7Artisans 50mm 1.8 AF – A Brand New Budget Auto Focus Lens

The 7Artisans 50mm 1.8 AF is a brand new full frame autofocus lens. I have been beta testing and playing with pre-release versions here for a while and have been looking forward to sharing my thoughts. This is the first autofocus lens from 7Artisans, and unlike a lot of the other brands that started out with apsc lenses, this is a full frame lens too. The one I have here is Sony mount which seems to be the mount they are releasing it in first.

7Artisans now have a vast lineup of manual focus lenses ranging less than £50 for some of the more basic kit to in the region of £550 for their top end cine lenses. That is to say, this is a brand that specialises in the lower end of the market place alongside the likes of TTArtisan and a few others that have popped up China over the last 5-10 years. For reference, this new 50mm 1.8 AF lens is around $200! And whilst I don’t often talk about the cost of kit on this blog, it’s been hard not to have this really low price point in mind when reviewing this lens.

I actually have a bit of a track record with 7Artisans. I was one of the first people to import their early 50mm f/1.1 and 35mm f/2 m-mount lenses for sale into the UK. Though I stopped working with them in this capacity when it became too difficult to compete with retailers selling directly from China on Amazon and eBay etc. I also had another small issue. A lot of the lenses I was selling were being returned to me with issues that I put down to decentered optics. That’s to say, one side of the image was often softer than the other – and this didn’t go down all that well with the more discerning user… Interestingly though, since then, I haven’t heard about so many issues with lenses from 7Artisans, and certainly the ones I have tried have been more reliably good quality when it comes to their optical properties, not least the 9mm f/5.6.

What I am trying to say here is that despite being a cheaper brand, optically speaking – and mechanically for that matter – they make pretty good kit that also seems to be improving over time. It’s not perfect, it’s definitely made to a lower price, but the lenses often seem to offer increasingly good value for the money. It’s also good to see that they are now spending more time testing kit before selling it – this is something from a shift in process from what I talked about in my recent article about “silent upgrades“. I’ve had a couple of these lenses now, and been through a few more rounds of firmware updates. They’ve been responding to my feedback, as well as others who have been testing, and they have made a lot of improvements. When I first received this lens it very much felt like it needed improving, but a few months in, and this lens is actually pretty impressive, especially for the money.

Build Quality and Features

Ok, so that bit of waffle out of the way, let’s get to looking at the 7Artisans 50mm 1.8 AF lens itself. First the build and features. It may come as no surprise that the fit and finish of this lens doesn’t match that which I would expect from a high end Sony lens. I didn’t anticipate it would. It is pretty good though. In fact, it’s pretty close, if not very similar in feel to my treasured Samyang 75mm 1.8. The outer shell of the lens is made out of metal, but the weight suggests that the metal is not particularly thick and that the inside of the lens is made out of plastic. In reality, this isn’t really any different from the construction materials of lenses from the bigger brands, but I can definitely feel a subtle difference in quality.

That said, generally the overall fit of the 7Artisans 50mm 1.8 AF feels pretty tight. There’s no gaps where you wouldn’t want there to be gaps and everything that moves, switches and clips into place now does so in a way you would hope (this wasn’t the case with the first version I tried, but the second feels pretty spot on). It’s not water resistant though – there’s no weather sealing at all, and the manual warns against getting it wet. The lens mount does seem to be made of a pretty decent quality material though, and there’s also a USBc port on the face of the lens mount for updating the lens’s firmware. It’s also worth noting that the update process is very easy!

As for the controls on the 7Artisans 50mm 1.8 AF, the focus control is nicely damped, as is the aperture which can be switched to auto or manual on the lens body itself. It doesn’t click though. On the Sony GMII 24-70 lens I use for work, it can be switched from clicked to un-clicked. But then that lens costs a small fortune, so I perhaps shouldn’t expect such luxuries here.

On the two lenses I have tried, the first one had a lesser damned aperture control, the second one which I believe to be a production lens has a fairly heavily damped aperture control, verging on too heavy in fact. On the first version of the lens I had here the aperture selector on the lens didn’t always match up to the settings it was supposedly selecting either. This was then partially fixed with firmware and then fully fixed on the second version of the lens I received. Aside from the lack of clicking, it now works perfectly as an aperture selector on the lens, though as I say, is quite heavy to turn on my copy.

There’s also an auto/manual focus switch on the body of the lens. This has been another area that 7Artisans have worked on in terms of the quality of the lens’s build. On the first version the switch was a bit lose and prone to getting switched accidentally. On the second version of the lens I have tried, it’s a lot better, though still a little lose.

Finally, it’s not a small lens for a 50mm 1.8. It’s not huge, but it’s a damn slight bit bigger than the likes of my favourite 55mm 1.8 Sony/Zeiss lens. But, it is internally focusing and it also focuses silently, which are two benefits it has over the cheapo 50mm 1.8 from Sony which is smaller than this lens but isn’t internal focusing and is quite noisy making it practically useless for video.

Focusing Speed

Focusing speed was the first thing I was interested in testing with the 7Artisans 50mm 1.8 AF – more so in fact than the optical qualities. I will say, this is probably the area of improvement I’ve been most impressed by as I have tried the various iterations of this lens. The first one out of the box was probably best described as just ok. It worked, but it was a little slow and hunted a bit. After a significant firmware update it went from just about working to feeling pretty good for a cheaper lens.

