I’ve won this lens on one of contests 7artisans held. It took ages for me to receive it due to shipping issues, but it was worth the wait!
As I understood this lens was designed based on the drone lens 7Artisans(E-Mount) had for a while. Same lens constructions and same MTF chart, which is smart decision and more important – awesome implementation. Bravo!
Lens Specs
Focal Length: 35mm (52.5mm FF equivalent)
Coverage: Full Frame
Mount: M-mount (Leica) / Z/L/E mounts available
Build: Metal
Weight: 128g
Aperture ring: Fixed aperture
Blade Number: 1
Lens Construction: 4 groups 5 elements
Aperture Range: Fixed f5.6
Minimum Focus distance: 0.3m
Filter tread: N/A
Height: 22mm (without an adapter)
Diameter: 60mm
Links
7Artisans 35mm f5.6 M mount
Amazon US: Black, Back & Gold, Silver & Gold, Silver & Black
Amazon UK: Black, Back & Gold, Silver & Gold, Silver & Black
7Artisans 35mm f5.6 Z/L/E mount
Amazon US: L-Mount, Z-Mount, E-Mount
Amazon UK: L-Mount, Z-Mount, E-Mount
7Artisans 35mm f5.6 M mount – AliExpress
7Artisans 35mm f5.6 Z/L/E mount – AliExpress
7Artisans LM-FX Adapter – Amazon US/ Amazon UK / AliExpress
Quick look
First thing I’ve noticed – packaging is awesome! Nice box with magnets and a leather case inside. You can see it was made for Leica, it least it was my first thought. So I was impressed, but then I opened the case and was blown away, as this lens is a beauty! Black with a gold trim, small with focusing lever and minimal typography.
Even before I won it, I’ve seen them on 7Artisans IG page, and I thought they are great looking, but I like them even more than on the picture.
There are few variations – silver&gold, silver&black, fully black and black&gold. I’ve chosen black&gold even though I have a silver camera body. Also, there is another variation of the same lens but without focus lever – for L/Z/E mounts.
OK, back to my lens. I really like that there is a built-in lens cover, as it adds protections, and you don’t need an additional lens cap for it. Also, you can use it as graduated filter. There going to be an example in my video review, so check it out as well.
The lens is compact, it was designed this way, but I use it with adapter, so it’s a bit bigger! But still smaller than my other lenses except another 7Artisans body cap lens.
Build quality
Build quality is superb – nice finish, pattern on the gold trim accurate and all the markings are easy to read. The focus lever is smooth and all the moving parts controlled by it work as expected. The lens fit well to the adapter.
Handling
Lens is easy to use as there is only a single focus lever which also opens the lens cover. There is a subtle “click” when you open it to indicate infinity, so you can operate it without looking.
As I understand this lens should work like point and shoot for anything beyond 3-5 meters, but I do have some difficulties with it, probably due to a crop factor on my camera. This lens is designed for the full frame cameras, and focal length and aperture calculated to have the right hyperfocal distance. With a crop factor this calculation is being thrown off a bit. So if on the FF cameras you can set it to infinity and forget about it for anything further 3-5 meter(my guess), then for a cropped sensor you still need to adjust focus, just a tiny bit, but it slows you down and the focusing lever is not as precise as focus ring. That is not a big problem if you are ready to slow down, and if you’re choosing a manual lens then you are not in the rush I would say.
With a bit of practice you start to intuitively know when you need to adjust a focus on this lens and when to leave it on infinity.
Also, I had a feeling that this lens would produce great black and white images, and I think I was right. I would say I had most fun with this lens shooting B&W with some intended imperfections as a high ISO, additional grain and low shutter speed for a motion blur. That was a new experience for me and a new way to look around me.
Sharpness
The lens is sharp! Here is my very first shots with this lens at the closest focus. Look at these details!
Well, I could not resist temptation and slapped macro rings on it, and look at the result! Great image quality!
I don’t think that is a good practice to pixel peep, but there are few images with center and corner crop, so you can see more details.
Flaring
There is no way to add lens hood for this lens as there is no filter thread, so you may have some minor issues with flaring and losing contrast due to it.
Bokeh
This lens can produce some background separation even with a crop sensor camera, given that the subject is quite close. I image that if you are using it will Leica or other FF camera, it will be able to produce quite good portraits with a background separation.
Chromatic Abberations
Haven’t noticed any, so I would say they are well controlled possibly due to f5.6 aperture or a quite complex lens construction for a such small form factor.
Distortion
Barrel distortion is minor, and I haven’t noticed it much, so I wouldn’t even bother to correct it.
Vegnetting
There is no vignetting, but that is possibly because of the crop factor of my camera.
Conclusion
This lens is probably not for every one as any manual focus lens, but this one even more so. You are limited with exposure control and a focusing lever is not the most convenient choice, BUT, this lens provides you an experience, there is something about (maybe everything) that forces you to try something new. I was running around as a child with a camera, grinning and constantly thinking what can I try!
This lens produces good quality images, looks great and provides a ton of fun, so for me this is a great lens, but of course it has its limitations, therefore it obviously will never be my main lens. If you are like me, open for something new, then it will be a nice one to have.
Image Samples
Video Review
* 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.