Yongnuo’s “Commander” series of lenses has thus far been consistently good. I’ve previously reviewed first an 11mm F1.8, then the first of the trio of faster primes at standard focal lengths. First came the 33mm F1.4, then the 23mm F1.4, and now we will cover the telephoto end of the equation in the new Yongnuo YN 56mm F1.4S DA DSM WL Pro. This series has come with a rich feature set, nice build, good autofocus, and quality optical performances. The YN 56mm delivers a full frame equivalent of 84mm, or roughly an 85mm lens on your Sony E (tested here), Nikon Z, or Fuji X-mount APS-C cameras and their 1.5x crop factor. Is the 56mm a worthy addition to this series and worth the asking price of about $275 USD? You can find out my full thoughts by watching the video review, reading the text review, or just enjoying the photos in the galleries below.
Thanks to Yongnuo 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 a7RVcamera.
The 56mm (85mm) is a popular focal length because it sits as perhaps the most versatile focal length for portraits. It is long enough and fast enough to strongly blur out backgrounds, but not so long that it is difficult to work with in smaller spaces.
The 11mm F1.8 was the first of a new series of lenses from Yongnuo that they call the “Commander Series”, and this 56mm is part of a secondary trio of lenses of 23mm, 33mm, and 56mm F1.4 options that all share very similar design elements.
If you don’t speak Yongnuo, let me break down what those letters mean in the 56mm F1.4S DA DSM WL Pro lens designation. In many ways this follows the Fuji naming convention which puts a list of features right in the name.
S = Sony, or Sony E-mount
DA = APS-C
DSM = Digital Stepping Motor
WL = Wireless control
Pro = upscale build, additional features
The YN 56mm has a lot going for it, including a great focal length, great functionality, and fairly strong image quality.
If you want to know more, check out the reviews, or just enjoy the photos in the galleries below.
Keywords: Yongnuo, YN, 56mm, F1.4, Yongnuo 56mm F1.4, DSM, WL, F1.4, Pro, APS-C, Review, Sony a6700, a6000, a6400, Sony a7RV, 23mm, 33mm, Wireless, 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.
Yongnuo’s “Commander” series of lenses has thus far been consistently good. I’ve previously reviewed first an 11mm F1.8, then the first of the trio of faster primes at standard focal lengths. First came the 33mm F1.4, then the 23mm F1.4, and now we will cover the telephoto end of the equation in the new Yongnuo YN 56mm F1.4S DA DSM WL Pro. This series has come with a rich feature set, nice build, good autofocus, and quality optical performances. The YN 56mm delivers a full frame equivalent of 84mm, or roughly an 85mm lens on your Sony E (tested here), Nikon Z, or Fuji X-mount APS-C cameras and their 1.5x crop factor. Is the 56mm a worthy addition to this series and worth the asking price of about $275 USD? You can find out my full thoughts by watching the video review below…or reading on in the text review.
Thanks to Yongnuo 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 a7RVcamera.
The 56mm (85mm) is a popular focal length because it sits as perhaps the most versatile focal length for portraits. It is long enough and fast enough to strongly blur out backgrounds, but not so long that it is difficult to work with in smaller spaces.
Like many of these inexpensive 56mm lenses, the YN 56mm is sharp but can’t match a full frame 85mm lens when it comes to the quality of bokeh. Fuji’s expensive XF 56mm F1.2 WR (my review here) is the exception to that rule, but it isn’t inexpensive, either. And, while an F1.4 lens has the same light gathering potential whether it be an APS-C or full frame lens, the crop factor of APS-C does make for less shallow depth of field. The two shots below were taken about three hours apart (so somewhat different lighting), but it does illustrate how much more shallow the depth of field is for the full frame 85mm lens on the right though the magnification is actually higher for the YN 56mm lens on the left.
That being said, the Yongnuo is very capable of producing very shallow depth of field shots with highly blurred out backgrounds.
The YN 56mm (as we’ll call it for brevity) is a very feature rich lens, as we’ll see, but one of those innovations requires purchasing an inexpensive (under $25) remote control unit that leverages a 2.4gz wireless module built into the lens. Far from just being a basic remote control unit, this remote control allows you to remotely control focus, do aperture racking, set up A-B focus pulls, and more basic functions like take photos, start video, and do whatever you have the function button programmed to do. It’s a very clever little device particularly for video functions as you can do some of these key movements without touching the lens and introducing vibration.
The 11mm F1.8 was the first of a new series of lenses from Yongnuo that they call the “Commander Series”, and this 56mm is part of a secondary trio of lenses of 23mm, 33mm, and 56mm F1.4 options that all share very similar design elements.
If you don’t speak Yongnuo, let me break down what those letters mean in the 56mm F1.4S DA DSM WL Pro lens designation. In many ways this follows the Fuji naming convention which puts a list of features right in the name.
S = Sony, or Sony E-mount
DA = APS-C
DSM = Digital Stepping Motor
WL = Wireless control
Pro = upscale build, additional features
The YN 56mm has a lot going for it, including a great focal length, great functionality, and fairly strong image quality.
There are also a few weaknesses along with many strengths, and we will break down it all in our review.
Build and Handling
The 56mm focal length has seen a lot of releases over the past few years, including a variety of releases from both first party brands (Fuji) and the many third party brands on the market, like Sigma, Viltrox, Tokina, Sirui, and TTArtisan. The YN 56mm shows well in this class, however, with a very reasonable price and more features than almost all of the competing lenses. This does come at the cost of some weight, however, as the Yongnuo is fairly heavy at 368g (13.1oz) in the group. It has similar external dimensions to the 23mm and 33mm, but weighs just a bit more due to the larger glass elements in this longer focal length. Fuji’s own 56mm F1.2 WR lens is a fair bit heavier (445g), but it also has a faster maximum aperture. The YN 56mm is very similar in size to the recently released YN 23mm F1.4.
That visual similarity does change when you introduce the hoods, however, as the hood for the 56mm is considerably deeper.
Like the 33mm F1.4, the YN 23mm is 69mm in diameter (2.7″) x 87mm (3.4″) in length, which is about 13mm longer than the Fuji 56mm lens but the Fuji lens is considerably wider in diameter at 79.4mm. The front filter threads are a common 58mm size which is shared across the whole trio of new lenses from Yongnuo.
You’ll note the “Wi-Fi” radio signal logo next to the lens designation. Yongnuo continues to be the only company I know of utilizing this, though I have seen Bluetooth in a few Viltrox lenses.
While some competing lenses have an aperture ring, the Yongnuo adds several other features, including the ability to declick the aperture, a custom/function button, and a two mode-custom switch that allows you tweak the behavior of the ring.
As noted, this is a very feature rich little lens. We have a function/focus hold button on the left side of the barrel. That function can be assigned from within the camera.
There’s also a custom switch that allows for a few different functions. In one mode, it serves a an AF | MF switch, with mode I being AF while mode II will switch to MF.
The manual focus ring has a nice feel to it overall, though the weight is on the lighter side. There is no obvious stepping, however, so focus moves fairly smoothly when using the MF ring. You can program the custom switch to this function by turning the camera off, setting the position to II, and then holding the custom button down. Then power the camera back on, and you will feel a click in the lens.
To use the optional remote control, turn the camera off, set the switch position to I, and then hold down the function button while turning on the camera. Now position “I” will mean that wi-fi is turned on for remote communication while position “II” will mean that it is turned off. I would recommend keeping it in the off position when it is not in use. I haven’t noticed a battery drain issue, but you can essentially assure that this won’t be an issue by turning it off.
The YN 56mm also has a robust approach to aperture control. It has an aperture control ring with one third stop detents between F1.4 and F16 along with an automatic position that can be accessed past F16 (there is a firmer detent there to keep from accidental switches between the two). The feel of the clicks is good, with clear delineation of each position but without being rough.
There is also a declick option with a switch on the right side of the barrel. Click that switch and you can smoothly rack through the aperture, which is particularly useful for video work.
The aperture iris itself has 9 rounded blades to help ensure circular specular highlights when stopped down, though, in practice, this doesn’t work that well. Even by F2 you can clearly see the shape of the aperture blades in specular highlights (series has F1.4, F2, and F2.8).
The lens barrel is made of metal, and it has a nice, anodized black satin finish. The lens design is very clean and modern.
A deep petal-shaped lens hood is included. While it isn’t anything particularly special, it is sturdier than some and bayonets into place with a reasonably precise feel.
There is a USB-C port for firmware updates covered by a small rubber gasket. Be careful when pulling it out, as it is small and wouldn’t be hard to lose. It’s also nearly impossible to pry out unless you have a small prying tool, like a very small flat screwdriver.
The USB-C port will allow for quick and easy firmware updates, which is a smart move by Yongnuo considering that they are 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 with a weather sealing gasket attached. Yongnuo also claims a fluorine coating on the front element to resist fingerprints and moisture.
