An excellent video Damian, for several reasons. It was good to see the lens in action, to see the results and to get your opinion on it. I also liked the little light meter and yes, that is how you spell meter, The other one, metre, is a measurement of linear distance. Finally, you showed some very attractive views of the city, with glimpses of the Christmas Market. My wife and daughter went there 2 weeks ago and loved it and now that I have seen your video, I also want to visit your city. Lovely stuff, Happy Christmas and New Year. Stay safe and well.
I'm looking forward to it and I pre-ordered it from B&H. I already have the 17/1.4 and 35/1.4. I enjoy experimenting with 1.4 affordably, and the compact size of the series is a feature I value.
I do like this lens after a few weeks of use. Even though it does not quite compare with my favourite - the Panasonic Lieca Summilux f1.4 25mm. I like to use the aperture ring and the focus ring. Being old and used to manual focus I just like using a focus and aperture ring. Bokeh is pretty good, depth of field is good. All in all for the cost its brilliant !
I had high hopes for the 23mm especially judging from the fireworks brought about by the 35mm 1.4 and its vintage vibe. The bokeh is too messy for me, but the sharpness and looks isn't too bad. Even then I'll give it a try to see the quality myself. Good job as usual.
The lens arrived on Christmas Eve. Tried a couple of pics in low light, looking good so far (its not the zebra stripe, I prefer the plain mono colour !)
Great video. I held back from buying a digital camera for what seemed forever. After squeezing the life out of my Cannon AE1 and Yashica 124 (the film price and development are out of control), I retired both old friends. Now, they are proudly part of my Dark Academia display in my studio library. I bought a brand new Fuji X-T30 II with the XC 15-45 lens kit about a month and a half ago, and it is taking forever to get here. Well, I was perusing a few used camera websites and found an X-E4 in mint condition and bought it. Along with my new acquisition, I ordered the 35 mm 1.4 TTArtesan and the TTArtesan 27 2.8 due to their excellent reviews. I have my sight on the TT 17mm and the TT 50 mm. I could care less about the manual focus; remember, I come from an era when everything was manual; yes, I am an old fart. I have to say that I am happy with my TT lenses; I might also consider getting the 23 mm, BUT I have to say that the Zebra looks like a turn-off. Best regards, and stay safe.
The Zebra TTA 23/1.4 is perfect on any silver X-E1/E2/E2s/E3 and E4 bodies, Damian. And also cool looking on the black versions of these DSLMs. I'd have loved, if the aperture numbers and DoF scale would have been laser-etched, but for just 99 bucks - one can't ask for more, really.
Voigtlander do an almost identical light meter called the VC Meter II. Currently £247 for the Voigtlander from Robert White's vs as little as £43 for the ttartisan direct from China. Great for vintage cameras that don't have light meters and far easier to use than something like a Weston or a Gossen.
Fairly tempted to give it a try. In the end it’ll be image quality that determines wether I keep it. Those old Meyer Optik Gorlitz lenses (Domiplan and Lyddith particularly) have a vintage magic that can’t be replicated sooc. F1.4 and focusing from 20mm the bokeh ought to be creamy but is it?
Any issues with mounting onto the X-Body? I understand sometimes these can be a bit of a snug fit. How does this one do compared to other TTartisan lenses?
I love the old Zebra look lenses I’m getting a fair collection of them mainly m42 Mount but also Exacta Mount lenses and yes I purchased the Domiplan on a old Praktica body a lens my mentor told me I should NEVER purchase some 60 years ago. Your just putting temptation in front of me again you bad man 😳😂 Hope you had your German Domiplan with you at the German market 😊
Actually..... my fake Domiplan yes :D had to get down to get some lights in the background, was a bit tricky focusing on faces in the crowds from a fairly close up distance though.
can you compare the bokeh and sharpness to the fuji 23mm 1.4 version 1? I think that for a lot of folks with the new model the old ones are quite a good deal and it would be good to know if they compare favorably?
Hey Damian. I always enjoy your vids and like how they look. What film sim are you using on your XT4? I've tried a variety of them and haven't really found a look I like. Are you changing your colours in post, or are they straight out of camera? Do you use a different sim for video, vs stills? Cheers, any help you could offer would be great - finding the XT4 a difficult camera to get pleasing images out of. BEST REGARDS, Campbell from NZ.
This is a great question that to start with might be answered by checking out my menu settings. Basically I use three film sims for my stills and a specific set of settings which are outlined somewhere in this video, for example: ruclips.net/video/IoS2mOmFuOc/видео.html For the video clips it tends to be pro neg hi. Stills, I go for pro neg hi, astia and acros (r) though I find myself preferring astia out of the two colour options, for the extra warmth it gives. I don't change anything in post for these videos. In Pro work, where I shoot raw + Jpeg I tweak a bit, but for gear tests I don't edit anything, usually, so I have a fairly even playing field to evaluate from.
