Dylan Andersen reviews the TTArtisan 23mm f/1.8 autofocus lens for Fujifilm, a $125 alternative to the expensive Fujifilm 23mm f/1.4. The lens is sharp and well-built, though it vignettes wide open and has some autofocus hunting on certain cameras. Best suited for 26-MP Fujifilm bodies like the X-T5.
So it's no secret that if you've been watching this channel, I've talked a lot about this lens right here. This is the Fujifilm 23 millimeter F1.4 on my X T5. I love this lens. I went and looked at the most shots I've taken in 2024 were with this lens out of any of the lenses and any of the systems that I own. So I was pretty happy seeing that because I do love the lens. I made a video, which I'll link below, about why that 23 millimeter is so special. But there's one downside with it. It's super expensive. However, I've been on the lookout for the past year or two years for a smaller, lighter, 23 millimeter equivalent lens, but very fast and a good aperture. And I haven't found one until now. So this is the new Ttartisan 23 millimeter f 1.8 lens from Ttartisan and it's an autofocus lens. TT Artisan, if you haven't heard, are out absolutely killing it right now. I think the two most exciting manufacturers for lenses for the Fujifilm system right now are TT Artisan and Viltrox. Viltrox recently put out a really good 35 millimeter lens that's small, light and really, really strong optically. But so did TT Artisan. This is their 35mm f1.8 lens mark II. And this thing is incredible. I did a video on it which I'll link as well. Love that lens. However, the 35 millimeter kind of 50 millimeter equivalent isn't great for everyday photos, especially if you have a family and you want to shoot inside, which I think shooting indoors with these fast lenses is really important. So enter the 23mm F1. 8. This lens. I recently got a chance to try it out early from ttartisan. So thank you, TT Artisan. They have no bearing on this video. They didn't tell me to say anything about the lens. Full disclosure. They just kind of sent it to me and wanted to see what I thought of it. But I absolutely love it. It's $125. It's an incredible lens. It is only around 210 grams. It's very fairly light. It is bigger than the 35 millimeter from Ttartis in the Mark 2. It's probably a little bit bigger, but I don't think that should stop you from getting this lens. I think you should get this lens right now if you have a Fujifilm camera, especially if you have the XM5 because look at this lens on this camera. I know I'm kind of fanning out here, but I've just loved this lens. It's a very special lens. Here's the box again. The Ttartisan 23 millimeter F 1.8. It is a really special lens. I think the time that I've done shooting with it, a couple of things, I realized that it's incredibly cheap, very well built. You're going to hear a lot about this 35 millimeter in the upcoming months if you haven't already how well built it is. This lens is built exactly like that 35 millimeter, strong metal aluminum construction. Really, really good focus ring. It is missing the aperture ring, so keep that in mind. I know there are some people who say it's a deal breaker if it doesn't have an aperture ring on a Fujifilm camera. I get it, but this does not. I'm looking at some numbers here. It's f1.8. The minimum aperture is f16. To keep that in mind, 11 elements in nine groups. It's going to come out on the Sony E mount, the Fujifilm X mount and the Nikon Z mount. So just seems like such a no brainer to get nine diaphragm blades, 52 millimeter filter size which is in fact the same as this lens. So we kind of seen a theme here. The close focus distance is 0.3 meters. It's just been an incredible lens to use. I'll share some photos like I said of it at the end of this video, but I just want to talk about why this lens is so important right now for Fujifilm. Because right now for Fujifilm, if you want to get a cheap autofocus lens that's relatively fast, it has good optical quality, really the only option is the 27F2.8 at this kind of focal length. And the thing about that f2.8 27 millimeter lens from TTartisan is it's incredible, but it's a pancake lens. The Fujifilm lens is about 10% better than that TT artisan 27mil lens only because it has some vignetting and it has some other kind of quirks, but it's a lot cheaper. And I still can't find that Fujifilm 27 millimeter lens anywhere for sale. So again, availability is big. Back to the 23 millimeter though. I think it's really important to Note that for $125 you are truly getting an incredible lens. Unbelievable. Now what are the downsides? Let's Be very honest, it has vignetting wide open. I had to stop down to about F2.8 to actually get some vignetting improvement. But in post it's very easy to correct. I think the other thing to keep in mind is the focus. I'm noticing on this one it's supposed to have the same focus motor as the 35 millimeter. But I am noticing that this lens tends to, at least on the XM5, tends to kind of do that rack where it goes in and out. But it's a very fast stepping motor. It doesn't seem to be very loud, it's very quiet. But I do get some weird kind of hunting issues that I didn't experience on the 35. Maybe that's me, I don't know. So vignetting the focus motor is a little bit strange. At least some of the sort of ability to get that focus is a little bit weird. The other thing is it is bigger. You can't not mention that to talk about this lens. But I still think on the XM5 this is going to be my new everyday carry like full stop. I love, love, love my Ricoh GR III X. But I mean if I'm taking both of these cameras with me or if I have a choice of taking one, I'm gonna take this just because I love this focal length probably more so than the 27 millimeter equivalent on this past that it's just been a joy to use. It is such a small lens. Despite it being bigger than the 35, it's so well built. I think in my opinion that it still doesn't perform as well on the 40 megapixel sensor just like the 35. But I still think for $125 you'd be kind of silly not to get this if you're on a 26 megapixel sensor like the XS20, the XM5, any of the cameras that are not the high resolution x trans 5hr sensor. So I know I'm kind of rambling here, but I'm just excited about this lens. Go get it. It's amazing. Let me share some photos with you. Thank you so much TT Artisan for giving me a chance to try this out. I'm in love and enjoy the rest of your day and have a happy new year. Thanks for watching guys. It.