One area where the Fuji 56mm F1.2 and Sigma 56mm F1.4 have a clear advantage is in minimum focus distance. Those lenses can focus as closely as 50cm (producing a 0.14x level of magnification), but the YN 56mm can only focus as closely as 57.9cm. The Viltrox 56mm F1.7 splits the difference at 55cm, though it shares the maximum magnification figure of 0.11x, which looks like this:
In real world use, I would say that the magnification level, while not particularly high, is enough to allow you to really isolate subjects.
The remote control has a small LCD screen and is primarily controlled through the main knob that can be clicked to switch through various functions and rotated to control those functions. There are two buttons for programming A and B focus pulls (just set the focus position, hold down the corresponding button for one second, and either “A” or B” where appropriate will light up. There’s a power switch on the side and also a custom button on the side that corresponds to the custom button on the lens. Clicking it will enable whatever function is programmed to that button on the lens.
Using the remote isn’t always intuitive, but if you’ll spend a few minutes with the included user manual it becomes easy enough to use. Range is up to 30 meters, which definitely gives you some flexibility for controlling off camera.
The fact that the Yongnuo is both the cheapest ($268 USD) and most feature rich lens in the bunch of F1.2 and F1.4 options is pretty impressive, and that has given this whole series a unique advantage relative to other options. I’m not sure if Yongnuo’s market share is growing through these lenses, but it probably deserves to.
Autofocus and Video
Yongnuo has equipped this whole series, including the 56mm F1.4, with what they call a “digital stepping motor” (DSM). I’m not entirely sure how a digital stepping motor varies from a typical stepping motor, so I suspect this is mostly their own marketing language. Focus speed is pretty good, and I’ve gotten good accuracy even in narrow depth of field situations, like in the shot of this pigeon on the beach at F1.4:
You can see the precision of focus in this shot.
There is almost no noise to be heard even if I put my ear next to the lens barrel. There is the slightest buzz from the motor, but so quiet as to be nearly undetectable. Focus speed is good, too, with near instant transitions from one focus point to another either indoors or out. The fact that focus speed matches the other lenses in the series despite being a longer focal length is great for Yongnuo.
I found that real world precision was good, whether shooting human subjects, like this speaker in church.
…or when tracking animal subjects, including birds in flight.
For stills I’ve been impressed with the overall quality of focus with the lenses from this series. The fact that we’re getting such great autofocus from even smaller third party lensmakers like Yongnuo these days is impressive.
I tested focus for portraits at a variety of focus distances, and focus locked on immediately and accurately in all of them.
In my formal tracking test the Eye AF tracking box stayed locked onto the subject as I moved around throughout the frame. I suspect that most photographers should be happy with the focus accuracy and speed of the YN 56mm.
As with most third party lenses, if your goal is tracking fast action, you might want to go with a Sony lens (not that there are many in this focal range), but for most people in most situations, autofocus for stills was pretty great.
Video AF
On the video front I found mostly good results. Focus pulls were smooth with minimal steps, though I did see a tiny final adjustment at times. Focus breathing is more pronounced at this longer focal length than at the shorter ones.
The YN 56mm was mostly okay with my hand test where I alternately block and then remove the camera’s view of my face with my hand. Transitions were smooth, though I did find that I needed to keep my hand in place an extra beat or two before focus would transition to it. Reactiveness was a little slow.
Video footage was generally good, though fringing can be pretty obvious in certain situations. Here’s a freeze frame from one of my clips:
Focus seemed stable in my static shots and didn’t jump around. Overall I would call focus stable but not reactive, which is pretty consistent with what I’ve seen from this series of lenses.
Yongnuo 56mm F1.4 Image Quality Breakdown
The YN 56mm has an optical design of 10 elements in 9 groups. Half of these are exotic elements, including high refractive elements, low dispersion, and ultra low dispersion elements.
The MTF chart shows a fairly consistent result across the frame, with a few minor dips and rises. The F8 graph levels out some of the dips and rises, and it is one of the rare lenses where the corner performance (at least on the sagittal plane) is better than the center performance. This may be a budget lens, but that’s solid sharpness.
The biggest practical negative I saw was some fairly obvious fringing in certain situations. This showed up not only in transitions but also in some high contrast situations, like on this flying gull, cropped from a larger shot.
That fringing was very evident on my chart as well, so just be aware that this is probably the most significant optical issue with the YN 56mm. That green fringing in particular is quite obvious.
Lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA) are much less of an issue, with only very minimal amount of fringing near the edges of the frame.
Often people are interested in the amount of coverage APS-C lenses provide on full frame cameras. This is not some kind of “stealth full frame lens”, as most of the additional full frame image circle is obscured by the “mechanical vignette” of the lens not covering the full frame portion of the lens.
There’s not enough additional coverage available to warrant using it on full frame and cropping. This is an APS-C lens, period. As is almost always the case, you would be better served by buying a full frame lens if you want full frame coverage.
There’s some obvious pincushion distortion, though it does correct in a linear fashion.
I used a -10 to correct the pincushion distortion, which is enough to be noticeable without correction, but vignette is fairly low, requiring just a +32 to correct, or about one stop.
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 F1.4 crops at roughly 200% from across the frame (center, mid-frame, and lower right corner).
That’s good sharpness, though there are a number of existing 56mm lenses that could match that, including the Sigma, Viltrox 56mm F1.7, and the aforementioned Fuji.
Still, there’s a solid amount of detail, though you can see some fringing in the high contrast light.
In lower contrast situations I felt like the detail looked more compelling.
Stopping down to F1.8 makes relatively little change (a bit more contrast), with a little more obvious contrast at F2.
This crop from a portrait shot at F1.8 shows good detail; I suspect most would be happy with that level of detail.
By 2.8 I see a good performance right off into the corners.
You’ll see a bit more improvement as you stop down into the prime landscape apertures like F5.6-F8:
That means that the YN 56mm is a very nice landscape lens, providing good detail and contrast across the frame.
Here’s another shot that shows the solid detail across the frame.
Sharpness peaks around F5.6, with F8 being very close to the same. I’ll show the other corner now, which also demonstrates a good quality of centering in the lens that I tested.
Diffraction will start to soften the image after that, with a mild amount at F11 but a more obvious amount by F16. Diffraction isn’t as obvious at the 26MP level on Sony, but expect this to be more pronounced if you are using a Fuji 40MP sensor.
Thus far the only 56mm that I’ve really been wowed by when it comes to bokeh rendering is the Fuji 56mm F1.2 WR, but in the right scenario I think the bokeh is pretty good from the YN 56mm.
I don’t consider the “right situation” to be one with prominent specular highlights, however, because there is a fair bit of fringing in those highlights.
This image is a good example of two sets of strengths for the lens. first of all, the quality of the blur of this rather complicated background is good.
But secondly, the real world sharpness at F1.4 is great.
Flare resistance is mostly good. I had no flare related issues shooting into this bright rising sun over the Atlantic.
This shot that puts the sun up in the corner is a little more impacted, however.
Overall I think this is a pretty average performance.
Yongnuo’s optical glass is fairly good but not top notch. Colors were mostly good, however, though not quite as special as what you’ll get from higher end lenses.
But it’s important to remember that this is a lens that costs under $270. I would say that the overall rendering is pretty great for the money. When compared to other lenses in this price class I think the optics are competitive and the feature set is clearly much more robust than what competing lenses offer. If you’d like to see more image samples, check out the image gallery here.
Conclusion
The Yongnuo 56mm F1.4S DA DSM WL Pro is a pretty attractive option if you’re looking for a 85mm equivalent lens on your APS-C camera. It is a feature rich, focuses well, has weather sealing, and delivers a pretty strong optical performance, too. The price is more similar to an F1.8 lens than an F1.4 lens, which doesn’t hurt, either.
It is priced as a mid-tier lens, but it probably outperforms that. The Sigma 56mm F1.4 DN stands as perhaps a superior lens optically, though far less feature rich, while the Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 AIR is the budget competitor that has fewer features but every bit as good of optics…and costs nearly $100 less.
But if you want a lens that has the features and the performance, it’s hard to criticize the Yongnuo YN 56mm F1.4 DA DSM WL Pro. It does a lot of things well, and, outside of more fringing than what I would like, doesn’t really have any crippling optical flaws. If you are looking for this particular focal length, the Yongnuo YN 56mm F1.4 well worth consideration.
Pros:
Nice looking lens with nice build
USB-C port for firmware updates
Good manual focus ring and experience
Very feature rich
Weather sealed
Declickable aperture
Wireless remote control
Custom button
Autofocus motor is quiet and fast
Good sharpness wide open
Excellent sharpness stopped down
Fairly good bokeh
Great price to performance ratio
Cons:
Some fringing issues
Gasket for USB-C is hard to remove and easy to lose
Keywords: Yongnuo, YN, 56mm, F1.4, Yongnuo 56mm F1.4, DSM, WL, F1.4, Pro, APS-C, Review, Sony a6700, a6000, a6400, Sony a7RV, 23mm, 33mm, Wireless, 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.
