When it comes to photography gear, I’ve always valued minimalism and aesthetics. Small lenses were always attractive to me. Not only for the size and weight but for the fact of how discreet they are.

Pancake lenses have been around for more than half a decade. But having a vintage lens with an adapter loses its purpose because of the size, at least in my opinion. Then I found out that there is an existing native 50mm F2 lens for Fuji X bodies. I knew that I had to get it.

In this article, I will take a look at the TTArtisan 50mm F/2. Let’s find out if it’s worth your attention.

I’ve been using this lens along with my trusted Fujifilm X-T2 in various situations for more than a year.
Please keep in mind that I am using and testing lenses only in real-life situations. There are no testing charts or other pixel-peeping tools. I hope that you will gain a pretty got perspective on it.

BUILD QUALITY

Lightweight, small and convenient – these three words define the TTArtisan 50mm F/2 in my opinion. It’s all-metal manual focusing lens, with a 10-bladed maximum aperture of F/2, and weights around 200 grams. You can shoot with it from a minimal focusing distance of 0.5 meters and it accepts 43mm filters.

Let’s be real for a 69 USD lens, there is nothing to complain about.

It has a premium look. The focusing ring is smooth and precise. The clicked aperture ring is located at the top, which is unusual. I like it, as it’s not so easy to change apertures accidentally. The lens has a metal threaded lens cap. It is not the most convenient. Still, it adds to the distinctive look and feel of the lens.

You will be not surprised that this lens has no weather sealing whatsoever. It’s also a manual lens, so there is no communication with the camera. In case you don’t have experience with manual focusing lens, don’t worry. It’s very easy to start with this one. You just need to turn on the Focus Peaking in your camera settings. 😉

IMAGE QUALITY

To be honest, I was skeptical about the image quality of this lens. Having watched several video reviews, my opinion has changed positively. Having to own this lens, I was quite shocked at the general performance. There is something special about the character of the images coming out from this lens. There is a vintage vibe to all of them.

Below, I want to summarize the worst and best things about this lens.

First, let’s start with the negatives.
The sharpness and contrast are not great at F/2.0, especially the corners. Still, I noticed it gets quite good from F/4.0. This means that if you want to have a strong out-of-focus background, you will need to sacrifice image quality.

This can be alright for portrait photography but can be also quite problematic for object or architecture photography, for example. There is also a strong flare when the light source is about 50 degrees from the lens. It can add a nice flare effect to your images, or ruin them. 🙂 There is some chromatic aberration, but nothing too drastic. In other words, this is a grab-and-go lens to have fun with, rather than a professional tool for perfect images.

This lens has a lot of positives too. The fact that it’s so small and lightweight makes it the ultimate travel companion. I’ve often chosen this lens over the Viltrox 33mm F/1.4 because of the size and weight difference. Having a lens that is not optically perfect can produce very aesthetic images with lots of character. I bet that people cannot tell the difference between the images coming out of this lens. They also will be unable to tell the difference between this lens and more expensive native Fuji X lenses. This is because, in this day and age, most of the content is consumed via social media.

VERDICT

So is the TTArtisan 50mm F/2 the Best Small Lens for Fujifilm Cameras?

If you value nice aesthetics, minimalism, and convenience, you will love this lens.
It’s a valuable addition to the TTArtisan offering and can produce some nice images. The image quality is a little weak at the corners when wide open. Still, it can be beneficial in some situations, like portrait photography. I enjoy shooting with this lens. It’s almost invisible when mounted on the camera, which is ideal for street photography.

Are you still wondering which is the right lens for you?
I just got my hands on the TTArtisan 56mm F/1.8, so stay tuned for my output on this lens.

You might want to check my POV photo walk in the lovely city of Wrocław, Poland. I’ve used this lens along with the Fuji X-T3.

You can visit my YouTube channel dedicated to Photography here.

Keep shooting!