Review - 7Artisans 50mm F1.8 lens Fuji X mount

I’ve purchased 7artisans 50mm F1.8 lens three weeks ago directly from eBay 7artisans store. I already have 7artisans 55mm F1.4 and Voigtlander 50mm F1.5 for this shooting angle, though was considering to try one more interesting lens because it’s smaller, cheaper, and looks more compact. I was also expecting better border performance on Fuji X APS-C sensor from F1.8 lens comparing to CV 50mm F1.5 or ZM 50mm F1.5.

My 7artisans 50mm F1.8 lens arrived few days before this review. As usual it got shipped in nicely packed and factory sealed 7artisans black box.

Unfortunately I received defective lens sample and had to deal with the issue first. It was shooting very soft even stopped down to F2.8. I’ll explain more details on that in separate article, and also share simple way to check if your 7artisans 50mm F1.8 lens sample is the good one. So I’d higly recommend to make a purchase only from shops or dealers that offer returns.

Taking into account it’s F1.8 lens designed for APS-C sensor, it should deliver relatively sharp image even wide open. Here are few shots from my 7artisans 50mm F1.8 with Fuji X-Pro2 after the fix:

Lens Design and Mechanics

7artisans 50mm F1.8 has typical click-less aperture ring comfortably positioned near the mount. It’s unusual to see that focusing ring direction is different than other 7aritsans lens I have (12mm F2.8, 35m F1.2, 55mm F1.4), probably it was one of their first production lens.

All body is made of aluminum including the mount ring (in my case it’s Fuji X mount). Filter thread is a bit wide – 52mm, I personally think that more common 43mm filter would easily fit here as well. The focus ring is nicely textured with pleasant look and feel. Focus rotation is smooth, though I noticed slight out-of-axis movement of the helicoid core, will check later if that affects image borders quality.

Lens nicely fits X-E2s and X-Pro2 with comfortable weight balance and focus ring position. I like that central scale mark is large and separated from numbers, so aperture value can be quickly read.

Lens sits firm enough in the mount, and doesn’t have radial play like my 7artisans 35mm F1.2.

7artisans 50mm F1.8 lens on Fuji X-Pro2

Set of random samples, all taken @F1.8 in low light conditions:

First thing I wanted to check is the background blurr. It’s 50mm F1.8 APS-C lens, so I’m expecting more round OOF circles closer to the borders, comparing to 7artisans 55mm F1.4. Here’s one of my first indoor shots wide open:

7artisans 50mm F1.8 shot @F1.8

Another intriguing thing of this lens – rounded 12-blades aperture that technically should deliver nice blur at different F values. So here are few shot pairs at F1.8 and F2.8.

I like how it forms OOF circles. There is much lower “cat eye” effect in the boders and corners than I used to see with Zeiss ZM 50mm F1.5 or Voigtlander 50mm F1.5 on Fuji X.

Here is one more shot and its 100% cropped part out of central area.

You may notice that I’m shooting lots of close-ups with this lens. That’s significant benefit of 7artisans 50mm F1.8 I like a lot – the minimal focus distance is only 0.5m. It’s much closer that typical 0.7m-0.9m of Voigtlander and Zeiss rangefinder lens.

I wish the lens has a bit longer focus rotation in 6m-infinity range, however it’s precise enough My sample is little overpassing infinity on the focus end, will check later how to fine-calibrate it. In the other hand focusing on closer objects is very pleasant and accurate due to much wider rotation. Wide focus ring texture also helps to easily separate it from the aperture ring.

7artisans 50mm F1.8 lens on Fuji X-E2s

I was positively surprised how light is the whole set, it weights only 575g (with battery, card, brass thumb grip, neck strap, brass lens filter). Same camera with Voigtlander 50mm F1.5 + LM-FX adapter is almost 100g heavier – 673g.

7artisans 50mm F1.8Voigtlander Nokton 50mm F1.5 (adapted)

I’ve realized that LH-40N hood doesn’t influence lens vignetting, because front glass diameter is quite small and it’s 50mm focal length. Also OOF circles in the center don’t change size wit this hood, which means aperture remains F1.8 (in the borders though OOF circles become slightly smaller. I also mounted 39mm filter backward, so now my 7artisans 50mm F1.8 lens is also protected.

Few shots taken with Fujifilm X-E2s