Seven Artisans is back at it again with Their second autofocusing lens this time It's a 27 mm f2.8 designed for Sony E-mount apsc cameras and this is coming On basically the V Tru 27 mm which I Just recently reviewed but this lens is Obviously a lot more compact it's not as Fast it's F2.8 it's lighter than this Buro and It's a whole lot less expensive this is Coming in at $125 us so let's check it out it comes In a compact white box inside there is Some foam a quality control tag the lens And a user manual buried in the bottom Plastic front and rear lens caps and That is it the lens is extremely compact Nearly a pancake size and it's light Even though the entire thing appears to Be made out of metal or aluminum and Glass weight is a modest 100 74 G and There's not much to say about the design They didn't try to reinvent the lens That we've known for decades it's Simple And Clean starting at the rear metal Mount electronic connections and no Weather ceiling gaskets around the top You have the lens specs printed and on The bottom a s Artisan's logo and a Little rubber gasket reveals a USB C Port mistake number one is this gasket Is completely removable meaning you'll Probably lose it the first time that you Update firmware on this lens anyway
There are no other switches or buttons On the body just a focus ring and after Turning this you'd wonder why they even Bothered to put a focus ring here at all It's just simply too stiff it's smooth But too stiff of a rotation to be good For actual use and it's electronic so it Can never give you that manual focus Feel anyway around the front there is a Small front lens element deep inside the Barrel lens specs 52 mm filter thread a 7 Artisan's logo and a minimum Focus Distance of 0 .3 M interestingly no lens Hood is included but after the test Results you'll probably think that was a Mistake inside there are six elements in Five groups which makes this a very Simple lens and the aperture blades six Of them straight blades it looks like The autofocus comes courtesy of an STM Or stepper motor and that's all the Specs that I have on that mounted on my A6100 this is a pocketable apsc dream It's compact lightweight not flashy or Out of place in the slightest this is Looking like the ultimate budget x100v Alternative but the question always Becomes does it perform like the x100v Well I took this lens and this camera Out and I shot some photos with it and Here are some samples straight out of The camera unedited uncorrected Ready Set well actually let's just talk about It performance I would summarize as good
In an average Type of Way Center Sharpness wide open is good the corners Wide open are okay they are not as sharp But not horribly soft either mid-frame Looks adequate colors and contrast is Tough I think this is a bit of a mixed Bag there were some moments where this Lens wasn't as Punchy as it could have Been it sometimes does look a little Flat but other times it was fine with Natural rendering in terms of distortion Vignetting is certainly there wide open At f/2.8 at F4 these Corners brighten up Immediately Barrel Distortion seems to Be okay with in camera Corrections on The surprise of this test though was the Chromatic aberration which showed up but Like a half full Taylor Swift concert You'd expect more one thing that there Was plenty of however is flaring there Is lots of it and it's not very pleasing Flaring either this stuff reminds me of Vintage lenses some of you may like it Who knows now when it comes to autofocus There is some good news it's better than Their first attempt and I would say this Tracks and shoots better than even the TT Artis 27 mm AF as well in fact I'll Say it clearly this is a better lens Than the TT Artisan one in terms of Optics and autofocus Focus speed is Great accuracy is good and tracking is Surprising there is always some bad news That I have to add to the good however
As Focus breathing is a bit of an issue It's not horrible but it's not brilliant The bouquet is pretty good it gets a Little bit swirly and it does cat eye Into the corners but I never found it to Be too distracting and it really doesn't Give you huge bouquet balls either at f 2.8 and because of that somewhat odd Focal length of 40 mm equivalent on a Fullframe camera I do think this is a Perfectly adequate streetportrait lens However so I'll try to summarize this Lens here it is a good lens is it on the Same level as the vro 27 mm no it really Doesn't tug on your heartstrings like The vro or I should correct that by Saying it doesn't tug on my heartstrings Like the VR does and while it is a Compact lightweight inexpensive lens That performs moderately well it reminds Me somewhat of a vintage lens with an Autofocus motor attached to it with some Of the charm of a vintage lens removed From It that's really it in a nutshell but I Suppose if it had more of that charm it Wouldn't cost $129 it would be at least double that so The way I look at it this is the new Entrylevel Benchmark it's a good lens It's good optically it's small it's Wellb built and it's priced at a level That someone new to photography can jump Right in without having to pull a home
Equity line of credit to do so but let Me know what you guys think down in the Comments section below as always if you Want to read more about this lens read All the specs about it I'll leave a link Down in the description thank you guys So much for watching stay tuned for more Have a great day bye-bye