[Music] Foreign Abbott and I'm here today to give you my Video review of the new TT Artisan 100 Millimeter F 2.8 this is a two times Macro and it's a tilt shift lens this is Easily the most complex lens that I've Seen from one of these smaller Third-party lens makers and they have Really tackled a lot of things here First of all this is the longest focal Length I've ever seen from TT Artisan on Top of that it's not just a one times Macro or a one-to-one macro which I have Seen them do before but this is a two Times macro which takes a whole other Level of engineering it is also the First tilt or shift lens or in this case Both tilt and shift that I've seen them Tackle and something that very few Manufacturers actually do because there Is a lot of engineering complexity Involved here so kudos to them and They've not done it for aps-c or micro Four thirds they've done it for full Frame here though I will note that while I'm reviewing on a full-frame Sony E-mount it's also available in Canada an RF Nikon Z or Zed Mount and Leica L but You can also get it in some smaller Sensor mounts like Fuji X and micro four Thirds but this is don't Um you know I don't want to undersell it This is designed for full frame and as
We're going to see it is effectively Covers the full frame image Circle and Does a great job in doing it there's a Lot of moving parts and a lens like this And so a lot of complexity that's been Introduced and so for a lens that has That degree of magnification then also Adding both the Tilt and the shift Capability means that this is a lens That can move in all kinds of directions Up and down side to side it can rotate Around there's a lot going on here and Then of course the ability to have that Extremely high level of magnification This is a lot of lens for the money Which by the way the money comes in at Right around 400 US dollars so we're Going to break down all of the various Aspects of performance here today in This review right after a word from our Sponsor Today's episode is brought to you by Phantom wallet the minimalist modern Wallet that is now even better with the New Phantom X that is crafted from Aluminum right here in Canada it is 22 Percent smaller and 35 percent lighter While still making it easy to access Your cards and money when you need them Thanks to their unique Fanning mechanism You could even customize your wallet due To its modular design with accessories Like a money clip cash holder ID display And even chipolo and air tag tracking
Integration visit Store.phantomwallet.com to check out Their unique sizes Styles and finishes That span from aluminum to Wood to Carbon fiber and use code Dustin 15 for 15 off when you're ready to check out So as you can see here this is not a Small lens in fact it would be pretty Much impossible to make a full frame Lens that does all that this lens does And to make it a small lens and so I Weighed it in at 841 grams that's right Around 29 ounces I measured it as being 73 millimeters in in diameter now I will Note that that is Um that is the barrel itself there are Protrusions coming off here as far as The knobs we'll talk more about that in A moment but in each one of the Cardinal Positions there is some kind of Knob Either the Locking knob or a adjustment Knob for either tilt or shift Functionality so on every side you do Have something that is protruding and That does of course bear into the Diameter so the lens barrel diameter I Measured in at 73 millimeters or 2.87 Inches it's quite a long lens at 147 Millimeters or 5.78 inches I will note However it is an internally focusing Lens and so the lens does not grow in Length you can see a pretty significant Movement front and back inside the lens Casing itself and so the focus elements
Are moving back and forth but it's all Within the confined to the lens so while This is not a weather sealed lens Typically those lenses like this that Everything that happens inside the lens Itself it's all in case does make it a Little bit more effective at resisting Things like dust or moisture intrusion Now my chief complaint when it comes to The physical design here actually comes Down to the ergonomics one of the things That I'm going to highlight is ttrsyn's Fault the other is kind of more on Sony So on the lens like this that as noted It has a protrusion no matter how you Rotate the lens there is something that Is protruding off the lens barrel and One thing that I have long noted about Sony bodies is that because the Sony E-mount is such a narrow mount it means That Sony doesn't have to leave a ton of Room between the mount and the grip and In fact I don't think that they leave Enough room and so it's not unusual for A lens to flare out and if you have Decent sized hands to feel a little bit Of pressure against your knuckles Between a lens and the actual grip of The camera itself now in this case Because we have something that protrudes No matter how you rotate the lens it Means that there's almost always going To be something that's rubbing against Your knuckles a little bit if you're
