FYI I've been testing the newly announced TTArtisan 40/2 AF for Z:
Unfortunately they seem to have not used the improved rear assembly that fixed their issues with the 75/2 when used on the ZF...I immediately identified this on the ZF and have submitted lots of data for their R&D team.
Disappointing, because otherwise, the fit and finish plus the aperture ring make it more compelling than the Nikon 40/2 for me personally.
My review has been postponed until we sort out whatever is going on on the ZF. I suspect the E mount version does not suffer from this, as the symptoms are similar enough to the 75/2 to make me think it's the rear assembly again, which was fine on Sony cameras.
edit: as of 1/15/26, my full review is up after 6 months with this lens
fjablo wrote:
Ah damn it I was considering replacing the Nikon 40mm with this one because of the aperture ring. Thanks for pointing out the vignetting issue!
I'll keep it updated as I work with them, I think we'll get it fixed. I'd much rather use this one instead of the Z just for the aperture ring.
Thanks for the information. Hopefully, they fix the issue. For Less than $200 it sounds like it could be an interesting option.
Out of curiosity, did you notice the same issue with IBIS turned off? I have a theory that some E mount adapters are not setting the IBIS circle size correctly, leading to strange vignetting. If this is an E mount design adapted to Z mount, maybe there is a similar issue going on.
DWOfPaul wrote:
Thanks for the information. Hopefully, they fix the issue. For Less than $200 it sounds like it could be an interesting option.
Out of curiosity, did you notice the same issue with IBIS turned off? I have a theory that some E mount adapters are not setting the IBIS circle size correctly, leading to strange vignetting. If this is an E mount design adapted to Z mount, maybe there is a similar issue going on.
Yes, that's the first thing I tested based on my experience with troubleshooting the 75/2. Ultimately, TTA fessed up with that lens that they used a "rear assembly" that couldn't keep up with the capabilities of the Z IBIS units. Since the Zf has one of the most effective units, it's most obvious on that model.
Strangely, turning IBIS on or off didn't affect the issue, though them upgrading that rear assembly sure did.
My email was like "we just spent all this time and effort fixing the 75 and i'm guessing you didn't apply what we learned, did you?"
Is this problem limited to the Zf or all Nikon Z mount bodies? I just watched a few videos and no mention of this issue other than typical wide open vignetting, although neither was using a Zf.
Apparently no one in the world besides me knows how a lens is supposed to work
The focus breathing issue is a lot worse on the ZF than the Z9, but even the Z9 gets dark corners sometimes.
I definitely noticed this faster having seen the 75 issues firsthand. If you can link any Nikon specific reviews I would be interested to watch them.
jrscls wrote:
Is this problem limited to the Zf or all Nikon Z mount bodies? I just watched a few videos and no mention of this issue other than typical wide open vignetting, although neither was using a Zf.
Someone mentioned this in the comments of my video last night so I've been looking around for examples, as it's not something I noticed when making my video
Interesting problem. If it was tied to the IBIS system that might explain why I hadn't seen it on my Z9, as that has a weaker IBIS unit than the Zf. If it's tied to focus breathing then it's very minor (I think it should show up at infinity?), if present at all on my copy, as whatever little vignetting there is in my photos is easily resolved by PhotoLab. I took quite a lot of photos in a wide variety of scenarios and wouldn't have known about this issue had someone not mentioned it to me.
I no longer have a Zf so I can't test to see if it's more obvious on that, but for my use I honestly would likely never have thought it anything other than normal vignetting and would just compensate for it as normal.
Edit: I have watched a few other videos now and some people do seem to have very obvious vignetting even at smaller apertures, oddly more noticeable on one of the Sony reviews. But then others have very minor vignetting like me. I did only receive the lens 1-2 weeks ago so perhaps if others had it earlier they had early production run copies? I had no problems with the AF on mine either, and that's something Richard Wong mentioned as requiring a firmware update, which was already applied to mine.
Phil Thatch's video shows several portraits and cityscapes, which seem to look OK. Not sure I'm even interested as I already have two 40mm lenses- Voigtlander 40mm f/1.2 and Nikon 40 SE for lightweight AF lens.
A few things here...I'm mostly annoyed because I spent a considerable amount of my free time helping TTA with the 75/2 issue pro bono, just to have the exact same thing happening on the 40. I'm also annoyed that your average Youtube review isn't savvy enough to catch something like this when it's obviously happening on their lens. Consumers deserve better, or at a minimum, a lens that if advertised as full frame covers the entire sensor with light.