Viltrox’s series of small, lightweight, and yet surprisingly high performing lenses is called the “Air” Series. We’ve seen 20mm F2.8 and 40mm F2.5 full frame lenses, the excellent 35mm F1.7 and 56mm F1.7 APS-C lens, and now we have a wider compliment to the two other APS-C lenses in the form of the Viltrox AIR 25mm F1.7 that I’m reviewing today. Viltrox has done enough in this series already that I’m really excited for each new release, and while I have liked the two full frame lenses, it is the now three APS-C lenses that have really shined. Their optical performance is much, much stronger than what their price tags suggest. It’s not very typical that a brand’s cheaper lineup of lenses (these F1.7 AIR lenses) exceeds the performance of their more expensive F1.4 lenses (23mm, 33mm, and 56mm F1.4 lenses), but that is absolutely the case here. The F1.4 lenses I’ve mentioned were reasonably good lenses, but they came during the era before Viltrox really gained confidence as a lensmaker (and, I believe, switched suppliers for their optical glass). I expected the new AIR 25mm to be a decent lens, and it hasn’t disappointed. It’s another very strong lens that can be had for a budget price of just $179 USD (or less, if you use the coupon code!). Is it worth checking out? Find out my thoughts by watching the video review, reading the text review, or just enjoying the photos below.
Thanks to Viltrox for sending me a review loaner 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 a7RVcamera.
Much like Samyang’s “Tiny series”, this lens is for those who don’t care about bells and whistles and just want a lightweight, high performing lens. This won’t be the series for those looking for aperture rings, buttons, or rings, but if you want a light, tough, high performing lens at a great price, prepare to be delighted with the new AIR 25mm.
It’s a sweet little lens, and you can get more details by visiting my reviews linked above.
Keywords: Viltrox, Viltrox AIR 25mm F1.7, AIR, Viltrox AF, Viltrox 56mm, Viltrox 25mm F1.7, 25mm F1.7 AIR, 35mm, 56mm, F1.7, STM, AF, Fuji X-H2, APS-C, Sony a6700, ZV-E10 II, a6400, a7RV, Review, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Portrait, #viltrox, #letthelightin, #viltroxAF1756, #DA, #viltrox35air, #carrylesscapturemore, #viltrox25air, #viltroxAF1725
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.
Viltrox’s series of small, lightweight, and yet surprisingly high performing lenses is called the “Air” Series. We’ve seen 20mm F2.8 and 40mm F2.5 full frame lenses, the excellent 35mm F1.7 and 56mm F1.7 APS-C lens, and now we have a wider compliment to the two other APS-C lenses in the form of the Viltrox AIR 25mm F1.7 that I’m reviewing today. Viltrox has done enough in this series already that I’m really excited for each new release, and while I have liked the two full frame lenses, it is the now three APS-C lenses that have really shined. Their optical performance is much, much stronger than what their price tags suggest. It’s not very typical that a brand’s cheaper lineup of lenses (these F1.7 AIR lenses) exceeds the performance of their more expensive F1.4 lenses (23mm, 33mm, and 56mm F1.4 lenses), but that is absolutely the case here. The F1.4 lenses I’ve mentioned were reasonably good lenses, but they came during the era before Viltrox really gained confidence as a lensmaker (and, I believe, switched suppliers for their optical glass). I expected the new AIR 25mm to be a decent lens, and it hasn’t disappointed. It’s another very strong lens that can be had for a budget price of just $179 USD (or less, if you use the coupon code!). Is it worth checking out? Find out my thoughts by watching the video review below or reading on in the text review.
Thanks to Viltrox for sending me a review loaner 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 a7RVcamera.
Like the 35mm focal length, 25mm is a slightly oddball focal length on APS-C, landing at a 37.5mm full frame equivalent after you account for the 1.5x crop factor of Sony E (tested here), Fuji X, or Nikon Z APS-C cameras. It’s a little tighter than the standard 23mm focal length (34.5mm full frame), but not a tight as 27mm, which approximates the 40mm full frame focal length that is steadily growing in confidence. I’m wondering if Viltrox found the market somewhat confused by their having two 56mm lenses (the 56mm F1.7 was the first in this APS-C AIR series), and so they’ve chosen to release the 25mm and 35mm lenses with slightly different focal lengths from their previous 23mm and 33mm F1.4 lenses, which continue to be sold. The most obvious autofocusing 25mm alternative is the Zeiss Batis 25mm F2, a premium lens that has a slower maximum aperture but a huge price tag (MSRP is $1349). But that lens is a full frame (not APS-C lens, making it not really a direct competitor, either. Most other autofocusing 25mm lenses tend to be for Micro 4/3rds, which makes sense, as the 2x crop on that system makes those standard 50mm equivalent lenses.
To clear a bit of the confusion relative to the older F1.4 lenses: the AIR series of lenses have smaller maximum apertures (F1.7 rather than F1.4), have a slightly downgraded build (no aperture ring, plastic housing rather than metal), but are actually better lenses in terms of autofocus and optical performance. Viltrox has improved their optical glass, the smoothness and effectiveness of their autofocus motors, and has generally become much more competent in their optical designs. The AIR lenses are also smaller, lighter, and cheaper, which has led to them being quite popular.
Much like Samyang’s “Tiny series”, this lens is for those who don’t care about bells and whistles and just want a lightweight, high performing lens. This won’t be the series for those looking for aperture rings, buttons, or rings, but if you want a light, tough, high performing lens at a great price, prepare to be delighted with the new AIR 25mm.
Sound interesting? I suspect so, so let’s dive in a little deeper into the details.
Viltrox AIR 25mm F1.7 Build and Handling
The first thing to note is the slightly unusual maximum aperture value. Similar lenses are going to be F1.8, not F1.7, but I like this move as it sets the lens apart and gives it a small but real advantage over F1.8 lenses. F1.8 is 2/3rds of a stop slower than F1.4, while F1.7 is 1/2 half stop slower. That also means that this lens has a full half stop advantage over a lens like the Fuji 23mm F2. That’s a reasonably useful improvement, giving some additional light gathering and that slightly larger maximum aperture will also mean slightly larger and softer specular highlights, which helps close the gap a bit with F1.4 lenses. It’s worth noting that the Fuji lens also costs $450, which makes for a hard sell when you can get this one for $175.
As noted, the Viltrox AF 25mm F1.7 eschews the heavier metal casing typically used for the earlier Viltrox lenses and embraces a more conventional, lightweight design in polycarbonates (engineered plastics). I wouldn’t call the build high grade here, but what I can say is that nothing about the plastics feel flimsy. It doesn’t have the feel of the early Samyang Tiny series lenses but instead feels tough and durable; its the kind of lens that feels like it could survive some falls (not that I intentionally dropped it!)
The new AF 25mm F1.7 is extremely compact, only 64mm in diameter (2.6″) and 54.4mm in length (2.15″), making it pretty much identical in size to the 35mm and 56mm F1.7 lenses. It weighs only 170g (6oz), which is 1g less than the 56mm and identical to the 35mm. The 25mm and 35mm F1.7 look more like twins because of having the same lens hood design, but if you take that away, all three of these APS-C lenses look extremely similar.
That makes for a very compact profile on your camera. I don’t actually own a Sony APS-C camera (I use the excellent 26MP mode of my a7RV), but the Air 25mm is definitely light enough to be a great match even for a compact ZV-E10 II model.
Up front we have a 52mm filter thread, which is a small but relatively common filter size. The front of the lens fascia has a variety of information imprinted on it and has a classic profile. I’m a fan of having some lens information on the front fascia, as I feel it adds character to the lens.
There is an included lens hood that is essentially identical to the one included with the 35mm F1.7. It’s a little larger than the one included with the 56mm F1.7. It has high quality, thick plastics and feels like higher quality than the one with the 56mm. It also bayonets into place more precisely and stays locked into place better.
A lens pouch is also included. The pouch doesn’t add a lot of protection value, but, like the hood, at least it is included. There are many more expensive lenses that include neither a pouch or a hood.
This inexpensive series is set apart from most of Viltrox’s lenses in that there is no aperture ring in the design. There are no switches, either. The only feature on the lens barrel is a wide manual focus ring. The manual focus ring has a nice amount of damping and moves smoothly. All manual focus aids (including automatic magnification of the focus area) will work with the Viltrox, and I appreciate the fact that manual focus speed is improved to where you can make larger focus changes with one twist of the wrist, particularly if you move faster (this is a non-linear focus ring). The manual focus experience on Sony is good, though I suspect it will be a little rougher on Fuji.
The Viltrox AF 25mm has 9 blades in its aperture iris. The blades do a very reasonable job of maintaining a circular shape as the aperture is stopped down. When stopped down far enough, an 18 bladed sunstar will emerge.
We have an important Viltrox standard in the form of a USB-C port on the metal lens mount that allows you to connect the lens to a computer and update the firmware directly. The firmware update process is very simple; just unzip the upgrade folder, drag the firmware update file to the folder that shows up when the lens is attached to the computer, and the update is done in seconds.
We’ve got a mild regression from the 35mm AIR when it comes to magnification. Whereas the AIR 25mm can focus a bit closer (30cm) than the 35mm (33cm), the much shorter focal length results in lower level of magnification at that focus distance. Maximum magnification is only 0.11x, which is definitely on the low side for a 35mm(ish) lens. Here’s what that looks like:
The previous Viltrox 23mm F1.4 could also focus as closely 30cm, but because of the shorter focal length it delivered a lower 0.10x magnification. You certainly won’t be able to do any “macro” work with the AIR 25mm, but you can certainly get close enough to blur out of a background.
Viltrox’ more expensive lens series have weathersealing, but the budget AIR series does not. The AIR 25mm does have a HD Nano multilayer coating with water-resistant and antifouling coating on the front element.
Though the AIR series is short on bells and whistles, the Viltrox AF 25mm F1.7, like other lenses in the series, feels sturdy and well made. It is lightweight, will balance easily on a wide variety of camera bodies and sizes, and doesn’t really feel “cheap” in any way.
Viltrox AF 25mm F1.7 STM Autofocus for Stills
The Viltrox AF 25mm F1.7 STM, like other AIR lenses, utilizes a lead-screw type stepping focus motor (STM) that makes for fast and quiet focus changes. Focus felt silent unless I put my ear up next to the barrel, and even then I could hear very little focus noise. Focus speed is well above average for a budget lens. In my focus tests I found that focus changes were fast and accurate, and even while doing the tests I felt a sense of surprise at how snappy focus felt.
I’ve got the benefit of reviewing the AIR 25mm on Sony, while I reviewed the AIR 35mm on Fuji, and there’s no question that autofocus is more sophisticated on the Sony side of things. That makes the AIR 25mm feel like the better focusing lens, though I suspect that if I had both lenses side by side on the same platform, I would find focus very similar. During the sequence of focus going back and forth during my tests, I snapped this shot on the fly, and it is perfectly focused.
General purpose shooting produced a lot of well focused results.
I tracked Nala walking towards me, and while I don’t think autofocus is GM-level in that situation, focus did keep up sufficient that images look properly focused.
For just getting street style shots where you need to pull focus quickly of people in motion, I saw zero issues. I took this shot (at F1.7) as a snap split second photo, and got a well focused end result.
I would categorize autofocus for stills as being rather excellent (at least on Sony). I have no hesitation in endorsing the behavior of this lens.
Focus for Video
Video AF was mostly very good. My focus pulls were smooth and without visible steps. Focus moved in a nicely linear fashion (no negative evidence of a stepping motor). What I didn’t like was an occasional micropulse on my foreground subject where focus did a little rack beyond proper focus and then settled back. Focusing breathing wasn’t non-existent, but it is quite low.
My hand test went pretty well, with successful transitions from my hand to my eye and back. The low focus breathing helped to keep the shot looking relatively cinematic. It’s worth noting that the footage also looked very sharp and with good subject delineation.
Real world shots that should be fairly static were just that. They locked on a subject and didn’t bounce around and pulse. I did shoot a shot of Nala, however, where I moved in towards her, and for whatever reason you can see some focus micro pulses taking place. The screenshot above shows that focus was actually good, and focus definitely didn’t need to make microadjustments all the time.
Overall I would say that focus is solid for both stills and video.
Viltrox AF 25mm F1.7 Image Quality
The Viltrox AF 25mm F1.7 has an optical design of 12 elements in ten groups, which is slightly more complex than the 35mm. Five of these are exotic elements, including one ED (extra-low dispersion) element, 2 HR (high refractive index) elements, and two aspherical element as a part of the design. The MTF looks excellent – sharper than the 35mm and slightly softer than the 56mm. There are very few lenses in this focus length range at any price that are giving this good of an optical performance (or better).
What’s interesting is that all of these APS-C AIR lenses are really producing image quality that is just about as good wide open as it is stopped down, with the F1.7 and the F8 MTF charts largely mirroring each other. This is actually a surprisingly sharp lens. It’s not hard to produce beautiful, highly detailed images with this lens, like this very cool (cold!) image of the Canadian Parliament library.
I shot at F2.8 to minimize any imperfections or smudges as I was shooting through glass and didn’t want the glass to be in focus. If I take a deep crop from that image, I can see good detail.
Before we jump into an evaluation of the optical performance, let’s take a quick look at the full frame coverage of the lens. I can’t do that when I’m testing the AIR lenses on Fuji, but since we are on Sony E-Mount for this one, it is an easy test. Here’s a full frame image:
So, it doesn’t cover the entire full frame image circle. You can see some “hard vignette” in the corners where light is completely blocked from the sensor. But what we can also see is that the AIR 25mm is covering the majority of the full frame image circle. In fact, if I do a bit of cropping, I come up with this:
You can see that the resulting full frame crop is still much wider than the APS-C image circle. The APS-C crop from the image is 26MP (6240 x 4160), but I can still get a usable 45MP (8288 x 5525) out of the full frame image. And frankly, there are some scenes where I can even get away with the hard vignette on the full frame image, like this:
A mild crop gives me this image:
That’s 48MP, which is great, and, what’s more, I think the AIR 25mm is actually doing a pretty good job of resolving that whole crop. Here’s a deep crop of the lower right corner of that image.
You could argue that the final 5% doesn’t look amazing, but I would say that it looks good enough. It does well enough in this situation that I could see taking this lens on a trip when I need to travel light and treating it basically like a 28mm full frame lens (after the crop) along with its more typical APS-C function.
Cool!
We’ll work through the chart results by first looking at distortion and vignette. The 25mm F1.7 does well in the distortion department but slips a bit with vignette.
I used a +4 to correct a small amount of barrel distortion. That’s not bad at all for a wide(ish) prime. Vignette required a +65 to correct (under 3 stops), though it is fairly linear and largely “works” for portraits, creating a natural vignette that draws the eye to the subject. I rarely found the need to correct the vignette in real world images, even though I was reviewing a prerelease copy before the time that any correction profile existed. This shot, for example, was shot at F1.7 and I saw no need for vignette correction.
Likewise this image from the National Art Gallery has received zero distortion correction, and yet the lines all look pretty good in a real world image.
Viltrox seems to have discovered the formula for largely eliminating fringing in their lenses. The 35mm F1.7 shows very low amounts of longitudinal chromatic aberrations. Fringing is well corrected, leaving very little fringing in my tests.
Real world results also look clean. You can see that contrast is good and there is only a minimum fringing in highly reflective surfaces and edges.
Lateral Chromatic Aberrations usually show up along the edges of the frame as fringing on either side of high contrast areas (like bare branches framed at the edge of images). There are minimal amounts of fringing on either side of the black/white transitions.
I also didn’t spot any issues in real world results, with branches in images looking clean of fringing.
So how about resolution and contrast? All chart tests done with the APS-C mode of my a7RV (26MP) using a tripod and a two second timer. Here’s a look at my test chart:
And here are the crops (at roughly 200% magnification) from the center, mid-frame, and extreme corner at F1.7:
We see here what the MTF chart suggested. There’s a very consistent performance across the frame, with the corners really not all that far behind the center performance. What’s more, while the recent TTArtisan AF 23mm F1.8 showed a really inconsistent centering result (at least in my copy), I actually found the centering in the Viltrox excellent, with all four corners performing at a similar level.
That leads to some impressively sharp wide open results, with a lot of detail and contrast even at F1.7.
This lens has no problem with Sony’s 26MP resolution, and I would say that it is strong enough to handle Fuji’s 40MP APS-C sensor as well, as I’ve found both the 35mm and 56mm AIR lenses to be solid on that platform.
Stopping down F2 does give a bit of contrast boost. It’s not huge, but I could see it all across the frame. I wanted to share the corners, as this is probably where I’m most impressed. I rarely see corners this good on such an inexpensive lens.
Stopping down to F2.8 shows another incremental improvement, though as the MTF suggests, a lot of the lens performance is available right from F1.7.
Landscape apertures look great, with great contrast and delineation of fine details. It was extremely cold during my primary review period, so I was out in a lot of weather at -20 or colder. You can almost watch the ice form on the river in real time at that temperature. This image shows great detail in the middle of the frame but also in all of the fine details in the bare trees in the upper left corner.
Diffraction isn’t quite as militant on a 26MP sensor as it is on the Fuji 40MP sensor, but you will still definitely see a softening effect at F11, and particularly at F16, though image quality never gets terrible.
This is a lens that repeatedly made me smile when I looked at images at 100% magnification. It’s actually pretty hard to believe that these sub-$200 lenses are so good.
I’ve been noting the improvement to Viltrox colors over the past two years since they switched suppliers for their optical glass. Once again I’m very happy with the color rendition from the lens, which feels neutral in color balance, nicely saturated, and with good contrast levels in the colors.
Even the deep Arctic cold days where it is cold, very bright, and colors can be a bit garish with lesser optical glass didn’t prove to be an issue here. I thought the colors in this shot looked exactly as they should considering the scene.
The challenge for lenses with good natural contrast (particularly those that aren’t huge to give the engineers space to try to do everything well) is that the bokeh quality suffers. A 25mm F1.7 APS-C lens isn’t going to crush backgrounds, but I actually found the bokeh pretty decent here. Specular highlights looked pretty good, with some lemon shape towards the edges but overall looking pretty decent.
If you want consistently round specular highlights, just stop down a bit. F2.5 makes for pretty good circular shapes across the frame.
This image shows a reasonably soft background without any jitteryness.
This shot looks good, too, with a typical room background looking fairly soft (and Nala looking very cute!)
I shot this chess set particularly for bokeh, and I would conclude that there is bit more outlining than I like, but frankly for a budget lens that also happens to be very sharp, that’s actually pretty great.
Changing the focus point gives you a bit of a look at foreground bokeh.
That looks okay, but what is actually very impressive is the microcontrast. I’m very impressed with how detailed the crop looks here.
Very crisp edges, low fringing, and a subject that really stands out even under high magnification. Impressive!
Flare resistance seemed better to me than what I saw with the 35mm. One of the earliest images I shared in the review showed a bit of a soft glow due to window lighting coming into the shot of Nala sleeping on a chair, but with direct sun coming through a window in the first shot of this series I saw no issues. I also saw very little ghosting or veiling in other very bright, direct sun images.
That’s 100% better than what I saw from the recent TTArtisan AF 23mm F1.8.
I also found that coma was fairly well controlled. The low fringing helps star points to look clean (no purple fringing), and there isn’t much comatic distortion near the edges of the frame.
Bottom line is that there really isn’t any particular areas of weakness for the Viltrox AIR 25mm, which is pretty insane in a $175 lens. If you want to see more images, visit the image gallery here.
Conclusion
I’m loving the Viltrox AIR series. These are lenses that are so easy to just grab and bring along because they are so compact and light, and yet the kind of image quality I’m getting doesn’t feel like I’m skimping on quality. The Viltrox AIR 23mm F1.7 gave me lots of images that I really enjoyed.
The AIR 25mm F1.7 has been a blast to use, with a great (though unique) focal length, great autofocus, and really great looking images.
The fact that all of these AIR lenses can be had for well under $200 each is an even bigger bonus, and so far I’ve been very impressed with the 25mm, 35mm, and 56mm lenses alike. This is a great walkaround lens, perfect for capturing the varied moments that life brings. It would be discrete enough for street, sharp enough for landscapes, and is just generally a lot of fun to use. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy this lens for my Sony, Fuji, or Nikon APS-C camera…particularly if you are using one of the small, light bodies and want lenses to match.
Pros:
Lightweight, compact design
Lens feels tough and well made
Well executed, smooth manual focus ring
Lens hood is improved
USB-C port for firmware updates
Good focus accuracy
Pretty good video focus
Outstanding sharpness from F1.7 on
Nice bokeh
Fairly low distortion
Good color rendering
Good flare resistance
Good coma performance
Fantastic price to performance ratio
Cons:
No weather sealing or features
Is 25mm a focal length APS-C shooters are looking for?
Keywords: Viltrox, Viltrox AIR 25mm F1.7, AIR, Viltrox AF, Viltrox 56mm, Viltrox 25mm F1.7, 35mm, 56mm, F1.7, STM, AF, Fuji X-H2, APS-C, Sony a6700, ZV-E10 II, a6400, a7RV, Review, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Portrait, #viltrox, #letthelightin, #viltroxAF1756, #DA, #viltrox35air, #carrylesscapturemore, #viltrox25air, #viltroxAF1725
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.
It was just a little over a month ago that I spent time reviewing the Yongnuo 33mm F1.4 DA DSM WL Pro lens, which I knew was the first to release from a series of three lenses in YN’s “Commander” series. I was quite impressed with the 33mm for a number of reasons, including the rich feature set, nice build, good autofocus, and quality optical performance. That covered the 50mm “normal” range, but I knew that a 23mm F1.4 wide angle and 56mm F1.4 telephoto were also coming. I didn’t know which would be first, but it turns out that it will be the 23mm, which is the subject of today’s review. The YN 23mm F1.4S DA DSM WL Pro covers the popular 35mm full frame focal length for your Sony E (tested here), Nikon Z, or Fuji X-mount APS-C cameras and their 1.5x crop factor. Does the Yongnuo 23mm F1.4 live up to the standard of the 33mm? Is it worth the asking price of about $275 USD? You can find out my full thoughts by watching the video review, reading the text review, or just enjoying the photos in the galleries.
Thanks to Yongnuo 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 a7RVcamera.
The 11mm F1.8 was the first of a new series of lenses from Yongnuo that they call the “Commander Series”, and this 23mm is part of a secondary trio of lenses being released close together, including the 23mm, 33mm, and 56mm F1.4 options.
If you don’t speak Yongnuo, let me break down what those letters mean in the Yongnuo 23mm F1.4S DA DSM WL Pro lens designation. In many ways this follows the Fuji naming convention which puts a list of features right in the name.
S = Sony, or Sony E-mount
DA = APS-C
DSM = Digital Stepping Motor
WL = Wireless control
Pro = upscale build, additional features
The Yongnuo 23mm has a lot going for it, including a great focal length, great functionality, and fairly strong image quality. You can get my detailed thoughts on the lens by checking out my video and text reviews.
Keywords: Yongnuo, YN, 23mm, F1.4, Yongnuo 23mm F1.4, DSM, WL, F1.4, Pro, APS-C, Review, Sony a6700, a6000, a6400, Sony a7RV, Wireless, 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.
It was just a little over a month ago that I spent time reviewing the Yongnuo 33mm F1.4 DA DSM WL Pro lens, which I knew was the first to release from a series of three lenses in YN’s “Commander” series. I was quite impressed with the 33mm for a number of reasons, including the rich feature set, nice build, good autofocus, and quality optical performance. That covered the 50mm “normal” range, but I knew that a 23mm F1.4 wide angle and 56mm F1.4 telephoto were also coming. I didn’t know which would be first, but it turns out that it will be the 23mm, which is the subject of today’s review. The YN 23mm F1.4S DA DSM WL Pro covers the popular 35mm full frame focal length for your Sony E (tested here), Nikon Z, or Fuji X-mount APS-C cameras and their 1.5x crop factor. Does the YN 23mm F1.4 live up to the standard of the 33mm? Is it worth the asking price of about $275 USD? You can find out my full thoughts by watching the video review below…or reading on in the text review.
Thanks to Yongnuo 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 a7RVcamera.
As noted, this is a fast “wide” lens. I love the 35mm focal length as a general purpose walkaround lens, as it is good for a lot of subjects, including people:
…but also things like landscapes:
And, when equipped with a fast maximum aperture like this lens, you can even use it for stylish shallow depth of field shots.
The YN 23mm (as we’ll call it for brevity) is a very feature rich lens, as we’ll see, but one of those innovations requires purchasing an inexpensive (under $25) remote control unit that leverages a 2.4gz wireless module built into the lens. Far from just being a basic remote control unit, this remote control allows you to remotely control focus, do aperture racking, set up A-B focus pulls, and more basic functions like take photos, start video, and do whatever you have the function button programmed to do. It’s a very clever little device particularly for video functions as you can do some of these key movements without touching the lens and introducing vibration.
The 11mm F1.8 was the first of a new series of lenses from Yongnuo that they call the “Commander Series”, and this 23mm is part of a secondary trio of lenses being released close together, including the 23mm, 33mm, and 56mm F1.4 options.
If you don’t speak Yongnuo, let me break down what those letters mean in the 23mm F1.4S DA DSM WL Pro lens designation. In many ways this follows the Fuji naming convention which puts a list of features right in the name.
S = Sony, or Sony E-mount
DA = APS-C
DSM = Digital Stepping Motor
WL = Wireless control
Pro = upscale build, additional features
The YN 23mm has a lot going for it, including a great focal length, great functionality, and fairly strong image quality.
There are also a few weaknesses along with many strengths, and we will break down it all in our review.
Build and Handling
The 23mm focal length has been a fairly popular one over the past few years, with a variety of releases from both first party brands and the many third party brands on the market, like Sigma, Viltrox, Tokina, and Meike. The YN 23mm shows well in this class, however, with the lowest price and more features. This does come at the cost of some weight, however, as the Yongnuo is fairly heavy at 368g (13oz) in the group. It has similar external dimensions to the 33mm, but does weigh about 2g less. Fuji’s own 23mm F1.4 WR lens is actually a hair heavier at 375g, however.
Like the 33mm F1.4, the YN 23mm is 69mm in diameter (2.7″) x 87mm (3.4″) in length, which is about 9mm longer than the Fuji 23mm lens. The front filter threads are a common 58mm size which is shared across the whole trio of new lenses from Yongnuo.
You’ll note the “Wi-Fi” radio signal logo next to the lens designation. Yongnuo continues to be the only company I know of utilizing this, though I have seen Bluetooth in a few Viltrox lenses.
While some competing lenses have an aperture ring, the Yongnuo adds several other features, including the ability declick the aperture, a custom/function button, and a two mode-custom switch that allows you tweak the behavior of the ring.
As noted, this is a very feature rich little lens. We have a function/focus hold button on the left side of the barrel. That function can be assigned from within the camera.
There’s also a custom switch that allows for a few different functions. In one mode, it serves a an AF | MF switch, with mode I being AF while mode II will switch to MF.
The manual focus ring has a nice feel to it overall, though the weight is on the lighter side. There is no obvious stepping, however, so focus moves fairly smoothly as I use the MF ring. You can program the custom switch to this function by turning the camera off, setting the position to II, and then holding the custom button down. Then power the camera back on, and you will feel a click in the lens.
To use the optional remote control, turn the camera off, set the switch position to I, and then hold down the function button while turning on the camera. Now position “I” will mean that wi-fi is turned on for remote communication while position “II” will mean that it is turned off. I would recommend keeping it in the off position when it is not in use. I haven’t noticed a battery drain issue, but you can essentially assure that this won’t be an issue by turning it off.
The YN 23mm also has a robust approach to aperture control. It has an aperture control ring with one third stop detents between F1.4 and F16 along with an automatic position that can be accessed past F16 (there is a firmer detent there to keep from accidental switches between the two). The feel of the clicks is good, with clear delineation of each position but without being rough.
There is also a declick option with a switch on the right side of the barrel. Click that switch and you can smoothly rack through the aperture, which is particularly useful for video work.
The aperture iris itself has 9 rounded blades to help ensure circular specular highlights when stopped down.
The lens barrel is made of metal, and it has a nice, anodized black satin finish. The lens design is very clean and modern.
A petal-shaped lens hood is included. While it isn’t anything particularly special, it is sturdier than some and bayonets into place with a reasonably precise feel.
There is a USB-C port for firmware updates covered by a small rubber gasket. Be careful when pulling it out, as it is small and wouldn’t be hard to lose. It’s also nearly impossible to pry out unless you have a small prying tool, like a very small flat screwdriver.
The USB-C port will allow for quick and easy firmware updates, which is a smart move by Yongnuo considering that they are 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 with a weather sealing gasket attached. Yongnuo also claims a fluorine coating on the front element to resist fingerprints and moisture.
One area where the Fuji 23mm F1.4 has a clear advantage is in minimum focus distance. It can focus as closely as 19cm, but the YN 23mm can only focus as closely as 30cm. The Sigma 23mm F1.4 splits the difference at 25cm. The closest focus of the YN 23mm will give maximum magnification figure of right over 0.10x, which is not very good.
The remote control has a small LCD screen and is primarily controlled through the main knob that can be clicked to switch through various functions and rotated to control those functions. There are two buttons for programming A and B focus pulls (just set the focus position, hold down the corresponding button for one second, and either “A” or B” where appropriate will light up. There’s a power switch on the side and also a custom button on the side that corresponds to the custom button on the lens. Clicking it will enable whatever function is programmed to that button on the lens.
Using the remote isn’t always intuitive, but if you’ll spend a few minutes with the included user manual it becomes easy enough to use. Range is up to 30 meters, which definitely gives you some flexibility for controlling off camera.
The fact that the Yongnuo is both the cheapest ($268 USD) and most feature rich lens in the bunch is pretty impressive, though it is also the biggest and heaviest. This is all relative, however, as the lens isn’t abnormally large or anything.
Autofocus and Video
Yongnuo has equipped the 23mm F1.4 with what they call a “digital stepping motor” (DSM). I’m not entirely sure how a digital stepping motor varies from a typical stepping motor, so I suspect this is mostly their own marketing language. Focus speed is pretty good, and I’ve gotten good accuracy even in narrow depth of field situations.
There is almost no noise to be heard even if I put my ear next to the lens barrel. There is the slightest buzz from the motor, but so quiet as to be nearly undetectable. Focus speed is good, too, with near instant transitions from one focus point to another either indoors or out. This is one of the speedier STM motors that I’ve tested, which is great for a third party lens from a smaller brand.
I found that real world precision was good, whether shooting human subjects:
…or “animal” subjects:
For stills I’ve been impressed with the overall quality of focus with the lenses from this series. The fact that we’re getting such great autofocus from even smaller third party lensmakers like Yongnuo these days is impressive.
I used the YN 23mm casually for a wedding and other related celebrations, and it performed perfectly in the APS-C mode of the Sony a7RV that I was carrying for the trip to Arizona.
Even at F1.4 the lens produced sharp, well focused results with focus in the right spot.
As with most third party lenses, if your goal is tracking fast action, you might want to go with a Sony lens (not that there are many in this focal range), but for most people in most situations, autofocus for stills was pretty great.
Video AF
On the video front I found mostly good results. Focus pulls were smooth with minimal steps. Focus breathing is fairly low (helped by the shorter focal length).
The YN 23mm did very well with my “hand test” as well, 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 low enough that the transition isn’t jarring at all.
Video footage was generally good, marred only by a bit of fringing. Here’s a freeze frame from one of my clips:
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 overall autofocus feels pretty capable. This is a solid autofocus experience all around.
Yongnuo 23mm F1.4 Image Quality Breakdown
The YN 23mm has an optical design of 11 elements in 9 groups. The majority of these (7!) are exotic elements, including high refractive elements and ultra low dispersion elements. A lot of fancy glass for an inexpensive lens!
The MTF chart shows a very consistent performance with a nearly flat performance across the frame. The F8 graph levels out some of the dips and rises, and it is one of the rare lenses where the corner performance (at least on the sagittal plane) is better than the center performance. This may be a budget lens, but that’s not budget sharpness.
The biggest practical negative I saw was some fringing in certain situations, but overall I was pretty impressed with the general optical performance. Wide open sharpness was particularly impressive for a lens with this price tag and a maximum aperture of F1.4. In this shot you can see some of the fringing that is present around the needles of the desert cholla.
You can see in a more pronounced way on this torture test here:
That fringing was evident on my chart as well, so just be aware that this is probably the most significant optical issue with the YN 23mm.
Lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA) are much less of an issue, with only very minimal amount of fringing near the edges of the frame.
Often people are interested in the amount of coverage APS-C lenses provide on full frame cameras. This is not some kind of “stealth full frame lens”, as most of the additional full frame image circle is obscured by the “mechanical vignette” of the lens not covering the full frame portion of the lens.
Here’s the difference in framing, which is negligible enough to not be worth considering.
This is an APS-C lens, period. As is almost always the case, you would be better served by buying a full frame lens if you want full frame coverage.
There’s a bit more barrel distortion than I expected in a normal lens along with some vignette.
I used a +12 to correct the barrel distortion, though it’s not completely linear so my manual correction is somewhat imperfect. The vignette is fairly low, requiring just a +32 to correct, or about one stop.
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 F1.4 crops at roughly 200% from across the frame (center, mid-frame, and lower right corner).
I was curious to see how this performance compared with the recent YN 33mm that I reviewed, and I found that the 23mm was slightly better in terms of resolution and contrast across the frame. The lenses didn’t meter identically (the 33mm metered slightly overexposed and the 23mm slightly underexposed), but the results here do align with what I saw in real world performance.
I was generally satisfied with the amount of sharpness and contrast I could achieve at F1.4. This is a perfectly usable lens wide open.
Stopping down to F1.8 improves contrast a bit, but a more noticeable improvement comes at F2, where contrast is definitely darker and details pop more.
This shot of Ferrari at F2 shows great detail and contrast even with a deep crop.
By 2.8 I see a good performance right off into the corners.
You’ll see a bit more improvement as you stop down into the prime landscape apertures like F5.6-F8:
That means that the YN 23mm is a very nice landscape lens, providing good detail and contrast 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. Diffraction isn’t as obvious at the 26MP level on Sony, but expect this to be more pronounced if you are using a Fuji 40MP sensor.
Often the tradeoff for a bit of uncorrected fringing is softer bokeh. I wouldn’t consider the bokeh quality to be absolutely top shelf, but it is pretty nice overall.
Here’s a few more shots both with and without specular highlights for your examination.
There’s nothing top tier there, but nothing objectionable, either.
Flare resistance is mostly good. There’s no veiling in this shot right into the bright Arizona sun and only minimal ghosting artifacts.
I can see a bit of a light leak in the lower left corner of this image, but I don’t think it is damaging the image.
Sunstars are very defined when the lens is stopped down. I find them a little too dominating for my tastes, but your mileage may vary.
Yongnuo’s optical glass is fairly good but not top notch. Colors were mostly good, however, though not quite as special as what you’ll get from higher end lenses.
But it’s important to remember that this is a lens that costs under $270. I would say that the overall rendering is pretty great for the money. When compared to other lenses in this price class I think the optics are competitive and the feature set is clearly much more robust than what competing lenses offer. If you’d like to see more image samples, check out the image gallery here.
