The 7artisans 35mm F 1.2 Manual Focus Lens

I bought my lens here.

Let's Go Buy Buy! I have been doing a lot of on-line shopping during the shelter-in-place restrictions placed on Californians. Since I now have three Fuji X-Pro bodies, I felt an obligation to experiment with manual focus prime lenses using both adapted Nikkors and maybe buy some with dedicated  Fuji X mounts. 7artisans has introduced a wide variety of manual focus lenses including a 7.5mm  2.8 fisheye, a 12mm F 2.8 and a 25mm F 1.8 wide angles, a "normal" 35mm 1.2, and a 55mm 1.4 short telephoto.  My 55 should arrive shortly, and my 25 some time in April.

The 7artisans 35mm F 1.2 lens was the first to arrive, and it was ahead of schedule. Many of these Chinese-made lenses have been in short supply, probably due to factory closures and a nation of shelter-in-place shoppers needing an excuse to buy something. My lens was shipped from a dealer in New York, so delivery was well within the promised one-week delivery window. Other EBay stores based in China and Hong Kong are not due to start shipping until April.

I mounted my new lens on a Fuji X-E1 body, primarily because it was handy and much lighter than my X-Pro bodies. When viewed from above, you can see that all of the controls are visible and accessible. In fact, the lens is very close in appearance to the one on my old  Olympus 35SP, the closest thing I ever got to a grownup rangefinder camera. Carrying that Olympus daily taught me a lot about photography. I am starting to remember those lessons whenever I handle this new lens/body combination.

Lens Layout: The layout is pretty standard among the manual focus lenses, which is to say the focusing ring (right arrow) is farther from the camera body, while the aperture ring (left arrow) is closer.  This works out nicely, since it gets pretty crowded on lenses this small. You'll be making far more adjustments to focus than you will for aperture size, so place it where there is more room to move. From a design standpoint, the placement of the aperture blades in a 35mm lens is 35mm, or about 3/4", from the film plane. In the simplified design of a fully manual lens, this makes sense. In reality, the aperture adjustment ring can be placed anywhere on the lens barrel, for a price.

The focusing arc, or the rotation necessary to adjust the lens from infinity to the closest focusing distance, is about 135 degrees, close to 1/3 of a turn. The image snaps in and out of focus smartly, but precision is necessary as the slightest movement might inadvertently nudge the lens out of focus. It's quite smooth, by the way.

Indexing Marks: One on-line reviewer of the 7artisan lenses said, in essence, that there was no way of knowing what aperture one had selected. I think he's half right. There is an index mark (red arrow) that serves to identify both the distance and the aperture settimgs, but it is difficult to see.

I can't imagine that the cost of a more visible reference line would have pushed the price point out of alignment, but it goes to show how much/little the designers wanted to provide a great user experience. True, you will eventually learn where to look, but how hard would it have been to elongate the line, or put a red dot to mark the spot?

Guestimation: Since the advent of face detection, available on more and more cameras, the photographer could let the camera isolate any faces in the frame and adjust the focus accordingly. But old school photographers often relied on their ability to accurately guess the subject-to-camera distance. These adjustments, along with appropriate exposure settings, were made before the camera was brought to eye level.

Maximizing Depth Of Field: If you're grabbing shots on the run, it would be helpful if you could predict the depth of field provided by your shooting aperture. You need to set your lens to its Hyperfocal Distance setting. First, select your shooting aperture. In this case, the smaller the aperture, the greater the depth of field. F 8.0 has been selected (white down arrow). Next, locate the two depth of field indicators on the scale. Align right hand indicator with the infinity marker (red arrow). Notice that the left hand indicator is aligned with the one meter (3.5') marker. In theory, everything from 3.5 feet to infinity will be in focus, assuming that your sharpness needs are a little loose.

For this lens, the Hyperfocal Distance* is about 7 feet when shooting at F 8.0. Of course, you'd only need to remember that distance only if you didn't have a depth of field scale, which you do.


The Focal Plane Mark: While we're on the subject of manual focusing our lenses, you should know about the Focal Plane Mark (white arrow). While the position from camera to camera can vary, it indicates the location of the surface where the film, or the sensor, is positioned. The distances marked on the lens barrel are distances from the subject to the focal plane, not to the front of the lens. Consider too that the distance markings on the barrel are approximate, so don't attempt to use them for anything too precise.

Okay, get out there and focus those lenses manually!

*A detailed explanation can be found here.