Lens review – 7Artisans 35mm F2 on Sony A7S---by Yukosteel

Lens review – 7Artisans 35mm F2 on Sony A7S

I’ve purchased 7Artisans 35mm F2.0 lens in Sony E mount directly from 7Artisans factory. It arrived quite fast (in 2 weeks) and today I had a chance to extensively use it outdoor. Seattle Volunteer Park has nice selection of flowers for relaxing shooting and experimenting with a new lens.

Image Samples

I'll cover lens unboxing, mechanics, build later. This time I’ll simply show you number of pictures  first, all taken from 7Artisans 35mm F2.0 with Sony A7S at F2.0 and F2.8 aperture.

           Volunteer Park Conservatory, Seattle, shot @ F2.0

Obviously such a small F2.0 35mm lens for a very modest price is expected to have some optical flaws, and it’s not disappointing me. Image borders and corners showing heavy vignetting and absence of details at F2.0. 7Artisans optical design doesn’t compensate common problem of compact  rangefinder wide angle lens.

                              Seattle, shot @ F2.8

There is strong influence of relatively thick camera sensor filter on the light pass approaching from closely positioned rear lens glass. It’s important to know this flaw and utilize the lens properly, mostly focusing attention at the objects in the frame center.

7Artisans 35mm F2.0 lens delivers decent sharpness and contrast in the central area. The out of focus zone sometimes look little distracting, but in many cases it’s quite organic part of the shot and adds some character to the scene

I also like the minimal 0.35m focusing distance, it’s quite comfortable range.

F2.0 allows to easy emphasize certain frame area.

OOF area circles remain round at F2.8. They also keep the nice shape up to the image corners.

                         shot @ F2.0

                         shot @ F2.8

Lens Mechanics

7Artisans 35mm F2.0 build impressed me right out of the box when I removed lens front cap – it’s metal! Everything is constructed from thick aluminum, and this tiny lens even has built in small lens hood that also looks very durable.

Another big surprise (comparing to other 7Artisans lens I’ve used) is that this 35mm has click stops at main aperture ring marks. It’s so convenient to be able to change aperture to desired value while keep looking into viewfinder (by just counting clicks).

My lens sample has precise alignment for infinity focus on Sony A7S, though I’ll definitely find time to explore possible focus calibration method for this lens.