin Abbott

April 28th, 2025

Build and Handling

Autofocus for Stills

Video AF

7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4 Image Quality Breakdown

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the Viltrox AF 35mm F1.7 @ Viltrox (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 8% off) | B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Fuji 16-55mm F2.8 II @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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

Purchase the Fujifilm X-T5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Find it Used at KEH

Purchase the Fujifilm X-S20 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany |

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Related Articles at DustinAbbott.net

2024 DA Awards

Dustin Abbott

December 26th, 2024

DA Awards 2024 – Top Camera

DA Awards 2024 – Top Zoom Lens

DA Awards 2024 – Top Budget APS-C Prime Lens (Under $600)

DA Awards 2024 – Top Budget Full Frame Prime Lens (Under $600)

DA Awards 2024 – Premium Full Frame Prime Lens

DA Awards 2024 – Which Company Had the Best Year?

DA Awards 2024 – Most Disappoint Lens?

DA Awards 2024 – Reader’s Choice Awards

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7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 Review

Dustin Abbott

July 19th, 2024

Build and Handling

Autofocus and Video

7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 Image Quality Breakdown

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

_________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Purchase the 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 @ Vitopal (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 10% off) | B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony a7IV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM Gallery

Dustin Abbott

July 19th, 2024

Images of the 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM

Images taken with the 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 @ Vitopal (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 10% off) | B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony a7IV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

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7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8 Review

Dustin Abbott

April 25th, 2024

Build and Handling

Autofocus and Video

7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8 Image Quality Breakdown

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

_________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Purchase the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony a6600 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase the Sony a6400 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

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