When it comes to focal length choice, my photography goes in cycles. For a few years now I've been shooting 28mm and 35mm, but recently decided it was time to move back to the 50mm focal range.
My favorite everyday carry/travel camera—which I grab for local strolls around town, or take on long backpacking trips—is my trusty Nikon Z50.
I love the small form factor of the Z50 and needed a small, light lens for it that would give me around a 50mm focal length. I found it. TTArtisan has an AF 35mm f/1.8 APS-C lens that gives the full frame equivalent of approximately 52mm. Perfect!
First off, it's all metal and has a quality feel to it. It's light and compact, and has something that suits my style of photography—a reasonably close minimum focusing distance of 15.7" or 0.4 m.
Within minutes of attaching the lens to my camera and shooting the cat, I was impressed with the autofocus speed, and thought the price point for both build and image quality was insanely good. It's just $125. For that money, it comes with two lens hoods.
Despite being a small lens, the focusing ring is large and easy to grab and use, turning very smoothly. It can be configured to control aperture or exposure compensation, if so desired.
When shooting wide open at f/1.8, I noticed a very pleasant, slightly swirly bokeh, which reminded me of my Helios 44-2. It's a vintage lens look, with soft and slightly vignetted edges, yet the center of the frame is very sharp. Things greatly improve by f/4–f/5.6, and stopping down to f/8 results in a perfectly sharp image from edge to edge. I found myself shooting buildings and general urban scenes at f/8 as I wandered around, with top-quality results, although I did enjoy opening things up to f/1.8 for that vintage vibe.
Vignetting when wide open is clearly evident. Apparently this bothers some, but I don't find it a problem at all. If I'm shooting something at f/1.8, I'm not bothered about the corners, as long as the subject is sharp in the middle.
I shot a few high-contrast images to check for chromatic aberration, but didn't see anything.
- Lens mount: Fujifilm X, Sony E, Nikon Z
- APS-C, f/1.8 to f/16
- 52.5mm (full frame equivalent)
- Weight: 176 g
- Minimum focusing distance: 15.7"
- Filter size: 52mm
- All-metal construction
Competition is the Viltrox AF 35mm F1.7 Air. It's made of plastic and doesn't have such a quality feel. It's a little longer too, and pricier at $199 (Z mount version).
Conclusion
What I Like
- It's smaller, lighter, and cheaper than its immediate competitor
- All-metal construction
- Image quality is excellent
What I Don't Like
- No manual focus switch, something I use all the time on my other lenses
Overall, I really like this lens. It may just be the best-performing everyday carry 35mm (approximately 50mm full frame equivalent) budget prime for APS-C format. Image quality, for the price, is excellent. I love the vintage characteristics wide open, and the clean, sharp results when stopped down. It offers the best of both worlds in this regard. I rate it 9/10. Honestly, if there were an MF/AF switch, it would be close to a 10/10 for me. It makes a perfect travel lens when weight and bulk are a major consideration, like a TTArtisan AF 35mm f/1.8.
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