Now I would say it’s very good, though not up there with the best lenses I’ve used. It can hunt a little in low light sometimes, but in good light it’s accurate and pretty quick and works well with the various focusing modes I have tried on the camera. I should add, I’m not familiar enough with all of the focusing modes on the Sony to know if it is perfectly universally compatible, but it seemed to work fine in the various modes I tried it in. It even caught up with my kids. Is it Sony GMII fast? No. Is it good enough for most hobby photographers? Yes, I would say so – short of the most demanding AF applications, it works fine. And to put that sentence into context, I would say the same about my Zeiss Batis lenses.

Image quality

Ok, the big question then… image quality. Well, I have to say, I’ve been very impressed! It’s not perfect of course – no lenses are. But given how affordable it is compared to bigger brand offerings, it’s really very capable indeed.

Sharpness

The first thing to say is that the 7Artisans 50mm 1.8 AF is plenty sharp enough for my tastes, and I’d say most people’s needs, even from wide open. At f/1.8 especially there’s definitely a small drop in sharpness, but by 2.8, by my standards it’s looking pretty much bang on.

Even into the corners wide open there’s not much fall off, and by the middle apertures it holds out really well. Of course, unlike some reviewers, I don’t do any test chart tests to back any of this up. Instead, I just took some photos of tree branches. This particular shot was taken at f/9…

… But you can find more at different apertures by clicking through similar images on Flickr here where I have uploaded them very big in you want to have a closer look.

Vignetting

I have definitely noticed some vignetting when the 7Artisans 50mm 1.8 AF shot is wide open, and even by f/4 ish there’s some. Stopped down properly though, in any meaningful way, it’s gone.

Flare

I have also noticed some flare a veiling when shooting into the sunshine. With the sun peaking through some leaves in this shot below, the effect was quite dramatic. There’s also some ghosting.

Distortion

Quite remarkably, in a world where lenses are so often designed with distortion as the compromise that’s then removed in firmware/software, this lens seems to fair very well. It has the slightest amount of pincushion distortion, but in real world shots it’s not an amount I could see having a serious impact.

Bokeh

I must admit, I’ve been quite taken with the bokeh that the 7Artisans 50mm 1.8 AF produces. It’s nice and smooth even when stopping down a bit, but also has a little bit of a cat’s eye shape to it that gives it just that bit of character and charm. I especially like this look when photographing with highly busy backgrounds. In most circumstances this sort of effect wouldn’t be nearly as obvious as I have shown it in these shots or the one above. This is a comparison between f/1.8 and f/2.8 there is a version of this image taken at f/8 here too.

Overall rendering

What I think is quite nice about the 7Artisans 50mm 1.8 AF in terms of its overall rendering is that it doesn’t look too clinical to me. It’s not hyper-sharp and the little bit of flare and slightly interesting bokeh give it a bit of character. Of course, to some people “a bit of character” roughly translates as “not very good”. I genuinely don’t think that’s the case here though. None of these characteristics are so extreme as to really cause any issues on a day to day basis – especially for the likely target audience for a lens like this. Of course, it was never going to be as good as a Sony GM lens, but the crazy thing about lenses like the Sony GM lenses is that a large percentage of photographers never have and never will need that level of quality. That’s what I think is great about some of these lower cost options – they are so good these days, that they get close enough in image quality to the best lenses, that – at least by the measure of image quality – I think they really prove the rules of diminishing returns.

A few more photos taken with the 7Artisans 50mm 1.8 AF

You can find even more shots on my Flickr here

Final thoughts on the total package

Of course, image quality is one thing, but build, mechanical quality, and factors that come into play whilst shooting such as focus speed and the other lens controls also need to be taken into account. There’s also the longevity of the lens, i.e. how well it is going to hold up to ongoing regular use.

When I received the first version of the 7Artisans 50mm 1.8 AF, to some degree I was a little disappointed in the context of all of those factors, aside from image quality that is. Since then I have seen a lens that has been iteratively improved, tweaked and updated to the point that – at its price point at least – I can’t really quibble with any of those factors. The 7Artisans 50mm 1.8 AF isn’t a perfect lens – taking everything else out of the equation, it’s quite big. But, for what it manages, at what it costs, it’s really hard not to be impressed. Of course time will tell in terms of longevity – how well it survives the rigours of ongoing daily use will always be the final arbiter of how good an economy a lens like this is compared to buying a higher-end Sigma (for e.g.) or Sony lens. For casual shooters though, I’d imagine it will do just fine. Especially if they keep updating the firmware.

Actually the experiences I’ve had since trying the very first version of this have told me more than something about this specific lens. Probably my biggest takeaway is that lens brands like 7Artisans are starting to mature. A few years back, I could easily imagine them releasing this lens as I found it first, and then doing a series of silent mechanical updates alongside a few firmware updates, all the while still selling it and getting themselves some poor early reviews in the process. I talked about these “silent upgrades” in my article here. Instead of doing that, 7Artisans have taken their time to send a few early copies out for comment from real life users, bloggers, etc. They have then responded positively to the feedback and worked to improve the lens for release. I think this bodes well for the brand. I think it bodes well for photographers on a budget too.

There will always be a market for the less-compromised higher-overall-quality lenses that the bigger 3rd party and main manufacturers make for their own cameras. But with the prices of these lenses having gone up so dramatically over the last decade or so, these cheaper Chinese brands coming in to fill the gap in the lower end – proving the laws of diminishing returns in the process – can’t be a bad thing for those budget-minded photographers! I’m intrigued to see where they go next!

The 7Artisans 50mm 1.8 AF lens will be available to purchase from Monday for something in the region of $200. You will be able to find it on the 7Artisans’ shop here: 7artisans.store (please note, this is an affiliate link)

Share this post: