$125 But Sharp: TTArtisan 35mm f1.8 Mark II for Fujifilm First Impressions & Unboxing

Okay, so we are going to unbox already kind of started. But this is the TT Artisan. This is the TTArtisan 35 mil f 1.8 mark II lens. And this is for Fujifilm X mount. So a little X there. So they sent me this lens to try out and to check out and it's actually pretty exciting because there's a bunch of these cheap. Well I don't want to say cheap but like obviously affordable lenses coming out for X mount that are autofocus, which is pretty awesome. So ttartisan, you might remember them recently from the 27 mil pancake lens that they put out and that's had a lot of great reviews. And this is a Mark II lens.

Of a previous lens that they put out.

This one's supposed to have a better minimum focus distance and better flare control over the previous version. So we will test that. But yeah, let's unbox it real quick. This should be pretty straightforward. So TT Artisan, cool little brand, obviously out of China. They're doing some fun stuff. So you see some documentation there. We've got a little user manual, we've got, you know, I know a lot of people don't look at these but these are kind of fun, like little kind of notes that they give you. So fun. Always good to get the silica gel. And we have a little hood, very, very cheap hood. Feels very plasticky. Almost feels kind of like a, like a, like a toy. I have a three year old daughter and it feels like something that goes on her really cheap toys. But that's not what I'm worried about. I'm more concerned with the lens itself. So they actually have their name on the bag which I think is pretty cool. I don't see that from anybody. So there it is. This is the 35 millimeter F1.8 Mark II. Interestingly I didn't have the Mark I version of this lens but this obviously.

Is a little bit different.

I love how they're putting their name on the lens caps. I think that's cool. Versus just those blank ones that you usually get.

Got their name on the back here.

Again, coolest thing about ttartisan, some of these Chinese manufacturers that they're actually put in the USB C, not on the mount of the camera but actually in the lens cap. So lens cap actually is electronic and has connections to the actual lens mount itself. So there is the lens. Let's take a look at the inside here. So what kind of filter thread we have on here? We have a 52 millimeter which I have a couple lenses that are 52 millimeters, so I'll be able to throw on like a. I know it's kind of maybe not the smartest thing to do, but I love using the UV filters on these lenses just to kind of protect the lens element, even if it is a more affordable lens. So I don't know the price on this yet. They haven't given me any documentation. This is coming out soon.

I don't even know if it's announced.

Yet, but I'm pretty sure it'll probably be around like the 56F1.4 that they released, which is almost the same size since I don't have it with me. But it'll probably be around that price, like 140, $150. Again, really entry level lens with really good speed. In terms of the aperture. This is obviously a competitor to the XC 35mm F2, but this is definitely a more stronger feeling lens. And the fact that you can get firmware updates I think is so cool. So let's compare it to some other lenses. So comparing this to another lens that I have, this is the 15 to 45, obviously not a direct comparison whatsoever, but I think it's worth doing. So here's that lens. I mean, almost identical. Let's take off the back lens caps and see if we can get a nice comparison here. Yeah, I mean, it's so close. I have a UV filter on that one, but man, it's close. So if you own the 15 to 45 that's not obviously extended. The power zoom here won't be able to extend unless the camera's on, but really, really small. Let's throw it on the XM5 and see what this looks like. All right, so I've got my XM5 here. Let's go ahead and throw this guy on there. Wow. Super, super small. And even though it is a believe this is like a metal or aluminum construction, it's really, really light. Really like the way that kind of handles, kind of get a sense of it there. And again, very, very similar to the 15 to 45. So let's take a look at that again. I mean, yeah, it's almost identical. So if you're. Again, if you're familiar with that kit lens, you'll see that it's almost the same size. The other lens, I want to compare it to that also brand new, the Viltrox 35mm 1.7 XF. Also autofocus. This is going to be a really interesting comparison. This lens is also 52 millimeters. I think the thing about some of these Chinese lenses is that, you know, they are very similar. This one is much more plasticky feeling. I'd say the build quality in this ttartisans is much better. We'll have to see what the image quality looks like. I'm gonna make a video or I possibly have already put the video up for this which I am really enjoying for what it is. So check that out. But yeah, there's the 35mm F1.8 Mark II. I'm excited to take some photos with it and let you know what I think.

