TTArtisan AF 75mm F2 Review

Dustin Abbott

September 23rd, 2024

2024 has been the year that TTArtisan has embraced producing autofocus lenses, and I had many good things to say about their 35mm F1.8 (my review here) and 56mm F1.8 lenses (my review here). But those were APS-C lenses, which are slightly easier to engineer than lenses for larger sensors. But TTArtisan is back with their first full frame autofocus lens – the TTArtisan AF 75mm F2. Have they been able to successfully level up as a lens maker once again? Find out by watching my video review or by reading on in the text review.

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. *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 E-mount lenses.

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There really aren’t a lot of full frame 75mm options. We’ve seen some recent 75mm APS-C lenses (like the Viltrox Pro and Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2), but the primary alternative to this new TTArtisan 75mm remains the Samyang AF 75mm F1.8 that I reviewed in 2020. And while I ended up gifting my copy to a nephew, I do have the Samyang V-AF 75mm T1.9 lens that has the same optical formula on hand. One area where TTArtisan is going to fair very well in this comparison is on price, as the Samyang AF lens retails for $350 while the V-AF version is a much more expensive $650 USD. The TTArtisan lens will debut at just $178, so nearly half the price of the Samyang version. While I think there are a few areas where the Samyang has some advantage, the same is true for TTArtisan’s new 75mm F2, which is very capable of producing beautiful images on your full frame camera.

It can of course be used on APS-C cameras as well, where it will give a 112.5mm full frame equivalent framing – very nice for slightly tighter framed portraits. I found that handy in an event setting to get a little more reach.

This is also the first of TTArtisan’s autofocusing lenses to receive an aperture ring, so it is great to see them moving forward in their development towards more feature-rich lenses while also keeping an eye on pricing.

Investing in a full frame mirrorless camera (this lens will be available not only on Sony but also Nikon Z-mount) can be very expensive, so the idea of getting a solid prime lens for under $200 is very intriguing. Let’s break things down in detail…

Build and Handling

The TTArtisan AF 75mm F2 follows the trend that I’ve seen with their autofocusing lenses of feeling higher quality than what you might expect. The lenses have a very nice metal body with an anodized metal finish. Put simply, the lens looks and feels far more premium than the price would suggest.

That metal housing does come at the cost of weight, however, and the TTArtisan 75mm is definitely heavier than the more plasticky Samyang lens. The Samyang weighs in at a lightweight 230g, but the E-mount version of the TTArtisan lens is heavier at 328g (11.57oz). Still not heavy in an absolute sense, but obviously considerably heavier.

For some reason TTArtisan has not included external measurements in their release materials, so I’ve done my own measurements that may not perfectly align with the official measurements when released. I measure the lens at 65mm in diameter and 73mm in length (2.55 x 2.87″). That’s the same diameter as the Samyang lens but an additional 4mm in length. It is still a very compact lens that fits in the palm of my hand. Front filter threads are 62mm; not one of the most common sizes, but reasonably common.

In my opinion, this is actually quite a handsome little lens. It has an anodized black finish that is very clean and timeless. Previous APS-C lenses have had a sculpted area between the lens mount and the focus ring, like this:

But now TTArtisan has filled that space with an aperture ring. It is the standard style aperture ring that has “clicks” or detents at one third stop intervals along with markings for all full aperture stops.

There is a space between F16 and A (Auto) while will allow you to control aperture from within the camera, though I would like a little more resistance between the F16 and A, as there’s not much more resistance than the standard aperture stops.

There are no switches on the lens barrel. This makes for a very clean looking design, but I would obviously prefer having an AF/MF switch.

At the rear of the lens we have a metal lens mount complete with the appropriate electronic contacts, though I don’t see a weather sealing gasket.

There are nine aperture blades that do a reasonable job of maintaining a circular aperture. Here’s look stopped down over 3 stops at F5.6:

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

TTArtisan has finally heeded my feedback for an improvement to the lens hood design, which is a bit more traditional. The shape is slightly unique, but it is a more standard bayonet style without the “letterbox” opening at the front and can actually be reversed for storage.

The lens hood is plastic and nothing special, but it bayonets on with reasonably good precision and locks into place fine.

The manual focus ring is ribbed in metal and moves with a nice amount of damping, though I can feel a little “drag” from the focus motor when making faster adjustments. The active focus area will automatically magnify when you start to focus, and this helps visually confirm accurate focus. Focus throw feels like it is somewhere near 170° of rotation.

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

The minimum focus distance of the TTArtisan 75mm matches the focal length (75cm) and has a fairly low level of magnification. The Samyang can focus closer (69mm) and sports a 0.13x magnification, so while TTArtisan does not specify the magnification level, it looks to be not much higher than 0.10x.

I definitely noticed not being able to get as close to subjects as what I would like. Here’s an example of a real world minimum focus distance shot.

All told, however, there’s much more to like here than there is to dislike. The addition of the aperture ring is a nice step in the right direction, and the improved lens hood is also welcome. The lens definitely feels much more premium than the Samyang 75mm F1.8, which is a big win for a lens that costs half as much.

Autofocus and Video

TTArtisan has equipped the AF 75mm F2 with an STM (stepping motor). Autofocus noise is relatively low. There is a faint whirring sound during autofocus changes, but I could mostly only hear it in a very quiet environment or with my ear pressed close.

Autofocus accuracy was fairly good, and this shot of Ferrari (at F2) shows that the very shallow depth of field is where it is supposed to be – right on his iris.

I got good eye focus on human subjects as well when I took the lens to a church setting to take photos of the speaker.

Here’s another example of good focus on a non-trackable subject.

I tested focus speed both indoors and outdoors, and my impressions are that focus speed is averagely fast. It’s not instantaneous like the lenses equipped with the best linear motors, but neither is it slow. There is a split second pause while inertia builds and focus takes place, but the focus transition is then pretty snappy. There is no visible stepping apparent. Focus speed was a little faster outdoors in excellent light than what it was in my indoors test.

I wouldn’t use this lens for tracking fast action, but for most ordinary photography work autofocus was just fine. Modern autofocus on mirrorless – even with inexpensive lenses – is just so much better than what we got even from expensive lenses in the DSLR era.

Video AF for focus pulls was reasonably good. Focus pulls were largely smooth and fast, though I do see a visible step or two during focus pulls, and an occasionally rack in the wrong direction.

My hand test (where I alternately block and then unblock the camera’s view of my face with my hand) was fairly good. There’s good confidence going from the hand to the eye in terms of reactiveness, though there was an occasion pulse in there that was a bit distracting. There’s also enough visible focus breathing to make focus pulls feel a little more abrupt.

All in all, pretty much what I expected. The bottom line on autofocus is that it really is pretty good for A) such an inexpensive lens and B) being from a company that is just learning how to build autofocus motors. My experience with many of these companies is that they are fast learners; between firmware updates and new designs in the future, expect TTArtisan to continue to get a lot better at autofocus very quickly.

Image Quality Breakdown

TTArtisan has given us an optical design of ten elements in seven groups, which includes 4 HRI (High Refractive Index) elements and 1 ED (Extra Low Dispersion) element. The MTF chart looks better than the recent 56mm F1.8 lens, a lens that I felt actually performed fairly well in the real world.

The MTF shows a sharp, high contrast center with a moderate dip in the midframe and then a sharper decline right at the edge of the frame.

While this isn’t delivering results anywhere near as sharp as the recent 85mm F1.4 GM II lens that I reviewed from Sony, I would say that results are, in general, pretty satisfyingly sharp. Here’s a shot and crop at F2 taken on a 61MP Sony a7RV.

It’s pretty crazy to think that a few years ago there was a lot of angst over whether or not expensive lenses were going to be able to resolve Sony’s ultra high resolution 61MP sensor, and here were are with $175 lenses able to do it just fine.

We’ll dig into the details by taking a look at vignette and distortion. No significant issues here. There’s a small amount of pincushion distortion (just enough to flattering) and a minimal amount of vignette. For portraits you would probably be better off leaving this uncorrected.

A manual correction of the distortion required a -5 on the Lightroom slider and a +32 on the vignette correction slider. This is a really nice performance for a budget lens.

Longitudinal chromatic aberrations were an issue with TTArtisan’s first AF lens (the 35mm F1.8), but TTArtisan told me personally that this was an area that they had focused on improvements, and with some definite success. You can see a nice control of fringing before and after the plan of focus here.

This shot of late summer wildflowers has plenty of potential for fringing, but while we see a bit of blooming on some of the edges, there is very little color fringing.

Lateral chromatic aberrations show up near the edge of the frame in transitions from dark to light areas. You can see from the edge of my test chart that there is essentially no fringing.