Zebra for me. I think you only appreciate black in contrast. As for the light meter I can see there being a market for those. Especially if you've got old cameras, like I have.
7Artisans 25mm 1.8 is the weakest lens within their APS-C lineup. But it is not a bad lens. Just that the optical design is not all that well corrected. A head to head comparison will be interesting. I bet this new lens will be the better choice overall. 7Artisans needs to bring an updated 25mm 1.4
@@DamianBrown yeahhh, that would be cool!! One thing I'm not liking the more I look at it is the design; their previous 17,35,50mm lineup is odd but pretty clean, this is just...CCCP style, I wish they stuck with that style at least for a while.
Does the hard stop at infinity actually correspond to infinity? I have the ttartisan 35mm f/1.4 and it focused past infinity when you rack the lens to the hard stop, making it slightly out of focus at wide apertures.
I have just gotten the 17mm and 35mm , seems I should complete the lineup with the 23mm to fill the gap. The built, image quality and handling looks the same. Do you shoot all your videos and pics on a XT4?
I keep looking at these off brand budget manual lenses but they all seem to have major optical "character" and that just does not appeal to me. I can add such things in editing if I want but it's extremely difficult to remove "character" from a photo depending on what the issue is. So it just puts me off. Could be fun but then the truth is I have existing glass that just smoke these lenses so why spend good money for not great glass? I must just be missing something. Are these rose tinted lenses appealing to a very specific customer?
I guess there's different applications, different budgets and tastes. If you can spend the money for the best glass than that's the ideal route, I'd say. Then again some have specific reasons to go cheap and / or manual only. I don't mind the variety at all.
I wonder, if forgetting AF/MF difference, how TT 23mm compares with Viltrox 23mm. Image quality, colors, rendering etc. Can TT 23mm fill the gap between my 18mm - 35mm spending much less money… ? Is Viltrox better than this one in overall quality despite autofocus? 🙂
Have had a native Fuji version for some time. These are clearly great value for money lens. I simply dont have the need. Good luck to those who give it a fling!
Good question, I think pre orders just went live but Amazon shows up to February for Delivery. I'll check again later because that seems quite far off.
i didn't like it. in this focal range and price i like the pergear 25 f1,8... tested the meike, 7artisan and neewer ones. wanted to give the ttartisan 23 a go but it's a NO for me.
f11 is conspicuously absent from this and some other cheap Chinese lenses. I can only assume that the mechanical nature of the diaphragm makes it difficult to manufacture. But to me that is a deal breaker, even if I'd seldom if ever use f11.
Always interesting, one of my favorite channel about fuji x mount. Thank u from Belgium Damian ! Keep up the excellent work.
Many thanks Christophe!!!
An excellent video Damian, for several reasons. It was good to see the lens in action, to see the results and to get your opinion on it. I also liked the little light meter and yes, that is how you spell meter, The other one, metre, is a measurement of linear distance. Finally, you showed some very attractive views of the city, with glimpses of the Christmas Market. My wife and daughter went there 2 weeks ago and loved it and now that I have seen your video, I also want to visit your city. Lovely stuff, Happy Christmas and New Year. Stay safe and well.
I know, I was being silly about the word.
I'm glad you want to come visit the city too, hopefully you have a great time and get some cool shots too!
I'm looking forward to it and I pre-ordered it from B&H. I already have the 17/1.4 and 35/1.4. I enjoy experimenting with 1.4 affordably, and the compact size of the series is a feature I value.
Brilliant!
Thanks Damian.. Have a great weekend.
You too! (For next weekend now 😅)
I do like this lens after a few weeks of use. Even though it does not quite compare with my favourite - the Panasonic Lieca Summilux f1.4 25mm. I like to use the aperture ring and the focus ring. Being old and used to manual focus I just like using a focus and aperture ring. Bokeh is pretty good, depth of field is good. All in all for the cost its brilliant !
See, you've summed it up much quicker than me Malcolm! I should get you to put my notes together :D
Very cool lens! Great review. I like your style of presentation. Your urban photo clicks are very good 👍👍.
Thank you!
I had high hopes for the 23mm especially judging from the fireworks brought about by the 35mm 1.4 and its vintage vibe. The bokeh is too messy for me, but the sharpness and looks isn't too bad. Even then I'll give it a try to see the quality myself. Good job as usual.
Always best to get your hands on it, then let us know :)
thank you! i think that im going to buy this lens now
Enjoy!
Love this channel ❤
Thanks Tyler!
The lens arrived on Christmas Eve. Tried a couple of pics in low light, looking good so far (its not the zebra stripe, I prefer the plain mono colour !)
Brilliant Malcolm, I hope you like it!!
