Buying a used vintaged lens is like a box of chocolate. You never know what you are going to get. So I bought a new 58mm f/1.4 vintage style lens which I love and also a 40mm f/2 which I love even more.
There is a huge copy variation with new lenses too. You won't get any haze or scratches (or at least shouldn't), but 1/2 Samyang lenses are at least slightly decentered for example (with 14mm 2.8 it used to be more like 3/4) and and Sony had pretty bad record in the past too (even with pricy ones). Sony Zeiss 35mm 1.4 had such a bad reputation, although there were good copies which proves it was all about terrible manufacturing standards. These are things almost nobody writes about in their reviews, they get their copy chosen by the manufacturer and that's it. But people do sometimes have to send the lens back and look for a new copy. Things aren't terrible, my point only is - always check new lenses well for centering and sharpness compared to what you expect of it. Manufacturers find it cheaper to receive 5-10% of their lenses back than to invest in quality control, that's how it is nowadays with mostly everything. That didn't happen 50 years ago, so I actually have at least as good experience with vintage lenses (I just have to check as well as I can what I'm buying, in person when possible).
I started on art school with photography. In the eighties. My first camera was an Olympus OM10, followed by more OM (OM1, 2… which we used when I became an endoscopy (male) nurse!). All with Zuiko lenses… My digital time started with Canon Powershot Pro1, 20D, 4OD, 5D. With some amazing Canon lenses. My digital camera nowadays is an Olympus OM D1… and I use my vintage Zuiko lenses again! Thnx to you, I must say! Thanks a lot and keep making your amazing educating videos!!
Thnx for yet another informative (and what i call '''high arts'') presentation. Some professionals would claim that the Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4 remains one of the kingpins of vintage 50mm glass? How about doing full comparison between these two? which i'm sure all vintage glass lovers would welcome with glee? Stay blessed.
I love my Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 50mm F/1.4. I suppose you don't get radiated with the TT Artisans however I'll stick with my Tak and take the risk :)
TT Artisans have come a long way in the cut throat world of lens manufacturers, but still have a way to go to perfect their lenses. I don't mind imperfections, they give the lens character. You only need to compare an old Helios 44 with a Helios 44-7 to see how character can be polished out of a lens with improved manufacturing and coating. Nice honest review as always. 👍
Hi Zenography, The first thing that jumps out is the length of the lens. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that it is an optical SRL design and the length is due to the fact that the adapter is included in the body of the lens. Also a very interesting lens since it is corrected using more modern technology than vintage ones. Anyway, sharpness is not everything, for portraits with a little magic I think I would use the Rokkor 58 F1.4
It would be great if these manual lenses were made with rabbit-ear prongs Nikon AI-S style. There is an enormous booming Nikon F, F2, F3, FM community that would be very much interested in these lenses. Voigtländer makes modern lenses Ultron 40mm F2.0 and Nokton 58mm F1.4 both $420 - $500, brutally great lenses with AI-S prongs.
Nice review. I owned the M mount version of this and was quite happy with it. I normally shoot vintage glass but ran into a good deal on a used one and glad I tried it. I am probably going to by one with a mount to fit my Leica SL now as I no longer own the M mount version.
Thank you for another splendid review. I use the Jupiter 3/1951 and Jupiter 8/1968, to avoid the plastic look of modern lenses. Keep on your superb reviews / Ulf.
Yes, I’d buy it for its virtues and reasonable price. I have a Carl Zeiss 50mm f 1.4, but I’d keep that one too. A lens hood is easy enough. Perhaps the manufacturer could add a lens hood on the next upgrade. Well presented, Nigil. As always.
It's a tempting lens and something I'll keep in mind. But not top priority as I have plenty of 50s and plenty adapters so really no need. I just bought a 50 1.8 for my Sony A7 - it costs significantly less and gives me the comfort of autofocus. I know it has mixed reviews but I can send it back if it is unuseable and maybe buy the TT Artisan who build good quality lenses, I have some like the 50mm 1.1 in M-mount or the 35mm in Sony E. This one should be the same build quality. Thanks for the review and waiting for next video!
Very nice of them to send you one. I have several of the new lenses from China,not this one exactly, they are certainly likeable things at a reasonable price, and actually new and working, the amount of old mint gear that's needed instant cla. Things to look out for on these nee kids , barreling and occasional ripple in the focus field. And is it FF or apsc or more likely somewhere in between. Not needing an adapter can be helpful however adapters do give the opportunity to drag the focus back to really close. Without the need to find a diopter with the sutable power and filter thread. I think these new lenses are excellent for the generation that was not brought up with vhs , my old brain can translate potatovision into useable images. And they work straight out the box, I've seen the future of practicality ,using fruit Ninja skill to fix stuff . I hope people buy these to play with instead of mutilating helios 44s
I'm into shooting film these days - any idea how the TT artisans would work with film? I've been told the rendering can be quite different with the same lens if used for film vs digital camera...I'll stick with (for now) my mamiya 55 f1.4 and pentax 50mm f1.4 lenses, though I'm happy they are making modern manual lenses and may consider a purchase (for the extra light) if sharp with good blur on film.
Based on this review, I would buy one immediately, but only if they made one with the m42, Pentax screw mount, because I have so many m42 vintage lenses and adapters for them.
I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work fine with film - although there are such nice lenses around for film cameras that personally I'd stick with those.
Nice review! I really like the TTartisans and 7Artisans lenses. Very good bang for the buck. I like my vintage lenses too, but I prefer them on vintage bodies ;-) 😉
Hi Nigel, many thanks for this review! This is indeed a very interesting lens! What I miss on my Nikkor AI-S 1.4/50mm, Olympus OM Zuiko 1.4/50mm, Canon EF 1.2/50mm L, and Canon FD 1.2/55mm S.S.C. is the sharpness and clarity fully wide open. They are old designs. I have to stop them down at least one full stop in order to get acceptable image quality or I have to use extensive post processing with special software in order to reduce the abberations. This could be improved with the TT Arrisans. This example shows the Chinese can do it. Best wishes, Ralf
HI Ralf - it's a very sharp lens indeed, surprisingly so in fact. Personally though I'm happy with the softness from the old lenses - they are what they are, and they make the images they make - I guess it's a case of the right tool for the job!
The Nikkor 50 1.2 ais doesn't do badly on mirrorless, very sharp from f2, but I view it as a kind of 'special effects' lens at f1.2. I probably wouldn't buy the Artisans lens. If I was looking to spend money on a new Chinese lens I would probably look at one of the super wides such as 7Artisans 12mm f2.8 as an affordable way of getting that coverage for the odd occasions you might need it. Its a lot harder to find wide vintage lenses, especially for crop sensors, so the Chinese could bring modern optical design and manufacturing to that space and provide a value option to the main brands rather expensive offerings.
Info: That TT Artisan 50mm F1.4 isn't as good, cool looking as for the M-Mount Leica Version, but it does have the exact same optics inside. Original Video from the Leica M Version here - czcams.com/video/LdQSTP2wEPk/video.html
An interesting lens, to be sure, Nigel. That shot of the sunflower? with good contrast showed a good amount of swirl, too, reminiscent of the Helios 44-2. I wonder if the TTArtisan is a Biotar formula, or at least based on the Biotar? It wouldn't be my choice over a selection of vintage lenses which do the job equally as well, and some of them (The Super Takumar 50 f1.4 radioactive) for instance, is one of my favourite lenses. For the money you could buy a Super Tak 1.4 AND a Rokkor MD 1.4 and get the best of both worlds, sharpness in the Rokkor and rendition in the Tak. I'm still waiting for a very good superwide (18mm f1.2/1.4 from the Chinese lens factories - I'm sure that there's one in the pipeline 😂 Still a very interesting video and well up there with your best vids.
