Did we really need ANOTHER 35mm lens for Fujifilm? (Yes, we actually did...)

Alright, if you're anything like me, one of the things that draws you to Fujifilm is the size, the quality, the colors. But really it starts with the size. And so when the X-E5 came out recently and I made a video about it on this channel, I've really fallen back in love with these small bodies that have incredible sensors. Like in this one we have the 40-megapixel sensor, performs really well on this 23mm f/2.8, which candidly I should probably make a video on that lens because it's so good. But it does have some odd quirks you got to get used to. But this camera has been so much fun to shoot with. Like, I feel like I'm back. I know if you shoot photography, you know that feeling of like, you know, doing really well with photography and falling in love with the camera and then not falling in love and having gear acquisition syndrome and all this crap that you probably think about and talk about, uh, in your day-to-day. But I really have fallen back in love with these small lenses. So if you have been watching this channel or you haven't, um, I did review the Viltrox 35mm f/1.7, which I do really love this lens. I think for the price and the specs, it is probably a top-tier optical lens. And then I also reviewed TTArtisan's second version of their 35mm f/1.8. So a little bit difference in the aperture there, but you know, between these two lenses, I would say that if I had to start over and kind of do it from scratch again, I'd probably go with the TTArtisan. Kind of the cost-to-value ratio is so high with this. But the one thing that both of those lenses is missing is, is character. And I know that's such a silly thing to talk about, but if you shoot Fujifilm, you know what I'm talking about. And if you don't, just imagine less clinical-looking photos and more sort of, you know, interesting photos with some of those cool retro aesthetics that we're used to. And so when 7Artisans reached out and said, hey Dylan, we have our version of the 35mm f/1.8 small prime to throw our hat in the ring, I said send it to me please, I want to review this thing. So thanks to 7Artisans for sending me this. This is the brand new 35mm f/1.8 from 7Artisans. The interesting thing about this lens is, and I'll go over some specs, uh, in this video, but the interesting thing about this lens is, in my opinion, can't really prove this, but it does have more character than the other two. Now, having said that, um, I'll put some specs here on the screen. It's really in the middle, right? It has one of the bigger filter sizes. It has a middle range for the weight out of the three of these. It, um, certainly has the middle ground on the amount of elements in the lens, the diaphragm blades, like everything's about in the middle. But the interesting thing is it's gonna launch at $125, which is right alongside what TTArtisans charges for their lens. So your choice at the very bottom range of the price is really gonna be between these two lenses. Now, construction-wise, I'd go 7Artisans. Um, quality-wise, I'm gonna go crazy here and say something controversial and a hot take, but I would also go 7Artisans. That's not to say the TTArtisans is bad. It's fantastic lens. You cannot go wrong with either one, but there's just a tiny bit more character here. Again, subjective. So I want to spend this video doing some pixel peeping. I want to compare this brand new lens, um, on the X-E5, which is a 40-megapixel sensor, and that really pushes these budget lenses to their end. Um, and I want to compare that to, uh, the 33mm from Fujifilm, sort of the pro lens. And then I'll also throw in the 16-50mm kit lens, uh, to take a look at that. So with that, let's jump into it and do some, uh, pixel peeping. Here we go. All right, I want to jump into a little pixel peep— not battle, but really comparison. And this is going to be as scientific as possible. I know that obviously that's impossible with this, but I am using the X-E5 on all of these images. You can see the camera up here as well as the lens. Now, the interesting thing to point out early on is that the one that's looking like a Tokina lens, which is very interesting, this is actually the TTArtisan, um, at f/1.8. Strangely, there must be some— and again, maybe this is unbeknownst to me— but there's a partnership, I guess, between TTArtisan Artisan and Tokina. I don't know why it's showing as that, and we'll, we'll talk a little about this 33mm in a moment. But this would be the Viltrox 35mm f/1.7, and then the last one here is the 33mm f/1.4 from Fujifilm. So all taken at the same shutter speed, ISO, we're on a