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First 7Artisans 35mm f/2 Lens Review


Chubkins

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5 minutes ago, deathontheshore said:

The thing is - and I probably should have mentioned that earlier - I want to use the lens on a M5 as well.

Then you'll have to adjust it for the M5 most probably. There is a screwdriver in the lens box for that. Don't ask me how it works, i have not used my 7art 35/2 on rangefinders so far. 

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I use M lenses on mirrorless often, just manually focusing bu judging sharpness in the EVF.

You can only adjust the focus cam by testing against an M rangefinder mechanism. This would be awkward on an M5 except for infinity adjustment: focus the lens to its infinity stop, then aim the camera at something VERY far off (telephone pole, etc that shows up in split image) - and adjust the lens cam (dismounting of course) by trial and error until it agrees with the RF at infinity. This should get you quite close, and film is more forgiving of slight errors.

IF you can borrow an M typ 240 or M10 that have both RF and EVF it is much faster and easier, and you can adjust at any distance. You don't have to adjust to the same camera body you will be using, as long as the cameras are not whacked out of RF adjustment.

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  • 6 months later...

Good enough - even for landscapes - when you don't want to risk your other precious lenses on the ski slopes...

Both pictures taken with the M240.

Also, I finally noticed some colour shift with this lens (visible in these pictures), but only on the M240 - and not on the M10 - and only when focussed at infinity. I'll test it on the M9 when I can.

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  • 1 year later...

My lens arrived today, and after reading and re-reading and re-re-reading the focus instructions on how to adjust it, all I knew was that I need to loosen two screws with the provided tool, and route the brass "ring" with the focus mount for the rangefinder to set it.  I put the lens on my M10, and checked at infinity - it was slightly off.  Half an hour later I had to look at the camera and the focus cam, look at the brass cam on the lens, figure out which way the cam needed to move to adjust the focus - and did everything from the beginning on my M2 until it was perfect.  Went back to the M10, and it was no longer perfect - probably my M2 is off?...   Anyway, now that I knew what I was doing, I put it back on my M10, and quickly had everything perfect.

I took as series of shots at each aperture, and as I closed the aperture one click, I adjusted the shutter speed to compensate.  Strangely, when I reviewed the photos, they seemed too be getting more and more underexposed.  I will do this again with Live View, maybe this afternoon.

Sharpeness wide open was pathetic.  At 2.8 the center was sharp, and by f/4 the edges were getting better too.

The goal is to mostly use this lens on my M8.2 and on my film cameras.  I guess it's a "keeper", unless the rest of you guys tell me it should be sharp at f/2 in which case, if I repeat the test, and get the same results, I might ask KEH for a replacement.

I need to also put the lens on my M8.2 and see if the rangefinder focus matches my M10, or my M2, or my recently rebuilt M3 which should be perfect.  

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This photo might be helpful - it would have helped me.  It shows the screw holes to lock the brass "ramp" ring in place, the center hold to use for adjusting, and roughly where the ramp will end up after adjusting it.  None of this I really understood before doing the adjusting.  So many people here also did what I decided to do, set the focus at infinity.

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This is from mounting the lens on my M10, first shooting at f/2, then f/4, and making a tiny crop near the center of the image.

At f/2, lower image, the result is useless.  At f/4, the top image, it is better.

No other editing.  

I am getting a second copy of the lens from KEH - hopefully it is better.

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Edited by MikeMyers
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2 minutes ago, lct said:

This lens is sharp at f/2. I would have it adapted to your M camera if i were you. 

The bottom photo is just to show how much of the scene I was cropping to.  "The" lens maybe is sharp at f/2, but "my" lens is not.  It is blurry on my M8.2 and on my M10.  The eventual goal was to use it on my M2 and M3, but it seems like a great lens for my M8.2 as with the crop factor, it's more or less a "normal" 50mm view.   I'm glad to read what you wrote, as maybe the next one I get will be better.  I'll probably keep it anyway, as by f/2.8 it's useable, and by f/4 it's acceptable.  

I spent much of last night watching YouTube videos on this lens - it's no match for a Leica (or Voigtlander) lens, but it's only $280, and should I be using it in India in 2022, which is not the cleanest environment, it's one less concern.  

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Aside from flare and native distortion if is a match for more expensive lenses to me. Here is what it can do at f/2 on digital CL. But i would not underestimate the chances of user error in adapting the lens to you camera. This said with all due respect of course :cool:.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-49n2Bjn/0/640f1e10/X4/i-49n2Bjn-X4.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-NvknbTM/0/8ca2cc3e/X4/i-NvknbTM-X4.jpg

 

 

Edited by lct
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3 hours ago, lct said:

Aside from flare and native distortion if is a match for more expensive lenses to me. Here is what it can do at f/2 on digital CL. But i would not underestimate the chances of user error in adapting the lens to you camera. This said with all due respect of course :cool:.

User error - yep, that would be the most likely thing.  Here are a few things to consider.  The Leica CL is mirrorless, so there is no need to adjust the focus system at all.  On a rangefinder, the view from the small rangefinder window needs to align perfectly with the view from the viewfinder, and on my lens, on both my M10 and my M8.2 the images could not be lined up.  So, I had to follow the instructions and move the "cam" to a position where both images lined up perfectly at infinity.

If the central area in my images, at f/2, at 100% would have looked as clear and sharp as your tree trunk, I would have been satisfied.  Your lens seems to be better than mine.