Great video as always! I have a Super Takumar 8 element 50mm F1.4, would be interested to know if you think 🤔 that would hold up against the TT…..? It is certainly sharper than the TT apsc 35mm F1.4
Well, here's the kicker for you - just try the TT Artisans 35mm F1.4 ! It's being avialable for many months, i just bought it for my X-Mount Fuji, 57 EUR into 2020. ;) It's really nice, for so little money.
Great review as usual.... Such a great presentation style..... My wife watches with me even though she has little interest in cameras.....must be good 👍
Thank you for the time and effort that you put into your reviews and tests. Very interesting. Can I ask you for some advice ?. I have a Schneider Kreuznach Xenar 50mm 2.8 M39 that I bought recently. Not knowing I expected it to work with my M39 adapter to Fuji X-T1. On that camera with the M39 to Fuji adapter it just give a blurred image and will focus nothing. I then tried it on a Nikon D7000 DSLR and a Canon EOS 7D DSLR. It does focus in a strange kind of way, but will not focus to infinity. Do you know of an adapter that I could use this lens with for the Fuji X-T1 ?. I have searched the WEB for an answer but can't find anything definitive.
Lenses with 39mm threads come in at least 3 varieties - rangefinder lenses built to the leica rangefinder specification (called LTM), lenses built for the early zenit slr cameras (called M39) and several other lenses built for various types of rangefinder camera - but NOT made to the leica lens register distance (these are fairly rare). You need to determine which one you have, and the best way to do that is to find out what camera it came from. If you have L39, you need an L39 to X mount adaptor. If you have M39, you need an M42 to X mount adaptor, plus an M39 to M42 adaptor ring. Each type of lens needs the correct type of adaptor or it just won't work. If you have the third type of lens mentioned, ie not made to L39 or M39 dimensions, you're unlikely to find an adaptor that will work.
I would expect that if a manufacturer is going to send a lens to an influencer that they would test it to ensure it's a fine copy. So, how good is TT Artisans' manufacturing and quality control?
I would reconsider something from Voigtlander, and probably something a bit longer like 58 f1.4 but that lens is another league for this Leica look a like knock off.
The bokeh is harsh! Pentax or Olympus lenses far better and cheaper! For this price one can find the 8 element pentax Super-Takumar that has bags and bags of character!
Buying a used vintaged lens is like a box of chocolate. You never know what you are going to get. So I bought a new 58mm f/1.4 vintage style lens which I love and also a 40mm f/2 which I love even more.
There is a huge copy variation with new lenses too. You won't get any haze or scratches (or at least shouldn't), but 1/2 Samyang lenses are at least slightly decentered for example (with 14mm 2.8 it used to be more like 3/4) and and Sony had pretty bad record in the past too (even with pricy ones). Sony Zeiss 35mm 1.4 had such a bad reputation, although there were good copies which proves it was all about terrible manufacturing standards. These are things almost nobody writes about in their reviews, they get their copy chosen by the manufacturer and that's it. But people do sometimes have to send the lens back and look for a new copy. Things aren't terrible, my point only is - always check new lenses well for centering and sharpness compared to what you expect of it. Manufacturers find it cheaper to receive 5-10% of their lenses back than to invest in quality control, that's how it is nowadays with mostly everything. That didn't happen 50 years ago, so I actually have at least as good experience with vintage lenses (I just have to check as well as I can what I'm buying, in person when possible).
I have discovered your channel lasat week and since then I discovered a lot of nice lenses and cameras that I want to buy. Nice review, as always.
Very glad you're enjoying the channel, welcome!
I started on art school with photography. In the eighties. My first camera was an Olympus OM10, followed by more OM (OM1, 2… which we used when I became an endoscopy (male) nurse!). All with Zuiko lenses…
My digital time started with Canon Powershot Pro1, 20D, 4OD, 5D. With some amazing Canon lenses.
