5 Frames with the 7Artisans 75mm f/1.25 – By John Scott

A new king of the night. 7Artisans. They are making quality lenses that perform amazingly. It seems like every new lens is a step up from the previous version. Welcome to the 4th Leica m-mount lens from 7Artisans – the 75mm f/1.25 – yeah you read that right, f/1.25.

A 13 bladed aperture, f/1.25 – f/16, compact (for a 75mm focal length) lens. With a minimum focus distance of 80cm and I believe it has multi-layer coatings that offer greater contrast and reduced flare when working with harsh back lit situations.

For those of you have read my other 5 Frames with articles will know that I love to shoot wide open. Yes, I can stop down, but there is something a little special (and certainly more challenging when attempting to nail focus) that makes shooting wide open more fun for me. So warning, I’ll be showing wide open and stopped down shots for this mini review.

I have been shooting with the 7Artisans 75mm for about 2 weeks now and I have used the lens at a variety of different situations ranging from candid portraits in the street to my b-roll/BTS camera at a commercial TV shoot. I have had the 75mm glued to my Leica M. Then I also took a photo every day for 2 weeks to challenge myself to come up with a different but creative image every day. The images in this article are the results so I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did shooting them.

Day 1 – The playground @F/1.25

My first impression when shooting with the lens was wow that’s a little soft. But with a little practice and using the Leica Visoflex I was able to achieve that razor sharp focus wide open. For me I found the lens to have very similar characteristics to the 7Artisans 50mm F/1.1 – and I like that so I don’t mind a bit of dreamy cream wide open.

Stopped down the lens is sharp. Super sharp, well I am not really pixel peeking but if you are from F/1.8-f/2 onwards you have yourselves a razor-blade of sharpness. I’ll say it but corner sharpness is good, but I don’t shoot in the extreme corners so…the corners are totally acceptable to me.

Day 3 – Sharpness stopped down

Balance and ergonomics are always a bit subjective. Big hands, small hands, grip, no grip we all have our preferences. For me, I personally prefer a little weight from the lens. On the Leica M10 the lens size weight doesn’t get in the way of the shooting experience but you can feel the quality in a balanced kind if way.

Day 5 – Natural light portrait

The other area that interests me is film.

I have been shooting a lot of campaign TVCs commercially lately so I took the 7Artisans 75mm with me. I was really interested in the the footage I could achieve with the lens.

F/1.25 is crazy ridiculous to try to focus on movement even with a focus puller. So I decided to stop this lens down to a reasonable F/3.5 approx. Now I wasn’t confident to shoot a TVC with the lens on my setup (mainly because its a new lens) but for future work I will definitely be using this as my cam 2 lens for B-roll and 3/4 angle shots. Great ergonomics, awesome construction, amazing performance.

Day 8 – BTS at the TVC shoot

I kept the 75mm on my M10 for the whole shoot. Shooting portraits and behind the scenes moments as they happened. This shot was one of the of the day of the Art Director on set at about 7am in the morning. The light was really nice this early in the morning and provided a beautiful back light. Apart from it being a little hard to focus in (due to the light in my rangefinder patch) the lens and camera delivered an awesome shot.

Day 13 – Taking it to the street

So I had a lot of fun. I will be sharing lots of images I have taken with this lens on my instagram page hotshotstudio01 and on my youtube page here so be sure to have a look, like if you like to, and please follow and share.

Put simply, 7Artisans done it again. I don’t know what they will be creating next but I love my lens trinity.  7Artisans 28mm F/1.4, 50mm F/1.1 and now the 75mm F/1.25. My focal length collection is complete! So if you are looking for a 75mm lens then look no further.

Thanks for reading!

Little note from Hamish: The lens is available to buy from the 35mmc shop here

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