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This is an impeccably well made lens. It's all metal and very dense. It's a breath of fresh air compared to the crappy plastic that too many people accept today from Nikon and Sony. It appeared to be in focus, and the focus peaking indicators on my Z6 II would say that it was, but I often saw that the focus was off in the final image. And this wasn’t just at f2; I saw this all the way until f4 even. With every other manual focus lens I’ve used on this camera, even at f1.4, the focus peaking was accurate. Even when the depth of field was shallow, it was always accurate. If it was off, it was either because the subject had moved out of the focal plane or I did. Now at f2, I was willing to blame myself for not being steady enough to nail the focus. But when there was sufficient focal range at apertures like f4, I was stumped over why the focus would be off. I also own the 50 Lux ASPH and here’s my take on how it differs (on the Leica M) from the TTArtisan 50/1.4 images in this review: Leica claims the Lux ASPH is actually an APO design yet was not branded as such (IIRC this was mentioned by lens designer Peter Karbe in an interview). This seems to be supported based on low LoCA and very low wide open purple fringing compared to the TTA 50/1.4. I rarely notice this problem in images with it. It also has very low distortion. However, it has a few flaws that can be annoying: a drop in sharpness and that becomes quite nervous in the mid zone between around f/2.5-4.5 with corresponding wavy field curvature, making rule of thirds subject placement problematic; ‘ninja-star’ aperture opening between f/2.5-5.6 (apparently to minimize focus shift); not so great flare resistance. It will produce a similar, though less colorful flare ring as the TTA wide open and IMO is generally not great at resisting veiling flare with bright light just outside the frame. It does not have to be a specular light source; it could even be an overcast sky. Unfortunately this is something I’ve noticed with other Leica lenses, particularly the various modern 90s I have owned (Summarit, Macro, APO-ASPH). Shot wide open this lens has some of the best looking bokeh I’ve seen in a long time. Taking the price into consideration this shouldn’t even be possible. It’s really that good.
Its 12-bladed diaphragm gives 12-pointed sunstars on brilliant points of light at moderate and small apertures. The Samyang 45mm 1.8 is the lightest lens on this list even though it is noticeably bigger than this TTArtisan lens. It shares the issues with corner sharpness at infinity but not with flare resistance and Coma. Instead the loCA correction is noticeably worse and the bokeh plagued by strong onion rings. Utility Plate, 9:43 AM, 19 December 2020. LEICA M9, TTArtisan 50mm f/1.4 ASPH at f/8 at 1/ 500 at Auto ISO 160 ( LV15⅔). bigger or full resolution JPG image from DNG data processed in Apple Aperture, uncorrected.Made-in- U. S. A. Davis 6250 weather station, 19 December 2020. LEICA M9, TTArtisan 50mm f/1.4 ASPH at 1/ 4,000, 1/ 4,000, 1/ 2,000 and 1/ 750 at ISO 80, 160, 160 and 160, Perfectly Clear. Lens sharpness has nothing to do with picture sharpness; every lens made in the past 100 years is more than sharp enough to make super-sharp pictures if you know what you're doing. The only limitation to picture sharpness is your skill as a photographer. It's the least talented who spend the most time worrying about lens sharpness and blame crummy pictures on their equipment rather than themselves. Skilled photographers make great images with whatever camera is in their hands; I've made some of my best images of all time with an irreparably broken camera! Most pixels are thrown away before you see them, but camera makers don't want you to know that. Micro-Contrast just seems to be good, nothing amazing, but still totally acceptable because the sharpness and contrast are so nice.
TTartisan 50mm f/1.2 @1.2 – Missed focus on the eye a little bit. (open image in new tab for full size) There are many nice 50mm lenses out there, with which one could compare this lens to, but they would mostly be full frame lenses for other systems that would have to be adapted, for example Leica 50mm f/1.4 Summilux, Voigtländer Nokton 50/1.5, 50/1.2 or 50/1.1. TTartisan even has their own 50mm f/0.95, and 50mm f/1.4 for M mount, and 7artisans made the 50mm f/1.1 as well as the Kamlan 50mm f/1.1 – So there are PLENTY of options for fast fifty lenses in a lot of different price ranges.So far most of the TTArtisan E-mount lenses have first been released as M-mount lenses and then later been modified for other mounts. This 50mm 2.0 is different though, as it isn’t even available for M-mount and the casing design also differs a lot from their M-mount lenses. Like the M-mount lenses it is also made by DJ-Optical though. With the exception of a non-standard 49mm filter thread, it handles better than the SUMMMILUX-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH because the SUMMMILUX-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH's focus is stiff, while this TTArtisan lens focuses like a dream like most other LEICA lenses. Precise, smooth focussing with zero play — just like a real LEICA lens and even smoother than the stiff focus of the LEICA SUMMILUX-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH!
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