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The 7Artisans 35mm f2 is an all-metal full frame lens with 10 aperture blades designed for mirrorless cameras.
When I first picked up the 7Artisans 35mm f2 for my Fujifilm X-Pro2, I spent a few days shooting, walking maybe a total of probably 8-9 miles just shooting. After the first day before really reviewing the images, I just wasn’t really impressed and wanted to send it back. Then I got into Lightroom and man, I have to say, I’m liking it.
One thing you have to know is the 7Artisans 35mm f2 lens is far from perfect. It has some reckless design choices and poor precision. Optically the lens is very pretty and has some great character but it probably won’t pass for a lot of the pixel peepers who only care about sharpness.
Lens Stats
Focal Length: 35mm equivalent to 50mm on APS-C cameras
Aperture Blade: 10 aperture blades
Elements: 7 elements in 5 groups
Coatings: Multi-Coated
Minimum Focus Distance: 13.8″
Focus: Manual
CPU Contacts: No
Construction: Aluminum with copper bayonet
Filter Threads: 43mm
What’s Good: Great color, contrast, micro-contrast, render depth, beautiful rich bokeh with some soap bubbles, fairly sharp in the center.
What Bad: Build lacks precision, rubber focus attachment is a joke, full-stop aperture clicks, soft corners and edges, heavy.
Overview: The 7Artisans 35mm f2 performs very well and at the current price is one of the best bangs for the bucks for APS-C shooters looking for a 50mm equiv. Great for photographers looking for artistic lenses to add character to their photography.
Check Price
7Artisans 35mm f2 Fujifilm X-Mount – Amazon
7Artisans 35mm f2 Sony E-Mount – Amazon / BHphoto
First Impressions
This lens isn’t really that fun to use. The aperture ring tucks up right next to the camera body, at least on the Fujifilm X-Mount. There is a weird metal lens hood that slides out and never firmly staying in place, then the apertures are set in full stops which isn’t great for videographers.
But that image!
Image quality is plenty sharp with nice corner sharpness and great bokeh. Render depth, perceived depth, contrast, micro-contrast and color are all very nice. Even the way the lens flares is very cool.
Bokeh at f2 is really clean and pretty, almost a soap bubble bokeh with no serious issues with swirling. Some people like swirling bokeh, I personally do not.
All around the image quality is actually very pretty especially considering the price. It really shines at f5.6 where the center is sharpest with only some falloff along the edges and corners. That’s using it on an APS-C camera.
This lens is actually a full frame lens, but looking at how the edges are already beginning to fall apart on the Fujifilm APS-C sensor, I imagine it would get pretty nasty on full frame camera and that would have to be a totally different review where I would probably give this lens a totally different score, as I’ve in my Industar 50mm Review. Great lens for APS-C, but I’m not a fan of it on my full frame Sony cameras.
Ultimately, if you’re an APS-C shooter, you may want to take a close look at this lens. You’re not going to match the image quality output of this lens at a better price without buying used on Ebay. It has everything we love about old retro lenses with some really nice character, great render depth, micro contrast, and beautiful bokeh.
You will have to be careful of 7Artisans quality control as it can be pretty bad, as seen in my Artisans 25mm f1.8 review. I imagine a lot of these Chinese vending machine lens companies have a lot of their production line outsourced and that could introduce quality control issues. But maybe not, who knows.
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