TTArtisan 50mm f/2 Reviews
GREAT buy if you don't mind manual focus
By Francisco
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2023-09-21
It feels well made and the focus ring is smooth (for the price). The lens is fast and sharp!
No brainer, just buy it!
By Todd
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2023-06-21
Just arrived today so I just did a quick walkaround trying out this nice TTArtisan 50mm f/2. It's intended use would be urban/city walkaround and it is my first Z mount lens for my Z6 that I don't need an adapter. Quality and heft are nice, focus smooth with aperture at the front of the lens. I shot at f/2 and f/8, bokeh nice enough. I'm sure this will work fine in Boston for street photography, lightweight and compact. Seriously though for $69, no brainer, grab it and have fun!
The Perfect Starter 50mm
By Justin
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2023-05-12
You found this product by filtering by your lens mount, full-frame coverage, and your desired focal length, the almighty 50mm. You then sorted all available listings by Price: Low to High and discovered this. Your expectations are incredibly low, but are skeptical due to so many high-rated reviews.
I got this lens for my Sony A7C. I really wanted a longer focal length, but moreso something that would work well for street photography, product shots, and portraits, and it works amazingly well. It is manual focus only, but putting focus peaking on helps a lot, and I think that learning to manual focus well is a great skill to learn. We're all spoiled by the fantastic autofocusing systems, and I think this is a great lens to start with if you've never used manual focus before.
When you nail focus, the image is sharp. The lens is all metal, including the lens cap, so it's built incredibly well. I love the silver, as it matches my Sony A7C; I really wish more lens manufacturers offered silver for a color for FF lenses. I absolutely love the aperture ring and it's very fun to focus with.
The only downsides include: sometimes getting vignetting on only the right side of the frame, and you get out of focus, swirly bokeh on the bottom of your frame (sometimes the top if you don't have a high enough shutter speed). But I think that gives this lens character and can be used creatively.
Buy this lens. You deserve it.
To see more sample photos, find me on VSCO and Instagram @justinwayphotos (both the RAW and JPEGS were to large for B&H to handle)
Good value
By Robert
Rated 3 out of 5
Date: 2023-04-14
For the money this is a good value.Build quality and components seem above standard (especially at this price).Wish the scale's lettering was engraved instead of just painted on. I would have gladly paid a higher price for that detail. Images are acceptable.As other reviewers have pointed out these lenses are fun and allow us to experiment in many focal lengths without going broke.
Sharp, almost no CA. A gem!
By RICHARD
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2023-04-02
The TT Artisan 50mm f/2 truly surprised me; I never thought I would be writing this review. I like to shoot wide open for the bokeh which means the lens has to have minimal chromatic aberration or is well-corrected against longitudinal chromatic aberration. This lens is.
Surprisingly, for a lens that is well under $80 this lens displays very little CA. You really have to pixel-peep to see it in high contrast areas.
In addition to being sharp this lens also has very little field curvature so that you can photograph something that is fairly flat and attain excellent sharpness from center to most of the frame at f/2-it only improves from there onto f/5.6. Bokeh with this lens is beautifully smooth with a superb transition from sharp to blurred.
The mechanics of the focus ring are first-rate, and focus feels extremely smooth without binding or hesitation. The aperture ring is lightly detented so that you can barely feel the aperture change clicks. My only criticism is that there very little space between the focus ring and the aperture ring because the lens is so compact, although you can easily feel the difference as to which is which when your eye is to the camera.
One key factor that works in my favor is that the TT Artisan 50mm f/2 is a full-frame lens. In other words, its image is designed to cover the entire, and since I'm using it on the Canon EOS R7 (32MP), which is an APS-C sensor camera, its cropped-frame sharpness across the frame is excellent (and has an equivalent field-of-view of a 75mm).
Wide open at f/2 there is a slight loss of contrast but it quickly recovers once the aperture is f/2.8 or greater. Personally, I did not notice any pronounced or major light fall-off or vignetting towards the corners. Dustin Abbott did an excellent review of this lens on a full-frame camera.
I do use a 52mm lens shade (to avoid veiling of contrast in direct light) via a 43-to-52mm step-up ring and it works fine.
This lens is an amazing performer, especially at this price. I have included several sample photos and all were shot at f/2. Look at the photo of the palm frond's long triangular leaves, and its close up (detail). The tree leaves with the distant blur was also shot at f/2.
Great option at affordable price
By Boston
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2023-02-14
I very much enjoy this lens and its focal length is perfect for street photography and portrait shots and looks very nice overall on the camera. It is only manual focus though which is the only downer.
overall great lens for an affordable price.
For the price-WOW
By Wilfred
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2023-07-04
Bought this lens for the simplicity of its design and the attractive price point, hoping for 1970s character and acceptable build quality. This little lens exceeded my hopes is all areas. It is well built, as most TTArtisans lenses are, smooth focusing action, and the image quality is what I was looking for. Not a clinical look, like the Nikon 50mm 1.8, but more in line with an older Summicron, Canon, or Olympus nifty 50. Lots of fun, unique but very usable look.
Awesome Lens!
By Emilio
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2023-06-25
Great Lens and not only for the money. If you like manual lenses, this is perfect. Fast enough and sharp. Small and well built. Nice bokeh!