Conclusion
The Yongnuo 23mm F1.4S DA DSM WL Pro is a pretty attractive option if you’re looking for a 35mm equivalent lens on your APS-C camera. It is a feature rich, focuses well, has weather sealing, and delivers a pretty strong optical performance, too. The price is more similar to an F1.8 lens than an F1.4 lens, which doesn’t hurt, either.
It’s a better lens than those priced near it, and more feature rich than just about all the lenses priced higher. It doesn’t reach the optical achievement of a lens like the Viltrox Pro AF 27mm F1.2, but that’s a different class of lens anyway.
I continue to be impressed by just how good “cheap” lenses are these days. In 2016 I reviewed a Samyang 21mm F1.4 fully manual lens that had zero features, and that lens cost $450 at the time. Flash forward eight years and all the inflation that we’ve seen, and you’re still getting a lens with autofocus, weather sealing, a declickable aperture, a custom button, the ability to wirelessly control the lens…and paying nearly $200 less. That’s really pretty astounding when you stop and think about it. I actually had fun shooting with the YN 23mm, which is pretty amazing considering how many lenses I’ve reviewed over the years. If you are looking for this particular focal length, the Yongnuo YN 23mm F1.4 well worth consideration.
Pros:
Nice looking lens with nice build
USB-C port for firmware updates
Good manual focus ring and experience
Very feature rich
Weather sealed
Declickable aperture
Wireless remote control
Custom button
Autofocus motor is quiet and fast
Good sharpness wide open
Excellent sharpness stopped down
Fairly good bokeh
Great price to performance ratio
Cons:
Some fringing issues
Gasket for USB-C is hard to remove and easy to lose
Keywords: Yongnuo, YN, 23mm, F1.4, Yongnuo 23mm F1.4, DSM, WL, F1.4, Pro, APS-C, Review, Sony a6700, a6000, a6400, Sony a7RV, Wireless, 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.
TTArtisan is definitely starting to get some serious attention over their series of low priced yet relatively high performing prime lenses. Last year’s AF 56mm F1.8 has proven to be a popular budget portrait lens (only $129 USD!), and I gave it a positive review. They had released an AF 35mm F1.8 just a few months before that, but they decided that they could do better, and less than a year later, they released the AF 35mm F1.8 II last month, a lens that was reduced in size and but improved in performance. I was pretty impressed by their drive to improve, and it was reflected in my review. Between those two lenses, we have the standard prime (50mm) covered, the short portrait telephoto (85mm) covered, but what about the wide angle 35mm prime that typically completes the trilogy of primes? Consider that now covered in the form of the new TTArtisan AF 23mm F1.8. Priced at around $125 USD, this is yet another budget lens that is surprisingly good. Dive into my video review or read my text review to find out more…or just enjoy the photos below.
Thanks to TTArtisan for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own. I’m doing this review on a 40MP Fujifilm X-H2 camera.You can find the visit the TTArtisan listing page for the lens to get more information.
You may have been a bit confused about my reference to 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm lenses, but because this series is made for for APS-C cameras, the focal length of each lens must be magnified by the crop factor of the cameras that they are made for. I’m reviewing the TTA 23mm on Fuji X-mount, but it will also eventually be available on Sony E-mount and Nikon Z-mount. The crop factor of all those systems is 1.5x, which means that a 23mm lens becomes 34.5mm, a 35mm becomes 52.5mm, and a 56mm becomes an 84mm full frame equivalent. The math isn’t perfect, but essentially you have a 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm full frame equivalent series of lenses…just high compacted!
As you can see, the 23mm isn’t quite as compact as the MK II version of the 35mm F1.8, but it is still a nicely compact lens that was a nice fit even on the X-M5, which I just reviewed and is one of Fuji’s most compact cameras.
I think that the TTA 23mm will probably be a hit, as while it isn’t a perfect lens, it delivers really stellar image quality, focuses just fine, and proved to be a great walkaround/street kind of lens.
You probably aren’t going to find a better autofocusing 23mm lens for less, but does that mean that this is the lens for you? Find out in my reviews!
Keywords: TTArtisan AF 23mm F1.8, TTArtisan, TTArtisan 35mm, TTArtisan AF, Autofocus, TTArtisan 23mm F1.8, 23mm, F1.8, STM, Review, Fuji X, Sony E, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a6700, Sony a6600, 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.
TTArtisan is definitely starting to get some serious attention over their series of low priced yet relatively high performing prime lenses. Last year’s AF 56mm F1.8 has proven to be a popular budget portrait lens (only $129 USD!), and I gave it a positive review. They had released an AF 35mm F1.8 just a few months before that, but they decided that they could do better, and less than a year later, they released the AF 35mm F1.8 II last month, a lens that was reduced in size and but improved in performance. I was pretty impressed by their drive to improve, and it was reflected in my review. Between those two lenses, we have the standard prime (50mm) covered, the short portrait telephoto (85mm) covered, but what about the wide angle 35mm prime that typically completes the trilogy of primes? Consider that now covered in the form of the new TTArtisan AF 23mm F1.8. Priced at around $125 USD, this is yet another budget lens that is surprisingly good. Dive into my video review or read on in my text review to find out more.
Thanks to TTArtisan for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own. I’m doing this review on a 40MP Fujifilm X-H2 camera.You can find the visit the TTArtisan listing page for the lens to get more information.
You may have been a bit confused about my reference to 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm lenses, but because this series is made for for APS-C cameras, the focal length of each lens must be magnified by the crop factor of the cameras that they are made for. I’m reviewing the TTA 23mm on Fuji X-mount, but it will also eventually be available on Sony E-mount and Nikon Z-mount. The crop factor of all those systems is 1.5x, which means that a 23mm lens becomes 34.5mm, a 35mm becomes 52.5mm, and a 56mm becomes an 84mm full frame equivalent. The math isn’t perfect, but essentially you have a 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm full frame equivalent series of lenses…just high compacted!
As you can see, the 23mm isn’t quite as compact as the MK II version of the 35mm F1.8, but it is still a nicely compact lens that was a nice fit even on the X-M5, which I just reviewed and is one of Fuji’s most compact cameras.
I think that the TTA 23mm will probably be a hit, as while it isn’t a perfect lens, it delivers really stellar image quality, focuses just fine, and proved to be a great walkaround/street kind of lens.
You probably aren’t going to find a better autofocusing 23mm lens for less, but does that mean that this is the lens for you? Read on to find out.
Build and Handling
The little TTArtisan AF 23mm F1.8 makes a very positive first impression. I’ve been really consistently impressed by how nicely built and cosmetically attractive these budget lenses from TTArtisan have been. The TTA 23mm has an anodized black finish and everything is made of metal and glass.
It is a simple design, with no switches on the lens barrel nor an aperture ring (Fuji shooters will probably miss this!). Fortunately you can function just fine without either of these, and AF | MF switches on Fuji lenses are rare, anyway, though that’s not true on other platforms like Sony or Nikon. But the simple metal body comes off as looking clean and classic.
At the rear of the lens we have a metal lens mount complete with the appropriate electronic contacts; aperture will be controlled from the camera. Aperture control seems to work well; it is quick and responsive and the aperture iris blades are not noisy, with just a light click as the blades open and close.
There are nine aperture blades, but you can see below, they aren’t particularly rounded and don’t deliver a fully circular shape even by an aperture like F3.2:
Up front we have a fairly stylish looking front façade complete with 52mm filter threads (which are blessedly shared across all three lenses in this series, which is great for filter sharing!)
The included lens cap has a new font for the TTARTISAN logo imprinted on it, and I think it looks smart and modern.
TTArtisans first few lenses in the series featured somewhat odd lens hoods. While the lens hood was made of metal, it had an odd design that terminated in something looks like an anamorphic adapter (a rectangular opening) which prohibited either the use of filters or mounting the lens cap…plus it meant that you absolutely couldn’t reverse the lens hood for storage. TTArtisan changed that for the MK II version of the AF 35mm F1.8, and I’m happy to report that they’ve continued that trend here. We have a conventional hood that can be easily reversed for storage and doesn’t interfere with filters.
The manual focus ring is another positive, however. It is ribbed in metal and moves with a nice amount of resistance. The active focus area will automatically magnify when you start to focus, and this helps visually confirm accurate focus. The focus ring is not linear, so the amount of “throw” will vary based on the speed. As per usual on Fuji, manual focus at slow speeds does not feel linear, feeling instead like you move in little steps of focus rather than a smooth progression.
TTArtisan has continued with their design where the rear lens cap has a USB-C port along with electronic contacts inside that will allow you to transfer firmware updates to the lens through a computer. It’s an interesting alternative to having a USB-C port built right into the lens, though I do prefer the built-in option in case you lose the rear lens cap at some point.
TTArtisan has still not mastered the ability to design their lenses with great close focus ability. The minimum focus distance is 30cm, and, while they haven’t listed the maximum magnification, I estimate it as being around 0.14x.
That’s not great for a 35mm lens, but it is enough magnification to at least let you play with isolating a subject a bit.
