7Artisans 75mm F1.25 M-Mount lens. The Need For Speed Satisfied.

Sonnar Brian

Sonnar Brian

Product of the Fifties
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This lens is fast and affordable. Like dropping a 390 with twin quads in a '67 Cougar. Fast, affordable, old-time Technology running with the best of the latest and greatest. This lens is under $450.

The lens features an adjustable cam, meaning it can be fine-tuned for your camera. This is often necessary for a super-speed lens on a rangefinder camera. As delivered, mine was ever-so-slightly off on my M9. The 50/1.1 was perfect on the same camera. I'm used to adjusting lenses.

The 50/1.1 shows a lot of vignetting in the corners. This lens does not. I wrote this graphics package 30 years ago, custom written for a lab doing tests of fiber optics. All Fortran and Assembly. Anytime one of the scientists needed a custom feature, like "Partial Log Axes" I got $30/hr evenings and weekends- in the 1980s. Paid for my 1990 T-Bird. Nikki used the program to generate her graphics for her 5th grade Science Fair Project: strength of an Electromagnet versus Voltage applied.



The far edges drop below an F-Stop when used wide-open even at infinity, well within the corrections applied when using the lens with coding turned on.

So what would you use a super-speed/ short Telephoto for anyway...



Wide-Open, the DOF is very shallow.





Focus action on this lens is smooth. Out of the box was slightly uneven at closest focus, this evened out with use.

I do not hit accurate focus everytime with this lens, probably 50% used wide-open for these types of shots, 1.25x magnifier on the M9.

 
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Digital is a curse- everyone wants every image to be absolutely sharp.
Highly Over-rated.





This lens is about 1/2 the price of the 1950s Canon 85/1.5. Which I also have.



I would recommend this lens to anyone wanting to shoot indoor sports.

 
At the Marine Museum in Quantico- Subjects are very patient and don't move.

Wide-Open,











All wide-open on the M9.

I bought this lens as soon as it was available. It is well-made, I've not had any problems. My first 7Artisans 50/1.1, SN just above 200- I tightened a set screw holding the focus ring on. It is one of the first made. It has not given me any trouble since. I've had to tighten an inner retaining ring of my Voigtlander LTM Asph 50/1.5, the front doublet came loose. These things happen.

The 75/1.25 and 50/1.1 are fast and inexpensive. They allow shooting the M9 in much lower light than possible with other more modern lenses in this price category. The size and weight are reasonable for such fast optics. There are a lot of other fast-fifties around, but not many short-telephoto lenses. This 75/1.25 is a stand-out.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/7artisans-Photoelectric-A113B-75mm-f1-25-Lens-Leica-M-Mount-CR/402489622330

I've bought from Robert's camera before- they have some open-box 75/1.25's. No association with the store, just a happy customer. Got my Nikkor-T 10.5cm F4 (for $110!) and a couple of other lenses from them.
 
Uploaded some images from Skyline Caverns in Virginia.




























Color lights used to illuminate many of the formation. These are all on the M9.
I get some beautiful, rich color with this lens. I've read one review that thought the colors were weak.
Vignetting is well controlled on the M9, but other reviews show a 3F-stop drop on a Sony A7R2. The loss is ~1.8stops on the M9 at the far corners.
 
















Should be enough pictures to give an idea of color rendition with this lens.

I keep a Nikon L37c filter and an inexpensive 62mm vented hood on this lens. Flare is well controlled.
 
Ko.Fe. said:
What a discovery...
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I've not seen many positive reviews on this lens.

On a rangefinder camera- focusing a telephoto lens that is this fast is not easy. Tuning the lens to the camera required more attention than the 50/1.1 7Artisans. Many of the comments I've read are due to the person's inability to focus it. I posted a few shots with the 7Artisans 50/1.1 on one "review" and someone responded that mine were the only ones actually in focus.

On a Sony, the light loss is much higher than what I measure on my Leica.

Back when the Canon 50/0.95 sold for $200, most of the comments on the Photo.net Leica Forum were along the lines that shooting with a coke bottle produced sharper images. I bought a pair of them to find out why the images were so soft. They weren't. I started posting pictures taken with it. Traded the $200 lens for a Leica 135/2.8 Elmarit-M, CZJ 8.5cm F2 Sonnar, and a Nikkor 13.5cm F4 in Leica mount. More than 10x ROI, and that was the uncoupled lens without original lens cap. These days- the Hood sells for more than I paid for the RF coupled lens. A couple of lenses around today fall into this "Don't get no respect" category. The Voigtlander Nokton 50mm F1.1 and the 7Artisans 75/1.25 are in this category.
 