I saw at least one shot in Kieren's video above (5:25 mark) that had the issue. Here's an review where the issue is egregious throughout the whole thing, and worse yet, it's a Sony copy! That indicates to me that it might just be an optical formula issue at this point.
I've never shared a comprehensive gallery of the issue from the 75/2, but like Robert showed, I've posted a few examples around the internet for interested parties. The thing that always stuck in my craw is that it was very intermittent and hard to replicate, but pretty obvious to me when it appeared. Because TTA jumped at the chance to work with me to fix it, I didn't widely mention it, as they fixed their manufacturing processing within a few weeks.
Robert has the right idea, which TTA confirmed themselves with me during the 75 fiasco...they didn't have a ZF for testing, and when they got one, they realized that the IBIS is much more aggressive and the build of the lens wasn't up to the task.
This time, though...I really don't know what I'm seeing. That some have the issue in many examples, and others don't have it all makes me think it's a quality control issue with cheap parts on a cheap Chinese lens. That means you're playing the lottery when buying it, which aggravates the hell out of me.
I managed to catch a similar behavior in video mode on the 40 but in video mode as I was trying to demonstrate some AF issues. Watch the top left corner in the blue sky. When the lens breathes/pulses, there is something going on inside the lens that darkens them in the same way the 75 would.
I was testing sunstars at f16 on the Z9 and saw the dark corners on the 40 in the exact same way, but even more prevalent.
All this is to say, yes TTA is making budget lenses and there's some level of "you get what you pay for", but...with the 75 swirly, and 75/2 they were on a pretty good run of high quality for the money. I'll keep holding them to a higher standard even if their prices don't
Oh yeah that's really weird how it appears for a split second on your video Scott - it's like it only hits it at one specific combination of focus distance and IBIS. I'm throwing my Z9 about here but can't seem to get it to happen on mine at all, which might just be chance or my technique failing, or copy variance I guess. I've gone back through all my photos too and I have found a couple of shots where the vignetting is darker than I would expect at a certain aperture (e.g. f/5.6), but so far I've not managed to get those smaller darker corners to appear and it doesn't look the same as on yours.
It's really weird as I took 750 photos for this video (yes I have a problem haha) and the vignetting is as I'd expect, with just a few vignetting, inconsistently, slightly more than I'd expect at specific apertures. Matti's photos in his video seem to have stronger vignetting than mine across more apertures. Curiously PhotoLab seems to happily sort out the vignetting automatically even on those outliers (which is especially weird considering I think it's using the wrong profile anyway).
This one of mine involved panning at f/8 and shows nothing at all from what I can tell, which is somewhere I'd expect the IBIS to be quite strongly engaged:
When did you receive your lens? Mine arrived on the 23rd of July and interestingly I can't seem to find a serial number on it or the box, which makes it somewhat hard to compare batches.
robotmay wrote:
Oh yeah that's really weird how it appears for a split second on your video Scott - it's like it only hits it at one specific combination of focus distance and IBIS. I'm throwing my Z9 about here but can't seem to get it to happen on mine at all, which might just be chance or my technique failing, or copy variance I guess. I've gone back through all my photos too and I have found a couple of shots where the vignetting is darker than I would expect at a certain aperture (e.g. f/5.6), but so far I've not managed to get those smaller darker corners to appear and it doesn't look the same as on yours.
It's really weird as I took 750 photos for this video (yes I have a problem haha) and the vignetting is as I'd expect, with just a few vignetting, inconsistently, slightly more than I'd expect at specific apertures. Matti's photos in his video seem to have stronger vignetting than mine across more apertures. Curiously PhotoLab seems to happily sort out the vignetting automatically even on those outliers (which is especially weird considering I think it's using the wrong profile anyway).
This one of mine involved panning at f/8 and shows nothing at all from what I can tell, which is somewhere I'd expect the IBIS to be quite strongly engaged: https://i.imgur.com/YoGzJMm.jpg
When did you receive your lens? Mine arrived on the 23rd of July and interestingly I can't seem to find a serial number on it or the box, which makes it somewhat hard to compare batches....Show more →
I only got mine on Wednesday of this week, as they were "backordered", for whatever that is worth...the serial number is just above the "made in China" on the bottom side of the lens, mine is 6xx, though as with the 75/2 issue, not sure that's going to tell us much. I posted the serial of my fixed 75/2 and folks with a higher number still reported the issue.
I get that it's largely a mountains/molehills type of complaint to outsiders, but since the ZF lacks lenses that satisfy the small/light/aperture ring metrics from Nikon themselves, I'd like to see the 3rd parties that are offered be at least consistent. My Youtube reviews are largely ZF-centric so I'm tending to test most on it.
