First Impressions: 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.8 Full Frame Lens
I recently switched over to Sony so that I can do professional work again after only doing personal work for several years. So I was happy when 7Artisans sent me their AF 35mm F1.8 Full Frame Lens to review.
I had the 35mm focal length covered by a Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8, but that lens is really big and heavy. It’s not something I want to be carrying around a lot when I’m out photographing for my own personal work. Luckily, the 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.8 is quite a bit smaller and lighter than your typical 24-70mm f/2.8 lens (although I would prefer it to be even more compact, but more on that later).
Since I had been using only a Ricoh GR III for the past couple of years, I hadn’t personally used that many lenses recently, first-party or otherwise. I had heard that third-party lens manufacturers had made pretty big strides in recent years. It used to be that third-party lens brands were cheap, but you got what you paid for. Also, they typically have offered more manual focus lenses as opposed to this lens, which has autofocus. So is this lens a departure from what third-party lenses have been known for, or is it more of the same?
Build Quality and Handling
The lens has a surprisingly high-quality feel to it, despite its $299 price tag. The barrel is made of metal, and it feels solid but not at the expense of weight. It weighs 426 grams, or just under a pound, which feels nicely balanced on my Sony a7 III.
The lens comes with an aperture ring, which I think is always nice to have on the lens itself. The aperture ring is more suited to video, as it doesn’t have clicks built in. It has a switch to change between autofocus and manual focus. It also has an Fn button that you can customize.
The included lens hood is made of plastic and sticks out about an inch further from the lens.
The focus ring is comfortable to hold, but it feels a bit disconnected and fiddly, like most focus-by-wire lenses.
Image Quality
I’ve done a limited amount of pixel peeping at this point, but so far, so good. I’ve been very pleased with the image quality and rendering. It’s sharper than I was expecting.
Autofocus
Another thing I was pleasantly surprised with is the autofocus. The autofocusing is fast and accurate. The vast majority of my shots have been in focus.
It has missed focus, but only in bad light.
Photo Samples
What You Can Use It For
I would have no qualms using the 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.8 for professional work, and I probably will use it on some upcoming weddings and events. I can see it being good for environmental portraits as well.
I’ll be using it for my street photography and documentary photography personal work. For that, I do wish it was smaller, as I probably won’t be needing the f/1.8 aperture, but I suppose it’s nice to have if the need arises.
For $299, you can’t really go wrong.
Where to Buy It
You can get it from my affiliate links below:
