7artisans 50mm f1.8 M4/3 Announced

[agentlossing]

7artisans 50mm F1.8 Lens - 7artisans

I for one am pretty interested in this. I have the 7artisans 25mm f1.8 and it is properly tiny, reasonably well constructed (excellent apart from a wobbly aperture ring) and optically pretty good. This 50mm lens is being developed for APS-C and M4/3, which the 25mm also is, so compactness is still a thing, and the pictures on the page show the lens mounted on a GX8.

If this has good optical quality and construction, it could be a very interesting choice at $125. Speaking personally, I find the focal length of my Siggy 60mm a little too limiting, and have been thinking of swapping for a 45mm or 42.5mm for a while. A fully manual 50mm f1.8 could be a very interesting choice as well!

For those about to mention adapting a legacy fifty, I've done that with multiple different ones, and the old coatings, heavy construction and softness at larger apertures leave a fair bit to be desired. Legacy lenses are cool, but they definitely don't compare to native lenses.

 

[martink111]

7artisans 50mm F1.8 Lens - 7artisans

I for one am pretty interested in this. I have the 7artisans 25mm f1.8 and it is properly tiny, reasonably well constructed (excellent apart from a wobbly aperture ring) and optically pretty good. This 50mm lens is being developed for APS-C and M4/3, which the 25mm also is, so compactness is still a thing, and the pictures on the page show the lens mounted on a GX8.

If this has good optical quality and construction, it could be a very interesting choice at $125. Speaking personally, I find the focal length of my Siggy 60mm a little too limiting, and have been thinking of swapping for a 45mm or 42.5mm for a while. A fully manual 50mm f1.8 could be a very interesting choice as well!

For those about to mention adapting a legacy fifty, I've done that with multiple different ones, and the old coatings, heavy construction and softness at larger apertures leave a fair bit to be desired. Legacy lenses are cool, but they definitely don't compare to native lenses.

I would agree with the color and contrast part for the legacy lenses, but sharpness can be pretty impressive. I have a Supertak 55f1.8 M42 mount that is "ok" wide open, but unholy sharp at f4 and up. I routinely use that lens with the EM5 high res mode, it is at least sharp enough to outresolve the 16mp sensor. Colors are fairly subdued and cool, and contrast won't come close to the 12-40, but the handling is a joy. If the 7artisan is a modern version of that with updated coatings I am there!

 

[West's Camera]

What does it do better than the Pany and Oly 25mm? If all it has is just full manual focus, then that means it hasn't much to offer. Would not be spending my money on it. I'll keep my Oly and be happy with that.

 

[MetilHed]

What does it do better than the Pany and Oly 25mm? If all it has is just full manual focus, then that means it hasn't much to offer. Would not be spending my money on it. I'll keep my Oly and be happy with that.

At $80 it's very cheap. It is 2x the focal length of the Oly or Panasonic 25mm, so I don't know why you're making that comparison.

 

[agentlossing]

What does it do better than the Pany and Oly 25mm? If all it has is just full manual focus, then that means it hasn't much to offer. Would not be spending my money on it. I'll keep my Oly and be happy with that.

Like @MetilHed said, it's not a 25mm lens so the 50mm isn't comparable to a 25mm. In reference to the 7artisans 25mm though, I agree with you that the Olympus 25mm is way nicer of a lens... That's why I kept it, and have both 25mm lenses. The 7artisans is so cheap, and has a refreshing all-manual style, that it doesn't hurt to own both.

 

[ooheadsoo]

What does it do better than the Pany and Oly 25mm? If all it has is just full manual focus, then that means it hasn't much to offer. Would not be spending my money on it. I'll keep my Oly and be happy with that.

It doesn't have to be better than the Pany and Oly 25mm because it's a 50mm? M43 doesn't have a faster than f/2 autofocus 50-60mm until you hit the sigma 56 at 4x the price.

 

[West's Camera]

My apologies to everyone for the mistaken understanding of focal length. I wasn't sure if the stated figure was as mf43 or full frame conversion. Now, I know.

 

[Taz trooper]

Can't help agreeing with Agentlossing. I have three legacy 50mm lenses to choose from, but do like the compactness of the 7artisans lenses. I'm very tempted.

 

[The Grumpy Snapper]

I'm trying to decide between the 7artisans 55m f/1.4 and one of the versions of the Kamlan 50mm f/1.1 with the 7artisans favourite at the moment just because it's 55mm. I have a selection of 50mm lenses from sharp (4/3 50mm macro) to low contrast (single coated silvernose OM 50mm I purchased in 1976).

