p.1 #1 · 7Artisans 18mm f/5.6 (full frame) for Z mount
So, 7Artisans announced a super-cheap pancake ultra-wide: 18mm f/5.6. It's fixed aperture, manual focus, and probably pretty mediocre optically (from sample images you can see it softens at the edges and looks to be pretty poor in the corners), but it's super tiny, wide and very cheap. Retail is $89. I ordered one because why not - and with the code NewYear25, it came to $71, which I don' t think can be beat for a pancake UWA.
I'm not expecting all that much out of it, but looks like a fun lens to just keep in a bag pocket for quick UWA work. When mine arrives I'll post images and impressions.
p.1 #3 · 7Artisans 18mm f/5.6 (full frame) for Z mount
pemanja93 wrote:
It's better to pay 2x more for Viltrox 20mm f2.8...it's not that wide, but it's much brighter, it has AF and it's not that much bigger and heavier.
Possibly. But at $71, this is impulse buy territory, and something that can be added in the zippered pockets of any bag rather than taking up a lens slot. (I also have an outstanding 21mm, so the Viltrox 20mm doesn't hold a lot of desire for me).
p.1 #5 · 7Artisans 18mm f/5.6 (full frame) for Z mount
I'm vaguely interested. Love fun cheap lenses even if they aren't good (their APS-C 18/6.3 was an absolute hoot. I need to buy another one).
And I don't need a good lens here, I already have a ZF21, but if it's anything close to the RF16 in centre & mid-frame performance I would be extremely happy.
p.1 #6 · 7Artisans 18mm f/5.6 (full frame) for Z mount
Jman13 wrote:
Possibly. But at $71, this is impulse buy territory, and something that can be added in the zippered pockets of any bag rather than taking up a lens slot. (I also have an outstanding 21mm, so the Viltrox 20mm doesn't hold a lot of desire for me).
I agree and if it had contacts to work with the focus conformation on my Zf and Z50II I would impulse buy it, but it doesn't. So I will spend the extra for something better when I need it.
p.1 #7 · 7Artisans 18mm f/5.6 (full frame) for Z mount
Matt Irwin's thoughts.
From his image samples: as expected, the corners are terrible, but outside of that it looks decent. Good central sharpness and even decent to the edge, with relatively low distortion, good color and contrast. Terrible flare performance, but that has to be expected in a lens under $100 new. Overall, it looks like a nice fun UWA.
p.1 #8 · 7Artisans 18mm f/5.6 (full frame) for Z mount
Got my copy in. Haven’t had a chance to look at images properly yet, but from back of LCD looks reasonably sharp except for the extreme corners, with some complex distortion that is worse focused closer up. Built extremely well. First thought: not bad at all for $70. Will have further thoughts once I’ve shot with it more and can look at the images.
p.1 #9 · 7Artisans 18mm f/5.6 (full frame) for Z mount
Ok, so first impressions: Nicely built, all metal construction and very small.
Image quality: Good sharpness in the center, fades off to the edges. Corners are terrible, but I knew that going in. The lens also has some field curvature, so the fixed f/5.6 aperture does limit it for serious landscape work. Distortion isn't good if shooting straight lines fairly close up, but isn't a major issue when shooting outside. Flare is reasonably good, except right near the edge of frame where a bright flare ghost shows up quite substantially, but in the central part of the frame with the sun in frame, it's quite clean.
The lens is contrasty for the most part. f/5.6 is more limiting for depth of field than I expected on an 18mm lens. As such, if you're looking for a small cheap serious tool, this isn't it. If you're looking for something super tiny to slip in your pocket and get some wide shots when you need to, it's not terrible, given the price. If this were a $200 lens, it would not be worth it at all. At $70, it just about hits that value level.
p.1 #10 · 7Artisans 18mm f/5.6 (full frame) for Z mount
Thanks for the evaluation Jordan. It crazy that we can see the corner falloff even in these smaller on-screen pictures. Perhaps looking at this like a 20mm fixed f5.6 lens for $70 would be the ticket. Of course, that puts it somewhat in competition with the Viltrox 20mm f2.8, though the Viltrox is an inch longer. However, the Viltrox is f2.8 and AF, but of course twice the price.
p.1 #12 · 7Artisans 18mm f/5.6 (full frame) for Z mount
I'll also say, that if someone wants a quite good budget (though nowhere near this budget) ultrawide lens (and doesn't need a pancake), the Pergear 14mm f/2.8 II, which is $270, is really quite outstanding, aside from flare performance. That lens has good sharpness wide open, excellent sharpness from f/5.6 on, even in the corners, very nice color and contrast and literally almost zero distortion. It has the lowest distortion of any 14mm lens I've ever tried. It can go quite wild with flare in a lot of situations, though.
p.1 #13 · 7Artisans 18mm f/5.6 (full frame) for Z mount
Honestly it looks better than I expected haha, but 7A puts out some good budget glass. Looks super cute on the ZF.
I am the target market on stuff like this. I have too many competing hobbies and family expenses, and have to very strategically plan my photography purchases. I am fine with imperfect lenses, and like quirky stuff.
p.1 #14 · 7Artisans 18mm f/5.6 (full frame) for Z mount
Now that I have a ZF.... I'm waking this thread up. If anybody has one of these that they are disappointed with and hate it, and want to send it off to a new home, shoot me a message lol.
p.1 #15 · 7Artisans 18mm f/5.6 (full frame) for Z mount
ISO1600 wrote:
Now that I have a ZF.... I'm waking this thread up. If anybody has one of these that they are disappointed with and hate it, and want to send it off to a new home, shoot me a message lol.
Thanks for the reminder that this exists. I just replaced my Z7IV with a Z5ii and this needs to go on the to-buy list.