Using this lens handheld and then that's Because there's always something to Protrude out now if you're using it on a Canon RF or Nikon Zen mount something Like that you may have less of an issue Because the mounts are larger for those Those camera systems and as a byproduct They tend to create a little bit more Space between the um the mount flange And then the actual grip and so Sony has A kind of a unique problem on that front The other ergonomic issue that I will Point out is all on TT artisan and that Is that while all of the adjustment Knobs are metal or which I appreciate it Is not unusual for example there is one Down here that is just it's just more of Like a little tension knob and it's so Not a full size knob but as it's more Almost like a lever in its shape but What I find for that is that number one It can be really really hard to access If you're on a tripod for example and in Certain positions just hard to get at in General And then also it is really hard with Either the tension knobs to dial in Enough tension to where you can do what You want to do in terms of adjustment uh Having some tension on there but without It just as you can see they're just you Know is it immediately dropping to the Full position and so it is very hard to Put enough tension on here to where you
Can actually control it with the knob And it holds I've got it right now but You have to be really careful in that Process because there's just it's almost A complete lock and so that's just right Before the complete locking itself to Give you enough tension and then it's Almost too much tension but if you try To loosen it up it all immediately is Just a complete you know drop right down So I find that it's it's really easy to Shoot in the extreme position so long as Your extreme position happens to be you Want to be pointed all the way in the Direction that gravity is going not so Easy if you want to make fine tuning and So I think that there could be a little Bit more work on the damping process in The lens design that allows you you a Little bit more control when it comes to That tension and so that's probably my Least favorite aspect of the overall Physical Design This is a lensier almost Exclusively going to use off of a tripod Or at least most of the situations it is Very difficult to do any kind of tilt or Shift type work handheld and even two Times macro even if you've got a camera As I do here that it has in-body image Stabilization you're not going to really Have a lot of opportunity for doing Handheld macro at a two times kind of Distance it's just it's too much Potential for shakiness and so this is a
Lens you're going to probably want to Use on a tripod and again those Ergonomics make it sometimes harder than What it should be to use in that kind of Position A few other things I want to highlight Here is that we do have an aperture ring On here it is clicked it's half stop to Tense through f11 and then just full Stops at from f11 to F16 to F22 being The minimum aperture there the focus Ring itself moves fairly well we have Got not a huge amount of focus throw for You know going to two times Magnification level I estimated as as Being somewhere about 170 degrees of Rotation here it moves fairly well the Damping is fairly good I did feel in Some cases where I'm going a little bit Faster uh just not quite slippage but Just a little bit of that feel but Overall it's it's the damping I would Say is about right for here to where it Is moderately heavy to where you can Hold the position you want but it's Smooth to where you can make fine tuning And get the results that you want there So that is done pretty well up front we Do not have a lens hood here and that Becomes relevant in our image quality Discussion in just a moment and what we Do have is a cap that goes over the Outer barrel and so obviously you Couldn't have a lens hood and put this
Kind of cap system on we have a six Seven millimeter front filter thread and By the way the suction and the fit there Is good and tight this is not going to Fall off accidentally no zero issues With that but while you could thread on Um you know an aftermarket 67 millimeter Um lens hood you know it's it's going to Just be ergonomically difficult you Couldn't use the lens cap you're not Going to be able to reverse it just a Variety of factors in that probably most You'll end up using the lens with just The bare lens and it is a bit flare Prone so that's going to be the downside Of that the minimum Focus distance here Is 25 centimeters which I found was not Too bad considering you're going all the Way to a two times magnification even Past even though the lens is quite long Past the lens Barrel that still has Given you nine or ten centimeters of Working distance and if you're going to One to one level it's more like 13 or 14 Centimeters of working distance so not Terrible for that type of thing now when It comes to the tilting and the shifting Capabilities we have six millimeters of Shift in either direction now that's not As much as what you're going to see on Some wide angle lenses or really a lot Of dedicated tilt shift lenses however It is enough to make things interesting For example I could take these three
