TTArtisan 27mm f/2.8 review: I like it, but I’m not sure you will
For the first year after buying the Fujifilm X-T30 II I have been pairing it with a kit 18-55 f/2.8-4 lens. For my purposes (street and travel photography) it has been enough, but after a while I started to envy people with X100VI for the sole reason of it being more pocketable. I didn’t want to upgrade my camera, which was pretty new at this point, and, frankly, I didn’t have the budget for it. So I went into the rabbit hole of pancake lenses. I was looking for something small, yet with AF and not too dark. This brings me to the review of TTArtisan 27mm f/2.8 after 6 months of use.
Price
The first thing that catches your attention when you look up this lens is probably not the specs, but the price. It’s way less expensive than the direct competitor from Fuji. On average Fujinon XF 27mm costs €400, while TTArtisan can be found for around €150. I’m not saying it gives the lens a pass to be bad or something, but it kinda lowers the expectations. If you don’t like it, the hole in your wallet won’t be as big as if you bought the Fujinon. But as you’ll see in the next section, it not only justifies its price, but also kinda exceeds it.
Photo quality and samples
I must say that I prefer to shoot street photography and often edit my photos in Lightroom. So, the photos you see are not straight-out-of-camera JPEGs — something to keep in mind. But since I am convinced that the final result matters more, I think edited samples are a valid way to judge a lens, especially when you’re comparing them to other edited work. Also, you can find all the samples here on Google Drive if you want to take a closer look.
Now I won’t delay the juiciest part of the review and will go straight to the sample pictures, which you probably came here to see.
I found the TTArtisan 27mm to be plenty sharp. Actually, if I had to point out one strength, it would be the overall sharpness and contrast of pictures you get with it. Even more so, I like the consistency of it. With 18-55 I had one big problem (though it might be a defect): it was sharp in the middle, but the top part would always be blurry/smudgy. With this lens there’s no such problem. The colors feel punchy, the contrast is nice and the overall image looks pleasant.
With these characteristics and small size it’s definitely a good choice for street photography. Autofocus is quick, quiet. I’ve never had a problem with focusing in all 6 months of use even with fast movements, like the car in the photos above. Once again, the Fujinon 18-55 sometimes gives me problems on this front, but that’s a story for another article.
As for the bokeh, don’t expect much at f/2.8. It’s nice and swirly, when it’s there, but that only happens if there are no objects in immediate proximity. The photos above are shot at f/2.8, f/3.2 and f/4. You can see the level of blur for yourself.
As for the downsides, the vignetting is really strong. It’s not as noticeable in a city, but when you go outside on a bright day and try to capture the sky, it becomes pretty evident. Personally, I can live with it, but I can definitely see how it can ruin the photos for someone, who likes a cleaner, more polished look on their photos. It’s less noticeable after f/5.6, but it is still there.
Build quality
The lens is built well, and it doesn’t feel cheap in hand. It looks a bit funny, especially if you attach it to the protective ring they’ve put in the box. However, I wanted a small lens and I got what I asked for. It’s still a bit big for most pockets, but hey, now I can store my camera in a small bag. I take it as a win.
TTArtisan 27mm f/2.8 weights 89.5g
Also, it’s very light, only 89g without the ring I’ve mentioned. It brings the total weight of the camera to just 475g. Very light. For comparison, with the bulky 18-55 kit lens my X-T30 II was around 722g.
TTArtisan 27mm f/2.8 and its aperture ring
What I don’t like is the aperture ring. It’s a bit tricky to handle, so sometimes I find myself relying more on ISO and shutter speed when using this lens. Part of this comes down to the lens being very small, which is understandable, but it’s still worth mentioning. A possible improvement in a future version of the 27mm (if there ever is one) would be to add ribbing around the entire aperture ring, instead of limiting it to just two small sections as it is now.
Conclusion
TTArtisan 27mm f/2.8, its protective ring and lens cap
Would I recommend this lens to everybody? No. Do I like it? Yes. I think it’s a very good value for the money and a good way to diversify your lens collection on a budget. For me the main problems of TTArtisan 27mm f/2.8 are vignetting and a weird aperture ring. Once I acknowledged them, I realized I could live with them. However, people who love clean photos and shoot often in bright conditions (weddings, product photography) should probably spend a bit more and buy the 27mm from Fujinon.
My rating for TTArtisan 27mm f/2.8 is 7/10.
