Firefly is the new name for the stunning 7Artisans f0.95 series of lenses. The 7Artisans 25mm f0.95, the 7Artisans 35mm f0.95 and the 7Artisans 50mm f.095. These Fireflies (I do not know if you notice how much I love this name!) are every thing I need in my daily life as a photographer.
Many of you will say, well 25mm (37,5mm FF) is not wide enough for landscape photography only 18mm or even 12mm are suitable real wide angle lenses. Well yes, from the point of just seeing the image perspective degrees those people are right. To me it is much more important, when I Image landscapes that I also have a minimum of distortions. Yes you can correct optical distortion with a mouse click and with Fujinon and Zeiss Touit lenses this is even done automatically in the camera or in post processing programs as e.g. Photoshop or Capture One. To me this is faking with the physical limits and at the end it is just the result of clever SW and some machine learning algorithms. Art made by an AI..
I am a 99% SOOC photographer. Being an artist, my instrument is the camera in combination with some prime lenses. The high expectation to my self is that I am able to play my instrument to create the image I want. Hours in front of a computer to tweak the image to the point I love and want it, is not foreseen in this world. Yes, I am an old guy that might be stuck in his brain back in the 70´s and 80´s. The time when you got 36 images on a film (72 on some special Ilford HP5 Plus) and you got only one chance to make the picture right. Right means the correct exposure values, speed and aperture, as ISO was fixed by the film unless you pushed the sensitivity in the development of the negatives. Also the choice of brand and type of the negative film was giving you the colors or grey shades, resolution and grain of you final picture. The last but even most important thing has been the composition of your picture. The golden cut or similar technics to boost the message of your picture. This all has been bringing us it to a point that the picture was “made” in brain before you pressed the shutter button. Today we all temped to make at least 50 images and then use clever software tools to design the picture as you like it most. I am sure you under stand the difference in concept and creativity process.
To summarize all this above; I am old school.
Having all this said you might now understand very well why I am into landscape (nature and urban) photography with a 7Artisans 25mm f0.95 lens. This focal length can even be used for portrait work if you like to have much more than just a head on you image but want to show the portrait of a person with in his natural surrounding. An addition to the classical portrait where just the head has been expressing the character of a person. Adding some background content could emphasis or even change the point of view reflecting the person in focus. But still the proportions of the person imaged are right and no unnatural distortions will disturb the message of the portrait.
I am stalling.
My topic of today are night street shots, wide open and with a very well selected point of focus. For me an other proof for the quality of the bokeh in color shots and in Black and White the grain produced at ISO 1250. Please let me know which pictures you prefer, the B&W or the Color once that are reflecting the color of the night. I have done the shots out of the car when I picked up my daughter from a party at friends around midnight. I got to the agreed spot to pick her up one hour earlier to catch with my camera the atmosphere of the night. Standing at the side of the road spotting the night traffic got me the feeling being James Bond spying on the evil Dr. No, Mr. Blofeld or Goldfinger. Great emotions that inspires to interesting images.
has been an other brick to complete my judgement of this lens and giving this Firefly the badge of “Best 7Artisans lens ever”.
P.S. One thing I need to add here as many questions and remarks have reached me on FB. “This lens looks long and heavy”. Well yes, this has been also my first impression when FedEx delivered the lens one month ago. What a big beast for a 7Artisans lens. Today, after 1 month using and testing the Firefly, my mind has changed so much. The length and also the weight of this lens is supporting so well to hold it even at low speeds steady to shoot. 7Artisans has also invested in high quality glass to reach this high level of optical correction and IQ. This of course has some weight. Still this lens is compact and not to heavy in comparison to e.g. the Fujinon XF 50mm f1.0 WR. To me it’s the Masterpiece of 7Artisans!
Enjoy the results and please leave your opinion in a comment.
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