7artisans 25mm F1.8 Manual Focus Prime Fixed Lens for Sony Emount Cameras - Black APS-C

So your getting serious about photography and you learn about your F stops(aperture) and know primes are the way to go. And wide open, ie lower than 2, gives you that cool bokeh effect(blur) but all the lenses are hundreds of dollars and you spent everything on your camera already. Well this lens to the rescue. I saw it, no reviews yet but for the price I jumped on it and paid extra to get it here quick. Short and to the point this thing is awesome. Great bokeh. Is a $600 lens better? Probably, but I dont know. I dont have that kind of money, so cant compare. Ive attached a few test shots though. Bare in mind its going to take me awhile to learn to manual focus well. I may need to turn on focus peeking. But this is still worth it and 9 out of 10 times you need to adjust the auto focus anyway. So really no - points for it being manual. Its got smooth adjustment rings, with the focus being at the front and 0.6-16ft then infinity. 1.8-16f Its nice and sharp as well. Example photos: Strawberry patch, good example of background blur Kohlrabi front and back blur Dog inside, dark background nice details Dog outside, I over exposed him but nice background and nice grass detail Grass seeds: lighter blur with high F# Paw and rug: shows detail capable, this was an extreme crop Crop of Holiday lights Holiday lights at 1.8f It came in a nice black box. So would make a great gift. Seriously Im thrilled with this thing. Im sure someone will come along and compare to the more expensive lenses. These reviews usually show miner differences, like sharpness in the corners but thats not why you buy a low F prime lens. You buy it for sharp main subject and that nice bokeh, and this has both. The ring on the front for filters and such is 46mm, should you want to use filters. Its a bit longer than the kit lens(when not extended). It is metal construction. And it did come with the cleaning kit in the product photo, gloves and all. The only down side I found is, due to it being manual, the aperture does not record in the exif and shows as 0.0 F number and 1.0 max f on all photos taken with it. Thats a bit of a bummer, especially if you post in photo groups who ask for the exif. But its still a minor inconvenience and the quality matters much more. If this were auto focus it would be my main lens, but auto focus would make it cost more. As it is Im using it a lot for non-moving subjects and having lots of fun with it.

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The lens is sharper than I expected for the price. Everything except the extreme corners is very clear. There is some vignetting wide open, but nothing that cant be fixed in post, and it goes away when stopped down. The only real downside I noticed is on some night shots - there is significant flare from street lights in the shot. I think I will simply not use the lens outside at night, since it doesnt have the nice coating more expensive lenses use to control flare. I took a few test shots of the evening sun, and saw some minor flaring in one shot but none in others. I needed a manual focus lens to use on my NEX 6, which has stopped reliably communicating with my auto focus lenses. This lens has surpassed my expectations given the price, and I am very happy with it. Just note the weakness with flare due to (I assume) no expensive coating. I have uploaded two (cropped) photos to illustrate the depth of focus possible with the 1.8 aperture, and the flare which can happen from some types of lamps at night. Update 11/29/2017 I have taken many more test shots at night, and the artifacts I saw on my first test with the one lamp are not typical. There is still some flaring, but it is not generally as distracting as in my earliest examples, and I think this lens is suitable for nighttime photography. I will leave the example as something that can happen, but am revising my rating from 4 to 5 stars since such flaring is not typical - just something to watch for.

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I use this lens last night during a wedding video, AND THIS IS A AMAZING manual focus cheap lens :) ,love the declick aperture and the quality of the footage is EXCELLENT !! here a few pictures not edited from this lens !

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I JUST PURCHASED THIS LENS, AFTER I DAY, I LOVE THIS LENS. IT TAKES ME BACK TO MY FIRST CAMERA A VOIGTLANDER 50MMF 2.8 NOT PERFECT NOT QUIT EASY TO USE, BUT SHOT SOME OF MY BEST SHOTS . SOMETHING ABOUT A MANUAL FOCUS YOU SEEM TO APPRECIATE YOUR IMAGES MORE. NOT ONLY IS IT SHARP IT HAS A CHARACTER OF IT"S OWN. I JUST CAN"T GET OVER THIS LENS, IF YOU HAVE THE SONY A6000 ENLARGE IMAGE > RIGHT NEXT TO TOOL BOX IN MENUE PLUS FOCUS PEAKING LOW BUY THIS LENS YOU WILL NOT BE SORRY!