I have the Voigtlander Nokton 50mm F 1,1 and it is dead on and sharp using my Sony A6000 with an adapter. Also on my M8u. I know what you mean about the Rodney Dangerfield syndrome on some lenses. Good luck that mine works as I have no clue how to "tune" lenses.
 
ray*j*gun said:
I have the Voigtlander Nokton 50mm F 1,1 and it is dead on and sharp using my Sony A6000 with an adapter. Also on my M8u. I know what you mean about the Rodney Dangerfield syndrome on some lenses. Good luck that mine works as I have no clue how to "tune" lenses.
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On the Nokton 50/1.1 and Nokton 35/1.2 v1: These were tuned for the Voigtlander Film cameras. I use 1 layer of copper tape on the RF cam of both. Easy. The adjustable cams on the 7Artisans lens. Easier.
 
I finally got an M10, so I have Live View. This feature lets me avoid having all lenses tested and adjusted for accurate focus, as needed. I have too many lenses to get them all adjusted. Several years ago, I bought a Summilux 75/1.4. There was no 7Artisans 75/1.25 for sale then.
 
Out to Lunch said:
I admire your enthusiasm but in the end, you get what you pay for. Happy New Year! Cheers, OtL
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In this case: What I got is a well-made lens that out-performs the classic 85/1.5 lens that will cost at least twice as much. The only other 75mm lens this fast will cost almost $15,000. If someone wants to loan me one, I'll do a one-on-one comparison of the two lenses. I'm not going to pay $15K for one, this lens at $450 does what I need. I've read on line reviews that seem more about justifying the cost of the $15,000 Leica 75/1.25 rather than an actual review of the 7Artisans lens.

So lots of pictures posted, the viewer can decide if this lens is worthwhile.
 
Another picture with Red in it- one I used to fine-tune the focus for the M9. This is the lens out-of-box, slight adjustment brought it to the point that I wanted.

L1020309 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

Wide-Open on the M9.
 
Out to Lunch said:
I admire your enthusiasm but in the end, you get what you pay for. Happy New Year! Cheers, OtL
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Oh I don’t know about that being always true. Lot of advancements in lens design and manufacturing these last 40 some years.
Back about mid 70’s was working at a hole-in-the-wall camera store in Chicago.
The owner/boss came out of the back with a then new Leica 50mm f1. ($700 of 1975 dollars) He had bought just one for the store to sell, after he had played with it over the weekend.
Naturally he wanted to try it out at f1 and was dinking around downtown after dark.
My gawd, the coma was just fierce. Anything in the corners (and especially overexposed lights and highlights) was just a smear at f1.
Not a surprise really, my pedestrian and cheap 50mm f1.8 Zuiko I’m sure would have been about the same wide open but of course even new was only $70 at that time.
Would not be surprised if a new manufactured Chinese 50mm f1 for Leica these days would do as well as that lens....and maybe better.
 
raid said:
I finally got an M10, so I have Live View. This feature lets me avoid having all lenses tested and adjusted for accurate focus, as needed. I have too many lenses to get them all adjusted. Several years ago, I bought a Summilux 75/1.4. There was no 7Artisans 75/1.25 for sale then.
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I am considering getting a used M240 to use as my "full-frame Mirrorless" camera. I have the EVF from the Olympus EP2. I looked at the Sony- but vignetting in the corners is 3x worse than with a Leica- for lenses that I've measured directly on the M9 and M Monochrom.

Of the 100 or so RF coupled lenses in Leica mount that I currently own: about half required some sort of adjustment to use with the RF. On the Leica Summarit 5cm F1.5 I changed the focal length on two of them to use close-up and wide-open. This was not necessary for the Leica 5cm F1.5 Xenon. Turns out the optics are different on these two lenses.
Other lenses- shimmed to account for focus shift due to chromatic aberration when using deep yellow and orange filters on the M Monochrom. A couple that I have multiple copies of: 1 shimmed for wide-open, another for F2.8. A couple of SLR 50mm lenses: made an RF cam for them. But- I have some lenses that I'll just wimp out on and go mirrorless/EVF. The M240- seems like a good choice, and has the RF as well. If my M9 and M Monochrom die and cannot be repaired/replaced, I'd put out the money for whatever new Leica is around at the time. I like the pair, do not see a reason to "upgrade".
 
I was about to get an M240 as a robust digital Leica at a reasonable cost, even though it is slightly too wide of a body for my hands (that are used to the M8 and M9). Then I was encouraged by Rasha to get an M10. I listened to her. I have far fewer RF lenses than you do. Most seem to work well as they are now. Some lenses came to me from you!
 
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