We will look at another ultra-fast lens –TTArtisans 50mm f0.95 lens, which is for aps-c and micro four-thirds camera. This lens is just over $200, so it is a very affordable ultra-fast lens. Now, I’m using Fujifilm x-mount version.
Table of Contents
Build Quality
We have looked at quite a few TTArtisans lenses for full-frame cameras and some for aps-c and micro four-thirds cameras on this channel. This TTArtisans 50mm f0.95 lens is a fully mechanical manual focus lens with no electronic contacts. It is available for most popular aps-c and micro fourth mirrorless cameras. When you use this lens on an aps-c camera, it offers a 75mm equivalent focal length. If you use this lens on the micro fourth camera, it gives a 100mm equivalent focal length. This TTArtisans 50mm f0.95 is a good lens for portrait and a fast short telephoto lens for shooting under low light. The TTArtisans 50mm f0.95 lens is equipped with solid and full metal construction. This lens is just over 400 grams, so it is a little heavy and still feels portable when you use it with one of the smaller mirrorless cameras. In my previous reviews, I think that TTArtisans lenses experiment with different aesthetic designs for their lenses. This lens also has its official design, which is a bit like the 23mm f1.4 lens.
It has a click-designed mechanical aperture ring, which satisfies consumers when adjusting the aperture. At f0.95, it is two clicks per marking, and there are four clicks from f0.95 to f1.4. Then it has two clicks per stop from f1.4 to f14. For f4-f8, it is one click per stop. Lastly, the last click would jump to stop from f8-f16. I think not many people would need to choose f11 when shooting with this lens, but the inconsistent f-stop clicks make the lens a bit harder to use when you are looking through the electronic viewfinder as turning the aperture ring. One-click means that the aperture can be changed from as small as one quarter stop up to two stops. But I believe that TTArtisans will keep the click design on the aperture ring. When it comes to photographers, even an inconsistent quick stop is much better and offers a more satisfaction than a decrypted aperture ring. There is a manual focus ring behind the aperture ring, and this focus flow is around 110 °. Therefore, it is not a long-focus flow. I prefer it to be slightly longer, especially when I am shooting at f0.95 because the depth of field could be relatively narrow. On the other hand, the grooves on the focus ring make it very easy to hold and turn. The focus ring is very smooth and feels very consistent throughout the whole focus range. The lens extends a little bit when you change the focus distance to a close focus distance.
Related Post – TTArtisan 23mm f/1.4 Review (Good Budget Lens)
The minimum focus distance of this TTArtisans lens is 0.5 meters and offers customers a decent maximum magnification ratio. But, I noticed that some images could be soft when you are shooting at the maximum focus distance. When you are shooting wide open (such as f0.95), you need to stop down to around f2.8; the image sharpness will be better.
Image Sharpness
Now, Let’s have a look at image sharpness. When it comes to its centre image sharpness at f0.95, the centre is a little bit soft, but I think it is still very usable and may be beneficial. If you are shooting a portrait, please stop down to f1.4.
Then the centre sharpness will improve a bit. At f2, the centre sharpness becomes excellent and keeps its perfect till f8.
For its corner sharpness, at a maximum aperture of f0.95, the corner is quite soft when using this lens on the aps-c camera. When you stop down to f2.8, the corner becomes a bit better. At f5.6, the corners become pretty sharp and improve a lot. I think that the centre sharpness is not bad, but it is certainly not the best lens if you need a lens with excellent corner sharpness, especially near wide open. You can get some nice looking bokeh in the background when you want to shoot head and shoulders portrait photos.
Bokeh
Bokeh balls are run with no onion patterns, and the edge transition is relatively smooth. The poke balls also remain round even if you stop down to f4. The only thing I don’t like is that you are shooting at f0.95 when your subject is about 10 to 15mm away.
Because of its large aperture and 15mm focal length, you could still dissolve the background behind your subject, but the bokeh could look slightly busy. I would try to avoid it, but if you are focusing on closed bokeh but focusing on a closed subject, you can get some very nice smooth bokeh in the background.
Vignetting
This TTArtisan lens well controls vignetting even at f 0.95, and f18 is relatively minor. At f 1.4, there is virtually no vignetting. I was expecting to see a lot more vignetting from an f 0.95 lens, so I was surprised by the amount of vignetting or the lack of that vignetting I saw.
Chromatic Aberration
With an affordable f 0.95 lens, chromatic aberration is quite acceptable with this TTartisan lens. In this high-contrast photo, you can see the magenta and cyan colour fringing, but this is the worst example. I got out of the few 100 pictures I shot with this lens. In most photos, the chromatic aberration is much less evident than that. A few images are shot at f 0.95, and I was expecting to see some nasty colour fringing, but it turns out there is only a small amount of colour fringing. So you should expect to see some chromatic aberration, but if you compare it to other affordable f 0.95 lenses on the market, I think this TTartisan lens is not wrong.
Distortion
At all distortion, control is quite average with this tt artisan lens look at this brake wall photo and see there is some noticeable barrel distortion. While the distortion is not very bad, and it may not matter if you are shooting a portrait, I expected it would be quite a bit less, especially since this is a 50mm lens.
Lens Flare
With this 50mm, f0.95 lens flare performance is acceptable, but there could be a bit of lens flare when shooting into the bright light source. The amount is not excessive. The contrast could drop sometimes, but it will not fall to an unusable level. The only other thing I want to mention is this lens doesn’t come with any lens hood, so if you’re going to minimize lens flare, you could get an aftermarket one that screws onto its 58mm filter thread.
Sunstars
Starting from f2.8, you can see a few sunstars in the photo. As you stop down further, sunstars become sharper. At f5.6, sun stars already have long and sharptails. At the minimum aperture of f16, the 10 points, sun stars look beautiful to my eyes at the maximum aperture of f 0.95;
Coma
coma is very noticeable near the corner of the photo slot down the lens to f 1.4 commas become a lot better. And at f2 comma has virtually disappeared.
If you plan to use this lens to do some video recording, there is a bit of focus breathing when you are changing the focus distance， so this is an example of when I change the focus from about 1.5 meters to infinity. And you can see some focus breathing when I change the focus distance.
Sample Photos
For just over $200, this tdrs-15b f0.95 lens delivers excellent value; it has an outstanding metal construction. While I have a few minor complaints about some of the designs, the lens feels fantastic, and I quite like the feeling when I’m turning the aperture and focus ring.
Image quality-wise, it’s not perfect, but overall is pretty decent for an ultra-fast lens that costs just over $200. if you are looking for an affordable portrait lens that can give you that ultra-shallow depth of field look and beautiful bokeh, I think this could be a fantastic good value choice, even as a fast short telephoto lens.
