Is the TTArtisan AF 24mm f/3.8 Worth $99?

The TTArtisan AF 24mm f/3.8 is a $99 autofocus pancake that covers a full frame sensor and weighs under 60 g. If you've ever left your camera at home because it felt like too much to carry, a lens this thin shifts that math in a real way.

The obvious benchmark is the Viltrox AF 28mm f/4.5 FE, another $99 lens barely thicker than a body cap. Dustin Abbott puts the two side by side and finds that the TTArtisan AF 24mm f/3.8 matches the Viltrox within a fraction of a millimeter, at 59 g and roughly 16mm thick, while going a little wider and a little brighter. The f/3.8 opening is fixed. There are no aperture blades inside, just a circular hole. A sliding door protects the front element, and TTArtisan solved a complaint Viltrox owners had: the lens doesn't push its elements forward when the camera powers on, so nothing bumps against a closed cover. You get no manual focus ring and no filter threads, and the only things you'll ever touch are that cover and a USB-C port for firmware updates.

With nothing else to adjust, the voice coil autofocus motor carries the whole experience. Abbott found it quiet, quick to jump between near and far subjects, and stable enough that he can see the lens catching on with street shooters. Close range is harder. Minimum focus sits at 30 cm, magnification is low, and without a manual ring, finding the exact edge of focus becomes trial and error; one shot of a leaf held at arm's length ended up with only a corner sharp. For video, the lens holds focus steadily and makes sense on a gimbal or for vlogging, though breathing and a lurching transition between subjects keep rack focus from looking smooth.

Olympus tried a version of this idea more than a decade ago with its Body Cap Lens 15mm f/8, a fixed-aperture, manual-focus disc for Micro Four Thirds that people bought mostly for the novelty. Adding autofocus and full frame coverage turns that novelty into something you can shoot seriously, and it fits a wider pattern of Chinese lens makers such as Viltrox and TTArtisan moving from manual glass into autofocus designs at very low prices. A single aperture also changes how you set up the camera. Exposure comes down to shutter speed and ISO, so Auto ISO with a minimum shutter speed you trust handles most of the work. Depth of field at 24mm and f/3.8 is generous, too: focus on something about 5 meters away, and everything from roughly 2.5 meters to the horizon stays acceptably sharp on a full frame sensor. Most street and travel scenes live in that zone, which keeps the tricky close-focus range out of your way. On a smaller body, the whole setup lands close to the weight of a hefty smartphone.

Optically, the TTArtisan holds up better than its size suggests. On a 61-megapixel Sony a7R V, the center is punchy and sharp, the midframe stays strong, and the corners soften slightly before falling off at the very edge. Distortion needed only a -2 correction for mild pincushion, and vignetting took about +57 to clear. Against the Viltrox, resolution looks similar in many spots, and the Viltrox even edges ahead in a couple of corners. Contrast is where the TTArtisan pulls away across most of the frame, and the Viltrox shows heavier vignetting and much stronger lateral color fringing. Chromatic aberration on the TTArtisan is minimal, with almost nothing in front of the focus plane and only a touch of green behind it. Without a hood, backlit scenes bring out ghosting and blobs of false color at certain angles.

Abbott's look at the lens in APS-C mode, and more, is in the video above.