Another day another Chinese lens. They are releasing so fast, and I am here for this wave of affordable lenses. So far I’ve been impressed with their value for performance and also some of the new twists these companies are willing to make. Despite being a seemingly normal cheap lens, the new TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 has me super excited.
Video Review
You can check out footage of the lens and hear more of my thoughts in this video.
M42 Mount
I can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted to slap one of these TTArtisan lenses on my Pentax K-1, but alas, they don’t make SLR compatible lenses. Well, except for now. So, you can imagine how I felt when I read, and then had to reread that this lens was using the M42 mount.
Yup – the same screw mount on my old Spotmatic. It’s not all the way clear to me why they went this direction, but doing some digging there’s precedence.
Right now at photography stores like B&H there are a handful of new M42 “Universal Mount” lenses available. I had no idea. Zeiss and Meyer-Optik make up the collective, and now TTArtisan. The price difference is also staggering, from about $1,000 USD for a Meyer-Optik 100mm to about $150 USD for the TTArtisan. Now I’m not saying they’re equal (can’t test that anyway, don’t have the other) but that will at least make you take a second look.
Using the M42 mount means I can mount the lens on almost all the DSLRs/SLRs I own, not to mention ALL my mirrorless cameras. That’s pretty cool.
Remake of a classic
I asked my contact about where the design came from, and all I got was “like a classic Meyer-Optik lens”. The obvious connection would the the Meyer-Optik Trioplan 100mm F2.8, known for the soapy bokeh balls this lens is advertising. A few years ago the vintage Trioplan lens skyrocketed in popularity, driving prices up. Meyer-Optik responded by releasing the modern mark II version of the lens. TTArtisan clearly is tracking trends here and jumped in on the classic bokeh kind of look.
The lens designs are not the same, but look very close. They both have three elements in three groups, but the Trioplan has 15 aperture blades instead of the TTArtisan’s 13. There are some other differences, like minimum focusing distance.
However, the TTArtisan is inspired by the likes of the Trioplan and attempts it’s same signature “soapy bokeh balls”. That’s a look popular by other great lenses from Helios. There’s some write-up’s out there that explain the optical phenomenon that creates this unique look, so I won’t try to explain something I don’t understand here and just refer you to those articles.
The photos
So far I’ve shot the lens on my Sigma SD10, my Olympus E-300 and my Pentax K-1. All different sensor sizes, types, and eras. What a fun experiment that this lens lets me pursue.
The lens is quite soft wide open, even in the center. It looks better on full-frame, and worse on four thirds, which makes sense. The extra crop on an already not high resolving lens is killer. But it is still usable for that soft dreamy look.
By F4 the lens is much more usable, and you still get some good bokeh, just not quite as large and foamy. (Foamy? I don’t know how to describe these things!)
Check out the photos below to see how the lens performs for yourself.
So, should you get one?
If you like to play around with glass, get an interesting look and/or want to mount a new lens to a DSLR, then go for it. It’s affordable, and while it won’t blow you away with sharpness or contrast, it will give you that vintage look you’re after.
You can pick it up from my partner Pergear here, who provided this lens to review. They run sales fairly after, so keep an eye out for those if you’re willing to wait. (This is an affiliate link that will provide me compensation if purchases are made using it).
Happy snappin’
