Let’s start this post off by saying a big fat – WOW!

TT Artisan sent me this lens, their new Swirly Bokeh Lens and asked me to review it and also for their feedback. Why not! I get to keep the lens and if I don’t like it I will say so in my review and possibly sell it on or give it away. But I’m happy to say this lens is going to be with me for a long time! I love it.

The Video Review

Build Quality

“Okay, folks, buckle up! I’m about to embark on a journey into the unknown – the land of TT Artisan. Now, I’ve heard whispers of photography gear emerging from the depths of China, some good, some… well, let’s just say they make excellent paperweights. (My recent light meter reviews can attest to the “good” part, thankfully!). But lenses? Ah, lenses. The holy grail of photography. You don’t want to be caught dead with a lens that turns your subjects into blurry blobs, especially if you’re charging people actual money for your photos. Of course, there’s always room for some quirky fun – vintage lenses, anyone? Perfect for that ‘I shoot on film, even though I was born in 2005’ aesthetic.”

I really didn’t know what to expect from the lens and when I saw the box I was pleasantly surprised. The box looks good. Let’s look inside.

I have a few new lenses from Nikon and Canon and as you would expect the packaging is top notch! TT Artisan’s packaging is not bad, simple with no thrills and paperwork is on the cheaper side of the printing spectrum. In Chinese and in English. But who cares. We are just interested in the gear. Right?

There’s the lens in a bag with a packet of Silica Gel to trap any moisture.

And there is the lens out of the bag which brought a smile to my face. Straight away I felt quality. No loose parts, no numbers bleeding and it had a good weight to it too! Surely there has to be a catch. We are off to a great start for a lens that is priced around $270 or nearly £200. Build quality seems great!

• All metal
• fully manual
• m42 screw fit
• f1.5 – f16
• Closest distance is .75M 2.5ft
• Not weather sealed
• coated lens
• 6 elements in 4 groups
• Distance Scale (adjustable)
• 13 blades

A 75mm lens with apertures from F1.5 to F16, designed to produce a Swirly Bokeh and best of all M42 mount. Which is awesome! I can use it on my classic M42 mount cameras.

Testing

So now for the exciting part. Testing the lens. Luckily for me I have an M42 to Canon adapter which is a bonus. That means I can test this lens on my Canon DSLR and get FREE photos! Then for the real stuff I can switch to film, but not before I have got used to it. I want to get swirly bokeh photos so I need to find the lenses sweet spot for this.

Open wide at F1.5 you will notice the lens is very soft edge to edge with the focus being in the centre of the image but that’s what the lens has been designed to do for the Swirly Bokeh. I was pleased to not see any vignetting.

For best results

If you want any bokeh to stand out you need good background light, in this case, trees that had nice light shimmering off the leaves, or trees where there is nice sky breaking in between the branches. I looked for these backgrounds and pointed the lens toward thing a photo in focus and then gradually pulling the lens out of focus throughout a duration of shots.

So the above images you can see the lens focused and then slightly out of focus. Thats when the swirly bokeh was more detailed! And the last photo was focused off the scale! Nice and dreamy! And these effects will depend on your distance between the subject and the background. For example here are two photographs I took of my daughter Jess, both at f1.5 –

The lens filter size is 58mm and I didn’t have an ND filter to fit and because I was shooting a 125 speed film at f1.5 with a camera where it’s max shutter speed was 1/1000 I needed an ND filter. So I used a 3 stop 72mm filter and held it over the lens. Not ideal as I had to pre-focus and then cover the lens and shooting f1.5 I think I did well at keeping the focus!

The above photograph, taken on Ilford FP4, was at the perfect distance, me from the subject and the subject from the background to get that swirly bokeh effect. And the bottom photograph I moved in closer so the subject and background was closer to the lens. Swirly bokeh has turned into this creamy smooth shallow depth of field look. Which is still nice!

Here are some more intentional swirly bokeh photos I took. And the one below was taken at f5.6. I found the lens to be exceptional at this aperture for sharpness.

Subject Use

Being a 75mm lens I think this is going to be used for some landscapes and portraiture. So I shot a few landscapes on digital and I was stunned at the quality from a lens at that price. Something similar from Nikon with f1.5 would not be as cheap! (Okay, we know Nikon produce amazing lenses!) but I doubt I would be able to tell the difference. In fact. I used my Zeiss Milvus 50mm f1.4 lens to compare.

Above TT Artisan at f5.6. Below Zeiss Milvus at f5.6

Here are some more photographs I took with the TT Artisan Lens

It goes without saying the lens is coated and does have a nice contrast.

Colour Fringing

One thing I have never likes on cheaper or older lenses is colour fringing. That purple/green tinge you get on the sharper edges of the photograph! I did a couple of simple tests and was pleased to see none of that, or at least for the subjects and lighting conditions I was shooting.

Final Conclusion

My testing of lenses isn’t exactly scientific. I don’t need to know all the science behind the manufacturing to see I have a good quality photograph from the lens. And visual inspection of the build quality any fool can do. You know if it’s going to fall apart in a few months and this lens surely doesn’t give that impression! I’ve had Canon lenses fall apart on me over the years. But they have taken a battering!

Like anything only time will tell how I get on with this lens. How will it hold up over the coming months being dragged around in my bag and keeping the dust out? I don’t know! How will it hold up with moisture and condensation? Extreme weather? I don’t know but from what I have seen so far from this lens it is excellent for the price! Splash proof? I don’t think so. I wouldn’t like to take it out in the rain.

I think it produces excellent quality from what I’ve seen and does exactly what it is intended for, swirly bokeh. And if you don’t like swirly bokeh then just shoot a smaller aperture, f2.8 upwards and even then you’ll get a beautiful looking dreamy shallow depth of field background.

And at the end of the day this is my own personal opinion of the lens. Others may be looking for something totally different but for me. I think it’s great!