7artisans 28mm f/1.4 Leica M lens

(Coming to this thread late) I just had a look at the youtube video that xayraa linked back in January. The images shown there look pretty average to my eye. If those acurately represent what this lens can do, I think I'd opt for a used Voigtlander 28/2 instead.
 
Ricoh said:
I'm really interested in this lens. Would it be possible to post a few examples of the 'glow' at 1.4? I very much like to see and be able to induce this effect.
Click to expand...

I seem to stand corrected.. I just got the lens yesterday and was chimping in the evening looking at some snaps I took around my place. Perhaps my eyes were blurry (or i need to look further into this)..
But I just took this quick shot in lighting conditions designed to tax the lens - heavy backlighting, at 1.4.
Of note the lens also had a Hoya HMC UV filter in place. W/O it I'm sure it would perform better. But I am very impressed as is.



This is straight from RAW/DNG no lens profiles applied.
 
Huss said:
I seem to stand corrected.. I just got the lens yesterday and was chimping in the evening looking at some snaps I took around my place. Perhaps my eyes were blurry (or i need to look further into this)..
But I just took this quick shot in lighting conditions designed to tax the lens - heavy backlighting, at 1.4.
Of note the lens also had a Hoya HMC UV filter in place. W/O it I'm sure it would perform better. But I am very impressed as is.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the quick reply. I'm so tempted by the output I've seen and the many reviews. Rather unique I believe is the ability to correct back focus by adjustment of the helicoid (I'm not sure having read this http://m.7artisans.com/en/nd.jsp?id=123 whether front focus is also adjustable. It also mentions a cam (on the lens?), I always thought the cam was in the camera not the lens).
Yes that's the lens hood I saw on eBay, looking at the pics it looks nicely done at an affordable price.
 
Ricoh said:
Thank you for the quick reply. I'm so tempted by the output I've seen and the many reviews. Rather unique I believe is the ability to correct back focus by adjustment of the helicoid (I'm not sure having read this http://m.7artisans.com/en/nd.jsp?id=123 whether front focus is also adjustable. It also mentions a cam (on the lens?), I always thought the cam was in the camera not the lens).
Yes that's the lens hood I saw on eBay, looking at the pics it looks nicely done at an affordable price.
Click to expand...

Yes you can adjust the focus back or front. Mine back focussed a lot (I bought it used and who knows what the previous owner did?), but it took about 10 minutes with the supplied screwdriver to fix that. You really need a digital Leica M to take care of that, as you can immediately see the effect (LiveVie is even better eg on an M240). I could not imagine doing this on a film M, as you'd shoot a roll, wait to get it developed, see what happened, rinse, repeat... !
It is the rf ramp that is moved on the lens. Really easy and simple.
 
This is another test shot I took of Pepe sunbathing.. At f4 - full size then 1:1 crop so you can see this lens delivers. I am really looking forward to using it for actual photography!



 
Huss said:
Yes you can adjust the focus back or front. Mine back focussed a lot (I bought it used and who knows what the previous owner did?), but it took about 10 minutes with the supplied screwdriver to fix that. You really need a digital Leica M to take care of that, as you can immediately see the effect (LiveVie is even better eg on an M240). I could not imagine doing this on a film M, as you'd shoot a roll, wait to get it developed, see what happened, rinse, repeat... !
It is the rf ramp that is moved on the lens. Really easy and simple.
Click to expand...
Thanks Huss, and I've just watched the procedure on YouTube. Must say I'm a bit baffled how the same 'ramp' section can be adjusted twice, at minimum focus and at infinity, but without seeing an exploded diagram or the mechanism itself, I'll just take it that it works, and indeed you have done it yourself at min.

Oh why don't the likes of Leica, Zeiss and Voigtlander offer the same adjustment opportunities. Would make life a lot easier, instead of having to send the lens to a repair tech (assuming the camera is within spec.).

Like yourself I have the M240 which helps a lot. For film users a sheet of ground glass of appropriate size across the film rails sort of does the same thing, but I guess you'd need to dim the lights and illuminate the target to get sensible contrast on the glass.

Incidentally, are DJ Optical and 7Artisans part and parcel of the same outfit (just guessing here perhaps 7A are the designers and DJ-Optical make them). Nothing to do with DJI, but again I'm guessing.
 
Huss said:
This is another test shot I took of Pepe sunbathing.. At f4 - full size then 1:1 crop so you can see this lens delivers. I am really looking forward to using it for actual photography!
Click to expand...

Wow that's really good, Huss, ���� sure you're well pleased.

I'm thinking already what I could do with the lens fully open at 1.4 - has got the brain racing!
 
Ricoh said:
Thanks Huss, and I've just watched the procedure on YouTube. Must say I'm a bit baffled how the same 'ramp' section can be adjusted twice, at minimum focus and at infinity, but without seeing an exploded diagram or the mechanism itself, I'll just take it that it works, and indeed you have done it yourself at min.
Click to expand...

Yeah I don't understand that either. It's only one ramp that is being adjusted so how can it be adjusted for close and infinity?
I didn't bother adjusting it for infinity (on any of my 7A lenses), just wide open at close distances (about 1.5 meters). With all of them they now nail focus no matter at what distance I focus.
But... they all focus pass infinity if I rely on the hard infinity stop. So I don't, I always make sure to use the RF patch to determine focus.
 
The reason I bought it - 1.4 at night, handheld. I also have the Elmarit Asph 28 2.8, which costs about 6 times as much, and I could not have made this shot with that lens.

Leica M240, 7Artisans 28 1.4
 
My 'new to me' but second-hand 7A 28mm f1.4 arrived today. Initial thoughts: fantastic build quality, and testing on my M240 seems to show good ramp to RF coordination - but thats only based on chimping so far as its only a short while since the delivery man.

I saved approx 30% against what I already thought was a good price for a lens new in box, plus it came with a screw-in lens hood. Happy days!
 
for the price----this is just such a cool lens.

I mean if the Leica equivalent was say, $2500 then $500 for this lens wouldn't be as big of a deal but the fact is the Leica variant is $5k+ almost always which makes this a total bargain for the photographing adventurer.

Considering getting one....
 
A review from a contributor to the thephoblographer. I'd agree it can be somewhat soft wide open [also a little on the large side, blocking the viewfinder, especially so with the 7A rectangular lens hood] but overall I find the lens (at least the copy in my possession) quite adequate taking into account the asking price.

https://www.thephoblographer.com/page/3/
 
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