The new version of Kamlan doesn't appear to be much of an improvement on the Mk 1 so I was hoping the first version would be discounted to clear stock but it hasn't happened yet.

 

[Dion Houston Sr.]

Just out of curiosity, since it appears to be an APS-C lens, wouldn't the 1.6 crop factor apply instead of 2.0?

 

[mawz]

Just out of curiosity, since it appears to be an APS-C lens, wouldn't the 1.6 crop factor apply instead of 2.0?

No, because the crop factor is an property of the sensor, not the lens. The crop factor is simply the ratio of actual sensor diagonal to the diagonal of a 36x24mm 'Full Frame' sensor, it allows you to compute the equivalent focal length on a full frame camera.

A 50mm full frame lens, a 50mm APS-C lens and a 50mm m43 lens will all provide exactly the same image when mounted on an m43 camera. But to get the same field of view as a 50mm full frame lens on a full frame camera you need a 35mm lens on an APS-C camera or a 25mm lens on an m43 camera. this is because the smaller sensor is only recording part of the image the lens projects, it is the same as cropping the image down (and in fact some sensors are exactly that, the 16MP m43 sensor from Sony is pretty much their 24MP APS-C sensor cropped down to m43, while the 26MP X-T3 sensor is Sony's new 62MP full frame sensor, cropped to APS-C and in fact that 62MP sensor is their 102MP Medium Format sensor cropped down to Full Frame)

Note I'm ignoring the fact that m43 is a different aspect ratio than Full Frame or APS-C formats which makes direct lens equivalencies difficult.

 

[agentlossing]

Focal length is an absolute. Effective focal length isn't. Lenses always use absolute value in their description, no matter what format.

 

[Dion Houston Sr.]

Ah OK, that makes sense. Just wondering because this lens is crazy wide for the price.

 

[mawz]

Ah OK, that makes sense. Just wondering because this lens is crazy wide for the price.

It's not wide at all, it's a short telephoto lens.

The price is reasonable for what it is, as it's basically a native mount replacement for all the adapted old SLR 50/1.8's that are out there for $20-50.

 

[Dion Houston Sr.]

It's not wide at all, it's a short telephoto lens.

The price is reasonable for what it is, as it's basically a native mount replacement for all the adapted old SLR 50/1.8's that are out there for $20-50.

Sorry, wide aperture... Pretty sure my 45mm/1.8 was more than $100 and change...

 

[mawz]

Sorry, wide aperture... Pretty sure my 45mm/1.8 was more than $100 and change...

That makes sense.

I'm actually talking about old manual lenses like the Nikon Series E 50/1.8 or SMC-Pentax M 50mm f1.7, both of which are readily available for $50 or less and can be used with a cheap adapter. The 7artisans lens replaces those and eliminates the need for an adapter.

 

[MetilHed]

Sorry, wide aperture... Pretty sure my 45mm/1.8 was more than $100 and change...

This has zero electronics. No circuit boards, no (electronic) stopping down mechanism, no focusing motor . . .

 

[Dion Houston Sr.]

Ah, OK. So basically like my old Pentax K-1000... Except that was a "full-frame" camera - yeah the industry is weird.

Thanks all, now I understand the pluses and minuses. A "nifty-fifty" (25mm M43) is on my would be nice to have list, but can't quite justify at the moment. Next for me is probably something that hits 300. Have an awesome one...

 

[mawz]

Ah, OK. So basically like my old Pentax K-1000... Except that was a "full-frame" camera - yeah the industry is weird.

Thanks all, now I understand the pluses and minuses. A "nifty-fifty" (25mm M43) is on my would be nice to have list, but can't quite justify at the moment. Next for me is probably something that hits 300. Have an awesome one...

7Artisans also does a 25mm f1.8 for$80, if you can live with no AF or coupled aperture, if not the Panasonic 25mm f1.7 regularly hits $150 new (which is what it costs right now).

For 300 (600mm on full frame equivalent), there's a few reasonable options. The Panny 100-300 OIS is great for Panny bodies, while I'd go with the Oly 75-300 on their bodies.

 

[MarylandUSA]

The 12-blade diaphragm suggests they;re going for bokeh.
The depth-of-field scale is all-too-rare. Especially on a lens that's just 40mm deep. By the way, that's 1mm shorter than the Meike 50mm f/2.
But why is the aperture ring clickless?