Greetings again everyone Fuji's medium Format gfx system of cameras has a nice Selection of official lenses out there But as for all the other systems a Number of Cheaper third-party manual Focus Optics have been popping up so Let's take a look at TD Artisan's 190 mm F1.25 manual focus portrait lens I've Already tested this one on a Sony Fullframe camera where it performed Pretty well it's always a surprise to me When a company's full frame lens makes An appearance on Fuji GF because it Means the original lens was overdesigned All along to offer a bigger medium Format image Circle it's a risk for Companies to do that as it potentially Increases the manufacturing cost of the Lens itself but here we are anyway with What has to be one of the brightest Apture medium format Optics available Today on medium format this thing is the Fullframe equivalent of a 71 mm lens With the equivalent depth of field of About F1 which is absolutely amazing When you think about it there aren't Many lenses in the world which can throw Your backgrounds out of focus to this Extent so it's potentially a dream lens For portrait work if that is you can get This thing in focus in the first place And working at such a narrow depth of Field focusing manually is no joke Especially if you actually want to see a
100 megapixel image on your expensive Tfx camera the lens cost $515 and about 600 here in the UK which Is comparatively very affordable for Medium format Shooters I'd like to thank Ttan for providing a sample copy for Testing although as usual this is a Totally independent review let's take a Look at build quality first the lens Itself is big unsurprisingly and heavy Weighing just over a kilogram or over 2 It's metallic rock solid a little front Heavy and what's more I think its Aesthetic design is actually pretty cool And if that doesn't impress you just Look through that hypnotically giant Front glass element will the lens is not Weather sealed as you can see its main Control point is a metallic Focus ring The edges of its grooves feel a bit Rough on your fingers but the ring turns Incredibly smoothly and also pretty Heavily I do wish it turned a bit Further than 160° but thankfully because Of the smoothness and heaviness you can Still focus it quite precisely with a Little time that is as you can see here The lens displays some breathing zooming In rather as you focus more closely the Aperture ring is also made of metal it Clicks nice and softly at every half an F stop and the stops are evenly spaced Out which is good to see The Lens comes With a rather confusing lens cap and
Hood combination it's a screw on lens Cap something I passionately hate but it Will only screw on to the back of the Metallic lens Hood which then has to be Reverse mounted onto the lens itself I've never seen that before before Basically I would personally just buy a 77 mm lens cap separately to go with This thing as I mentioned this is a Totally manual lens no autofocus no Camera controlled aperture no in lens Image stabilization if you're happy with That though you'll be pretty satisfied With the build quality of this thing It's as handsome as it is Rock Solid and While manually focusing it takes a Little while it's not too difficult Anyway on to image quality I'll be Testing it on a 100 102 map Fuji gfx100 Mark I camera in camera Corrections are Not available with this lens at f1.25 we See a textbook example of a lens which Actually has Okay resolution but suffers From very low contrast and some strong Ghosting on contrasting edges resolution Actually remains okay in the mid-frame However in the image Corners picture Quality suddenly falls apart this is the Part of the image that was never visible On full frame cameras anyway let's stop Down to F2 where the image is a little Brighter and clearer now back in the Middle contrast is far better and Resolution is good although we're still
Catching a bit of that pesky ghosting on Contrasting edges stopped down to f2.8 And we're now treated to perfect Sharpness in the middle and very good Contrast again that sharpness continues Quite far into the mid-frame area However the very edges still suffer Quite badly F4 looks about the same f5.6 Looks sharper though and f8 and f11 look Quite decent really except for a little Blue color fringing on contrasting edges Stop down as far as F22 though and the Image just becomes much softer due to The effect of defraction overall it's Not a great performance here especially At f1.2 where contrast is way lower than Anyone would want to see even taking Into consideration how much of a stress Test a 102 map sensor really is but hey The good news is that it's performance Is quite good at f2.8 except right in The very edges and stop it down even Further for quite a lot of sharpness Across the whole image frame okay let's See about Distortion and vignetting now Distortion is very low on this lens Although those Troublesome image Corners Are obviously bending backwards a little Here as well as looking very dark F2 Looks about the same but at f2.8 and F4 Those Corners brighten up quite a lot This lens can focus down to 1 m a bit Further than average here so it won't be Mistaken for a macro lens anytime
Inexpensive lenses with ultra bright Aptes often suffer the same weakness Poor image quality closeup and this one Is no exception as you can see stop down To f1.4 F2 f2.8 and finally F4 for good Improvements that finally lead to decent Close-up image quality now let's see how Well the lens works against bright light Uh-oh a smus board of issues occur here At F 1.25 there's simply a huge amount Of flaring whether those bright lights Are directly in or on the edge of the Image stop down to F2 as I do here to See it greatly reduced although bright Lights on the edge of the frame still Cause some sudden and serious problems Okay let's look at this lens's Boker Deeply aof focused backgrounds look Absolutely fine to me here when they're Less deeply outof Focus you can catch a Bit of jumbl here though but nothing Serious and finally longitude Al Chromatic aberration although because of The terrible close-up image quality my Usual test isn't working here very well Until we stop down to about f2.8 or F4 That is where we see almost no color Fringing on Baka highlights overall well It's an f1.25 lens on medium format Which is amazing but it's not very sharp At f1.25 which makes me feel sad and the Lens is terrible at shooting close up But still Simply Having the option of Using such a bright aperture on medium
Format is still exciting and the Resulting pictures admittedly look quite Artistic if you're not pixel peeping its Out of focus backgrounds look gorgeous Too so the lens still has some Legitimate potential here and I can Imagine it having a few happy owners Especially for anyone with a 50 map gfx Camera rather than anything higher Resolution okay once again thanks for Watching everyone and if you find these Reviews helpful or even just plain Interesting then check out my patreon Page in the description below where Supporters get all kinds of exclusive Bonus content and make a huge difference To keeping this channel going CIA for Now [Music] [Music] Everyone [Music] For