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Although I like the overall quality (materials feel like expensive lenses) , the aperture ring and exif info output is very strange : I put the lens at several A settings from 1.7 to 16.0, constant 640 ISO outdoors in mid morning good light. Got really different shutter speeds than on my Sony 50mm/1.8 lens and Neewer 35mm/1.7lenses with same a and ISO.... The 50mm and 35mm gave results pretty much the same for the two of them, while the 7Artisans consistently shot a couple of shutter clicks higher. The 7Artisans had very similar exposure as did the other lenses, even though its readout said it was shooting so much faster faster. Not sure if the lens electronics were giving the camera inaccurate shutter info or how/why the higher speed was getting into the display readout. Probably would still recommend this lens, but not better than old glass manual 28mm /f2 or 35mm /f2 lenses you can buy on other sites ( but they would be harder to return, so keep that in mind.) Added 9-11-18 : After reading Keith G,s review today, I will add that my lens also reads infinity at the wrong position, but with Focus Peaking and Exposure Magnification, I hardly notice on my slower, more leisurely composed stills.

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I’ve been into photography for a year now and I’ve tried a variety of low-end manual and high end AF lenses for the Sony E mount system. PROs: lens is affordable for an interesting focal length which gives good wide shots for outdoor and landscape photography. CONs: For a wide angle shot, i usually want to focus at infinity and this lens has the key flaw of having an innacurate focus ring. To focus at infinity you need to finesse the ring anywhere from 1-3mm on either side of the infinity marker. This is too inconsistent for me to rely on in the field when I’m trying to take night sky or landscape shots on vacation. I’d recommend this if you’re new to photography and trying to expand your lens collection with cheap lenses at various focal lengths. Don’t rely on opening this up to infinity though. For an affordable and amazing manual wide angle lens I’d recommend the Rokinon 12mm F-2.0

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Over all this is one hell of a little lens for the money. It’s sharp, manually focuses easily and quickly (Sony A6500 with peaking and focus magnification turned on). It’s tiny - reminds me of my old manual cameras when I first started learning to shoot. But above all else... it’s making shooting fun again as it forces you to be in the moment as you compose focus and shoot. No letting the camera figure everything out for you... you are in control. Also the quality is excellent and it’s a little tank. The Picts are wonderful and if you know your camera settings, this little 25mm, is a joy to mess around with. Plus you’ll fall in love with shooting again. For what you pay youre getting a nice piece of glass and metal. The sliding aperture ring is smooth and youre not limited to clicked stops - so you need to be really aware of where youre at on the aperture settings. Its small so you need to get used to the small turning radius of the focus ring - very slight turns for adjusting focus - thats why I like the focus magnification on my A6500 - plus set focus peaking to mid range yellow... other wise its overwhelming. Its tack sharp at about f4 with a bit of softening in the edges and slight vignetting, but over F4 its clean. Its really fun to use as a black and white lens for street shooting. (Ill post images soon). The unusual focal length is cool - between 20mm and 30mm lenses so its a nice mid wide angle. But once again - its a truly fun lens - well built and even if youre a pro - Im going to bet this will be a surprise in quality and just fun factor!

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Im rating this 5 stars based primarily on the fact that its a <$100 lens for the sony e-mount. No, it doesnt perform as great as a $1000 Zeiss lens, but for this price range, this lens is untouchable. It has great build quality, smooth clickless ring operation on both F stop and manual focus. Photos came out very sharp with a little vignetting on the corners. The bokeh on this is great, and I would recommend this as a decent portrait and travel lens. If youre an amateur photographer looking for a nice reasonably priced fixed focal length upgrade to your kit lens, this should be your go-to. At this price, it cannot be beat. Keep in mind, this is a completely manual focus lens, so there is a learning curve on using it. If you are looking to learn on your camera, or learning how to control depth of field and focus - this is also a great lens. I use this on my Sony A6300 and have attached some photos for reference.

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If I could give it more stars, I would. I’m honestly surprised this lens is so cheap. The construction of it is sturdy, it’s made out of metal, and the focusing and aperture rings are buttery smooth. It’s completely sharp at 1.8. For the price, I’m not sure what else I could ask for. Totally recommend it!

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For the price, it’s hard not to love this lens. The colors it delivers are seriously pretty. Sure it’s not the sharpest in the corners wide open, and it sometimes does have some purple fringing, but there’s no lens this focal length that doesn’t suffer those issues for even five times that price. The manual focusing ring is reassuringly solid feeling, as is the aperture ring. The lens itself is light and small, making it perfect for street photography or travel. Speaking of street photography, if you stop down a bit, it’s very easy to shoot from the hip with this lens and keep things very discrete even at close distances. On an A6000/6300/6500, you can use the focus peaking and zoom features and get sharp images quickly with a little practice. The most obvious comparison for this lens is probably something vintage and adapted. It’s true that you MAY get better photos with a good adapter and a pristine vintage lens, but if you don’t know your stuff and are buying blind online, it’s a bit of a crapshoot to find good stuff, PARTICULARLY with lenses this wide. It’s also a tall order to find a lens this compact at this focal length, especially factoring in the length of an adaptor. I have and love my adapted lenses, but this lens gives most of them a run for their money and beats them in some ways. If you own a crop sensor Sony camera, it seems silly not to buy one at this price.

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