The Affordable 21mm f/1.5 for Leica M and Mirrorless: A Quick Review

Cheap lenses are getting better, faster, and more interesting these days. So, how's this wide angle for Leica M mounts?

The TTArtisan (not 7artisan though as Burling says in the video, they share a factory...) 21mm f/1.5 is for Leica M mounts and can be adapted for other mirrorless bodies. It's only a few hundred dollars brand new, it's wide, it's fast, and it's just another entry in to the recent spate of affordable manual focus lenses. But are they any good?

I've been keeping an eye on these type of lenses for use in areas of photography I don't often shoot. For example, a wide-angled prime has been on my shopping list for some time, but I don't need one and have held off. This sort of minimal investment could be justifiable if the quality is there, and it seems to be. If you can live without autofocus, there is quite the selection of lenses from TTArtisan and 7artisan and they seem to be ramping up production rather than slowing down.

I've read a number of reviews on a number of lenses and the general theme of the conclusions appear to be the same, including this one by Burling: they're cheap, have good image quality, decent enough build quality, but aren't perfect. The phrase that appears to be rolled out in almost every discussion is "a lot of bang for your buck." Perhaps it's worth a try. What do you think?