So how about resolution? The 61MP sensor on my Sony a7RV represents the highest resolution currently available on any full frame camera, so this is a strong challenge for the TTArtisan 75mm. My review standard is to examine results at a 200% magnification. That is a lot to ask of any lens, much less one this inexpensive. Here’s a look at the test chart that crops throughout the review come from:

And here is a look at F2 crops from the center, then mid-frame, and then extreme lower right corner:

I would say that the center looks a little worse than what I would expect from the MTF while the corners look better than expected. Detail and resolution across the frame is actually pretty good, though there’s a slight lack of contrast that fits what I saw in real world shots.

While contrast isn’t quite as high as what I would like, I will say that TTArtisan has actually struck a nice balance here between having sufficient contrast and sharpness while retaining a very nice out of focus rendering. We’ll talk more about bokeh in a moment, but note in this shot that sharpness is perfectly adequate even at 61MP while the background is surprisingly smooth and soft for such an inexpensive lens.

There’s a significant improvement in overall sharpness and contrast by F2.8. I’ll show the center here, but the improvement is clear all across the frame.

By F4 the corners are starting to look quite excellent as well:

Further sharpness gains are minimal, but at landscape apertures the lens delivers great looking results. Crisp detail, nice color and contrast, and an effective focal length for a lot of medium to distant subjects.

If I zoom deep into the image and just take the crop of the small island to the left, you can see that the detail holds up very nicely; you could easily make this a separate shot.

Diffraction will always be an issue with higher resolution cameras, and you can see here that while resolution and contrast still look very good at F11, the image is definitely softer by F16:

As noted previously, I feel like the TTArtisan 75mm strikes a nice balance between sharpness and bokeh rendering. This is, frankly, some of the nicest bokeh you’re likely to get for this kind of money. The bokeh is soft in both the foreground and background. You can see that even the hard edges in the background are rendered softly.

The backgrounds can look very nice and creamy in many images:

Even moving out to a further distance to get more in the frame, I felt like this portrait shot shows a reasonably soft background.

I looked through all the various images I took as a part of the review, and I just really didn’t see any bokeh rendering that I considered ugly.

The TTArtisan 75mm could be a great addition to your kit if you’re looking for a cheap prime lens to give nice out of focus backgrounds for portraits of general purpose work. It’s one of the better value lenses I’ve seen for bokeh.

I also felt like colors looked quite good as well. Not Zeiss-like or anything, but images had a nice look and feel to them.

Here’s another image with nice, rich colors.

Flare resistance is not an area of particular strength. There are certain angles where the coatings just can’t handle the bright light, and you’ll get some blobs of light and color, like this:

You can, however, play around with composition and at least get something looks more artistic, even if it still is an optical flaw.

Things are not too bad when facing the sun or bright lights straight on, but you can more issues when the light source is near the corner of the frame. Here you have F2, then F11, then F11 again but with the sun located in the corner.

All in all, there’s not really much to really complain about on the image quality side of things. No, we don’t have GM levels of contrast and detail at F2, but I also appreciate that the lens doesn’t have that overcorrected, clinical feel. Images generally have a great “feel” to them.

You can check out the image gallery to see more photos and see if the rendering from the lens suits you.

Conclusion

I’ve noted previously that TTArtisan is learning quickly. The transition to full frame is further evidence of that. While the company continues to shoot for the budget end of the market, their lenses are increasingly more competent. This is a LOT of lens for under $180, and I really like the idea of this becoming an inexpensive prime option for those perhaps wanting to supplement a kit lens or add a slightly longer prime focal length.

I would say that autofocus is probably the area that needs the most growth, but the truth of the matter is that autofocus is generally quite on the lens. It’s not yet ready for fast action, but it is going to work pretty flawlessly for those wanting to do ordinary types of photography.

I quite like the image quality from this budget lenses. There are higher resolution, higher contrast lenses at F2, but the TTArtisan AF 75mm F2 provides a pretty stellar blend of sharpness and soft out of focus rendering. And, if you want more contrast, all it takes is stopping down to F2.8. The fact that we are getting such a high performing, full frame lens for under $200 is really pretty impressive. Want a nice little telephoto prime and have a limited budget? Look no further than the TTArtisan AF

Pros:

Nicely built lens
Nice looking lens
Compact size and light weight
Good manual focus ring
Ability to upgrade firmware through rear cap
Focus accuracy good
Focus motor reasonably quiet
No distortion
Low chromatic aberrations
Competitive minimum focus distance
Nice bokeh
Better flare resistance

Cons:

Lens hood design is odd
Video focus can sometimes be balky
Corners aren’t particularly sharp
Still a few flare issues.

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the TTArtisan AF 75mm F2 @ B&H Photo | Vitopal | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Pergear

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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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Keywords: TTArtisan, AF, Autofocus, 75mm, F2, TTArtisan AF 75mm F2, Sony, a7RV, a7IV, a7C, Alpha 1, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Full Frame, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA

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TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 X-mount Review

Dustin Abbott

April 18th, 2024

Several months ago I reviewed one of the first autofocus lenses from newer lensmaker TTArtisan. That lens (AF 35mm F1.8) impressed me in a number of ways, though there were still a few areas that reminded me that TTArtisan was new to the business of making autofocus lenses. I was very impressed when they reached out to me about their newest lens, and, in that email, made it clear that they had been paying attention to the criticisms of their last effort. They particularly focused their efforts in three areas: to reduce flaring, to reduce vignette, and to improve the minimum focus distance and maximum magnification. The TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 was an impressive lens despite its flaws, primarily because they kept the price at $150 USD or less. They are following it up with their new and improved lens, the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8, which is priced just slightly higher at $158 USD. The new lens will give a roughly 85mm angle of view on various APS-C cameras like Fuji X (tested here), Sony E, or Nikon Z. Has TTArtisan given us another bargain gem? Find out by watching my video review below…or just reading on.

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.

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I’m doing this review on Fuji X-mount today, as that is what is TTArtisan had available to send me. As with the 35mm, this is jumping right into the fire, as there is no platform more optically demanding than the 40MP sensor on my Fujifilm X-H2. This is the equivalent of over 90MP on full frame, a resolution point that is currently 30+MP higher than what is even available on full frame. Can such an inexpensive lens keep up? The answer is, surprisingly, yes. The TTArtisan AF 56mm becomes the least expensive lens I’ve used that actually looks pretty good on this demanding sensor.

This is a nicely built little lens with a fairly decent (but not exceptional) autofocus performance. There are a few flaws here, but by and large I think this is actually quite a capable little lens, capable of producing detailed images even af F1.8:

Sound interesting? Let’s break things down in detail…

Build and Handling

56mm is a fairly popular focal length on APS-C platforms due to being very close to an 85mm angle of view once you apply the 1.5x crop factor of these various cameras. 56 x 1.5 = 84mm. Even on Fuji, the platform I’m testing, there are four different autofocusing 56mm lenses with various aperture values from F1.2 to F1.8.

As you can see, there is also a variety of price points, from $325 on the low end to $900 on the high end. There’s no question that the TTArtisan AF 56mm will be the value option here as it is running about half the price of the cheapest option. It’s also worth noting that it is the smallest in terms of aperture, however.

But perhaps that will be an acceptable tradeoff to when you consider that the price is so much cheaper…and you are getting a compact, lightweight lens. The lens is 65mm in diameter (2.55″) and 62mm (2.44″) in length. It weighs in at 236g on my scale (8.3oz). The front filter threads are 52mm. As with the 35mm, the construction is actually very high here, with everything feeling like it is metal and glass. It feels like a quality lens despite the light weight (which is significantly lighter than any of the alternatives on Fuji.

In my opinion, this is actually quite a handsome little lens. It has an anodized black finish that is very clean and timeless along with a subtle sculpting on the barrel before the focus ring.

This has practical as well as well as aesthetic value as it gives the fingertips a very natural place to rest. I find it has a nice tactile quality to it.

The TTArtisan AF 56mm is slightly bigger than the AF 35mm I reviewed a few months ago, but nothing significant.

There are no switches on the lens barrel nor an aperture ring, which does set it behind some of the alternatives (both the Viltrox and the Fuji lenses have aperture rings). This makes for a very clean looking design, but I would obviously prefer having an aperture ring and an AF/MF switch. This might be the place where they saved some money in development costs, which makes for a less expensive price tag. That at least will be appreciated by some.

