7Artisans 18mm f6.3 is a fun little body cap lens. Only pinhole lens can rival it in terms of simplicity. I was worried that it won’t be usable, but was pleasantly surprised by the result.
This is not the first bodycap lens – Fujifilm has XM-FL 24mm f8, Olympus has two lenses and I’ve seen some Kickstarter projects, but most of them had questionable performance. Luckily, this one is different.
Currently there is almost no information about this lens except few images, so I’ll share my discoveries.
Lens Specs:
Focal Length: 18mm (27mm FF equivalent on APS-C cameras)
Aperture: f6.3 (fixed)
Minimum Focus Distance: ~60 cm
Focus: Fixed.
CPU Contacts: No
Lens Construction: 4 groups, 6 elemens
Build: Metal
Filter Threads: None
Height: 14mm
Diameter: 56mm
Mount: FX / E / EOS-M(?) / MFT(?)
Price: 69$
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7Artisans 18mm f6.3 Fujifilm – Amazon US / Amazon UK
7Artisans 18mm f6.3 Sony – Amazon US / Amazon UK
7Artisans 18mm f6.3 Canon – Amazon US / Amazon UK
7Artisans 18mm f6.3 M43 – Amazon US / Amazon UK
7Artisans 18mm f6.3 – Aliexpress
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Pros: Tiny lens that makes camera pocketable.
Cons: No front element cover. Unnecessary writings on the lens.
Package
The lens came in transparent plastic box with simple pouch – a bit unusual for 7Artisans, but it seems they tried to make this lens more affordable.
Look
Black coated lens with roman numbers on the front. There are no controls on this lens, so numbers have no practical meaning. Plastic decal applied round the front element with the brand name and lens name – UFO Lens. Personally, I would prefer to have it black and without the plastic sticker as it makes it look cheaper.
Build
The lens is fully metal, solidly build which is no surprise as there no moving parts. Front element doesn’t have any cover whatsoever – get your dust blower ready! Also, it doesn’t have filter thread, which no surprise looking at the tiny glass element.
There seem to be 3 hex screws on the back, which is possibly focus adjustment, not sure.
Fitting to the camera is secure, no complaints here – nice and tight enough without unnecessary movements.
Handling
This lens is fixed focal length, fixed aperture and fixed focus, so there is literally no controls on the lens therefore it was extremely easy to use. Could make a quick snap at any moment without being worried about the focus and depth of field. Not everyone will like it, but this lens is about taking images instead of messing with settings. The 18mm (27mm) is a popular focal length for street/documentary photography and f6.3 aperture is a great middle line between depth of field and gathering light ability. Would also work well for some landscape or cityscape photography. So I personally enjoyed it and will definitely keep using it.
Image quality
My expectation was quite low and I was worried that this lens might be unusable, but this lens surprised me.
Sharpness
In my opinion, this lens has a good sharpness considering its size. It might actually perform a bit better on a sunny day with high shutter speed, but I’m yet to use it in such conditions.
There were some questions about sharpness and I decided to add a few more lines about it.
It is important to understand this lens is set to infinity, so the closer the object more out of focus it’s going to be. I’ve measured minimum focus distance as 60cm, but sharpness at this distance is far from being good. As I can see object should be about 2m or further to be sharp.
Cropped
Cropped
Images above is to compare sharpness between 7Artisans Cap lens and Fujifilm xf18-55mm @18mm f6.4. Shoot at 1.5m distance (measured) and cropped. In my opinion, there is no much difference in sharpness, but some difference in contrast.
Vignetting
There is some vignetting, but I don’t find it important as it can be easily fixed in post and I usually add it anyway.
As a wide angle lens there is noticeable distortion which can be easily fixed on Lightroom.
7Artisans 18mm f6.3 1/125 ISO6400 + 26mm Macro rings
Unexpected feature
Surprisingly or not, but paired with macro rings this lens has good macro abilities. Above image without edits, jpeg straight out of the camera. Classic Chrome film simulation. You can clearly see dust particles and that is handheld at 1/125 and ISO6400.
Conclusion
In my opinion this is a great little lens which will be used. It obviously has it’s limitations, but overal this is a fun little lens which produce good result. Will it find it’s user? Not everyone will understand it, not every one will need it, but there will be some people who will like it. I did.
Video Review
There is my video review of this lens!
* Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.