23mm on my Fujifilm is my very favourite focal length. If my Viltrox didn't almost live on my camera, this could be tempting! Keep up the good work 👍
Thanks Mark! I used the Viltrox 23mm for the summary part of the video :)
Excellent video 😊!
Thank you very much!
Hi my Slade Road area friend , I ordered the TTArtisan 23mm F1.4, looking forward to use this on my Lumix !
Not far 🙂 let us know how the lens is on your camera!
@@DamianBrown I already have 7 Artisans 7.5mm f/2.8 and I love it, looking forward to a 23 mm lower focal length lens !
Great video. I held back from buying a digital camera for what seemed forever. After squeezing the life out of my Cannon AE1 and Yashica 124 (the film price and development are out of control), I retired both old friends. Now, they are proudly part of my Dark Academia display in my studio library. I bought a brand new Fuji X-T30 II with the XC 15-45 lens kit about a month and a half ago, and it is taking forever to get here. Well, I was perusing a few used camera websites and found an X-E4 in mint condition and bought it.
Along with my new acquisition, I ordered the 35 mm 1.4 TTArtesan and the TTArtesan 27 2.8 due to their excellent reviews. I have my sight on the TT 17mm and the TT 50 mm. I could care less about the manual focus; remember, I come from an era when everything was manual; yes, I am an old fart. I have to say that I am happy with my TT lenses; I might also consider getting the 23 mm, BUT I have to say that the Zebra looks like a turn-off.
Best regards, and stay safe.
I come from the same era! So I completely understand. the 50mm f2 is a stand out little bargain too.
@@DamianBrown I am going to take a look at it. Thanks.
I'll let you know when mine on pre-order arrives and find out if it is worthy to replace my 25mm Pergear.
Brilliant
The Zebra TTA 23/1.4 is perfect on any silver X-E1/E2/E2s/E3 and E4 bodies, Damian. And also cool looking on the black versions of these DSLMs. I'd have loved, if the aperture numbers and DoF scale would have been laser-etched, but for just 99 bucks - one can't ask for more, really.
Agreed!
Voigtlander do an almost identical light meter called the VC Meter II. Currently £247 for the Voigtlander from Robert White's vs as little as £43 for the ttartisan direct from China. Great for vintage cameras that don't have light meters and far easier to use than something like a Weston or a Gossen.
Now that is almost identical!!
Fairly tempted to give it a try. In the end it’ll be image quality that determines wether I keep it. Those old Meyer Optik Gorlitz lenses (Domiplan and Lyddith particularly) have a vintage magic that can’t be replicated sooc. F1.4 and focusing from 20mm the bokeh ought to be creamy but is it?
Let us know if you try it!
Got one. Like it a lot. Small, great close focal distance, sharp enough and it’s a bokeh beast. :)
Any issues with mounting onto the X-Body? I understand sometimes these can be a bit of a snug fit. How does this one do compared to other TTartisan lenses?
No, totally fine with both the lenses I have.
I love the old Zebra look lenses I’m getting a fair collection of them mainly m42 Mount but also Exacta Mount lenses and yes I purchased the Domiplan on a old Praktica body a lens my mentor told me I should NEVER purchase some 60 years ago.
Your just putting temptation in front of me again you bad man 😳😂
Hope you had your German Domiplan with you at the German market 😊
Actually..... my fake Domiplan yes :D had to get down to get some lights in the background, was a bit tricky focusing on faces in the crowds from a fairly close up distance though.
can you compare the bokeh and sharpness to the fuji 23mm 1.4 version 1? I think that for a lot of folks with the new model the old ones are quite a good deal and it would be good to know if they compare favorably?
Good idea Robert. I no longer have the XF23 1.4 to hand but if I do I could try!
Hey Damian. I always enjoy your vids and like how they look. What film sim are you using on your XT4? I've tried a variety of them and haven't really found a look I like. Are you changing your colours in post, or are they straight out of camera? Do you use a different sim for video, vs stills? Cheers, any help you could offer would be great - finding the XT4 a difficult camera to get pleasing images out of. BEST REGARDS, Campbell from NZ.
This is a great question that to start with might be answered by checking out my menu settings. Basically I use three film sims for my stills and a specific set of settings which are outlined somewhere in this video, for example: ruclips.net/video/IoS2mOmFuOc/видео.html
For the video clips it tends to be pro neg hi. Stills, I go for pro neg hi, astia and acros (r) though I find myself preferring astia out of the two colour options, for the extra warmth it gives.
I don't change anything in post for these videos. In Pro work, where I shoot raw + Jpeg I tweak a bit, but for gear tests I don't edit anything, usually, so I have a fairly even playing field to evaluate from.
