Some more Details on the 7Artisans 50/1.1

[ferider]

1) It's cute, well built, quite dense - heavier than I expected; it's also coded as Noctilux and works as such on my 240 (which is a bit sensitive to the exact coding placement)

2) Rear element sticks deep into the camera; if you want to store the lens with focus at infinity, you need a deep lens cap. Also, it has extremely short focus throw.

3) Bokeh is similar to other fast Sonnars that I have, below compared with Sonnetar and my two Noktons. 7Artisans lens' focal length is a little longer than 50mm (55mm?) (same for the Sonnetar, BTW). At around 1m focus distance:

4) Transition across the DOF range wide open, at around 1m focus distance (this test is not for testing focus adjustment - remember, both Sonnetar and 7Artisans lens can be user tuned)

5) Some test pictures close to infinity
5a) test description; first I focus in the center and take a pic ("center"); then I keep the focus and tilt the camera, and take the second pic ("corner"). Below, I compare the 7artisans lens to one of my best other 50s, the VM Nokton 1.5.

5b) center resolution; great at f2.8 and above

5c) field resolution; reasonable at f4 and above

6) Vignetting: mostly gone at f2.8 (zoom into one corner of the "corner" test-pic above):

7) Distortion: just a little worse than the Nokton 50/1.5 (have a look at the flagpole)

8) Extreme corners: it shows Italian flag and smears / never gets really sharp in the extreme corners. This is at f5.6, and compared to the Nokton 1.1:

Summary:
- I did not expect the Italian Flag for a 50mm lens. So, this is not a landscape lens on digital - it cann't hold the water to either Nokton 1.1 or 1.5.
- Nice street or portrait lens, in particular on B+W (yet another one 😱 )

Roland.

 

[BillBingham2]

Very good testing, thanks for doing it and sharing!

B2 (;->

 

[f16sunshine]

Thanks Roland
You may have just sold them some more lenses.
The fact that it's you estimate it to be a 55mm lens is nice for me (I prefer).
BTW... Nice to see someone else still using IR cut filters !

 

[raid]

Nicely done, Roland. The 50/1.1 by 7artisans is what it is for $360. It is not really wasted money due to highly inferior characteristics of the lens at all settings. It is a lens that does very well for certain situations, and less well in others. I want to use the lens for portraits where a 1.1 lens can be very useful. It will also be used at 5.6-8.

 

[xayraa33]

Thank you for the lens testing, Roland

All in all the 7 Artisans lens is not a bad performer and it looks be be an excellent buy if you need a super fast 50 mil lens.

 

[raid]

It seems that several owners of CV 50/1.5 and/or CV 50/1.1 decided to also add the 7artisans 50/1.1 which surely is not due to "need". It is for the fun of it all. Owners of Leica Nokton 50mm lenses may not go for the 7artisans lens 🙂

 

[rscheffler]

While I haven't really looked hard on the www, this is the first relatively comprehensive and informative test I've seen of this lens. So thank you very much for putting in the effort!

I suppose with it being some sort of Sonnar style lens with minimal corrections, one should expect focus shift at nearer distances on stopping down?

Did you by chance test or notice this effect, and if so, its severity?

 

[FrozenInTime]

Very useful set of result Roland.

With the M.240 how are you finding RF cam to EVF focus matching ?
I'm stuck with film for now so the feedback loop is long; at f/1.1 I'm finding the RF useable at <6ft but seeing increasing front focus beyond that, so perhaps f/4 is needed at 20ft on the RF.

 

[ferider]

... So thank you very much for putting in the effort! I suppose with it being some sort of Sonnar style lens with minimal corrections, one should expect focus shift at nearer distances on stopping down? Did you by chance test or notice this effect, and if so, its severity?

You are very welcome. I usually do these kind of tests to get a feel for the lens myself (I'm an Engineer).

Just did a shift test, and here is the result:

Basically little shift between 1.1 and 2.0. Then it starts going back at f2.8 and up, but not unusual at all (compared to say, Summicron, pre-asph Summilux, or similar). Quite nice actually, IMO.

Roland.

 

[ferider]

Very useful set of result Roland.

With the M.240 how are you finding RF cam to EVF focus matching ?
I'm stuck with film for now so the feedback loop is long; at f/1.1 I'm finding the RF useable at <6ft but seeing increasing front focus beyond that, so perhaps f/4 is needed at 20ft on the RF.

