This new lens has quickly become my favourite companion for the Lumix S9. It also comes in E-mount and Z-mount in addition to the L-mount, but my experience over these past few weeks has been with the Lumix S9 while travelling around Nepal.
The headline feature for this lens is just that it's a very, very small fast prime. It's much smaller than the Lumix S series of primes, and they were already pretty small to begin with. The Lumix S9 is such a very small camera body, so almost any lens is going to look chunky on it. That is until I met this 40mm F2 from TT Artisan.
And in terms of functionality and performance, I think this is perhaps the best lens you can buy when starting out on the Lumix S9.
This is a seriously cheap lens. I paid US$169 including shipping. Being so cheap, the first thing I worried about was if the autofocus would be any good? And the answer was yes, the autofocus absolutely delivered. I had lots of opportunities to test it under very difficult conditions, and most of the time it gave me exactly what I hoped for. For sure, it's not quite as fast as what I'm used to with my Lumix lenses, but it's not that far behind. Every so often I caught it doing a quick hunt for a subject, when it didn't catch the first time, but it would bounce back pretty quickly in those instances.
I was able to successfully use this lens to track subjects that were coming towards me when I had the continuous autofocus enabled on the S9. I got great results, reliable results. Things like goats in low light were another scenario that I tested and it performed really well. It's not going to quite stand up to what you're going to get from a $2000 lens, but that's the point – it's not a $2000 lens.
The sharpness of this lens is also excellent. I was honestly really surprised by this, very pleasantly surprised. Shooting wide open, I'm still getting lovely detail wherever my focus falls. Vignetting on this lens is definitely acceptable. It's there, and you can tell the difference between F2.8 and open wide at F2 if you're shooting up at the sky, but it's not very strong and it's very easy to correct if you feel the need to.
Flare is a special consideration for me. I shoot into the sun all the time so the character of lens flare is something that really matters to me. I found when shooting wide open with this lens I rarely saw any hint of colour trails. The flare is mostly just very soft, and that's exactly what I want. This lens was not designed to remove flare entirely ,and it did give me a golden hue shift sometimes. It was a little bit dreamy and I just like the look. This is a part of the character of the lens and it's stronger than you can expect on a higher quality glass for sure.
So if you don't shoot into the sun like me then this probably won't matter but for me this was a notable part of the lens's character and I found it very pleasing. Now let's talk about bokeh, and this is a little bit subjective and at F2 we're not going to get the dramatic drop off you might expect from an F1.2 lens. But the bokeh is nice. It's still pretty, so no complaints there from me.
The quality of this lens was just astounding. I didn't take it off my camera for two weeks and I just love the tiny footprint. It slips into my sling bag so easily. This was a dream lens for my style of travel photography.
So often I hear people say they don't want to spend their money on a prime lens. They might already own a couple of zoom lenses and just haven't had a chance to experiment with bokeh on a fast prime. And when I say fast I do mean fast. I don't mean F2.8, that is not fast enough for me. There's a world of difference between F2 and F2.8, and until you actually push one of these things to see what it can do you may not actually understand what I'm even talking about.
Normally it just costs a lot of money to get down to F2. Sony have a 35mm f1.8 lens that costs about US$850, and Lumix have a lovely little 35mm F1.8 for about US$750. Nikon's 35mm F1.8 for Z-mount is also around US$900. This new lens by TT Artisan opens the door to trying out a genuinely fast prime lens at an amazing price of US$169. Which is a very affordable way to just see if you like the experience of a fast prime or not.
Let's talk about compromises. I love a 35mm focal length so I lose a little bit here by having 40mm instead of 35mm. Also would have preferred a wider front end on this particular lens. It's a very small bit of glass and you become aware of that when you're cleaning it, and trying to keep it clean. It would have been great if there was an AF-MF switch as well. The only other major issue for me was the lack of close focus distance, as there were many times when I wanted to get a little bit tighter with subjects but I had to settle for something a little further back. This lens is not even close to macro.
So who will love this lens?
This is the perfect purchase for anyone who wants to try a prime lens but is shy of the money. It's amazing value. It delivers great results. It's a useful focal length. You can do a lot with 40mm and it's easy to pack. You just can't go wrong here. And you can get this for your full frame Sony or Nikon in addition to L-mount.
I've been asked whether this will be a good lens for food photography, given my line of work, and I have to say probably not ideal for that. It's good, but not ideal. The lack of close focus makes it a little bit less appealing for food photography in my book. Also, I prefer the 50mm perspective for most still life situations. So 40mm can be a little bit too wide in that context. You can get some good shots at 40mm, but I'd be getting a quality 50mm prime if food photography is your main thing.
I love primes, I love bokeh and I love small gear that doesn't weigh me down. And that's what makes this such a great lens. My previous favourite small 35mm F2 was by Sigma, and that is a really nice lens. They are getting very hard to find for L-mount at the moment, and they're not as small as this 40mm F2 by TT Artisan. So if you own a Lumix S9 or Sony ZV-E1, I reckon go out and get this lens right away. You won't regret it.
– Ewen
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