tripod, not moving at all. So let's kind of go into it here. So the first one is the 7Artisans 35mm f/1.8, and just going through the 4 images again real quick, you'll notice immediately that the TT Artisan has a ton more vignette, and it has obviously that different focal length, which is very interesting that it's billed as a 35, but it's more of a 33. This happens a lot with some of these third-party lenses, and I think it's kind of a fun quirk, but something to be aware of. And then the Viltrox looks very similar to the 7Artisans, and I would say that the Fujifilm, without pixel peeping, looks the best here in terms of controlled vignette. Turned off all the different, you know, in-camera adjustments, everything. These are just the raw images with no support. So let's jump in here. So we have the 7Artisans Artisans, we're going to take a look at the text on this coffee thing here and my wife's dirty glasses here. So at 100%, if we go back now to the— this would be the TT Artisans versus the 7Artisans— they're really similar. I would say a little bit more contrast on the TT Artisans. But if we actually go into compare mode, one thing that you'll notice here is that the TT Artisans, to my eye, seems like less contrast wide open at f/1.8. But a little bit sharper. And again, we're splitting hairs here, and I think at the outset here, if we color corrected and we did some of the vignetting and distortion, we'd get very similar images. So again, when we think about TTArtisan versus 7Artisans, I would say that the 7Artisans out of the box is going to be a better image because it has less vignetting. And then if we go now to the Viltrox and take a look, the Viltrox, um, looks like the focus is a little bit different here, which again, we're on the same focus point, so that's just part of life. But if we take a look, I mean, again, another very sharp image. Um, I don't think that's going to make too big of a difference. Now here, when we go to the Fujifilm wide open, we're even at f/1.4 here, and it's such a better image, right? We've got better contrast, we've got better lighting, we've got better vignette controlling, et cetera, et cetera. I think candidly we can say that the, out of the, you know, wide open range, uh, the Fujifilm would be the best. Now again, I think the 7Artisans is really good. Um, but the Viltrox here would be performing kind of the best out of the budget lenses. Because, um, again, a little bit more expensive. Let's go now to a different image set here. So we're going to start with the 7Artisans at f/2 here, and we're going to look at the TTArtisans here on the right. Again, I think, you know, in my opinion, again, we're splitting hairs. I think the 7Artisans is a little bit sharper here. If we now go to the Viltrox, the Viltrox seems to be sharper here, a little bit more contrast and a little bit less softening as you get to the corners here. And then on the last one here, we can take a look at the Fujifilm, which, you know, beats everybody. It looks much more like a modern image. Now, interestingly, this is my hot take here. Don't— I'm not a scientist, I don't know. But I think that these budget lenses have a tougher time with the 40-megapixel sensor. And the Fujifilm, obviously they've come out and said that these f/1.4, the newer generation, were built for the 40-megapixel sensor. I believe that. I think that it still looks really good on the 7Artisans. And between the three, I think the 7Artisans still looks the best in my opinion out of the box. But other than that, I think it's an interesting take nonetheless. Moving on over to f/2.8. Now we're kind of stopping down a little bit. Let's go back to the comparison. Stopping down a little bit on all the lenses. I think the 7Artisans again, like, looks the best here, right? I think the TTArtisan here not as much contrast. The sharpness is good, but definitely not as sharp as this here. If we look at the wording here, and then if we now take a look at the Viltrox, um, the Viltrox actually, again, we got a focus miss here, and this happened a lot with that lens. We— I had a solid focus point, um, I did autofocus each time, probably should have kept it in manual focus, but for the purposes of getting it done quickly, that's what we did. And it seems that even we had some of those, um, stranger focus misses there, which is fine. But still, I think the Viltrox, great performer. Now looking at the Fujifilm, this is what's interesting to me. You you can see some softening on these ornaments here that isn't present on the Fujifilm, and that's because these budget lenses don't have that sort of edge-to-edge sharpness. Um, so interesting, uh, to