Joined in 2023 
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63 About this deal
When I first heard about the 7Artisans 35mm f/1.2 lens, I must admit I was a little bit disappointed that it wasn’t a full frame lens. The first images I saw of it looked a little odd too – they certainly didn’t do the design of the lens any favours. I’ve also not been massively overexcited about the CSC lenses 7Artisans produce, with my main interest really being in what they make for M-mount cameras. As such, I’ve found myself all the more surprised with how smitten I am with the 35mmc 1.2 – it’s a crazy little lens, but I can’t help but really like it. It’s cheap Build quality is solid and compared to my Leica and Voigtlander lenses it feels somewhere between both, although closer to Voigtlander. I’ve no M-mount Zeiss lenses to compare, sadly. If you’re interested, I rant a bit about this at the end of the article. In short, my response to these people is: get over yourself. Build quality
Wide open bokeh can be a little wild, but to be honest, it’s not as barmy as I expected it to be. Depth of field is far from as shallow as the 50mm 1.1 on the Leica, as such the out of focus rendering isn’t quite as overbearing or prominent feeling in equivalent photos. That being said, it’s certainly not the perfectly smooth and creamy bokeh some people seem to strive for. Pardon the missed focus – shot at f/1.2 f/2.8 A few more photos I also used this lens on my Panasonic S1. I was trying to see if maybe this lens had a Sonnar focus shift or it wasn’t calibrated properly on my rangefinder. I got the same results on the S1 so I don’t think it is a Sonnar focus shift issue. It is just a little bit soft at F2. The lens exhibits and insane amount of barreldistortion. I don’t think I’ve ever seen examples of it that is that pronounced! It’s correctable in post, obviously, but still it is very pronounced. Just look at the windowlines in this image below. X-Pro3 | 7artisans 35mm f/1.2 @f/1.2 | Notice the VERY pronounced barrel distortion You can also note the slight exposure difference between the two that I outlined further up the article. The bokeh quality between the two I definitely rate as similar. Mid frame the 7artisans seems to have a little bit of a dark rings near the edges of the blurry specular highlights, but when you change the exposure up to match that of the Mitakon they are again similar. So which lens is right for you? 7Artisans 35mm f1.4 vs Voigtlander 35mm f1.4 VM lens? If you use a Leica M film camera I would get the Voigtlander lens for the size, build and it being pre-calibrated. For mirrorless camera users I would recommend the 7Artisans 35mm 1.4 lens for sharper images shot wide open. Final verdict of the 7Artisans 35mm 1.4 lens?
A modern Sonnar?
Trust me…..Leica Gear is not worth the money they charge you. Especially today where all of their lenses optical computation is optimized for digital which means the glass doesn’t have to be as sharp because the Digital Sensor will compensate for that.
When I first received the lens my initial impression was very very very good. It came in a very nice leather storage box, with a hidden compartment in the lid for an SD card! Indeed a very nice first impression upon unboxing this lens. As you can probably see by the amount I have written about the 7Artisans 35mm f/1.2 compared to the 55mm 1.4, I’m a little more taken with it. Quite a bit more in fact. To be honest, a lot of that comes from a combination of its size when mounted on the camera, it’s effective focal length being 50mm (my preference) and it’s speed compared to my usual 2.8 carry-everywhere lens. It would make more sense to compare the 7artisans lens with the pre-aspherical Summicrons, both in terms of price, and performance. In use, the 7Artisans 35mm f/1.2 is a odd lens, but to be fair to it I think some of this comes from the fact that it’s also a very small lens – especially for its specification. I think it’s actually slightly smaller than the 25mm 1.8 lens 7Artisans also make. As such, I’ve found it makes for a great compact carry everywhere lens.The images that I shoot with the 7artisans are different, they’re unique, they’re me. And that is much more important to me than ultimate image quality. I have no affiliation with TTartisan. They sent me the lens to review. I’m not getting paid by TTartisan in any form. Free YouTube Search Tool– Keep up to date with the monthly Newsletterand receive a free copy of my YouTube video search tool. Search my 200+ videos by lens manufacturer, lens mount, focal length, film format and other filters. There is a little bit of vignetting wide open, but not too much. I would say about 1/3 exposure stop. It goes away at f/2. It is to be expected, so no surprises there.
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