Hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today To give you a review of a very Inexpensive new lens from company 7 Artisans just this year they have gotten Into the business of making autofocus Lenses a little over a month ago I Reviewed their first autofocus lens the 50mm f1.8 they have now released a new Apsc lens which is their autofocusing 27 Mm f2.8 STM lens this is a surprisingly Capable little prime lens coming first For Sony e-mount apsc cameras it cost Just $129 but has a nice build pretty strong Autofocus and a surprisingly Strong Optical performance as well so I'll Break down the overall performance and Then at the end of the review I'll give You a deep dive into the optical Performance if you're interested in that Now as noted this is coming first only To Sony E Mount though I suspect that s Aris will follow it up with some other Mounts in the future 27 mm on Sony's 1.5 Times crop factor is roughly a 40 uh Millimet fullframe equivalent which I Really like this focal length it's a Nice compromise between 35 and 50 mm uh Making for a great walk around lens and It just seems to be useful for a lot of Things this is a very common compact Lens as you can see which is kind of a Refreshing after how large that the 50mm F1.8 was this lens is only 64 mm in
Diameter and just 48 mm in length not Quite pancake length but not much longer Than that that's 2.5x 1.9 in there is a Small but common 52mm font filter thread Up front and though it's made all of of Metal and has a nice dense feel to it in Absolute weight it only weighs 172 G or About 6 oz as noted everything here is Metal uh it's an anodized metal finish That looks really quite nice and there Is a raised uh manual focus ring that Has nice damping to it a good quality Feel it's again all metal with nice Tight ribs and has a nice feel in the Actual action to it there is some Visible steps when you're doing manual Focus but you're able to focus with some Precision despite that there are no Features here how ever there are no Switches or anything on the barrel no Aperture ring or anything like that Inside there are six straight aperture Blades um it's a pretty simple aperture And so you are going to see that shape If you're stop down a little bit in fact Even when you're not stopped down I did Note it sometimes that you could see That shape a little bit and I will also Note that I'm not crazy about the Sunstar just gets a little bit extreme Often straight blades produce nice Sunstars in this case they're just a Little bit too too long a little bit too Extreme when you start to stop it down
Now on the side there is a USB C Port That is covered by a little rubber Gasket my only concern about that is That little rubber gasket would be very Very easy to use and if you lose it Obviously you have a pretty obvious Point where moisture could get into the Lens there is no weather sealing here And so having that on there I think Would be important so be very careful When you do remove that for firmware Updates minimum Focus distance is 30 cm And that gives you a decent but Certainly not exceptional maximum Magnification of about 0.14 times in That Range close enough to be useful but Not really to strongly blur out Backgrounds or you know really getting Into macro type levels so I on the Positive side I will point out that the Performance is still very strong up Close so that does help it doesn't Really soften as you get close now There's one other Quirk that I noticed Along the way with images uh imported Into Lightroom I noticed that the focal Length was missing and then I mentally Made that connection later on when I Noticed that sometimes shooting on my Camera that has inbody image Stabilization I felt like I was getting A little bit shakier results and so I I Questioned maybe it is not properly Reporting the focal link for the Ibis
System I tried switching to manually Inputting the focal length and as you Can see here I got dramatically sharper Results much more stable results and so If you are shooting with the lens you Might want to manually input the inbody Image stabilization uh focal length and You will probably get better results out Of that so let's talk autofocus there is A stepping motor or STM motor here and I Can already see improvements over what I Saw from their first autofocusing lens I Found that Focus speed here with a you Know simpler easier to drive lens was Actually um it was faster it was Smoother and quieter and you can see That Focus results even indoors are nice And snappy back and forth and of course Outside even more so so I see some Definite saturation from what I saw on The 50mm F1.8 I had really No Reservations about Using autofocus in my you know walking Around and using the lens in a variety Of conditions I got you know quickly Accurately focused results in these Series of shots of of knowledge she was Rolling around locked onto her eye and Delivered beautifully focused and very Sharp results as you can see here on the Video side of things I was also pretty Pleasantly surprised you can see that my Video s are nice and quick and confident No issues there you can see that there
Is a bit of focus breathing there that Is apparent so you're going to have to Watch out for that I also noted I had Good results with my hand test as I you Know blocked and then removed my hand I Could see that uh that the focus went From one to the other with good Confidence locking onto the eye with no Issue there and you can see that it's Also crisp when it's locked on my face I Found that in general just kind of Sliding along with autofocus for real World shots that I actually got you know Good results there it's not too abrupt Or anything and so I think that this Could be an interesting gimbal lens I Also just you know kind of secretly I Have been filming some of my YouTube Episodes like this with this lens and Actually been really pleased with the Results it's been perfectly stable not Any kind of pulsing away from you know An a static shot like this staying Locked on my face and on my eye Accurately and I found that the overall Look of the footage was nice and so um You know a surprisingly robust little Video lens here for the money so on the Image quality side of things this is a Really simple lens just six elements in Five groups I will follow this up with a Detailed Optical breakdown but I'll give You some of the highlights here I would Consider that simple Optical design to