Alright, let's do a very short comparison between the TTartisan 35.1.8 and the Viltrox 35 1.7. There's gonna be a bunch of people online I'm sure that do like, you know, full MTF charts and you know, full tests and stuff. I'm not really so concerned with that. I just want to get like, hey, are they both sharp? Which one's sharper? Blah, blah blah. So I think these two sets of images I have here will get us.

That answer pretty quickly.

So a couple things to point out. Number one, I know the XFINFO on this image here is incorrect. It's showing what I believe to be a Tokina 3314 which is very strange, but it's actually the Ttartisan 35.1.8. And then when you see 35.1.7, that is the Viltrox lens. So I don't know. Does Ttartisan own Tokina? I have no idea. But these lenses are very similar. So let's go into a little bit of the sharpness. So one thing I did on both of these images is I turned off the automatic profile that gets added from Lightroom and adds kind of the corrections. So we're going to be able to kind of tell vignetting some of the distortion, etc. But took both these images of a Lumix 5S 5X2 and we can kind of take a look at some of the differences. So zooming into, let's go to 100% here. So first thing, exact same focus point, exact same settings. I think on both you'll see that on this particular image, the Viltrox I would say. And again this is, this is splitting hairs. And again we have no chromatic aberration removal turned on. We have no profile corrections, nothing.

This is just the RAW raw.

The Viltrox on the right here looks a little bit sharper like very, very, very minor. And again, keep in mind the Viltrox is the more expensive lens. But if we look at, you know, sort of this texture around the. I think that's the lens top there. It's a little bit sharper. So let's go in a little bit more. You know, I think, gosh, this is splitting hairs, right? Like who does this? I don't know. But I think nevertheless, like these images are pretty much identical, right? F 1.8 here, or excuse me, F 1.7 on the Viltrox. F 1.8 and you'll see like a little bit of ghosting on the out of focus area here, which is important to note. And on here it's completely blurry. So that definitely is a difference. But other than that they're, they're identical. I think this image is good too to see vignetting. So if we go to the top right corner, corner, you can easily see there that the TT Artisan has more vignette. And this is to be expected, right? It's a cheaper lens on the 27 millimeter f 2.8 autofocus pancake that they put out that's well known for having a ton of vignetting. So yeah, more vignetting on the left there. And that's going to be universal across all the corners. So yeah, so again we're shooting these wide open. Let's look at the next set. Alright, so we have the box and if you haven't seen the box for the 35 1.8 Mark II, it's right here. But this time I actually have the pictures reversed.

So sorry.

So this is the TT Artisan. This is the Viltrox. So from a hundred percent, or I guess no, excuse me, 34%, but from the full picture view, obviously the Viltrox has less vignetting. You can tell right off the bat. I mean the corners are pretty dark on the TT Artisan. And again, that's super fixable. Like I, I don't think vignetting is a big deal. I know a lot of people say, oh, the vignetting is terrible, but it's pretty clear. The other thing I noticed right off the bat, without any corrections, without even zooming in, like this is a little bit warmer of an image and that kind of holds up across all of my test shots that I've seen so far. The Viltrox is definitely like a little bit cooler in terms of some of the color reproduction. But let's zoom in and look at a little sharpness test, shall we? So there it is. I think that gives you a really good idea of which is a quote unquote sharper lens. You'll also notice a little bit of the ghosting in some of the out of focus areas, I guess. I mean, I don't know if that's considered loca longitudinal chromatic aberration or not, I don't know. But I think nevertheless, like this is still a fairly sharp image. I just think that Viltrox across all of their lenses is killing it with sharpness. But again, it's a more expensive lens. So more money, you're gonna get more sharpness, obviously. But on the TT Artisan I think that's perfectly serviceable. So yeah, so there you have it. Very straightforward. It is a comparison again with the Viltrox on the left, sharper image a little bit cooler and the TT artisan on the right. Again, I think the TTartisan is amazing. It's a more well built lens. But regardless, it's kind of interesting to see both of these lenses against each other.