My digital camera nowadays is an Olympus OM D1… and I use my vintage Zuiko lenses again! Thnx to you, I must say! Thanks a lot and keep making your amazing educating videos!!
Oh dear, another lens to add to my list 😂😂. Thanks for the video.
Nice to see that TT Artisans can make a decent lens! The ones I've tried have given me really poor results and I've returned them.
Thnx for yet another informative (and what i call '''high arts'') presentation. Some professionals would claim that the Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4 remains one of the kingpins of vintage 50mm glass? How about doing full comparison between these two? which i'm sure all vintage glass lovers would welcome with glee? Stay blessed.
I love my Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 50mm F/1.4. I suppose you don't get radiated with the TT Artisans however I'll stick with my Tak and take the risk :)
Super Takumar 50mm1.4 is my favorite 50mm lens my came with the metal lens hood
The harsh blur is precisely what I do not like about the TTartisan 35mm 1.4. The 50mm 1.4 has better rendering in my opinion.
Thanks for this review. I just snagged this lens for $199.00 on sale for my S1R. This is gonna be fun.
It's a great little lens - enjoy!
TT Artisans have come a long way in the cut throat world of lens manufacturers, but still have a way to go to perfect their lenses. I don't mind imperfections, they give the lens character. You only need to compare an old Helios 44 with a Helios 44-7 to see how character can be polished out of a lens with improved manufacturing and coating. Nice honest review as always. 👍
Hi Zenography, The first thing that jumps out is the length of the lens. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that it is an optical SRL design and the length is due to the fact that the adapter is included in the body of the lens. Also a very interesting lens since it is corrected using more modern technology than vintage ones. Anyway, sharpness is not everything, for portraits with a little magic I think I would use the Rokkor 58 F1.4
The TTartisans 50 0.95 is one of my favourite lenses, it is a lot better than I expected it to be and plenty of character.
I like that one too - very nice!
It would be great if these manual lenses were made with rabbit-ear prongs Nikon AI-S style. There is an enormous booming Nikon F, F2, F3, FM community that would be very much interested in these lenses. Voigtländer makes modern lenses Ultron 40mm F2.0 and Nokton 58mm F1.4 both $420 - $500, brutally great lenses with AI-S prongs.
Nice review. I owned the M mount version of this and was quite happy with it. I normally shoot vintage glass but ran into a good deal on a used one and glad I tried it. I am probably going to by one with a mount to fit my Leica SL now as I no longer own the M mount version.
Thank you for another splendid review.
I use the Jupiter 3/1951 and Jupiter 8/1968,
to avoid the plastic look of modern lenses.
Keep on your superb reviews / Ulf.
Yes, I’d buy it for its virtues and reasonable price. I have a Carl Zeiss 50mm f 1.4, but I’d keep that one too. A lens hood is easy enough. Perhaps the manufacturer could add a lens hood on the next upgrade.
Well presented, Nigil. As always.
It's a tempting lens and something I'll keep in mind. But not top priority as I have plenty of 50s and plenty adapters so really no need. I just bought a 50 1.8 for my Sony A7 - it costs significantly less and gives me the comfort of autofocus. I know it has mixed reviews but I can send it back if it is unuseable and maybe buy the TT Artisan who build good quality lenses, I have some like the 50mm 1.1 in M-mount or the 35mm in Sony E. This one should be the same build quality.
Thanks for the review and waiting for next video!
Great video as always. But do drop the trailing ‘s’. It’s Artisan. I get confused too as there is another company by the name of 7artisans.
ttartisan is a spinoff of 7artisans... who should go now, splitting hairs, as 6artisans ;-)
One of the founders made up his own company.
I love that lens. I have the TTartisan 35mm 1,4 too, but the 50mm has a more pleasant rendering. Both are super sharp.
Very nice of them to send you one.