I'm also "pushing" it more - your images from the Leica CL are 2048 pixels by 1363.  My test photos from the M10 are 5952 x 3968.

Maybe I'm being unreasonable, but having seen your photos, I would like mine (at 100%) to be just as sharp - at least towards the middle - the lens gets blurry wide open as you look further away from the center.  I expected that, but I expected the middle area to be sharp.

I didn't set the lens up viewing a paper target some number of inches away from me.  I decided to do it at infinity, and others here have said that once it is focused at infinity, the other distances will follow.

Other people in this thread have received lenses that weren't right - I read the whole thread, beginning to end, this morning.  

 

I took another series of photos, of a sunset, this evening, using f/8 and varying the exposure as the sun went down.  I fully expect them to come out as nice as what my M8.2 is capable of, but not what my M10 or my D750 can achieve.  I love my M8.2, and this seems to be a perfect lens for it in most ways.

(.....and there still seems to be a mystery of why when I change the f/stop say from f/2 to f/2.8 (half the light) and I change the shutter speed by the same amount, one stop, the exposure looks different.  Somebody earlier in this thread said the same thing - as I recall, he thought the aperture numbers were not spaced properly.  That's something else I need to test.)

 

.....and Thank You @lct for posting those photos - if your camera could do this with the 7Artisans, I think there's a good chance I can get one just as good.

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On 7/27/2018 at 5:42 AM, chema said:
My copy was slightly misadjusted at the infinity but it has been easy to adjust with your instructions.
Nobody has mentioned in this forum the notable mismatch in the aperture. Mine, measuring on a gray wall, jumps from f2- 1/3000 successively when closing a diaphragm to:
2.8-1/2000 ,,, 4- 1/1500 ,, 5.6 1/750 ,, 8- 1/360 ,, 11 - 1/180 and 16 - 1/60.
 
That is, as the 2.8 mark corresponds really to an aperture of f:2.5, 4 to 2.8, 5.6 to 4, 8 to 5.6, 11 to 8, and 16 to 14.
 
The test I made with an M9 but I see similar results with an M8. Both measure correctly with zeiss / leica / CV lenses.
 
Is it just my unit or other users have seen the same problem?
 
Since light is measured at the actual aperture, in normal use is not a problem. It would only affect the depth of field estimation.
 
Excuse my poor english
chema

Thank you for posting - I will forward this to the importer.  I think I am having the same problem, as I took a series of photos at each f/stop, changing the aperture by one stop, and then doing the same with the shutter.  The photos did not seem to be at the same exposure, which they should have been.  I've done this on both my M8.2 and my M10.

I can't think of any logical reason for why this happens, but I'm glad I'm not alone, and that it is "real", not my imagination.  If you hear anything more about it, please post here.

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For what it's worth, my second copy of the lens arrived today.

This time it took only five minutes to adjust the focusing ramp such that when the lens reads "infinity", so does my rangefinder on my M10.  

I then quickly set it up for photos at ISO 100 at each aperture, 2, 2.8. 4, 5.6, 8, 11, and 16.

My biggest issue was center focus at f/2.  That has been corrected on this lens - while it looks slightly better as I stop down, even the f/2 image is acceptable - in the center.  As I stop down the sides of the image get sharper, and by f/4. and better yet, f/5.6, the results are acceptable (but not like a Leica lens).  For my desire to use it on my M8.2, the lens is perfect as-is.    I guess I get to start testing/using it for regular images.  I know I'm not sending this one back.

By the time it reaches f/11, I don't see any issues, even in the corners.  I'm in no way any kind of "professional lens tester", but I know for my purposes, this lens is a keeper.  For use on my M10 in India, where it's dirty and dusty, and I might not want to be walking around with a gazillion dollar Leica lens, this lens is also fine for me.  (I'm no longer a working photographer, and even if I was, I'm not able to spend what new Leica gear costs, and luckily, I haven't much of a desire to step "up" from my M10.)

 

I still have the problem of getting the same exposure as I expect.  As I went through my seven photos, starting at f/2, through f/16, when I close the aperture by one stop, the shutter should also need to be adjusted by one stop.  I ignored that, and set the shutter speed until my built-in meter indicated the right setting.  This may be a real issue for using the lens on a film Leica - I wonder if the "click stops" for each aperture are in the correct location.  That's the only thing I can think of that might cause this.  Maybe the lens is fine, but the aperture markings on the lens are in the wrong location, along with the "click stops".

 

My person advice for anyone buying one of these lenses, buy it, adjust the focus ramp on the lens to match your camera, test it at all apertures, and if it's good enough for you (for a mere $300ish) keep it.  If it's not sharp wide open in the center, send it back for a replacement.  Others here might be much more qualified than I am (not) to test the lens, and who might offer much better advice.  It does come with a focusing target, and that's how 7Artisans wants us to test the lens, but if the rangefinder doesn't indicate "zero" at infinity, I would never be satisfied with the lens.

 

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Testing with the M8.2 was much nicer.  From f/5.6 on, the images were acceptable.  The M8.2 creates different "color" images, warmer, and in some ways nicer than the M10, but the M10 has so much more detail.  I think this lens was made for my M8.2 camera

I have no idea yet how it will work with film, so I'll trust what others here have written.  I'll get to try it soon. 

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Edited by MikeMyers
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