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

There are nine aperture blades that do a reasonable job of maintaining a circular aperture. Here’s look stopped down over 3 stops at F5.6:

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

Decidedly less modern (and much more odd) is the design for the lens hood. It has a very strange design that closes down into a rectangular opening up front…just like the 35mm. That’s obviously an area where they didn’t listen to my feedback!

On a positive note, the hood is made of a matching metal and is a nice aesthetic match at least as far as the finish and materials go. But there’s a huge downside to this design. When mounted you can use neither filters nor the lens cap, so it’s either the hood or filters/lens cap. If the flare resistance was better, I’d say skip the lens hood…but that’s still an area of weakness.

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

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

TTArtisan definitely made an improvement to the minimum focus distance. The AF 35mm could only focus as closely as 60cm, which is very long for that kind of focal length. The AF 56mm can focus closer (50cm) despite having a longer focal length, which adds up to a much improved magnification of 0.14x, which equals both the Fuji and Sigma 56mm lenses.

That’s not exactly macro, but it is close enough to allow you to get fairly close to a subject and strongly blur out the background.

In some ways this will help it compete a little better with the larger aperture of, say, the Viltrox AF 56mm F1.4, as being able to focus closer will allow you to blur out the background better than that F1.4 lens.

This is a big step forward for TTArtisan in their lens design, and I’m glad to see them solve the minimum focus issue sooner rather than later.

The TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 feels great in the hand (it feels quality, despite the budget price!) and handles nicely. I don’t love the hood design, but the fact that a lens this inexpensive comes with the hood is impressive anyway. Other than that, there is little to complain about on the build front.

Autofocus and Video

TTArtisan has equipped the AF 56mm F1.8 with an STM (stepping motor). Fuji is not my favorite platform for autofocus, but I will assess this lens relative to the Fuji competition. Autofocus noise is relatively low. There is a faint whirring sound during autofocus changes, but I could mostly only hear it in a very quiet environment.

Autofocus accuracy was fairly good, even when Nala’s little head was popping up out of the box she was playing in.

I was able to nab focus on narrow objects out in the field, and you can see that crisp delineation that we all love from quality lenses.

Here’s another example of pinpoint focus.

I tested focus speed both indoors and outdoors, and my impressions are that focus speed is averagely fast. It’s not instantaneous like the lenses equipped with the best linear motors, but neither is it slow. There is a split second pause while inertia builds and focus takes place, but the focus transition is then pretty snappy. There is no visible stepping apparent. Focus speed was a little faster outdoors in excellent light than what it was in my indoors test.

I found focus speed and accuracy fine for an event setting (in this case, a church), and it grabbed the eye quickly and delivered accurately focus results.

The lens worked fine for portrait work even in the very inexperienced hands of my youngest son. I had him take some photos of me, and it might have been the first time ever having a Fuji camera in his hands. The results were still focused fine, however, and the results from a quick setup looked fine in terms of color and overall “look”.

(Bonus points for spotting Nala’s tail!)

I used the lens for a portrait session and had zero issues with focus and got very nice looking results.

Video AF is interesting with the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8. Focus pulls are reasonably smooth, though with a few obvious steps towards the end of the focus pull. There is some focus breathing, but it isn’t terribly obvious.

My biggest challenge is that touching the screen on my X-H2 wasn’t always reactive, requiring multiple touches sometimes to trigger focus change. Now, to be fair, Fuji’s touchscreens are not particularly reactive, but this was more than just that more typical issue.

My hand test (where I alternately block and then unblock the camera’s view of my face with my hand) was better. Fuji’s AF is more reactive when a recognizable, trackable subject is on screen, and in this case I wasn’t having to use the touchscreen. It handled the focus transitions from my hand to my face and vice versa fairly well, and was more reactive overall than what the 35mm was in that same test.

The bottom line on autofocus is that it really is pretty good for A) such an inexpensive lens and B) being from a company that is just learning how to build autofocus motors. My experience with many of these companies is that they are fast learners; between firmware updates and new designs in the future, expect TTArtisan to get a lot better at autofocus very quickly. There is already some improvement from from what I saw on the 35mm. Video AF wasn’t great, but, to be fair, I rarely find video AF results great from any third party lens on Fuji (and rarely from first party lenses, either).

Image Quality Breakdown

TTArtisan has given us an optical design of ten elements in nine groups, which includes 2 HRI (High Refractive Index) elements and 1 ED (Extra Low Dispersion) elements. The MTF chart looks fairly unimpressive, though the real world performance strikes me as being much better than this.

The MTF suggest the mid-frame will be sharper than the center and then dips off towards the edges. The stopped down performance (gold lines) suggests a significant improvement across the frame.

As noted in the intro, testing this on a Fuji 40MP APS-C sensor is an extreme torture test, so we’ll see how it handles resolution higher than the 30 lp/mm projected here. Ironically, this lens seems to do just fine on the higher resolution sensor in real world shots, surprising me on how good photos looked at a pixel level.

For a budget lens the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 can produce some very strong looking images.

We’ll dig into the details by taking a look at vignette and distortion. There is no observable distortion (bravo!) and a moderate amount of vignette (+68).

This is a really nice performance for a budget lens. Interestingly, there seems to be a correction profile available in Lightroom already that does seem to work pretty well, though the lens is identified in Lightroom as MJ 56mm F1.8X DA DSM. That’s almost certainly not correct, but at least it identifies it as a 56mm F1.8 lens…and the profile seems to do a perfect job of correcting the vignette.

Longitudinal chromatic aberrations were an issue with the 35mm F1.8, but this was an area where TTArtisan set out to improve things, and they definitely have. You can see a nice control of fringing before and after the plan of focus here.

I also see next to no fringing in the bokeh highlights in this shot.

Lateral chromatic aberrations show up near the edge of the frame in transitions from dark to light areas. You can see from the edge of my test chart that there are minute amounts of fringing, but not enough to be a factor at all.

So how about resolution? The 40MP Fuji X-Trans sensor tends to make all but the very sharpest of lenses look a little soft when viewed at high magnification levels, and it just so happens that my review standard is to examine results at a 200% magnification. That is a lot to ask of any lens, much less one this inexpensive…but maybe the TTArtisan AF 56mm will surprise us. Here’s a look at the test chart that crops throughout the review come from:

And here is a look at F1.8 crops from the center, then mid-frame, and then extreme lower right corner:

As I’ve said, this lens has surprised me in its ability to keep up in this challenging environment. Nothing looks too bad here. The center and mid-frame look quite good (mid-frame is the strength for this lens according to the MTF charts), but while the corner has less contrast and detail, it doesn’t look bad.

In fact, if I shoot a real world shot focused near the corner and crop at a high magnification level, we can see that while contrast isn’t off the charts, there is plenty of detail there and no “bleeding” of the textures on the barrel of the lens.

Real world results were mostly impressive to me. I “shot from the hip” to get a quick photo of a unique looking dog passing by me while out hiking (and didn’t want to make a big deal with the owner), and you can see that not only is the result (at F1.8) well focused, but there is also a really nice amount of detail in the various textures of the fur.

Unfortunately, while I have reviewed all of the other autofocusing 56mm options, I haven’t tested any of them at the 40MP level. My experience with this sensor has been that there really isn’t any comparison with the lower resolution results; I’ve reviewed the same lens at 26MP and then at 40MP on Fuji and the results are radically different. But by looking at my results at lower resolutions and extrapolating, I think that at similar apertures only the Sigma 56mm F1.4 would match or exceed this result. That’s pretty impressive considering how low the price tag is on the TTArtisan lens.

Stopping down the minor jump to F2 (one-third stop) doesn’t make a radical difference in resolution or contrast. Not that I would expect that, but I’ve been surprised at times by the improvement in that very mild closing of the aperture. There’s a very minor improvement in contrast, but nothing significant. I also didn’t see much of a difference at F2.8.

By F4 the center and mid-frame are looking pretty great, with a slight but noticeable improvement from F2.8:

By F5.6 everything looks good save the extreme corners, which don’t ever get pin sharp. They seem to peak around F8, where the corners look good but not fantastic. They do look noticeably better than at F5.6, however.

You can see this in real world images as well. In this shot looking down on rushing waters around ice you can see the softening to the corners. If you look at the crop (second image), the upper left shows nice delineation of the ice edge over the water, but that gets progressively softer as you get towards the corners.

My results are typically pretty consistent with what the MTF charts suggest, but in this case I felt like the lens performed better wide open than the MTF chart suggested, but didn’t show as drastic an improvement when stopped down. Since this focal length is typically prized for portraiture, it could argued that the corner performance is far less important than having sharp results at wide apertures in the rule of thirds zone.

That aside, I did feel like landscape results didn’t look bad at all.

Diffraction comes early on a high resolution body like this, so expect some softening by F11 and much more obvious softening by F16, which is minimum aperture here.

The bokeh quality from this lens is good but not exceptionally so. Geometry isn’t bad, as while you will see some deformation of specular highlights near the edges of the frame, it isn’t severe. The bokeh remains fairly circular looking through F4:

Non-specular backgrounds look fairly soft, but not incredibly creamy like the most “magical” lenses are able to create:

I would chalk that up to a bit more outlining in the defocused area than is optimal. You can see that while the background is fairly soft in this shot, you can still see some of the edges of defocused objects.

But, to be fair, this is a $150 lens, so I don’t expect it to be absolutely incredible in this area.

TTArtisan focused on improving the coatings on this lens, and while it is better than the 35mm, this is still an area where there is room for growth. It’s true there is less of the ugly ghosting artifacts here, but you will certainly see different veiling and blooming effects if bright lights are in (or just out of) the frame.

On a positive note, I did feel like a lot of these effects were fairly artistic (seems like I’ve created most of these “looks” in software to add visual interest to edited images in the past!), so I think they can be used to creative effect if used well. But if flare resistance is the goal, there’s still a lot of room for improvement here.

I feel pretty positive overall here. Aberrations are well controlled, sharpness is better than expected, and there’s no critical flaws. I feel like this lens is offering very good “bang for the buck” optically. Even colors seemed fairly accurate (this hasn’t been the case with all TTArtisan lenses in the past).

You can check out the image gallery to see more photos and see if the rendering from the lens suits you.

Conclusion

TTArtisan is learning quickly. There’s already some obvious signs of maturation in the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 from the AF 35mm F1.8 that I reviewed just two months ago. Better minimum focus, fewer aberrations, and better flare resistance (though still a bit of room for growth there). On paper (MTF), the 35mm should be a bit sharper than the 56mm, but the better control of aberrations on the 56mm resulted in better real world results for me. Some of the spherical aberrations of the 35mm reduced contrast, but there’s less of that here and thus better real world results.

This has been the least expensive lens that I’ve tested that I feel does a reasonable job of handling the extremely demanding sensor on my X-H2. If you’ve recently purchased an expensive X-H2 or X-T5 and your wallet is broken, this is a very affordable lens that does a very credible job on this platform.

Sharpness should look even better on lower resolution cameras from Fuji, Sony, or Nikon. That makes the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 an interesting proposition, as while there are alternatives with faster maximum apertures, they are considerably more expensive but not necessarily much better optically. The top competitor will be the also new Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7, which is also very good. There’s some give and take between these two lenses, and you can see my review of the Viltrox here. Autofocus isn’t top tier, but for everything outside of extreme action photography it works fine. This is a lot of lens for under $160 USD, and so if you are looking for a budget telephoto, this definitely checks plenty of the boxes.

Pros:

Nicely built lens
Nice looking lens
Compact size and light weight
Good manual focus ring
Ability to upgrade firmware through rear cap
Focus accuracy good
Focus motor reasonably quiet
No distortion
Low chromatic aberrations
Competitive minimum focus distance
Nice bokeh
Better flare resistance

Cons:

Lens hood design is odd
Video focus can sometimes be balky
Corners aren’t particularly sharp
Still a few flare issues.

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | 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 |

_________________________________________________________________

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Keywords: TTArtisan, AF, Autofocus, 56mm, F1.8, TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8, 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.

TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 Gallery

Dustin Abbott

April 18th, 2024

Several months ago I reviewed one of the first autofocus lenses from newer lensmaker TTArtisan. That lens (AF 35mm F1.8) impressed me in a number of ways, though there were still a few areas that reminded me that TTArtisan was new to the business of making autofocus lenses. I was very impressed when they reached out to me about their newest lens, and, in that email, made it clear that they had been paying attention to the criticisms of their last effort. They particularly focused their efforts in three areas: to reduce flaring, to reduce vignette, and to improve the minimum focus distance and maximum magnification. The TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 was an impressive lens despite its flaws, primarily because they kept the price at $150 USD or less. They are following it up with their new and improved lens, the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8, which is priced just slightly higher at $158 USD. The new lens will give a roughly 85mm angle of view on various APS-C cameras like Fuji X (tested here), Sony E, or Nikon Z. Has TTArtisan given us another bargain gem? Find out by watching my video review below…or by reading my text review here.

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.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

I’m doing this review on Fuji X-mount today, as that is what is TTArtisan had available to send me. As with the 35mm, this is jumping right into the fire, as there is no platform more optically demanding than the 40MP sensor on my Fujifilm X-H2. This is the equivalent of over 90MP on full frame, a resolution point that is currently 30+MP higher than what is even available on full frame. Can such an inexpensive lens keep up? The answer is, surprisingly, yes. The TTArtisan AF 56mm becomes the least expensive lens I’ve used that actually looks pretty good on this demanding sensor.

This is a nicely built little lens with a fairly decent (but not exceptional) autofocus performance. There are a few flaws here, but by and large I think this is actually quite a capable little lens, capable of producing detailed images even af F1.8:

Photos of the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8

Photos Taken with the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8

_________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Purchase the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | 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

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

Keywords: TTArtisan, AF, Autofocus, 56mm, F1.8, TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8, 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.

TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 Review

Dustin Abbott

November 23rd, 2023

TTArtisan is growing up. By my count, this is about the tenth lens from the company that I have reviewed. Most of these former reviews have fallen under the category of inexpensive manual everything lenses. No electronics, no autofocus, no bells and whistles…just surprisingly well made lenses with optics that are frequently much better than the price point suggests. They haven’t all been winners, obviously, but I’ve definitely been pleasantly surprised by the optics in a number of their lenses. But this tenth review is different because TTArtisan is graduating to autofocus lenses. That means full electronics and all of the additional complexity and engineering challenges that come with that move. Yet somehow they are offering this new lens – the TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 – at a bargain price of around $125 USD. Could this possibly be the new high value king for getting a roughly 50mm angle of view (45°) on various APS-C cameras like Fuji X (tested here), Sony E, or Nikon Z? Find out by watching my video review below…or just reading on.

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.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

I’m doing this review on Fuji X-mount today, as that is what is TTArtisan had available to send me. In many ways this is jumping right into the fire, as there is no platform more optically demanding than the 40MP sensor on my Fujifilm X-H2. This is the equivalent of over 90MP on full frame, a resolution point that is currently 30+MP higher than what is even available on full frame. Can such an inexpensive lens keep up? The answer to that is largely going to depend on how much of a pixel peeper you are. It is as sharp as many Fuji branded lenses, but also won’t make the upper echelons of high performers on the 40MP Fuji sensors…a list that is thus far fairly short. It is certainly very possible to get some great looking images out of the lens…even at F1.8:

This is a nicely built little lens with a fairly decent (but not exceptional) autofocus performance. There are a few flaws here, but by and large I think this is actually quite a capable little lens, capable of producing detailed images.

Sound interesting? Let’s break things down in detail…

TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 Build and Handling

The TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 is fairly compact lens for an F1.8 lens, measuring just 60mm in length and 65mm in diameter (2.36 x 2.55″) and weighing only 200g (7oz). That’s impressive in that construction is actually very high here, with everything feeling like it is metal and glass.

In opinion, this is actually quite a handsome little lens. It has an anodized black finish and there is a subject design cue I like in the form of a subtle sculpting on the barrel before the focus ring.

This has practical as well as well as aesthetic value as it gives the fingertips a very natural place to rest. I find it has a nice tactile quality to it.

There are no switches on the lens barrel nor an aperture ring. That’s interesting, as their previously released 27mm F2.8 AF lens did sport an aperture ring. It’s possible that the aperture ring was something cut to allow them to keep the costs down on this particular lens. This makes for a very clear looking design, though I always like having an aperture ring and an AF/MF switch.

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

There are nine aperture blades that do a reasonable job of maintaining a circular aperture. Here’s look stopped down over 3 stops at F5.6:

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

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

Decidedly less modern (and much more odd) is the design for the lens hood. It has a very strange design that closes down into a rectangular opening up front.

On a positive note, the hood is made of a matching metal and is a nice aesthetic match at least as far as the finish and materials go. When mounted you can use neither filters nor the lens cap, so you’ll have to make some difficult decisions there.

Like I said, odd.

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

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

One core weakness for the lens is a rather poor minimum focus distance of 60cm. This feels very restrictive, as there were a number of times when I felt like I should be able to get closer to my subject than I could. The maximum magnification figure is not noted, but it looks to be in the very low 0.10x range.

This was literally as close as I could get to this unique new Sirui lens with a carbon fiber section on it.

That, to me, may be one of the most limiting aspects of this design, as it takes away a lot of the type of shots I personally like to take with this focal length.

Not a lot of bells and whistles in the design, but the basic building and handling of the lens is really quite good. We’d be raving if a lens like Canon’s RF 50mm 1.8 STM was built this nicely!

Autofocus Performance

TTArtisan has equipped the AF 35mm F1.8 with an STM (stepping motor). Fuji is not my favorite platform for autofocus, but for the most part autofocus works pretty well here. There is a faint whirring sound during autofocus changes, but I could mostly only hear it in a very quiet environment.

Autofocus accuracy was fairly good, and you can see here that even in profile that autofocus correctly grabbed the iris of the eye.

I got precise autofocus with other subjects in nature as well, and without a lot of drama in getting them.

I tested focus speed both indoors and outdoors, and my impressions are that focus speed is averagely fast. It’s not instantaneous like the lenses equipped with the best linear motors, but neither is it slow. There is a split second pause while inertia builds and focus takes place, but the focus transition is then pretty snappy. There is no visible stepping apparent. Focus speed was a little faster outdoors in excellent light than what it was in my indoors test.

My typical focus process is an initial halfway hold to achieve focus before finishing clicking the shutter release (similar to those who use a backbutton focus). This process typically allows me to confirm I’m getting focus where I want before taking the photo, so I’m able to have a little more control over my composition and end up with very few improperly focused images. I did find on a couple of occasions that my finger must have went ahead the fully depressed the shutter, and, because of that initial lag, the camera actually snapped an unfocused shot rather than completing focus. The image on the right shows the difference when focus was completed.

This was typically rare, however, and for the most part my autofocus for stills was pretty effortless. My one caveat is that I would not choose this lens for capturing fast action, particularly if that action happens in erratic, non-linear fashion. I don’t feel like the AF is reactive enough to work well in that kind of setting.

Video AF is interesting with the TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8. It’s clear that TTArtisan has really detuned focus speed to allow for smoother focus transitions and more focus accuracy at lock. Focus pulls are not fast, but they are smooth and without any visible steps. You can hear a very quiet whine in the on camera mics in a silent environment as the focus motor does its work. There is a noticeable amount of focus breathing that takes place.

My hand test (where I alternately block and then unblock the camera’s view of my face with my hand) further enforced those perceptions. The downside was that I needed to be very deliberate in leaving enough time for the lens to transition from my face to my hand and vice versa, but the upside was that the lens did accurately focus on both. If your video style utilizes quick transitions, this lens will not be for you, but if you prioritize smooth, more cinematic focus transitions, I actually think this inexpensive lens does a pretty nice job.

Shooting into strong backlighting for video or stills can induce a bit of focus adjusting, but there’s an even more compelling reason to avoid that….and that is in the form of massive lens flaring that we’ll get to in our image quality section.

The bottom line on autofocus is that it really is pretty good for A) such an inexpensive lens and B) being from a company that is just learning how to build autofocus motors. My experience with many of these companies is that they are fast learners; between firmware updates and new designs in the future, expect TTArtisan to get a lot better at autofocus very quickly. But, in the meantime, this is a perfectly usable lens so long as you don’t push the limits too much.

TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 Image Quality

The TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 has an optical design of 10 elements in 8 groups, which includes one ED element along with two high index elements. The MTF shows that the wide open the lens isn’t incredibly sharp in the center of the frame, though there is a minor boost as you hit the beginning the midframe and then a dip right at the edge of the frame. The stopped down performance at F8 delivers a much flatter sharpness profile this is most improved in the corners, then the midframe, though, surprisingly, the center only sharpens up a bit at F8.

As noted in the intro, testing this on a Fuji 40MP APS-C sensor is an extreme torture test, so we’ll see how it handles resolution higher than the 30 lp/mm projected here. I do think that my real world tests seem fairly consistent with the MTF results with good but not exceptional resolution and contrast.

There’s more to lens performance than just pure sharpness, though, and for such a small budget the TTArtisan 35mm F1.8 can produce some nice looking images.

We’ll dig into the details by taking a look at vignette and distortion. There’s not much to see in terms of distortion (only a +2 to correct) but a fairly significant amount of vignette (+79)

Interestingly, there seems to be a correction profile available in Lightroom already. It does not designate the lens as being TTArtisan, but does identify it as the AF 35mm F1.8, and there is no corresponding lens made by Fuji. The profile does a good job with the distortion, though I wouldn’t mind a bit more vignette correction, myself.

Longitudinal chromatic aberrations are a bit of a concern. You can see some fairly pronounced fringing before and particular after the plane of focus here.

You can see that fringing show up on some of the textures of this lens shot (see the “Sirui” and T2.9″ near the front of the lens.

Lateral chromatic aberrations show up near the edge of the frame in transitions from dark to light areas. You can see from the edge of my test chart that there are minute amounts of fringing, but not enough to be a factor at all.

So how about resolution? The 40MP Fuji X-Trans sensor tends to make all but the very sharpest of lenses look a little soft under the microscope of my tests, so be warned. I examine results at a 200% magnification, and that’s a lot to ask of any lens, much less one that costs little more than $125. Here’s a look at the test chart:

And here is a look at F1.8 crops from the center, then mid-frame, and then extreme lower right corner:

What we can see is that there is a decent amount of resolution in the center of the frame and the midframe with a drop in the ability to resolve fine details in the corner. What we can also see is that contrast is not particularly good anywhere, so the textures information doesn’t really “pop” anywhere.

This is roughly what you’ll see with real world results, too. Things look fairly good, but without the ability to finely resolve details.

But, like I said, that resolution point is very unkind to anything short of optical perfection. For some perspective, however, If I compare to the $800 Fuji 33mm F1.4 (at F1.8), I get these results.

The Fuji is a very recent lens and one of Fuji’s sharper primes, and you can see that while it is definitely better than the TTArtisan, it isn’t radically so. That Fuji sensor is VERY demanding!

If you are shooting with a 40MP Fuji sensor and are a pixel peeper, you may not be satisfied with what you can get out of the TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8, but if you are shooting with a 24/26MP sensor from Fuji or Sony (or definitely with a 20.9MP sensor from Nikon), you may get a different feeling. I downsampled a 40MP image to 26MP and then compared at 100% magnification.

You’ll notice that the contrast and detail definitely looks better on the left…at least at a pixel level. That tells me that this lens will have a much easier time on these other sensors. There are some definite upsides to Fuji’s ultra high resolution approach, but the downside is that you have to be really discerning with the lenses you use.

Stopping down to F2 shows a bit more contrast (bright areas look a bit brighter), but I don’t really see any major boost to resolution. There’s a slightly bigger bump at F2.8 where contrast definitely improves and there is some improvement to resolution across the frame.

There’s progressively more contrast and resolution at F4, and more still at F5.6. Now even the corners are looking pretty good.

I never felt like I could get pin sharp images for landscapes. I didn’t feel like there was quite enough resolution there to really make the textures pop. Here’s a shot at F5.6:

It is acceptably sharp but not impressively so.

At F8 you can get the slightest of gains, but after this diffraction will offset any gains and you’ll find a general softening of the image through F16.

$36-Diffraction$

One other observation about F16, and that is that I don’t think the aperture actually closes all the way to F16. I noticed that automatic metering was off at F16 when I did my first set of sharpness tests. I did a second series with manual adjustments, but I got the same results when I manually set shutter speed. The aperture was about one half stop too bright, so either the aperture calibration is off a bit, or the lens doesn’t actually quite get as small as F16. Not a big deal, as I recommend avoiding anything smaller than F8 with a lens like this…particularly if shooting on a high resolution body.

There is more to image quality than pure resolution, and I would say that the less than ideal contrast has a payoff in the form of bokeh quality. The bokeh is actually fairly nice, with a nice soft out of focus rendering.

We’ve already determined that the maximum magnification isn’t very high, so you won’t be able to really blur out backgrounds just due to getting really close to your subject, but if you have a favorable ratio of distance to your subject and then to the background, you can get very soft out of focus areas.

But where the lens impressed is in the scenes with the potential to be rough. In the shot below there is a lot of “transition area” bokeh, and while it isn’t flawless, it doesn’t look too jittery.

That adds up a lens that is more interesting for those who care more about rendering than absolute sharpness, as I really liked the results for an image like this:

The TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 handled the specular highlights here quite well and the sharpness viewed at a global level is compelling enough.

I also like the handling of the foreground bokeh in this image, which is nice and soft and leads the eye to the focused area without being a distraction.

More points for rendering than sharpness, at least on a 40MP camera.

There is one other critical weakness, and that is when bright lights enter the frame. This lens acts more like a lot of classic (read: old) lenses that deliver all kinds of interesting optical flaws when the sun is in the frame. If you like creative artifacts in reaction to the sun…you’re in luck.

Otherwise some of you old timers might be remembering some acid trips from the 60s…

That’s some serious flare, and if you don’t love that kind of look, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.

There is definitely some give and take when it comes to the optical performance. This is not a “modern” perfectly corrected lens; it has aberrations and flaws, and you’ll either love it or hate it depending on your taste as a photographer.

You can check out the image gallery to see more photos and see if the rendering from the lens suits you.

Conclusion

It’s exciting to see a number of newer lens makers graduating to more mature, mainstream products. The TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 is a “real” lens that pretty much anyone can use. You can see there are areas where more growth is needed, but the lens feels substantial in the build, an adequate in both autofocus and image quality.

It is somewhat unfortunate that TTArtisan sent me an X-mount version of the lens, as it hardly seems fair to put such an inexpensive lens (roughly $125-150 USD) on what is literally the most demanding platform that I have ever reviewed on. It’s no wonder that the lens comes up short in a few areas optically.

The single greatest challenge to the TTArtisan AF 35mm on Fuji is Fuji’s own XC 35mm F2, as while that lens doesn’t have quite as nice of build and arguably doesn’t have as good of autofocus (ironic, that!), it has the same optics as the more expensive XF 35mm F2, and they are very good. It can be had for $199, which may not be enough of a price difference to entice people to the TTArtisan lens. But TTArtisan also will be selling on Sony E-mount and Nikon Z-mount, and I suspect across the three platforms they will get enough traction to keep developing new lenses. The TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 is best suited to the kind of photographer that thinks most modern lenses are overcorrected and clinical. It definitely has a few flaws, but also has some strengths and can make some very nice images. And it is an autofocusing lens with a reasonably large maximum aperture that costs $125…there’s not much room to complain here!

Pros:

Nicely built lens
Nice looking lens
Compact size and light weight
Good manual focus ring
Ability to upgrade firmware through rear cap
Focus accuracy good
Focus motor reasonably quiet
Low distortion
Low lateral chromatic aberrations
Strong contrast
Nice bokeh

Cons:

Lens hood design is odd
Low maximum magnification
Video focus not very reactive
Some fringing
Very strong flare issues
Never gets incredibly sharp on high res camera

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Purchase the TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | 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 | 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: TTArtisan, TTArtisan 35mm, TTArtisan AF, Autofocus, TTArtisan 35mm F1.8, 35mm, 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 AF 35mm F1.8 STM Gallery

Dustin Abbott

November 23rd, 2023

TTArtisan is growing up. By my count, this is about the tenth lens from the company that I have reviewed. Most of these former reviews have fallen under the category of inexpensive manual everything lenses. No electronics, no autofocus, no bells and whistles…just surprisingly well made lenses with optics that are frequently much better than the price point suggests. They haven’t all been winners, obviously, but I’ve definitely been pleasantly surprised by the optics in a number of their lenses. But this tenth review is different because TTArtisan is graduating to autofocus lenses. That means full electronics and all of the additional complexity and engineering challenges that come with that move. Yet somehow they are offering this new lens – the TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 – at a bargain price of around $125 USD. Could this possibly be the new high value king for getting a roughly 50mm angle of view (45°) on various APS-C cameras like Fuji X (tested here), Sony E, or Nikon Z? Find out by watching my video review below or reading my text review.

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.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

I’m doing this review on Fuji X-mount today, as that is what is TTArtisan had available to send me. In many ways this is jumping right into the fire, as there is no platform more optically demanding than the 40MP sensor on my Fujifilm X-H2. This is the equivalent of over 90MP on full frame, a resolution point that is currently 30+MP higher than what is even available on full frame. Can such an inexpensive lens keep up? The answer to that is largely going to depend on how much of a pixel peeper you are. It is as sharp as many Fuji branded lenses, but also won’t make the upper echelons of high performers on the 40MP Fuji sensors…a list that is thus far fairly short. It is certainly very possible to get some great looking images out of the lens…even at F1.8:

This is a nicely built little lens with a fairly decent (but not exceptional) autofocus performance. There are a few flaws here, but by and large I think this is actually quite a capable little lens, capable of producing detailed images.

Sound interesting? Here’s some photos to help you with your decision process.

Photos of the TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8

Photos Taken with the TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Purchase the TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | 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 | Ebay

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Keywords: TTArtisan, TTArtisan 35mm, TTArtisan AF, Autofocus, TTArtisan 35mm F1.8, 35mm, 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 100mm F2.8 2x Macro Tilt/Shift Review

Dustin Abbott

May 15th, 2023

Talk about ratcheting up the complexity! I’ve reviewed a number of TTArtisan lenses before, and they have mostly fallen into the categories that are filled by a lot of what I call “Boutique Third Parties”. These include various manual everything prime lenses with varying maximum aperture sizes. While engineering for larger apertures (like their F0.95 lenses) are more challenging, their newest lens adds a LOT of new moving parts. That lens is the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2X Macro Tilt/Shift (we’ll shorten that to TTA100M for this review).

Designing a lens that goes past 1:1 to 2:1 macro (2X) takes a lot of engineering. That’s twice as high of magnification as most macro lenses. Designing a tilt/shift lens takes even more engineering. I’ve never personally seen a lens that combines both of these elements before, so this is certainly a courageous move for TTArtisan, particularly since this is designed for full frame mirrorless mounts (I’m testing it on Sony E-mount, but it will also be available for Canon RF, Nikon Z, Leica L, and then smaller sensors like Fuji X and M43). This is also the longest focal length that TTArtisan has tackled to this point, which makes it a very interesting lens.

There are a variety of things that you can do with both ultra macro and tilt/shift, but it does mean that this is primarily going to be a “tripod lens”. Trying to do 2x macro work handheld (even with a camera body with IBIS) is very difficult, and all the moving parts of tilting and/or shifting are also going to be difficult to do handheld. If you take your time, however, you can produce some really unique photos with this lens.

I enjoyed playing with this lens in all the things that it can do, though in some ways its very ambition might be its greatest weakness, too. The TTA100M maybe tries to do too much, and all of the knobs and moving parts make for some ergonomic frustrations. At the same time, it must be acknowledged that this is a lot of lens for the money. This will be the cheapest point of entry for either a 2x macro lens or a tilt/shift lens that any of us have ever seen at about $400 USD, which in my mind makes this more attractive. You can judge for yourself by either watching my video review below or reading on to get the full picture.

Thanks to TTArtisan for sending me a pre-release 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 Sony a7IV along with the Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here).

TTA100M Build and Handling

TTArtisan has produced one autofocusing lens at this point, but their lenses have primarily been manual focus only. That’s the case here as well, though it is pretty typical for tilt/shift lenses to be manual focus anyway. As noted in the intro, there’s a lot going on here, so let’s break it all down.

This is a full frame 100mm lens, and, as such, it isn’t particularly small. It has a long, slender profile that reminds me of the Laowa 100mm F2.8 2x APO Macro lens that I reviewed a few years ago. I weighed it at 841g (29.6oz) and measured it at 73mm (2.87″) in diameter (not including the protrusions of the knobs) and 147mm (5.78″) in length.

Like the Laowa, this is an internally focusing design (the length doesn’t change during focus), though you can see the elements moving forwards and backwards inside during focus. There’s several inches of travel inside. This isn’t a weather sealed lens, but many people do feel that an internally focusing lens has more of a natural seal because nothing is moving in and out.

There are knobs on each side of the lens near the lens mount. Two of these are adjustment knobs while the other two are for tension. For some reason on of the tension/locking knobs is shaped more like a lever, and I found it very hard to access when the lens was mounted on a tripod.

I tested the TTA100M on a Sony E-mount, and this particular lens design unfortunately plays into what is a real weakness for Sony bodies – namely that there isn’t a lot of room between the grip and many lenses. The E-mount itself is quite small for a full frame design, so often lenses have to flare out quickly after having to taper quite small at the mount end of the lens. That creates a bit of pinch for your knuckles between the lens barrel and the grip. In this case the lens doesn’t flare out, but it does have a tension or adjustment knob on every side of the lens, so there is always going to be something protruding and hitting on your knuckles.

There is a button that allows you to rotate the barrel of the lens about 90º, but because there is some kind of knob on each side of the lens, you will always have something in the way there. This will probably be less of a problem on Canon or Nikon where the bodies are a little wider and there is a little more room to play with for the knobs.