I have several of the new lenses from China,not this one exactly, they are certainly likeable things at a reasonable price, and actually new and working, the amount of old mint gear that's needed instant cla.
Things to look out for on these nee kids , barreling and occasional ripple in the focus field. And is it FF or apsc or more likely somewhere in between.
Not needing an adapter can be helpful however adapters do give the opportunity to drag the focus back to really close. Without the need to find a diopter with the sutable power and filter thread.
I think these new lenses are excellent for the generation that was not brought up with vhs , my old brain can translate potatovision into useable images.
And they work straight out the box, I've seen the future of practicality ,using fruit Ninja skill to fix stuff .
I hope people buy these to play with instead of mutilating helios 44s
Superb review! Thank you!
Another great video. Well done Nigel.
i'll stick with my Canon 50mm f/1.4 on my Sony A7. I have owned this lens since my Canon A1 film days way back when ...
I know what you mean - that Canon is a very nice lens indeed!
Same here... Love my Canon 1.4... And for me, there is more than enough sharpness
I'm into shooting film these days - any idea how the TT artisans would work with film? I've been told the rendering can be quite different with the same lens if used for film vs digital camera...I'll stick with (for now) my mamiya 55 f1.4 and pentax 50mm f1.4 lenses, though I'm happy they are making modern manual lenses and may consider a purchase (for the extra light) if sharp with good blur on film.
Based on this review, I would buy one immediately, but only if they made one with the m42, Pentax screw mount, because I have so many m42 vintage lenses and adapters for them.
I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work fine with film - although there are such nice lenses around for film cameras that personally I'd stick with those.
Another good video Nigel. I wish that one of these companies would make a lens in LTM.
Good presentation Nigel.
I enjoyed the video and hearing about the virtues of this modern manual lens.
It appears that the only downside is the price.
Wow so much information in just a few minutes this is cool , i like it
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
Nice review! I really like the TTartisans and 7Artisans lenses. Very good bang for the buck. I like my vintage lenses too, but I prefer them on vintage bodies ;-) 😉
Hi Nigel, many thanks for this review! This is indeed a very interesting lens! What I miss on my Nikkor AI-S 1.4/50mm, Olympus OM Zuiko 1.4/50mm, Canon EF 1.2/50mm L, and Canon FD 1.2/55mm S.S.C. is the sharpness and clarity fully wide open. They are old designs. I have to stop them down at least one full stop in order to get acceptable image quality or I have to use extensive post processing with special software in order to reduce the abberations. This could be improved with the TT Arrisans. This example shows the Chinese can do it. Best wishes, Ralf
HI Ralf - it's a very sharp lens indeed, surprisingly so in fact. Personally though I'm happy with the softness from the old lenses - they are what they are, and they make the images they make - I guess it's a case of the right tool for the job!
The Nikkor 50 1.2 ais doesn't do badly on mirrorless, very sharp from f2, but I view it as a kind of 'special effects' lens at f1.2. I probably wouldn't buy the Artisans lens. If I was looking to spend money on a new Chinese lens I would probably look at one of the super wides such as 7Artisans 12mm f2.8 as an affordable way of getting that coverage for the odd occasions you might need it. Its a lot harder to find wide vintage lenses, especially for crop sensors, so the Chinese could bring modern optical design and manufacturing to that space and provide a value option to the main brands rather expensive offerings.
Info: That TT Artisan 50mm F1.4 isn't as good, cool looking as for the M-Mount Leica Version, but it does have the exact same optics inside. Original Video from the Leica M Version here - czcams.com/video/LdQSTP2wEPk/video.html
An interesting lens, to be sure, Nigel. That shot of the sunflower? with good contrast showed a good amount of swirl, too, reminiscent of the Helios 44-2. I wonder if the TTArtisan is a Biotar formula, or at least based on the Biotar?