@@DamianBrown Cheers, will check out that video :)
Zebra for me. I think you only appreciate black in contrast. As for the light meter I can see there being a market for those. Especially if you've got old cameras, like I have.
Definitely!
$106 including lens hood (it's cheaper without the hood by $12). Mine arrives in a week.
Good shout
Seems like quality keeps going up with these..just wondering; how does it compare withe cheerful 25mm f1.8 Pergear/7artisans...or the Zonlai 22mm?
7Artisans 25mm 1.8 is the weakest lens within their APS-C lineup. But it is not a bad lens. Just that the optical design is not all that well corrected. A head to head comparison will be interesting. I bet this new lens will be the better choice overall. 7Artisans needs to bring an updated 25mm 1.4
Actually I've got the Pergear 25mm, I'll put a video out asap
@@DamianBrown yeahhh, that would be cool!! One thing I'm not liking the more I look at it is the design; their previous 17,35,50mm lineup is odd but pretty clean, this is just...CCCP style, I wish they stuck with that style at least for a while.
25mm 1.8 Pergear is not the same as the 7artisans 25mm 1.8.
Does the hard stop at infinity actually correspond to infinity?
I have the ttartisan 35mm f/1.4 and it focused past infinity when you rack the lens to the hard stop, making it slightly out of focus at wide apertures.
Reviewers should always include this, it's a make or break thing for me
Yup same as mine. However, there are video out there said that it could be corrected by yourself. Still didn't try it.
I've adjusted mine. It certainly makes it easier to use once you do that.
Just like my old Canon FD 50mm 1.4. It focuses past infinte.
I have just gotten the 17mm and 35mm , seems I should complete the lineup with the 23mm to fill the gap. The built, image quality and handling looks the same. Do you shoot all your videos and pics on a XT4?
I do yes, when I work I also use a T3
@@DamianBrown I'm shooting mainly photography, so using the ttartisan lenses on a xt3 should not be an issue i guess...
I keep looking at these off brand budget manual lenses but they all seem to have major optical "character" and that just does not appeal to me. I can add such things in editing if I want but it's extremely difficult to remove "character" from a photo depending on what the issue is. So it just puts me off. Could be fun but then the truth is I have existing glass that just smoke these lenses so why spend good money for not great glass? I must just be missing something. Are these rose tinted lenses appealing to a very specific customer?
I guess there's different applications, different budgets and tastes. If you can spend the money for the best glass than that's the ideal route, I'd say. Then again some have specific reasons to go cheap and / or manual only. I don't mind the variety at all.
holy barrel distortion, batman! still, it seems like it might be fun piece of kit.
Ye I think so
I wonder, if forgetting AF/MF difference, how TT 23mm compares with Viltrox 23mm. Image quality, colors, rendering etc. Can TT 23mm fill the gap between my 18mm - 35mm spending much less money… ? Is Viltrox better than this one in overall quality despite autofocus? 🙂
Interesting question! I'm not sure IQ is better, maybe a different character as opposed to a "clean" IQ.
hello, I really appreciate your reviews, just the music in this one was a little annoying unfortunately
Sorry Martin!
When will viltrox 13mm f1. 4 come? Plz shed some light
I'm testing it right now
@@DamianBrown I came to know that.. Hope it will get released this month..
Have had a native Fuji version for some time.
These are clearly great value for money lens.
I simply dont have the need.
Good luck to those who give it a fling!
Awesome
Take my money TTARTISAN
Bit too much silver bling for me. I prefer everything black
There's a plain black version too.
Same here!
When is it released in uk
Good question, I think pre orders just went live but Amazon shows up to February for Delivery. I'll check again later because that seems quite far off.
@@DamianBrown do you think its better than the 7artisans 25mm 1.8
Based on the image quality of my TTartisan 50mm 1.2, this 23mm will replace my 7artisans 25mm.
Nice!
Mine as well...went full TT 17,23,35,50, for MFT perfect...mostly using it in Multicam video...great focus and I like soft edges...
i didn't like it. in this focal range and price i like the pergear 25 f1,8... tested the meike, 7artisan and neewer ones. wanted to give the ttartisan 23 a go but it's a NO for me.
That's fair enough :) There's plenty of choice as you can attest to.
I just wish the markings were engraved and not printed.
Good point!
f11 is conspicuously absent from this and some other cheap Chinese lenses. I can only assume that the mechanical nature of the diaphragm makes it difficult to manufacture. But to me that is a deal breaker, even if I'd seldom if ever use f11.
Interesting!! Thanks for sharing.
the music is horrendous
I just mute RUclips music I don't like. It's impossible to please every viewer.
What's wrong with your sound, really bad from this end. I hope this feed back helps (excuse the pun). I really enjoy your vids (thumbs up)
Haven't noticed anything particularly terrible about the sound but hey it's all a learning curve. Thanks.