Scenes Seen: 7Artisans 50mm f/1.8 AF… Far Better Than It Has Any Business Being.
Let me tell you a little lens story. There was a lens I once called “the precious”.
And it did do special things.
Bought in an attempt to fend off my obsession with modern digital medium format. And it was a successful tactic for a while. But then a little thing called depreciation made that avenue possible.
After a quick back and forth with that system’s main lens rival…
…a trade took place. And it was good.
As good as the Sony GM was, this was better—for my purposes, anyway. But if I am honest, the GF system is not the only thing that put the Sony GM on a trailer. Other Sony FE lenses came for its neck.
The other precious.
Aka, the lens that stays on my main camera 90% of the time. As confirmed at a recent wedding session, not only does it also create a fine portrait,…
…but it also does well at everything else with its phenomenal focal range, fast AF, and relatively fast aperture.
Because of this lens, the Sony GM did not get used much. But another, much more humble lens, played a huge part in my decision to let it go, also.
As good as the Sony GM? Pfft. No. Of course not.
But on the flipside, is the Sony GM 8.76315789474x better? For me?
No.
Even if I did not have the GF system this lens would do just fine. I love a good f/1.8 50mm lens. And this is a fine example.
- Swift, accurate, and silent AF.
- Usable for video which is something that cannot be said for some other FE 50mm lenses I have tried from Sony and other brands.
- All metal build.
- Aperture ring and AF/MF switch.
- Great colors.
- No egregious optical faults to speak ok.
- Vignette wide open is not bothersome and handled well by the Sony DSLR 50mm f/1.8 LR lens profile if it does bother you.
- Have not noticed any outlandish abberations in the transition out of the area of focus. The bit of purple defringing I do occasionally see, like the bare branch pics below, is easily dealt with using the purple defringe slider in LR. No different than lenses I have used, costing far more from more storied lens makers.
- Abundant and pleasing out of focus areas.
- Sharp.
- No “for a lens at this price” caveats needed. This lens is properly sharp.
- Great IQ.
- Speaking of those attributes that just look good even if you may struggle to put it into words. The tones. The transitions in and out of focus. Great for using bootleg Monochrome JPEG mode as I did with the choir pics below. Zoom in on the pics and the details are quite impressive.
- Greta price.
And I owned and really liked that ZEISS 55mm f/1.8 but it made no sense sat next to the Sony 50mm GM f/1.2 at the time. It was the first lens I thought of repurchasing when I let the GM go, but I decided to give the 7Artisans 50mm f/1.8 a try first. And I am so glad I did. While the ZEISS is smaller I would put their build and optical performance in the same ballpark. Which is crazy when you consider the brand provenance and price gap. Plus the 7Artisans has a couple of advantages.
- Aperture ring.
- AF/MF switch.
Took it out to my weekly chorus rehearsal and just as I expected it did great. Here are the images.
Thoughts.
Firstly, wow. I am impressed every time I take this lens out.
When used in real-world circumstances, I cannot work out why I would spend more for an AF 50mm lens.
It is not a lens of extremes. Seemingly engineered to be “good enough” it easily surpasses that goal. Plenty of sharpness. Plenty of background blur and subject isolation. Great colors. Great build and switchgear. Solid AF.
So much so that I could have used it for a recent maternity session.
I would know the difference, but I doubt the customer would have minded.
If I had to pick a nit it would not be the size. That is fine. The AF/MF switch is a bit easy to move. But easily addressed. One could gaffer tape that bad boy into submission. But for me, I just know that if AF does not kick in, I likely bumped it, and I move it back. No big deal.
Well done, 7Artisans.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 