“One month ago I received the TTArtisan quartet 17mm, 23mm, 35mm f1.4 and 50mm f1.2. A combination of lenses most street, travel and portrait photographers need in their photo bag.”
That’s how I started this test report 2 years ago. I used the lenses again and again and today, almost 2 years later, I am ready to finish this report for you.
TTArtisan is on the market since 2019. For such a young company they are offering a wide portfolio of light sensitive prime lenses for Leica Full-frame as well APS-C based mirror less cameras like my Fujifilm X-Series. They are structured in to three departments, Manufacturing, R&D and Sales & Marketing. Before I will go into details I need to share my first impression. They know very precisely what they are doing. All lenses have great IQ, are well designed and have a very high level of build quality.
But let us review lens by lens.
TTArtisan 17mm f1.4
The TTArtisan 17mm f1.4 lens is the last lens of this quartet I have reviewed. 17mm or 25.5mm FF is a focal length that gives us a wider view than humans can usual see. Therefor it triggers us emotionally giving more space in images which is working well in landscapes and some street images still not showing the extreme distortions we are used to offered by extreme wide lenses as 12mm APS-C or even 7.5mm fish-eye lenses. Still also with the TTArtisan 17mm f1.4 lens we must be careful. It works well for imaging from a distance people on the street but if you get closer and try to take a portrait, which is still possible with this lens due to the nice bokeh offered at f1.4, the distortions will add extra weight/dimension to the model. A size S model in real life will get easily a L size model on the photo.
The optical quality of the lens is outstanding. The image is sharp from corner to corner. Of course the top resolution and contrast can be found in the center of the lens. I recommend to use a straylight hood to even improve the contrast in most photographic situations. High image quality combined with the outstanding mechanical composition of this compact lens makes it a perfect travel companion and a must in every X photographers photo bag.
TTArtisan 23mm f1.4
Let´s get to a lens that might be a very universal lens in the sense of focal length. 23mm on a APS-C sensor (34.5mm FF) offers a perfect balance between enough background of a street scenario or wide landscape in the nature. Still people are not distorted as you will find with the 17mm wide angle lenses. This lens has a great opening that allows to operate for typical street photography also in later evening hours with decent shutter speed to still freeze the dynamic movements of the people. As you can see on my landscape picture below the lens is even wide open sharp and handles even difficult light situation with great optical results. Almost no color infringement can be seen. Next to these stunning optical results this is the lens of this quartet with the absolute best build quality. It´s so much fun to uses this solid but compact lens. it´s definitely in my top 3 of my most used lenses in my photo bag.
TTArtisan 35mm f1.4
The TTArtisan 35mm f1.4 is a compact and light weight standard (52.5mm FF) lens. With the 50mm lenses on my analog cameras I started my life as a photographer many years ago but still today I am in love with this focal length. I can do a complete photo trip just with this kind of lens.
The optical quality of the lens is good, in line with the other 3 as you can also see on the image below. The image is sharp and the colors are rendered well even wide open. I love the nearly round blur in the back ground.
Here my positive findings for this lens will stop. This lens has the weakest mechanical construction of all four lenses. It feels some kind of loose and that not only due to the fact that the lens has some play on the lens mount. It´s the missing friction while you are turning the focus ring. it feels cheap. One might say you get what you pay as this is a low cost lens but all 4 lenses are budget lenses and they are all performing at least two classes mechanical better. It might be that this lens has been the first they designed and manufactured. On the other lenses you can see that TTArtisan has improved dramatically design but also quality of manufacturing. Still for the price and optical quality it´s still a lens you might want to have in your bag.
All in all, TTArtisan, its about time to offer us the MKII version of this lens with the same mechanical quality as the new released lenses.
TTArtisan 50mm f1.2
“Impressive, f1.2 in such a compact lens, this must have a trade off in IQ.” That has been my first thoughts when I received that lens. My expectations have not been high. Today, I can tell you, this is one of the best lenses on the side of optical quality. The colors are rendered smooth but sharp. The Bokeh in the background is one of the best I ever have seen. The lens is compact and solid. Haptic is great and even at f1.2 it´s easy to focus. a wonderful lens for nature but also portraits.
It´s one of the lenses that has the special thing, the thing you cannot describe. It gives the images something magical. A touch of unique atmosphere, a kind of easyness. I am in love with this lens.
One thing I only can recommend, use this lens with a lens hood to prevent straylight entering the lens. The images and colors are much sharper and crispy. In fact, I use on all my lenses lens hoods day and night to improve optical quality and protect the lens from impact and damage carrying around.
To this outstanding and unique optical performance there is a good mechanical build quality. Still it´s mechanical not as good as the phantastic TTArtisan 23mm f1.4 but much better then the 35mm lens. For the optical performance at this budget price it´s to me a no brainer to have it with you every single day in your photographer life.
Verdict
All 4 lenses are offering best optical performance. The difference is the mechanical build quality. The early lenses are ok but do not reach the high standard of the TTArtisan 23mm f1.4 lens that can easily go into competition with 3-4 times more expensive lenses. Still seeing the budget pricing of all the lenses they all get my recommendation. For the price tag of ONE Fujifilm original lens you get all focal lenses you mostly need for your photographical adventures. Still I am looking for the MKII version of three of those lenses as they have proven to have better design and manufacturing with their latest lenses.
To me the winner and in my top 3 most used lenses is the TTArtisan 23mm f1.4. This lens you must have!
More sample images of these lenses you can find in the Lens Chapter of this blog. Choose the lens and you get access to many sample images. If you have any questions, I am always only one message away.