7Artisans 25mm f/1.8 Review

I bought this 7Artisans 25mm f/1.8 lens on a lark when it was advertised for $69 (new) on Amazon including shipping. This model is an f/1.8 model. Totally manual everything.

7Artisans has a newer f.95 now, so the low price of the 1.8 model may be a way to clear out old inventory. As of December 2024, the company still has this lens available for a few camera mounts for $73. What a deal!

I ‘own’ a Sony A6000 camera with a 16mm-50mm kit lens and a couple of Sony telephotos. The word ‘own’ is in quotes because the camera system was donated to the school where I teach photography and it gets loaned to students, but I often use it for personal shooting. The kit lens is okay, but it’s taken a few knocks from students. When I saw this prime lens for so cheap, and read good reviews on it, I decided to risk the money. As I will demonstrate, it was worth the gamble. In a word, this lens is a spectacular deal!

A big plus is the ‘stick on’ focusing grip. I guess it’s a grip. It fits my thumb and allows quick and smooth focusing. I intend to look for this accessory online so I can use it on other lenses.

Here are some comparison shots with the Artisan 25mm, the Sony kit lens and a vintage Nikkor 55mm macro, which in my experience, is the sharpest lens I own for 35mm shooting. As we all know, lens charts will reveal any glaring deficiencies with the glass, but it doesn’t convey the character of the lens. I have adjusted the contrast and magnification of the three examples to make the sharpness comparison easier to see. I also converted these examples to B&W. The quick summary of the shots are as follows:

1- Nikkor 55mm macro. This lens is a clear winner in terms of contrast, sharpness, lack of distortion, and flat field focus. The color was noticeably cold. I only use this lens for copy work because it’s slow (F 3.5) and the coating is old.

The 7Artisans 25mm f/1.8 was a real contender in terms of sharpness and contrast. You’d have to examine the results closely to see any difference. As we’ll see in the final examples, the 7Artisans lens has terrific color rendition, probably due to its newer multi-coating. It had a drop of barrel distortion, which could require correction in critical architectural shots, but not nearly as bad as all kit and wide angle zoom lenses.

The Sony kit lens was third place in every category, as you would expect for a kit lens. But considering the convenience of the zoom range, it stood up better than the Nikon and Canon kit lenses I know and loathe. The barren distortion is noticeable, but better than Nikon and Canon kit lenses.

Before I go any farther, I’ll mention one drawback I found with this lens: The f/stops do not have detent clicks. I didn’t find this to be troublesome because the Sony is shooting in ‘live mode’ at all times, so using aperture priority is easy. Also, I use a lot of vintage cameras, and they don’t have detent clicks for f/stops or shutter speeds. But if you rely upon the detent feel, you won’t get it here.

Now it’s time to get into real world shooting. I downsized the images to about 1MB to facilitate fast uploading, so the sharpness may not be evident on your screen, but this lens is SHARP! It’s as good as any Nikon prime. The contrast is very good and the color rendition is spot on.

I brought it to a Christmas Fair in Sonora, Ca for a test run with available low light situations. There were opportunities for people shots, which is mostly what I do. The Sony is very good at high ISO settings, so I shot at ISO 800 and F/2.8 in aperture priority for the three shots below. I have always relied upon wide angle lenses for photojournalistic portraits, and the 25mm does a nice job for that purpose. Remember, this is a manual focus lens, so it can be a challenge for fast shooting. One reason I like the A6000 series is the Focus Peaking feature that shows a flickering effect on the highlight in sharpest focus. I place the focus point on the catchlight in the eyes when possible.

On another trip to Murphys I got some more street shots.

Lastly, I was shooting a concert in Santa Cruz at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center using the Sony 6400 as my principle camera rather than the Nikon 610 or 800 because I needed something small and light. I stood in the isle close to the stage and got this handheld shot at 1/100 F/4 at ISO 1250. If you ever visit the Santa Cruz, CA area, Kuumbwa Jazz Center is a must. Santa Cruz is on the coast road from San Francisco to Los Angeles. This is the route that world famous performers take between these great cities, so they get booked for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday ‘filler’ gigs. Top names in a small venue for reasonable prices! Kuumbwa is church for me.

You can really appreciate the 7Artisans 25mm f/1.8 lens in low light. I was impressed with the quality!

This inexpensive 7Artisans 25mm f/1.8 lens was my first introduction to the brand, but it won’t be my last!

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