After the rotating section that houses the tilt and shift functions there is an aperture ring which can be controlled in half stop increments from F2.8 to F11 and then has single stops from F11 to F22 (minimum aperture here). Everything moves smoothly here.

In between the aperture ring and the wide, ribbed focus ring there is a hyper focal scale (with markings at F4/8/11/22. There’s also markings for the distance scale in both metric (marked in white) and Imperial (in yellow).

The wide focus ring has a nice damping and moves smoothly, though I did feel a very slight play/slippage. The focus throw is not as long as I expected at about 170°. I expected it to be a bit longer due to having a wide range of focus possibilities (the higher the magnification, the more potential focus possibilities).

There are several places near the front of the lens where threaded hole can accommodate screws to use in conjunction with a stabilizer.

Up front there is a very common 67mm front filter size. There is no included lens hood, and the lens is not bayoneted to receive one. The front cap fits over the lens barrel but is a tight enough fit that I see no potential for it to fall off.

My biggest complaint about the ergonomics comes down to the tilt and shift functions of the lens. It is very difficult to dial in just enough tension for making fine adjustments (particularly if gravity is working against you). The lens is long and has most of the weight beyond the adjustment portion of the lens, and so most of the time the lens just flops to the farther extreme point of the adjustment.

Further complicating this is that one of the tension “knobs” is more like a tension lever. It is very small and often hard to access…and definitely hard to dial in a moderate amount of tension for making small adjustments. As I said in the intro, doing a tilt/shift lens is hard, and there is room for growth in this area.

On the positive note, all of these adjustment knobs and levers are made of metal and don’t feel flimsy. I’ve used cheaper tilt/shift lenses before that had plasticky knobs that felt very vulnerable. I see 6mm of shift in each direction and 8° of tilt in each direction. That’s a bit less shift than what is offered by some lenses, though the TTArtisan lens is much, much cheaper than those lenses.

While the shift capabilities in a telephoto lens are perhaps less relevant for interior shots, I still liked being able to take a few vertical shots to stack together and get this shot of our music area in our home with great lines and details. This image is not cropped at all; this is how it came out after merging the images together.

I also enjoyed shifting horizontally to produce a unique, very high resolution macro panorama of these four screws.

Minimum focus distance is 25cm even at 2:1 macro levels, leaving you with a reasonable 9cm or so in front of the lens as a working distance. Not too bad, really, and 1:1 macro leaves you with a good 13-14cm of working distance.

Tilting is most often used for the miniature effect, but that is most useful in a city situation where you can be high up and look down on your subject (which I did not have the opportunity to do). It can also be used to interesting effect for depth of field, however, like in this shot of a chess board where I’ve created a plane of focus only on the head of the golfer.

You can also create an unusual amount of bokeh with the lens by using the tilt function. Here’s a shot without the tilt effect:

…and here’s one with the tilt effect:

All other settings are the same (aperture, exposure), so the vastly increased background blur is the result of tilting that area away from the sensor. An application of this could be for portrait work where you can create unique depth of field effects.

All in all, the build quality is quite good for a lens at this price point, but the ergonomics leave somewhat to be desired when it comes to the tilt and shift functionality.

TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2X Macro Image Quality

I was very pleasantly surprised by the macro performance and sharpness of the very inexpensive TTArtisan 40mm F2.8 Macro for APS-C (my review here), and that skill carries on here. Even wide open at 2:1 macro levels, we have very strong detail and sharpness from the optical formula compromised of 14 elements in 10 groups.

Since I was reviewing a pre-release copy of the lens and the vital statistics are not yet published anywhere, I’ve had to do my own measurements and counts. I believe that I count 12 aperture blades, and these work very well to maintain a circular shape even as the lens is stopped down:

You can tell by this test that bokeh is going to be soft and creamy, which is always a very nice feature in a macro lens.

It also means that the TTA100M will double nicely as a portrait lens if you don’t mind manually focusing.

Important for macro work is the control of Longitudinal Chromatic Aberrations (LoCA), and the TTA100M does a very good job here. You can see little fringing even on the very shiny surfaces of my subject here (the gears of a crescent wrench).

Of less concern on a lens like this is Lateral Chromatic Aberrations (LaCA) that show up near the edges of the frame, but we can see here that this isn’t a problem, either. I see no fringing in the bare branches along the edges of the frame in this landscape shot.

Typically macro lenses need to have fairly low distortion to be effective, and that’s the case here. Both distortion and vignette are quite slow even at F2.8, with a very mild amount of pincushion distortion (just a -2 to manually correct for in Lightroom) and a little over a stop of vignette (requiring a +36 to correct for).

That’s a great performance and means that in most situations you won’t need to worry about either issue.

So how about resolution and contrast? Here’s a look at my test chart. I’m using a 50MP Sony Alpha 1 for this test, and do my critical observations of chart tests at 200% magnification.

Here are F2.8 crops at roughly 175% magnification from across the frame (center, mid-frame, and bottom right corner):

Performance across most the frame is quite good, with good detail in the center and midframe but some serious drop-off in the corners. Wide open contrast is not amazingly strong, though, so there isn’t quite as much “bite” as one of Laowa’s Apochromatic designs. You can see it in this portrait shot, for example, which has a unique look that is slightly “dreamy” when viewed globally, though the crop shows that the actual detail on my model is quite good.

The payoff is that the bokeh is very soft and creamy, making this a unique portrait option. I shot this lens alongside the brand new Sigma 50mm F1.4 DN ART, and you can see that the Sigma result is higher contrast.

I don’t think that one approach is automatically better than the other – but they are different, and I think the rendering of each lens will probably appeal to different people.

Stopping the TTA100M down to F4 gives a contrast boost, and detail also increases basically everywhere save the extreme corners.

By F5.6 the results are excellent everywhere save the extreme corners, which are only marginally improved. Peak performance comes at F8 where the sharpness profile covers basically the whole frame, though the corners never reach the level of excellence found elsewhere.

Landscape images at these smaller apertures look good with fine detail all across the frame.

Perhaps more import is that macro detail is excellent at smaller apertures, allowing you to get nicely detailed macro shots.

I’ve used the TTA100M for a lot of my product shots during my review period, and it gave me a nice balance between detail on my subject and soft bokeh rendering.

I got some cool close-up shots of unique subjects like the tension knob on the tripod foot of this Fuji lens here.

Or how about this dial on the new Fujifilm X-T5?

I did feel the bokeh was pretty nice from the lens, overall, and you can see a lot of layers of focus here in this shot of a chess board:

These Christmas decorations also look lovely in this fairly close shot.

I saw a few signs that the lens could be a little flare prone in certain situations, and, since it doesn’t have a hood, you’ll need to keep an eye on that.

There’s a lot you can do with a lens like this, and, while I don’t love the ergonomics, there is no end to the types of photography you can pursue with a lens that does so much. In short, there really isn’t a lot to complain about optically here. You can check out even more photos by visiting the lens image gallery here.

Conclusion

There aren’t many companies that are making 2x macro lenses, and there also aren’t many that are producing Tilt/Shift lenses. Kudos to TTArtisan for tackling both with the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2X Macro Tilt/Shift lens. This was an unexpected lens from them, but while it has a few flaws, it mostly succeeds in some very challenging tasks.

Weaknesses mostly lie in some of the ergonomics. It isn’t easy to design a lens like this, and there are a few engineering shortcomings when it comes to adjustments on the tilting and shifting aspects of the lens. This is a lot of lens for the asking price of roughly $400 USD, however.

But if you’re patient, there are so many different kinds of photography you can do with this lens, and there is the potential to create all kinds of unique and interesting images. This is a lens that I’m definitely interested in experimenting with further, and macro lenses are one solid way to find some creativity during the long winter months. This very possibly may be your first experience with either 2x macro or tilting and shifting due to the lower price point, but if you’ll stick out the learning curve, the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2x Macro Tilt/Shift might just become your favorite lens.