It wouldn't be my choice over a selection of vintage lenses which do the job equally as well, and some of them (The Super Takumar 50 f1.4 radioactive) for instance, is one of my favourite lenses. For the money you could buy a Super Tak 1.4 AND a Rokkor MD 1.4 and get the best of both worlds, sharpness in the Rokkor and rendition in the Tak.
I'm still waiting for a very good superwide (18mm f1.2/1.4 from the Chinese lens factories - I'm sure that there's one in the pipeline 😂
Still a very interesting video and well up there with your best vids.
Great video as always! I have a Super Takumar 8 element 50mm F1.4, would be interested to know if you think 🤔 that would hold up against the TT…..? It is certainly sharper than the TT apsc 35mm F1.4
Well, here's the kicker for you - just try the TT Artisans 35mm F1.4 ! It's being avialable for many months, i just bought it for my X-Mount Fuji, 57 EUR into 2020. ;) It's really nice, for so little money.
I've heard that 35 is a nice little lens!
@@zenography7923 For so little money, there's nothing better with native mount new onto the market, otherwise.
Thank you!
Is better than Pancolar 50mm 1,8 MC ? Thanks
Great review as usual.... Such a great presentation style..... My wife watches with me even though she has little interest in cameras.....must be good 👍
Thanks, that's great to hear - glad you're both enjoying the videos!
I think it must be true that TTArtisan lenses have a certain look. You could almost tell them by the pictures. My 17mm is the same.
Thank you for the time and effort that you put into your reviews and tests. Very interesting.
Can I ask you for some advice ?. I have a Schneider Kreuznach Xenar 50mm 2.8 M39 that I bought recently. Not knowing I expected it to work with my M39 adapter to Fuji X-T1. On that camera with the M39 to Fuji adapter it just give a blurred image and will focus nothing. I then tried it on a Nikon D7000 DSLR and a Canon EOS 7D DSLR. It does focus in a strange kind of way, but will not focus to infinity. Do you know of an adapter that I could use this lens with for the Fuji X-T1 ?. I have searched the WEB for an answer but can't find anything definitive.
Lenses with 39mm threads come in at least 3 varieties - rangefinder lenses built to the leica rangefinder specification (called LTM), lenses built for the early zenit slr cameras (called M39) and several other lenses built for various types of rangefinder camera - but NOT made to the leica lens register distance (these are fairly rare). You need to determine which one you have, and the best way to do that is to find out what camera it came from.
If you have L39, you need an L39 to X mount adaptor. If you have M39, you need an M42 to X mount adaptor, plus an M39 to M42 adaptor ring. Each type of lens needs the correct type of adaptor or it just won't work.
If you have the third type of lens mentioned, ie not made to L39 or M39 dimensions, you're unlikely to find an adaptor that will work.
very informative.. enjoyed this
Thanks, glad it was useful!
nice review 👍
I would expect that if a manufacturer is going to send a lens to an influencer that they would test it to ensure it's a fine copy. So, how good is TT Artisans' manufacturing and quality control?
Hopefully they will send you the 0.95 FF version.
The. 95 at first glance is expensive, to get the same spec elsewhere ,the price gets vertical quickly. So I bought myself the special edition red one.
For the price I don’t think you can go wrong
Indeed!
Could've sworn I saw a bit of swirly bokeh at 13'36" : )
I would reconsider something from Voigtlander, and probably something a bit longer like 58 f1.4 but that lens is another league for this Leica look a like knock off.
Or one of the Voightlander APO or "SE" lenses.
The bokeh is harsh! Pentax or Olympus lenses far better and cheaper! For this price one can find the 8 element pentax Super-Takumar that has bags and bags of character!
I must admit the 8 element 1.4 takumar is a very special lens indeed!
@@zenography7923 Absolutely! Its currently ur favourite lens and can be found for about the same amount of money! We love your channel!!!
This influencer wants his cake and eat it too.
Oh dear, another lens to add to my list 😂😂. Thanks for the video.