Panoramic type shots and I could combine Them into one macro Panorama that I Think is a very cool image I used it When you know four trying to get these Straight lines obviously a little bit Less relevant for that in interior Spaces because a wide angle lens is Going to be more useful for that but I Did take a couple of shots here and a Vertical orientation and I stacked them Together there's no cropping here this Is the image just as it comes out of the Conjoining you can see that the lines Are really really beautiful and and so Anyway it's it's an interesting lens There and then of course it also has Tilt capabilities we have eight degrees Of tilt in either direction and so that Can be used for miniature effect and That tends to work better when you're up High so I didn't have lot of Opportunities to test that however I did Play with it in terms of the the depth Of field and the bokeh and then so for Example in this shot of the Christmas Present you can see with no tilting Effect how the background is fairly Obvious and then if I use the Tilt Effect how that I can make the Background uh you know very much more Blurry and so it gives you some creative Options for portraiture and things like That and so um we also have 12 internal Aperture blades keeps a nice circular
Shape as you can see here as you stop Down the geometry is quite good there we Have an optical design of 14 elements in 10 groups and so let's break down those Optics together you can see from the MTF Chart that our Center and mid frame Performance is pretty good but that the Corners are quite a bit weaker and that Was borne out in my own test so let's Dive in and let's take a look at that so We'll start by taking a look at vignette And Distortion typically macro lenses Have low levels of distortion because They need to have a nice flap plan of Focus and really that's the case here There is next to no Distortion there a Very very mild amount of pincushion Distortion and a little bit of vignette Also pretty moderate I made those manual Corrections with just a -2 to correct For the bit of pin cushion Distortion And a plus 36 right over a full stop in The corner so really not bad at all on Either front also important in a macro Lens is good control of chromatic Aberrations particularly longitudinal Style chromatic aberrations that show up As fringing either before or after the Planet focus in this case we can see a Very mild amount of purple fringing here Before the planet focus and then also a Little bit of green fringing after the Plane of focus but by and large you can See here that it's controlled quite well
And as we look towards the kind of bokeh Here we can see that it's it is fairly Neutral and not a significant problem There we also have a good control of Lateral chromatic aberration so here in This landscape image we can see detail Is nice but as we look towards the edge Of the frame we can see that there is Really no fringing showing up here we've Got good contrast and detail towards the Edges of the frame you know the most Minor amount of fringing maybe along Those branches but it's so faint that I Really can't tell for sure even if it's There so we have a 50 megapixel sensor That we're going to do the chart test on And this is going to be at 200 Magnification shown here in the center Of the frame we can see that detail is Very good contrast not necessarily off The charts but quite good here in the Center of the frame as we move towards The mid frame a similar story in that we Have very good detail here and contrast Is good but not exceptional now as we Work our way down we can see that we're Starting to see a little bit of drop From this corner to this corner of the Bill and then even here we can see that As we work towards the edge the contrast Is diminishing though detail is not bad Right over to the edge of the frame Stopping down to F4 gives us a boost in Contrast but not necessarily a boost in
Detail here in the core Corner stepping On down to F 5.6 we can see that we're Starting to get a little bit better Contrast in detail however it's not Until F 8 where I feel like the results Are really starting to get sharp here as Far as contrast and even then in no way Compares to how excellent things look in The center of the frame or in the mid Frame where everything is very very Strong detail there looks really Fantastic at either 5.6 or f8 we can see A little bit of improvement here from F 5.6 to f8 looking up in this upper Corner we can see that f8 is the most Consistent across the frame in terms of Our absolute detail now our minimum Apture is F22 shown here on the right But as per usual you can see that Diffraction takes quite a hit on a high Resolution body and so it really softens Up contrast even further and so as a Byproduct we definitely Um it's I would recommend staying away From F22 where at all possible Because I think you're going to find Better results at f11 and larger so as Noted contrast is not off the charts and So I was shooting with the new Sigma 50 Millimeter F 1.4 at the same time the Sigma definitely has more byte you can Actually see here that detail is quite Good on my subject and the byproduct of Having a little bit less contrast is
