That Egg Shaped Lens

Get yours here.

I am sure I'll go broke buying every inexpensive manual focus lens made in China. It seems that as soon as a lens is brought to market, a number of variations appear ready to compete in both price point and performance.

Every since I started taking photos for the Journal, I've come to appreciate how useful wide angle lenses are. They allow me to work at shorter subject to camera distances when necessary, especially when working indoors. Outdoors, the wide view angle allows me to include large to huge swatches of cloud infused blue skies while reducing distracting background details.

My newest lens, a TTArtisan 17mm F 1.4, has played to good reviews on the Internet, so far as bloggers can be trusted. True, everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and there are too many bloggers ready to parrot, "Bokeh this, bokeh that, smooth focus, sharp center, nicely packaged, classy box, blah bla BLAH".

Prior to this latest purchase, my collection of manual focus wide angle (20mm or less) under $250.00 lenses included, in order of purchase:

12mm F 2.8 7artisans Lens: The first of my wide angle lenses, it produced some very acceptable images. The most compact of my four wide angles, it unfortunately utilizes a non-removable petal lens hood. You cannot attach filters unless you purchase a special filter adapter that is held in place with a setscrew. 

12mm F 2.0 Samyang Lens: This was the most expensive lens of the lot. I purchased it because it was on sale. I'm a sucker for fast lenses. It takes regular 67m filters and has a giant removable petal lens hood. However, it is smaller than the Zeiss 12mm F 2.8 I already own. It has yet to make a photo that made my eyes pop.

15mm F 4.0 Opteka Macro (close focusing) Lens: I saw a video where the unique perspective provided by a macro wide angle lens, and thought it might be interesting to try it when I found a lens at the right price. The Opteka is a corner-cutting copy of the more expensive and better made Venus Laowa tilt-shift lens of the the focal length, and sold at a fraction of t he cost. I used the Opteka once, and wasn't really impressed with its performance either as a wide angle lens or a macro lens. Big and clunky, mine has a Nikon F mount which I adapted to my Fuji X bodies. So configured, it's demeanor can only be described as "clunky". Incidentally, there apparently was a lawsuit against Opteka by the Venus people, so the lens is not readily available.

Why This Lens? Lens speed was the primary attribute. There are several of these manually focused wonders boasting 1.4 maximum apertures and better. Visually, the focusing seems to have a very precise in-focus / out-focus threshold, The focusing ring rotates smoothly, and while the knurled portion of the ring is quite narrow, the actual gripping surface of the focusing barrel is almost half the entire length of the lens. This, along with its position closest to the body, make for easy focusing, so far as finger placement is concerned. 

Speaking of finger placement, this TTArtisan lens, along with its two predecessors (35mm 
F 1.4 and the 50mm F 1.2) share a similar ring configuration: Aperture at the front, focusing at the rear. If you count the non-knurled portion of the focusing barrel, the gripping surface is extremely generous. 

Shop TTArtisan here.

If I had it to do all over again, I should have bought the trio of TTArtisan lenses and called it a day. I would have missed two of the 7Artisan lenses, the 12mm and the 25mm, whose focal lengths neatly straddle the 17mm. Still, shifting from one lens to another would be incredibly easy since control placement on the TTArtisan trio is almost identical. Also, the rotation of the aperture rings and focusing barrel are the same, too.

Observations From The Field: I have taken this lens out on two of my morning walks, and have found it very easy to focus, probably due to the F 1.4 maximum aperture. Its sharpness is more than adequate, but as you might have guessed, I have other sharper lenses to use when image sharpness is an issue. The TTArtisan lens will accept 40.5mm filters, while the 12mm F 2.8 won't accept any filters without the special adapter. Because of the design of the lens, I can't mount any of my lens hoods because their edges intrude into corners of the image space. Still, that bit of added protection provided by the filter makes me more likely to carry this lens. It's 17mm focal length, while longer than my 12mm, hasn't proven a handicap. 

When it comes to prime lenses, I prefer focal lengths that double at each step. If I chose the 12mm as my wide, I'd carry a 25 and a 50. If I chose the 17mm, the next two lenses would be the 35mm and a non-existent 70ish lens. As of now, 50-55mm are the longest focal lengths available in the inexpensive, manual focus, manual aperture lens lineup. I'll give some very serious consideration to an 80mm if and when one becomes available in a suitable price point. I might consider adding both the TTArtisan 35mm 1.4 and the 50mm 1.2 lenses for the simple reason that the focusing ring and aperture ring placement are handier than the 7Artisans lenses I already own.