Be somewhat of a classic design and as We're going to see that does play into Some of the real world results if you Look at the MTF chart here it shows Actually a pretty strong result with Good sharpness in the center of the Frame and some fade towards the corner Kind of a classic profile there I was Actually generally impressed with real World results that were shot even at F2.8 within the rule of thirds area I'm Using 26 megapixels on Sony and I found That the results were nice and crisp There and I was actually repeatedly Impressed by how good they actually Looked now on the technical side of Things there is some moderate Barrel Distortions about a plus n to correct For it and there is some obvious Vignette about two stops in the corners I used a plus 61 to correct for that at This point there isn't a profile Correction available in Lightroom Obviously the lens is just releasing Today and so as a byproduct I had to do Those manual corrections but uh nothing That was too difficult to correct there No real problem I also found that Fringing was well controlled for both Longitudinal and lateral comatic Aberration I didn't see the fringing Before and after the plane of focus Didn't see it in the edges of the frame And so I I saw good strong controlled
Results for that on the sharpness side Of things I found that taking a look at My test chart I saw really good results In the center of the frame a little bit Of regression in the mid-frame and the Corners still look acceptably good but You can tell that contrast is a little Bit less and if you get to that final Few degrees in the very corner you can See that there is a drop off there However stopping down to F4 doesn't make A radical difference in the center of The frame but it shows quite a dramatic Difference in the mid-frame here and Then also in the corners I also noted That the vignette really lifted by F4 Allowing everything to look a whole lot Brighter by f5.6 you're going to get Pretty near perfect sharpness across the Frame really surprisingly good and so That works really great for landscape Images things like that lot of detail There it looks really really fantastic Results will stay the same through f8 by F11 defraction starts to soften things a Little bit by F16 that effect becomes More more Noticeable the quality of the bouquet And the blur is is again it's okay it's Certainly not acceptional you'll see That there is a bit of a swirl effect Due to kind of cat eye shapes towards The edge of the frame you either like That look or you don't like that look
But in this case because the apture Blades are straight don't expect those To get rounder as you stop The Lens down So you know you're either going to have To love it or leave it basically when it Comes to the bouquet quality in some Situations I felt like it looked pretty Good other times I felt like there was a Little bit of outlining there I did feel Like the kind of 3D pop from the lens Was actually pretty decent so that's Something to consider there now one Thing that definitely is an issue is Flare resistance again this is this Behaves a lot like a classic lens so There's not a lot of modern coatings on There I don't think and so as a Byproduct I found that the Sun at Different aspects in the frame produces Some interesting effects some of those You could use artfully I think but you Would have to be really careful in your Composition and use it wisely actually Found that the images were far from Boring from this lens it's a really Inexpensive lens but I actually really Kind of liked was kind of Charmed by Some of the the look of the images I did Find that the character of the lens kind Of varied some depending on the Environment I was shooting in if I was Shooting in kind of more low contrast Situations it had quite a cinematic look Then in other situations where contrast
Would be more naturally intense there Was a little bit more popped images There and so it it was an interesting Lens it definitely has some character to It it's not like this modern Overcorrected lens that's sterile and Has no personality this is a lens that Was actually surprisingly fun to use and So in conclusion I think that's the Thing that really stuck with me in that I didn't really expect a whole lot from It you know it's there's nothing on Paper that's particularly exciting here But the fact that the lens is so small Easy to pop into a bag and carry along And then throw on for just a different Look but above all I found that I was Actually pleased with the look of the Images I got out of the lens and so that Is it's it's really kind of amazing to Me by how good budget lenses are at this Point when you think about with all the Things that have gone way up with Inflation in our world right now the Fact that this lens is 130 us bucks and Get is surprisingly wellb built has Pretty good autofocus and has really Really good IM quality is really pretty Amazing and the fact that now some of These budget brands are now giving us Autofocus and not charging us an arm and A leg for it is pretty great and so if You're looking for an in inexpensive and Surprisingly fun little prime lens to
Throw onto your Sony apsc camera take a Look at the seven Artisans AF 27mm f F2.8 it was a pleasant surprise for me If you want more information you can Check out my text review which is linked In the description down below there's Image gallery there as well and now if You want to go deeper into the Optics Let's jump into it Together so inevitably the first thing That people want to know when I review An apsc lens is how much it covers the Sensor on a full-frame camera well since I'm doing this review on Sony e-mount of I can give you that answer and it is Really not much on the left here I have Cropped out from that previous image What I consider to be the usable portion And if you compare it on the right to The just typical apsc crop of the same Scene you can see that it is very very Uh it's very close there's not a huge Amount of difference there's just ever So slightly you can see if you just look At the height of the tree here there is Just a little bit wider a framing here But not hardly any difference at all and So certainly don't buy this thinking You're going to get some kind of secret Uh fullframe lens out of the package so You can see here the barrel Distortion That's present I used a plus n to Correct and then you can see definitely Some vignette in the corners you can see