Within the accuracy of the system, the match between EVF and RF is OK. It's not as accurate as with my fast Leica or CV lenses, because of the very short throw, but I feel good enough to not bother me in practice. Note that the lens focus scale seems quite off however (not that I ever really use it).

Roland.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

An Engineer? Why using contractors tools then? It is not the love shack it is lovely lens. Here is something more advanced for focus tests:

www.peleng8.com/how-to-detect-back-focus.html#.WXVZHmkrK70

🙂

 

[jmilkins]

Excellent work as always Roland, thank you. A Price v Performance win, IMHO.

 

[rscheffler]

You are very welcome. I usually do these kind of tests to get a feel for the lens myself (I'm an Engineer).

Just did a shift test, and here is the result:

Basically little shift between 1.1 and 2.0. Then it starts going back at f2.8 and up, but not unusual at all (compared to say, Summicron, pre-asph Summilux, or similar). Quite nice actually, IMO.

Roland.

Thanks again. As you said, focus shift isn't as bad as I expected.

 

[ferider]

An Engineer? Why using contractors tools then? It is not the love shack it is lovely lens. Here is something more advanced for focus tests:

www.peleng8.com/how-to-detect-back-focus.html#.WXVZHmkrK70

🙂

Don't make fun of my tape-measure, KF, that one is my favorite ! After almost 20 years in the US, i still prefer the metric system ....

 

[Leica All Day]

Thanks a lot Roland, this is awesome.

Cheers, Michael

 

[michaelwj]

Summary:
- I did not expect the Italian Flag for a 50mm lens. So, this is not a landscape lens on digital - it cann't hold the water to either Nokton 1.1 or 1.5.
- Nice street or portrait lens, in particular on B+W (yet another one 😱 )

Roland.

Thanks for this Roland, another excellent set of tests.

Once you posted an image of how deep the rear element protrudes, I wondered why there hadn't been any mention of the Italian flag syndrome. The two seem to go hand in hand.

But your second point is the real killer for a lens like this, there are so many other ~1.4 50mm options around it's a hard market to crack.

 

[Keith]

Thanks Roland ... and your usual thoroughness and knowledge goes without saying.

This is great because I found the other thread about this lens frustrating as it was mostly conjecture ... real use results always calm the waters for me. If I had one I'd be quite interested to compare it to my 50mm f1.2 Zuiko which I use occasionally on my 240 with an adapter. If you have that lens yourself I'd be interested to hear your opinion as to how they may stack up against each other.
🙂

 

[ferider]

Thanks Roland ... and your usual thoroughness and knowledge goes without saying.

This is great because I found the other thread about this lens frustrating as it was mostly conjecture ... real use results always calm the waters for me. If I had one I'd be quite interested to compare it to my 50mm f1.2 Zuiko which I use occasionally on my 240 with an adapter. If you have that lens yourself I'd be interested to hear your opinion as to how they may stack up against each other.
🙂

Thanks for reading, Keith. I have the same Zuiko, a true general purpose lens, technically much better than the 7A. For all practical purposes the Zuiko results feel like they came from the CV Nokton 1.1 (similar design, too - and remember, the Nokton 1.1 performs similar to the ZM Planar, f2 and above), except the Zuiko is smaller.

Roland.

 

[Kent]

"Dear Sir/Madam:
Our apologize for the inconvenience 🙁
Today we were informed by our express company, lots of our packages were hold by the custom for security check for days.
The packages will be detained by custom for a long time and no know when will be released.
Also, the express company told that our package will be forced to return to us due to some custom reason.
We feel so sad, we are not able to deliver this product to you timely.
In order no occupying your money, should we know if we can full refund you.
After the pakcage return us, we will inform you, if you still have interest on it, then purchase it again, ok?
Please let me know if we can fully refund you now?
Sorry again for the inconvenience."

Now, the question is if it really is the local customs or if they are a little surprised by the high demand... I wouldn't be surprised if the price of the next batch will be considerably higher.

I cancelled the order and demanded refund. Plus, I have just ordered another one from a very reliable seller in Vienna: Mint & Rare

Lucky that he had it in the offer. Had I known, I would have ordered there directly.

 

[ferider]

If you check ebay, prices are already going up for some sellers. Plus, some posts have now added "Send Item By DHL.More Quick And Safe".

Roland.