I will say that I didn't see a single shot of yours in your review where I'd say I saw this particular issue. The manifestation is quite different than just a gradual, even if heavy, normal vignette.
I will also say that the issue is much harder for me to replicate on the Z9 as you're finding. I think it mostly boils down to the ZF IBIS unit, though there might be times it manifests even on the Z9 as my photo earlier shows.
RoamingScott wrote:
I only got mine on Wednesday of this week, as they were "backordered", for whatever that is worth...the serial number is just above the "made in China" on the bottom side of the lens, mine is 6xx, though as with the 75/2 issue, not sure that's going to tell us much. I posted the serial of my fixed 75/2 and folks with a higher number still reported the issue.
I get that it's largely a mountains/molehills type of complaint to outsiders, but since the ZF lacks lenses that satisfy the small/light/aperture ring metrics from Nikon themselves, I'd like to see the 3rd parties that are offered be at least consistent. My Youtube reviews are largely ZF-centric so I'm tending to test most on it.
I will say that I didn't see a single shot of yours in your review where I'd say I saw this particular issue. The manifestation is quite different than just a gradual, even if heavy, normal vignette.
I will also say that the issue is much harder for me to replicate on the Z9 as you're finding. I think it mostly boils down to the ZF IBIS unit, though there might be times it manifests even on the Z9 as my photo earlier shows....Show more →
Oh that's interesting, mine's 0002xx so I presume an earlier copy.
And yeah even though I do mostly process the photos I put in my videos as I normally would, in doing so I would have noticed and highlighted any oddities like what you've seen. Mine vignettes a lot at f/2 but I was expecting that and it's not the same as what you're seeing.
Have you tried disabling that Zf-specific IBIS feature of centring the IBIS around the active focus point and seeing if that affects how prevalent it is? I wonder if that makes the more extreme sensor shifts more common.
Also 100% agree with the lack of lenses suited to the Zf - it was one of my irritations with it, and it's nice to see other companies trying to fill that void.
After seeing the issues with tying IBIS to the AF point, I've had that disabled since (and strongly encourage others to do as well ).
I think I happen to take more photos with empty sky in the corners than most people that do YT reviews. Looking at the street samples in some reviews, you'd be hard pressed to even notice it if it was there, just because the corners are so busy with other colors and shapes.
We'll either get this fixed or TTA will never want to work with me again
Heavy vignetting and other issues noted on this review with Sony AIV, so it may not be limited to Nikon or Zf. Looks like the Nikon 40mm f/2 is a better option.
jrscls wrote:
Looks like the Nikon 40mm f/2 is a better option.
At this very second, yes. However, not all copies are exhibiting this behavior, so my money rests on a subpar part, likely the rear assembly again, and should TTA fix this like they fixed the 75/2, it's going to be an interesting lens to compare to the Z 40 (which I will, comprehensively).
Apart from the vignette issue, I greatly prefer the aluminum build, fit, and finish of the TTA. Having an aperture ring is very welcomed.
phillipreeve.net posted their review (by Martin). Shot with a Z7II, they didn't catch the hard vignette issue, but they did measure very substantial vignetting still at F/8 (2.0 EV).
Really, from their review this is clearly optically worse off than the Nikon Z 40/2. The TTA corners are pretty awful even at F/8 while the Nikon is perfectly serviceable by F/5.6. The vignetting is bad. Bokeh doesn't appear to be any better. Sure, the aperture ring is nice, but personally I'm not trading IQ for the ring. As for the lens mount, personally I think the objections to the plastic mount are ill informed (e.g. the 40/2 gets weather sealing from the plastic mount, the TTA will wick water at the mount metal-metal interface like nobody's business), but again, I'm not trading IQ for the false warm fuzzy of a metal mount.
They did keep the weight down (yay!) and make it even smaller than the 40/2 (yay!), but they may be paying the price in the vignetting (both normal vignetting and the intermittent hard vignetting Scott has illustrated).
Always glad to see more options, but this is largely a miss in my book from what I've seen so far.
And thanks again to Scott for finding the repeat hard vignette issue!
Thanks for linking up all the videos, I've submitted a few to TTA as examples, especially Matti's concerning Sony copy. I also asked if the Z lens has a FW update as Mr Wong spoke of for the Sony.
RoamingScott wrote:
Thanks for linking up all the videos, I've submitted a few to TTA as examples, especially Matti's concerning Sony copy. I also asked if the Z lens has a FW update as Mr Wong spoke of for the Sony.
I am unaware of the fix for the 75/1.5 - is is a simple FW issue or does it mean a redesign and V2 lens release?