Pros:

Excellent price to performance ratio
Very versatile lens
Nice bokeh rendering
2x macro
Internally focusing lens
Makes for a unique portrait option
Soft bokeh
Keeps nicely circular aperture iris
Tilting and shifting offers up many creative opportunities
Low distortion and vignette

Cons:

Knobs can be hard to access
Making fine adjustments to tilt or shift difficult
Contrast isn’t as high as some competing lenses
Corner performance never quite matches the rest of the frame

Purchase the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2x Macro @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Pergear | Amazon UK |

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Keywords: TTArtisan, TTArtisan 100mm, TTArtisan 100 Macro, 100mm, F2.8, Tilt/Shift, T/S, Tilt, Shift, 2x, 2:1, TTArtisan 100mm Macro Review, Macro, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, sony a7III, sony a7RIV, a9II, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1 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 100mm F2.8 2x Macro Tilt/Shift Gallery

Dustin Abbott

May 15th, 2023

Talk about ratcheting up the complexity! I’ve reviewed a number of TTArtisan lenses before, and they have mostly fallen into the categories that are filled by a lot of what I call “Boutique Third Parties”. These include various manual everything prime lenses with varying maximum aperture sizes. While engineering for larger apertures (like their F0.95 lenses) are more challenging, their newest lens adds a LOT of new moving parts. That lens is the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2X Macro Tilt/Shift.

Designing a lens that goes past 1:1 to 2:1 macro (2X) takes a lot of engineering. That’s twice as high of magnification as most macro lenses. Designing a tilt/shift lens takes even more engineering. I’ve never personally seen a lens that combines both of these elements before, so this is certainly a courageous move for TTArtisan, particularly since this is designed for full frame mirrorless mounts (I’m testing it on Sony E-mount, but it will also be available for Canon RF, Nikon Z, Leica L, and then smaller sensors like Fuji X and M43). This is also the longest focal length that TTArtisan has tackled to this point, which makes it a very interesting lens.

There are a variety of things that you can do with both ultra macro and tilt/shift, but it does mean that this is primarily going to be a “tripod lens”. Trying to do 2x macro work handheld (even with a camera body with IBIS) is very difficult, and all the moving parts of tilting and/or shifting are also going to be difficult to do handheld. If you take your time, however, you can produce some really unique photos with this lens.

I enjoyed playing with this lens in all the things that it can do, though in some ways its very ambition might be its greatest weakness, too. The TTA100M maybe tries to do too much, and all of the knobs and moving parts make for some ergonomic frustrations. At the same time, it must be acknowledged that this is a lot of lens for the money. This will be the cheapest point of entry for either a 2x macro lens or a tilt/shift lens that any of us have ever seen at about $400 USD, which in my mind makes this more attractive. You can judge for yourself by either watching my video review below or reading on to get the full picture.

Thanks to TTArtisan for sending me a pre-release 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 Sony a7IV along with the Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here).

Images of the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2x Macro T/S

Images taken with the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2X Macro T/S

Purchase the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2x Macro @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Pergear | Amazon UK |

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

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

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Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Receive a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) any Skylum product: Luminar, Aurora, or AirMagic

Keywords: TTArtisan, TTArtisan 100mm, TTArtisan 100 Macro, 100mm, F2.8, Tilt/Shift, T/S, Tilt, Shift, 2x, 2:1, TTArtisan 100mm Macro Review, Macro, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, sony a7III, sony a7RIV, a9II, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1 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 35mm F0.95 Review and Gallery

Dustin Abbott

December 12th, 2022

TTArtisan has continued to surprise me with lenses that in some way exceed my expectations. Whether it was a surprisingly sharp full frame fisheye lens, a shockingly competent macro lens that cost right over $100, or tiny little prime lenses like the 23mm F1.4 that are surprisingly competent…and cheap. They have also experimented with extremely large aperture lenses like TTArtisan’s 50mm F0.95 lens (which I reviewed here). Lenses with maximum apertures like this are notoriously difficult to engineer, and it’s a somewhat surprising trend that these new small lens makers like TTArtisan are taking on such challenges. But here we are with a second focal length at F0.95 – in this case the new TTArtisan 35mm F0.95. This is designed for APS-C mirrorless cameras like Sony E (reviewed here), Nikon Z, Fuji X, M/43, Canon EF-M and RF). The 50mm F0.95 did a fairly decent job of covering the larger full frame image circle, but that’s not the case here. This is very much a lens designed for the smaller sensor, and if you try to shoot it on full frame, you’ll get this (second photo shows the proper APS-C crop).

The TTArtisan 50mm F2 is an extremely compact lens (not much bigger than a “pancake” lens). It weighs only 200g in the Sony E-mount version I tested (it also comes in Canon RF and M mounts, Fuji X-mount, Nikon Z-mount, Leica L-mount, and Micro 4/3rds mounts.). The length is about 35mm, and the diameter is somewhere around 55mm (it’s not specified) with only a 43mm front filter thread. This is a lens that will easily fit in a pocket and can come along easily.

The list of features is rather short. This is a manual everything lens with no electronics or autofocus motor. Aperture is controlled by a tiny aperture ring near the front of the lens. The ring is clicked, with detents at ½ stops through F5.6, whereafter only full stops are available. The focus ring is made of metal (with fine ribs) and moves very smoothly though about 120 degrees of focus rotation. The lens extends a very minor amount during focus. There are both distance and hyper focal markings etched on the barrel. Everything is made of metal and actually feels very nicely made. My one complain about the build is that the front cap is of the screw on variety, and while that allows it to be very thin, it is also a pain to thread it on and off each time as that could cause you to miss a moment. There is no lens hood.

Manual focus is smooth and fairly precise, though you’ll want to utilized focus aids on your camera body like focus overlays and/or magnifying the image to visually confirm focus. My focus accuracy was nice and high when utilizing these techniques. Focus pulls for video are nice and smooth, though there isn’t a lot of room on such a small lens to keep your fingers out of the way.

Image quality is pretty much what I’d expect for a lens like this. Contrast at very wide apertures is low, with some prominent chromatic aberrations at wide apertures that clear up significantly by F2 but haven’t yet disappeared altogether.

When stopped down, the lens becomes very sharp and gives you plenty of detail all across the frame.

The aperture iris has 10 blades, which looks pretty cool when you look inside:

The high blade count is offset by having fairly straight blades, which results in some pretty obvious blade lines in bokeh highlights when the lens is stopped down.

Optical weaknesses include some moderate barrel distortion (+10 to correct), some tendency towards being flare prone, and the chromatic aberrations mentioned earlier. Vignette isn’t bad for a lens with such a wide aperture (about two stops). Lateral chromatic aberrations (near the edges of the frame) area are well controlled.

F0.95 lenses are valued for their bokeh, but I found bokeh a bit of a mixed bag. At close focus distances, the bokeh could be nice and soft:

A little further out, though, and the bokeh gets busier.

Minimum focus distance was 35cm, which gives us a little higher level of magnification than the 50mm lens, though this is no macro lens.

Despite these limitations, however, there was certainly plenty of optical performance to allow me to get a number of beautiful images with the lens despite its low budget origins. The TTArtisan 35mm F0.95 is a clear bargain at about $200 USD, making it a bit cheaper than the 50mm F0.95 before it. You can get my full breakdown by watching the video review below…or just enjoy the beautiful photos in the galleries below that!

Thanks to Pergear for providing the review copy 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 a7IV along with the Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here).

Images of the TTArtisan 35mm F0.95

Images taken with the TTArtisan 35mm F0.95

Pros:

Extremely large maximum aperture
Great light gathering
Nicely made lens
Good center sharpness from wide open
Good sharpness across the frame when stopped down
Focus ring moves smoothly and accurately

Cons:

Soft corners at wide apertures
Somewhat flare prone
Strong longitudinal CA

Purchase the TTArtisan 35mm F0.95 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Pergear

Purchase the TTArtisan 50mm F0.95 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Pergear

Purchase the TTArtisan 23mm F1.4 @ B&H Photo | PerGear | Amazon | 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

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

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Sony a9M2 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

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

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Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Get a discount off all Skylum Editing Software (Luminar, Aurora HDR, AirMagic) by using code DUSTINHDR at checkout:
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

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TTArtisan AF 75mm F2 Review

Dustin Abbott

September 23rd, 2024

Build and Handling

Autofocus and Video

Image Quality Breakdown

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the TTArtisan AF 75mm F2 @ B&H Photo | Vitopal | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Pergear

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

Related Articles at DustinAbbott.net

TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 X-mount Review

Dustin Abbott

April 18th, 2024

Build and Handling

Autofocus and Video

Image Quality Breakdown

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

_________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Purchase the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | 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

TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 Gallery

Dustin Abbott

April 18th, 2024

Photos of the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8

Photos Taken with the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8

_________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Purchase the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | 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

TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 Review

Dustin Abbott

November 23rd, 2023

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 Build and Handling

Autofocus Performance

TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 Image Quality

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

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

Related Articles at DustinAbbott.net

TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 STM Gallery

Dustin Abbott

November 23rd, 2023

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Photos of the TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8

Photos Taken with the TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

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

Related Articles at DustinAbbott.net

TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2x Macro Tilt/Shift Review

Dustin Abbott