In this image here where I've done the Manual correction I used as plus 61 to Correct for that vignette it cleared up Very easily there now you can tell from These two real world side by-side shots Here of a very very similar scene you Can see on the left side you can see how Much vignette is present and it Definitely shapes the image somewhere What on the right side both of these Uncorrected stopping down to F4 you can See pretty much eliminates that vignette Almost all together and so it's a very Very different look and so you can use That I think to your benefit sometimes a Look like this works I think whereas This image is a little bit planer Looking so again I mean vignette can Always be corrected for but in some Cases and of course it can be added too It can produce a desirable effect now The lens got very good scores when it Came to various uh chromatic aberration You can see here for longitudinal style Chromatic aberration just not anything Really to see there and I felt the same Way with my real world shots no issues With that we can also see looking here For lateral chromatic aberration near The edge of the frame just very very Little fringing to see transitions from Black to white all look nice and clean So here this is 26 megapixels of Resolution on Sony 200% magnification
Level you can see that center of the Frame performance is nice and crisp very Very good detail good contrast there Frame also looks good that's true on Both sides of the frame here if we pop Down to the corner we can see that Through this Zone there's still a pretty Good amount of detail and contrast it's Only when we get to the very edge here You can see that contrast level from Here to here really has dropped so Obviously in rear World shots it is Going to be really rare that you're Composing that deep into the corners so Here at f2.8 you can see that the detail And the contrast looks really nice here And obviously depth of field is going to Correct or is going to impact over here But you can also see if you look there There's still actually a really usable Amount of resolution and again it's only Right here in the very corner where that Drops away but even along the edge here You can see the detail is right out to The edge and then just in the corner is Where it pops off a shot of Nala here And you can see if I pop in and look at A pixel level all that detail is really Really good you can see all those fine Hairs are nicely delineated you know Around the eye I don't think could ask For any more than that from $129 lens so Stopping the lens down to F4 it does Give you a tiny bit more contrast in the
Center of the frame but where you're Going to see a much more Improvement is Here in the mid-frame look how crisp That looks now that's just top of the Heap fantastic and into the corner it's Definitely better but our big Improvement here is you can see that That lift of vignette means that the Corner just looks brighter and thus Contrast is allowed to pop a little bit More and just taking a look around here On the left side very very good Performance up into the upper left Corner very good performance upper right Corner very good performance very nice Centering which is great to see in a Budget lens consider performance to Peak Somewhere around f5.6 you can see Comparing f5.6 to f8 they look very very Similar not a lot of difference there Same is true in the mid-frame and Popping down into the corners Corners Also look really fantastic so now we're Seeing detail all across the frame I Would say that very very Edge Performance f8 looks a little bit better Than what F5.6 now after f8 you're going to see a Bit of softening start to happen due to Defraction and you can see by F16 which Is the minimum aperture defraction is Definitely having a greater impact and a Lot of that contrast has been lost once Again now as noted previously you can
Focus as closely as 30 cm maximum Magnification is somewhere in my Estimation about 0.14 times the good News here is that contrast and detail Holds up really nicely up close here That's really crisp looking and you can See right off to the edge here that We're seeing that same kind of effect You know it's not enough to really like Dramatically blur out the background but It is getting me close enough to where I Can tell a story through this image and I really liked the contrast of this White shell against the the black rocks There on the beach and produces a nice Looking end result I also felt like the Overall three-dimensional pop is pretty Decent from from this lens you can see That the you know subject kind of comes Out of the background there and makes For an interesting image even of you Know a fairly basic subject uh in this Shot here number one contrast and detail Looks really great right after a range So that tends to produce some of the Best type results you can see that there Is a bit of that swirl effect so there's Definitely some geometric deformation Cat eye effect towards the edge of the Frame and so it does create a little bit Of a look and again as I said previously Either you like that or you don't but Because the aperture blades are straight Here it's not going to get circular when
You stop it down here is kind of the Distance where that swirl effect becomes A little bit more noticeable sometimes And you can see it here but I also think That the colors are interesting here and The image itself looks good you know Contrast in the area Focus looks Interesting I found that in lower Contrast scenes like this one with some Mist there along the beach I actually Really liked the look kind of that was Captured by the IM the lens I felt like It handled low contrast scenes with a Cinematic type look and so I like that Now we noted previously that there's Definitely some flare effects and uh and So that is part of what we're examining Here but the other thing I want you to Notice is that if I pop out here for a Moment we can see M aperture is f2.8 so That tells you that the aperture is wide Open despite that you can see that those Blades are still impacting the aperture Shape for some reason so your specular Highlights are not circular but they Have you know the the six sides to them And so again it's a look and either You're going to like that or you're Going to dislike that but I did want to Bring it to your attention secondary Shot here where that's even more Noticeable along with the various flare Impacts now this stuff up here in this Kind of shot I think it's kind of Artful
But again you would have to compose Really carefully to make sure that that Does not become something negative what I didn't love was this and this is Stopped down to I believe f8 here and so You can can obviously get ever longer Blades on that Sunstar but I just I just Don't love it and so again it's it's a Taste thing whether you like it or not Overall however I think that this lens Is optically very interesting so thank You for sticking around to the very end Hopefully this additional information Has helped you to make an informed Choice as to whether or not the seven Artison AF 27mm f2.8 is for you as Always thanks for watching have a great Day and let the light in for