see that. But again, 7Artisans, I think between the budget lenses, performed the best, if not second best there. All right, and then going down to f/4, we're going to see much of the same here. 7Artisans looks great at f/4. The TTArtisan also looks good, but you can see the ornaments here aren't as sharp on the TTArtisans. If we go to the Viltrox, we're back with the regular focus here. I think these are really, really comparable. I tend to like the TTArtisan a little bit better, although it is a little bit darker. And then— or excuse me, we just moved. So let's switch that back. There we go. 7Artisans versus the TTArtisan. Again, 7Artisans, in my opinion, I think is neck and neck there, if not a hair better. And then the Fujifilm, obviously just a little bit better. But now that we're at f/4, the differences are so minimal. If we go to the new contender here, which we're bringing in now, the 16-50 at about f/4, the kit lens actually performs pretty well here. I would say the contrast is, is pretty good. I like some of the colors out of the box of the 7Artisans a little bit better, but again, you can change that. But it's an interesting comparison there. Now if we go to, uh, where we're at f/5.6, I think we're kind of understanding what's happening here. We've got some we'll talk about the chromatic aberration here in a moment. But at f/5.6, all the cameras are pretty good. You'll notice the TTArtisan is a little bit brighter at the same exact settings. So I think there's some, you know, things going on with that. You can see the wider field of view really being a 33mm, not a 35mm. So something to keep in mind there. And then if we take a look at the Viltrox now, the Viltrox I think is right there with the TT— with the 7Artisan, excuse me. I think it's right there. I think it may even be a little bit sharper on this side for the Viltrox than the TTArtisan. So again, we're splitting hairs. But one of the interesting parts is if we go to this, this hatch clock here that my wife has, we can see a little bit of green and purple in the middle of that fabric on both. And that little bit more right there, we can see this dirty but needs to be cleaned charger here. I mean, it's neck and neck. And to understand that the Viltrox is quite a bit more expensive in budget land than the TTArtisan is interesting. And if we go up to the corners here, we can see actually, in my opinion, the 7Artisans has a little bit better contrast and control here in the corners. So very interesting. Again, I would say between all of them, the, the 7Artisans is really, really punching above its weight. And then going to the kit lens here, again, the kit lens really does well at f/5.6. You can see a little bit less of that chromatic aberration here. But again, we're softer towards the corners and that's to be expected on a zoom lens. And if we switch one last time to the Fujifilm, um, kind of pro lens f/1.4, I mean, it just looks the best. Micro contrast is there, sharpness is there, definitely less chromatic aberration, although there is some present there. Um, and I would say the 7Artisans actually in the corners a little bit better. I mean, the 7Artisans just performed so well in the corners. So, uh, interesting nonetheless. So I think that's a really good take on these lenses, and I think your takeaway here should be, look, It's really splitting hairs because we're pixel peeping. But interestingly, the TTArtisan is a little bit bigger focal length than you think. It's actually around 33mm. It's poor out of the box with vignette and distortion. If that matters to you, you can fix it with one click in Lightroom. And then the Viltrox, while it is the best, it does have some weird quirks about it as well. And the design of the Viltrox isn't very good because it's a plastic lens. The other ones are metal, which is much better. But I would still say if you're going to go for one of the budget lenses, why not choose the newest one, the 7Artisans? Give it a shot. I like the character on it, which I'll show you in some photos here in a moment. And if you have the money, get the 33mm f/1.4 from Fujifilm. It is the best lens on this system. I made a whole video about it. I love it to death. I use it all the time. It's fantastic. And I guess the last take here would be that kit lens 16-50 is fantastic, especially on those 40-megapixel sensors. It does really well. So thanks so much for watching. I'll leave you with a little kind of montage here of some photos I've taken over the last few weeks with the 7Artisans 35mm f/1.8. Thanks to 7Artisans for sending me out this lens, and thank you guys for watching. I will catch you in the next one. Bye!