So while this is a rather simple design, it is nicely executed. Other than the lack of features (no aperture ring, switches, or weather sealing), you would easily think of this as being a much more expensive lens. I suspect that those who are purchasing a lens from this series for the first time will be very pleasantly surprised by how premium their cheap lens feels.
Autofocus for Stills
As before, TTArtisan has chosen to equip this lens with a lead-screw type STM focus motor.
Fuji remains the least favorite of the four brands of cameras that I own and test, though the recent firmware updates on my X-H2 to V5 and beyond seem to have made some small improvement. Autofocus performance here is on the slow side of average, with decent speed in most situations. If you are intentionally going from a close to a distant subject (as I do in my tests), then autofocus speed feels a little more deliberate.
There isn’t a lot of noise in focus, though you will hear faint whines and clicks if you put your ear near it. I don’t hear any focus motor noise under normal shooting, however, even with my eye at the viewfinder. What you will hear is a little “clack” from the aperture blades opening and closing if you partially hold down the shutter.
Autofocus accuracy was good, whether I was using it to capture family moments:
…or capturing fancy holiday treats…
Eye detect worked well (as is pretty expected at this point). I had no problem with people or pets in getting accurately focused results.
No, autofocus isn’t in the upper tier of performance, but in real world use, I had zero problems getting the shots I wanted in all the settings I used the camera. No problems in a dim restaurant, for example.
I wouldn’t use this lens to try to capture fast action, but outside of that, no problem.
Video Autofocus
Fuji’s video AF on their cameras remains somewhat primitive, so take these results with a slight grain of salt and expect them to be better on Sony or Nikon. Focus pulls feature some obvious steps, with the majority of the pull occurring, then a slight pause, and then the final adjustment. In a couple of my pulls I saw a third microadjustment as the focus algorithms debated their final choice. Deliberate focus pulls remain an area of weakness for lenses in general on Fuji, but I can also see a difference here from some native Fuji lenses that I recently reviewed, so at least part of that is due to the AF in the TTA 23mm.
Focus seemed smoother in some clips where I moved in a more natural fashion towards a subject.
My hand test (where I alternately block and then unblock the camera’s view of my face with my hand) proved somewhat better. I saw a fairly decent focus transition from one subject to another, though there is some obvious focus breathing so that perspective does change somewhat.
Focus seemed to be stable when I had a static subject that wasn’t changing. There wasn’t any obvious focus noise during any of these tests. This isn’t the most sophisticated focus system out there, but it does a fairly decent job so long as you don’t try to force too many focus pulls.
Image Quality Breakdown
The TTArtisan AD 23mm F1.8 has an optical formula with 11 elements in 9 groups, including one High Index element and two Extra Low Dispersion elements. The MTF chart shows a fairly flat optical performance, with a good (not great) center performance, a slightly stronger mid-frame performance, and then so drop in the corners.
The MTF chart suggests only a minor improvement when the lens is stopped down. In fact, the corners show a slightly odd result, where in the corners there is actually a bigger separation between the sagittal and meridional axis. Bottom line is you shouldn’t expect amazing corners (ever, really), but the lens is should prove very competent everywhere else.
There is literally no platform that I test on this is more challenging than Fuji’s 40MP APS-C sensor, as it has (by far) the greatest pixel density. A full frame sensor would have to be more than 90MP to achieve a similar pixel density, which is 50% higher than the current maximum full frame resolution of 61MP. While the budget TTArtisan 23mm F1.8 is not anywhere near the top resolving lenses on the platform, it is also far from embarrassing itself and delivers a fairly strong optical performance from F1.8 on.
This shot holds up at a pixel level, too, with very nice detail in the bodice and fabric textures.
Let’s take a closer look at both strengths and weaknesses here.
If we look at vignette and distortion, we see both a great success and a great weakness.
There is the tiniest amount of pincushion distortion, requiring just a -2 to correct, but vignette required me to max out the sliders to get the result on the right. You will DEFINITELY need to correct vignette in your images.
Early TTArtisan AF lenses really struggled with a fringing, but that’s been an area where TTArtisan has really focused on improvement.
This real world shot of moisture on a window with light pouring through it shows a nice, neutral result.
There are only minimal amounts of LaCA (lateral chromatic aberrations), with little fringing on either side of black and white transitions.
I never really saw any kind of real world issue with LaCA.
So how about sharpness and contrast? Here’s a look at the test chart:
And here are the crops from across the frame at F1.8 at a 200% magnification.
You may notice that I have sampled the upper left corner rather than the usual lower right crop that I normally take. The reason for this is that my copy clearly has a centering issue, and the lower right corner is incredibly soft. If I take the same image and compare the lower left and the lower right, you can see that the lower right is much softer.
I didn’t notice the centering issue as much when shooting at landscape distances. If I sample both the upper left and the bottom right corners from a real world F5.6 image, I’m not really impressed with either of them, but one doesn’t look radically different from the other.
Shots taken on the lower resolution X-M5 work pretty well, though I would say that I actually probably preferred X-H2 images for the most part.
Real world contrast looks pretty decent, and in this shot from our New Year’s party, you can see that the detail really looks quite good. Not what I would call pin-sharp, but I suspect that this is plenty of resolution for most people.
It’s good that wide open sharpness is fairly good, however, as the lens doesn’t really sharpen up a lot as you stop it down (as the MTF chart suggested). That’s not to say there isn’t improvement, however. You can see see that the contrast and detail definitely looks different between F1.8 and F5.6 here:
As the MTF chart suggested, I find that the mid-frame results actually look the best. The F4 result looks better than what I see in the middle of the frame.
Stopping down to F5.6 and F8 shows mostly good results across the frame, but there is definitely ebbs and flows for sharpness depending on where you look. Here, for the example, the upper edge looks good.
After that, however, diffraction will become a factor, and the image quality will be slightly softer at F11 and then moreso at F16.
Sharpness isn’t top tier (lenses like the Sigma 23mm F1.4 or the Fuji 23mm F1.4 WR are clearly sharper), but, to be fair, this is a lens that costs $127, whereas those lenses are anywhere from $600-900. I took plenty of images that I liked with this lens.
The bokeh quality is pretty good. Perhaps the biggest weakness (for some), will be some serious flattening of specular highlights near the edge, giving it a bit of a swirl look in some situations.
In other situations, however, the bokeh looks fairly soft:
Even where the setting is a bit less favorable (more in the transition zone), I felt like the bokeh was pretty good.
An image like this is a little more jittery due to a lot being in the transition zone, but I don’t dislike the image. The bit of swirl effect works for me.
TTArtisan has had their struggles with flare resistance, and there’s definitely some remaining issues here. Perhaps the worst effect I saw was on a very cold night where a street light was right out of frame, but I still got a strong corona of flare artifacts.
In many ways I think the lens is more susceptible at large rather than small apertures. This wide open (F1.8) shot has definitely got some flashing and loss of contrast going on.
The same shot when stopped down looks radically different.
This window shot of Nala is pretty washed out due to veiling.
Then again, there are some who love optical flaws like these, feeling they add character. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! In general, however, I felt like I got plenty of images that I liked, which is pretty impressive from such an inexpensive lens.
If you’d like to see more images, check out the image gallery linked here.
Conclusion
It’s pretty remarkable that a company like TTArtisan has progressed to making autofocus lenses that are fully usable and functional and yet still cost so little. A person could get this 23mm, the 35mm II, and 56mm F1.8 lenses from TTArtisan for around $380. That’s amazingly good value, and it feels like ten years ago that would have been the going price for one lens like this…not three.
When I dive deeply into the technical performance of the TTArtisan AF 23mm F1.8, I could find a number of things to criticize. But the truth of the matter is that in normal use, and particularly when shooting at larger aperture values, I didn’t find the lens fun to use, and got plenty of images that I liked just fine.
And that’s the real story here. Those on a tight budget can rejoice that once again TTArtisan has delivered another perfectly usable lens that can be had for under $130 USD. What’s ironic, however, is that TTArtisan has had a new Viltrox AIR series lens to compete with alongside each of these released. The Viltrox AIR 56mm F1.7 was released at just about the same time as the TTArtisan 56mm F1.8. The excellent Viltrox 35mm F1.7 AIR lens was released right after the 35mm F1.8 II, and, right on cue, the new Viltrox 25mm F1.7 AIR has just been announced. My experience has been that the Viltrox lenses tend to be sharper, but they are also typically priced about $50 higher. If you’re on a tight budget, that $50 might be the difference maker. And if you want something a little more “old school” feeling, the TTArtisan AF 23mm F1.8 might be just the thing. The AIR lenses are more corrected, more modern, while the TTArtisan AF series has a bit more of a retro vibe. Decisions, decisions….
Pros:
Very nicely built for the money
More conventional hood design
USB-C port in rear lens cap allows for firmware updates
Keywords: TTArtisan AF 23mm F1.8, TTArtisan, TTArtisan 35mm, TTArtisan AF, Autofocus, TTArtisan 23mm F1.8, 23mm, F1.8, STM, Review, Fuji X, Sony E, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a6700, Sony a6600, 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.
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