That you can see that the background is Really really soft and creamy even where We have a fairly busy background with Just you know these dead branches and so Our bear branches I should say and so as A byproduct I think that there is some Trade-off here and so we can see detail Is good on the subject but then the Transition towards defocus is really Quite nice now if we take a look at the Bokeh geometry so first of all you can See obviously this is a lens that can Produce a lot of defocus because it can Focus all the way down to a two to one Level so as a byproduct you can see big Soft bouquet circles you can see there Is some geometric deformation to towards The edges of the frame we can see Stopping down to F4 geometries looking Really actually quite good all across The frame and I will also point out by The way that as we zoom in here there is Some definite Inner Line but beyond that The bouquet is fairly smooth stopping on Down to F 5.6 we can see it's still Maintaining a pretty circular shape There's 12 aperture blades and so Byproduct of that is that keeping a good Circular shape we can see that that Inner line is becoming a little bit more Definite as things are stopped down but As far as the geometry goes really not Too bad so what we have seen is that in Good situations you have the ability to
Really produce a nice creamy background Very nice bokeh and so we can see here That on our subject again detail is Great contrast is not off the charts but The bokeh quality is really nice and Soft here's a little bit further away But you can see that even in the Foreground bokeh it's a nice perspective And a nice amount of detail there So those two things combine together a Little less contrast and nice bokeh does Make this an intriguing option for Portrait work in this case we've got a Little bit of motion blur as you can see My shutter speed dropped a little bit Too low for this setting but you can see That the background is blurred out Nicely and in this shot where I have Played with the tone curve a little bit We can see the detail is really nice on The eye that is the primary source of Focus there and then of course nice Detail on the hair but it's overall the Background blur that is quite nice so Just one other thing that this lens can Do is to serve as a pretty decent Portrait lens and of course at macro Distances this lens does perform well we Can see how far it can zoom into my you Know chart here for uh to test for the Two to one in fact I had to take a Couple of shots just to kind of give you A little perspective of what all is There because the magnification level is
So high but we can see here that you can See easily all the fibers of the paper And you know the ink as it has sunk into Them a pretty impressive performance up Close for such an inexpensive lens the Lens does have one other vulnerability That I want to highlight and that is That it is uh somewhat Flair prone you Can see here that there's both a loss of Contrast wide open with the bright Sun In the frame and then also some pretty Significant ghosting artifacts stopping On down you can see the 12 pointed Aperture blades you can also see that we Continue to have both a loss of contrast And also some ghosting artifacts and Then even with the Sun not in the frame At all just coming through a window but I knew that this is going to be a flare Pro prone lens when I was shooting this Shot and I saw these um you know flare Artifacts here in the corner of the Frame even though I wasn't even thinking Really about the sun being a component Here so a byproduct is that you are Going to have to be careful with the Lens particularly when you consider the Fact that it does not come with a lens Hood nor will it be easy to add one so At the end of the day this is a lens That obviously does a lot of things and It does all of them reasonably well this Is certainly a jack of all trades lens And while it's not some kind of Master
Class Type lens I would say that it does Most things moderately well and for the Price point of only around 400 US Dollars this is a lot of lens and you Can use it for a variety of applications I can see this being an intriguing lens For those that are interested in the Idea of doing some tilting or shifting And don't want to spend a massive amount Of money those are interested in doing High degrees of magnification but again You don't want to spend a lot of money And as we've seen this is a lens that Also doubles as a pretty decent 100 Millimeter portrait lens and so I think There's a lot of stuff you can do with This lens and for example you know I'm Reviewing this during the winter this Lens is a lot of fun during the winter Months because it gives you a lot of Creative options for the type of photos That you can produce while you know Maybe not being able to move around Outside in the same way during the Winter due to weather conditions so for 400 bucks a very in intriguing lens and I'm certainly very proud of TT Artisan For taking on the challenge of producing Such a lens like this it's one that I Consider useful and I look forward to Playing with it a little bit further Moving ahead I'm Dustin Abbott if you Look in the description down below you Can find linkage to my full text review
Also some buying links there if you'd Like to purchase one for yourself beyond That there is linkage to follow myself Or Craig on social media to become a Patron or to get channel merchandise and Of course if you haven't already please Like And subscribe thanks for watching Have a great day and let the light in [Music] Foreign
